Under the tall and heavy bookshelf, the young girl in a light blue long dress lowered her head reading, occasionally using a feather pen to copy down something. A wind carrying the scent of the forest blew in through the wide-open window, lifting her slightly curled brown hair.
Across from the girl, a red-haired lady sat upright, also holding a book.
Their figures were bathed in the orange-yellow glow of the sunset, hazy light blurring their outlines. The quiet study appeared peaceful and harmonious.
When Alex came looking, he saw such a scene, and stood outside the door not daring to interrupt.
Madam Freese suddenly put down the book in her hand. With a soft click, she asked, “How is the writing coming along?”
Across from her, Meili put down the feather pen with a face full of deep suffering and handed over what she had been writing for so long.
Madam Freese only glanced once, then took a deep breath, as if unable to suppress her emotions.
She had been elegant since childhood, but in these past few days, she had learned what a true academic failure was. Under her careful guidance, Meili could not even grasp the simplest and most basic fairy language. It was as if she could not understand this language at all, learning was extremely difficult.
After seeing several days of messy homework, Madam Freese deeply doubted whether she was really her brother’s biological daughter, whether she was truly a descendant of the Noita family’s forest witches.
Although only inheriting red hair and green eyes meant possessing an excellent witch talent, she still should not be so lacking in magical aptitude.
“What exactly have you written here? Forget chanting, but you cannot even do the most basic copying?” Freese’s voice was severe.
Meili kept a straight face, looking somewhat annoyed as well, “I’ve never learned this script before, it’s too hard. You don’t even teach me the most basic single words, and directly make me learn such difficult sentences. How am I supposed to learn?”
Freese: “I have already said, the fairy language has no single words. It is the medium of magic. Every sentence has a unique meaning. Copy what’s in the book for me, do not think about those things.”
Meili: “I am! I copy them one sentence at a time from the book!”
Freese: “I told you to understand and then write, not to trace over it!”
Meili: “Last time I wrote on my own, you said I wrote it wrong!”
Freese: “I asked you to add your understanding of magic!”
Meili: “But I don’t understand magic!”
Seeing that they were about to start arguing, Alex quietly closed the door, deciding not to disturb at this moment.
He had been by Freese’s side for ten years, and it was the first time he had seen her unable to maintain her elegance. From this point of view, Meili was truly a warrior.
Mr. Bole the owl, who had long been driven to guard the door by the magic lessons inside, stood on the vase outside the door, “Madam Freese has great talent for magic. This is probably her first time encountering a student who simply won’t get it, it’s inevitable she is driven into anger hehehe~”
Alex: “Mr. Bole, are you laughing at Freese?”
Owl: “I am not, Madam Freese is my respected contractor, how could I dare laugh at her hehehe~”
Madam Freese walked out expressionless, and Alex and the owl instantly shut their mouths.
Alex stepped forward, showing a hearty smile, and said, “Freese, the sunset is beautiful. How about we go for a picnic in the forest? Or maybe you’d like to take a walk by the sea?”
But Madam Freese had no mood for leisure, “No, I want to go to the laboratory.”
Alex regretfully let go, watching as the owl followed Freese back to her magic laboratory.
Entering the laboratory, Madam Freese suddenly said, “I suspect that girl is deliberately deceiving me, pretending not to learn, trying to delay time.”
Owl: “Hoo… is that so? How could she dare to put on an act in front of Madam Freese?”
Madam Freese let out a soft laugh. “Then she is deliberately not studying seriously, thinking she can avoid her destined death this way.”
No matter which one it was, both were far too foolish.
She only wanted to see whether Meili’s body, modified by her brother, truly possessed magical affinity. If Meili refused to cooperate, then she did not mind changing methods to conduct the experiment.
“For Pegg’s child’s sake, I will give her a little more time.” Madam Freese finished speaking, then waved her hand. “Bole, go keep an eye on her. See whether she really cannot learn, or if she is pretending not to.”
“Yes, Madam Freese.” The owl flew out again through the window.
Madam Freese walked to the desk, and with a casual wave of her hand, a thick notebook flew from the bookshelf to her front and opened automatically.
The pages were old and yellowed, clearly notes left behind many years ago.
Madam Freese’s fingers brushed over the various handwriting. This was passed down through the Noita family, recorded within were methods of modifying witches.
From ancient times until now, the Noita family had produced many genius forest witches. They all possessed powerful magical affinity, able to borrow the power of almost all fairies.
However, the more powerful the witch, the shorter her life span, because a human body could not withstand such immense magic. They would become weak or slowly collapse as they used magic.
Thus, many forest witches researched how to modify the body to better withstand and contain more magic, even to make the body become like a fairy’s—forever youthful and full of vitality.
In her hands, this research was finally completed.
And her good younger brother had not betrayed the years she spