Chapter 53 [Deciding to Leave the Dark Forest]...
"Lex, make me a cup of herbal tea—"
Mela instinctively held the teacup back, letting it hang in mid-air for a while, but no one took it from her. Only then did she realize that she had forgotten that Lex had left.
Today is the fifth day since Lex left, and Mela and Silas are slowly picking up where they left off before Lex arrived.
After Silas frantically cooked a pot of burnt bean soup, and after Mela tripped over a book that suddenly fell, they exchanged a glance and began to lament that Lex was still alive.
"I wonder where Lex is now. Did you say he made it home safely?"
Silas listlessly poked at the beans in the plate with a spoon. This time, it was bean soup that he and Mela had cooked together. Not only was it mushy, but it also tasted particularly salty.
Silas mustered up his courage and took a bite, but couldn't take a second bite.
"Probably, if nothing unexpected happens." Mela also wrinkled her nose in disgust at the dark beans in the spoon, but in order not to waste food, she closed her eyes and quickly stuffed the beans into her mouth, chewed them haphazardly a couple of times, and swallowed them.
While doing this won't make the taste any better, it will at least reduce the time spent enduring the torment.
"Sigh!" Silas sighed heavily, then, as if facing certain death, he finished the beans on the plate in one go.
As a result, Silas was completely sprawled on the chair, looking like he was about to vomit, while Mela had to clean up the dishes.
Fortunately, having learned his lesson, Silas realized that combining him with Mela would only make the food taste even weirder, so he resolutely refused to let Mela interfere with cooking anymore.
Sure enough, although the food cooked this way was a bit unpalatable, it was almost harmless to the body.
"Huh, what's this?"
On this day, Silas was also hit by a book falling from the sky, making him see stars. He bumped into the cabinet in a daze and heard a series of banging sounds. Various things fell at Silas's feet like rain, including a small cloth bag.
Silas sat crookedly on the ground, staring at the cloth bag for a long time. As if possessed, he used his paw to hook it over, untied the knot, and saw that it contained only a single rose-red seed with two small sprouts on it.
What kind of seed is this?
It seemed like it had never seen it before.
Could it be that Mela collected them into the bag on purpose beforehand?
However, it actually sprouted, which should be a good thing for Mela.
Thinking of this, Silas immediately shook his head vigorously to clear his mind, grabbed the seeds, and ran to the back of the house, shouting, "Mera, Mela!"
Mela was watering the flowerpots lined up behind the cabin, and every now and then she would squat down to carefully check the development of the seeds.
Just then, she heard Silas's strange shouting and turned her head in surprise. She saw Silas holding a seed in front of her as if it were a precious treasure.
"Mera, how could you put a perfectly good seed in a cloth bag? Look, it's already sprouted. If I hadn't just happened to find it, it might have suffocated to death in the bag." It was rare for Silas to use a lecturing tone with Mela.
However, seeing Mela staring blankly at the seed in its hand, Silas's voice unconsciously grew softer and softer, and a sense of guilt kept creeping in.
It shouldn't have done anything wrong, right?
Did Mela deliberately put the seed in the bag?
“Silas, you said this seed was found in the bag, right?” Mela asked, her voice a little hoarse.
“Yes, yes?” Silas stammered.
"Thank you, Silas, you've really helped me a lot." Mela scooped up Silas, kissed him, shoved the water bottle into his arms, and hurriedly ran into the house.
Silas, still holding the water bottle and utterly bewildered, thought, "?"
Anyway, Mela hasn't kissed it in a long time, hehe.
Meanwhile, Mela took the crystal ball and sat down in a chair.
The crystal ball was placed steadily on her lap, and the ash inside gradually transformed into a psychedelic cloud as she moved.
Mela intently deciphered the information the crystal ball was giving her, “...Danger...Southeast…”
"Danger? What danger?" Silas had just stepped into the house when he heard Mela talking about danger, which startled him so much that his eyes widened.
“It’s not that we’re in danger.” Realizing that Silas had misunderstood, Mela shook her head with amusement, then took the seed that Silas was still clutching tightly, her expression turning complicated.
This seed was given to Mela by Erica herself before she left.
*
"Are you leaving?" Mela took the seeds with care, afraid of losing them, and carefully put them into a small cloth bag she always carried with her.
“Yes, I only had to stay on this mountain because I was injured. Now that I’m healed, of course I’m going back.” Erica brushed a stray hair from her temple and gave Mela an amused look. “Do you really like staying in this godforsaken place where there’s no food or drink?”
Whenever Erika chewed on sour fruit and slept in the drafty cave, she missed her little house, which was decorated to her liking in every way.
She couldn't wait to recover from her injuries and leave.
If it weren't for her chance encounter with Mela, who was not only intelligent but also had the talent to be a witch, Erica might have left as soon as her abdominal wound had scabbed over.
Now that Erica had dragged her feet until the scabs on her wounds had fallen off, she had no reason to stay any longer.
After all, the small town where Mela grew up wouldn't welcome her.
As a witch, she couldn't risk being exposed by living among ordinary people for long.
Thinking of this, Erica looked at Mela and said, "Do you want to come with me? My house isn't big, but it's enough to take in a little girl like you."
“No.” Mela refused decisively.
She has a father, a friend Susan, and a lamb that she raised with great difficulty together. Why should she leave Whitepine Town with Erica so casually?
"Hmph." Erica chuckled, disdainful of Mela's naiveté.
“Witches can’t blend in with ordinary people, haven’t you noticed? They’re born different from everyone else.”
Mela tilted her head. She was much smarter than the idiots in town and didn't like playing with them, but that didn't mean she felt any different from Erica in any way.
Does one have to hang out with idiots to fit in?
"Unfortunately, yes, if you don't hang out with these idiots and talk about the harvest, gossip about relatives and neighbors, or boring topics like which cow gave birth to two calves, you'll be seen as an oddball."
Erica seemed to see right through Mela's thoughts, or perhaps she was recounting her own past experiences.
"Intelligence, wisdom, focus, and dedication are all indispensable qualities for a witch. But for ordinary people, a woman who is too intelligent is hard to deceive; who is too wise is hard to bully; who is too focused on a mysterious field looks like a crazy, eccentric person; and most witches cannot be good wives or mothers because they will never devote their energy to men and children, or the trivialities of family life."
"In short, apart from a few people, such as those who have received our help or those who need our help, most people are resistant to our existence."
"Don't you feel it? You always go your own way, rarely make friends, and from time to time you encounter people's unwarranted malice," Erica said pointedly.
"I don't care," Mela said nonchalantly.
“We used to treat ordinary people the same way. But who made us? The one sitting on the throne, King Nurenger, dislike us and insisted on joining forces with the church to force us to live alone in the deep mountains and forests.”
When the king and the church were mentioned, Erica's lips curled into a disdainful smile, and a dark light, unfathomable to Mela, flickered in her eyes.
"You know, right? Once it's revealed that you've become a witch, those who watched you grow up won't hesitate to raise their scythes and torches against you."
Erica concealed the emotions in her eyes and reverted to her usual nonchalant demeanor, casually glancing at the petite girl who only reached her waist.
"I'll keep this a secret," Mela said stubbornly.
She wasn't Erika; she hadn't experienced what Erika was talking about, nor was she as carefree as Erika.
At first, after realizing that Erica was a witch, Mela only wanted to pester her to get more knowledge about herbs. In this regard, witches had obviously opened up a completely new path, which also made Mela eager to learn.
Becoming a witch unintentionally was just a side effect.
Mela was not alarmed by this, nor did she feel that she had to live in seclusion like a traditional witch.
After all, Erica had said that, generally speaking, children born to witches are naturally witches. Those like her, who became witches through amazing talent and by sheer luck, are extremely rare in the entire witch community.
Therefore, Mela firmly believed that even if she seemed a little aloof and eccentric, the townspeople would never suspect her of being a witch.
They watched her grow up.
She's just a difficult girl, spoiled by her father.
Moreover, as the sole heir of Wipdo, Mela will have to continue to live in Whitepine Town under the name of Gholak and work as a healer to treat patients.
She would never simply walk away like that.
"Fine, fine, whatever. You'll have your turn to cry later." Erica scoffed, too lazy to try and persuade her any further.
"Remember to keep the seed I gave you safe. It's a seed of life that I spent ten years cultivating," Erica instructed.
"The Seed of Life? What's that? It sounds pretty amazing," Mela said, puzzled.
“If I had to put it in a way, it’s kind of like my child. No matter where I am in the future, you can find me through the blood ties it shares with me. If you ever need my help, I’ll reluctantly agree,” Erica said.
"...You're so arrogant. Maybe you'll be the one needing my help in the future." Mela thought that she would only become a more powerful witch than Erica in the future, so she wouldn't need Erica's help.
Erica chuckled twice, ruffled Mela's hair haphazardly, and turned to leave before Mela could get angry.
Mela watched her departing figure and softly said goodbye.
Later, Mela really did become a powerful witch, and she even studied why the Seed of Life had never sprouted. It wasn't until she saw in a witch's journal that the sprouting of the Seed of Life was a symbol of the mother body beginning to decline. It had to absorb enough nutrients before the mother body died completely in order to prepare for its future growth.
*
Now, Silas has inadvertently discovered that the Seed of Life has sprouted, meaning that Erica's life is in danger.
While regretting that she had almost missed this important news by putting away the Seed of Life, Mela said to Silas, "Silas, I'm leaving the Dark Forest. Will you come with me?"
"Leave? Why leave?" Silas didn't understand.
If Mela intended to leave, why didn't she go with Lex in the first place? They could have stayed together.
“Because I’m going to save someone who is very important to me,” Mela said.
Although she only spent a few months with Erica, without Erica's initial guidance, there would be no Mela the witch we know today.
So now that Erica is in trouble, Mela has to go and save her.
“Alright, then Silas will definitely go with you.” Silas nodded, seemingly understanding.
It's Mela's only pet, unlike Lex who leaves. No matter what Mela does, it will always stay by her side.
“Okay, then we’ll pack our things. But, Silas, you probably need to change your look.” Mela stared at Silas, seemingly lost in thought.
Otherwise, what's the difference between openly displaying a raven in front of people and loudly announcing that you are a witch?
"What do you want to be? A sparrow? A thrush? Or a lark?"
As Mela approached, Silas couldn't help but back away, even wanting to shout: "Don't come any closer!"
It didn't want to be a sparrow, nor a thrush or a lark; it just wanted to be a cute crow.
But why do people always have a prejudice against crows?
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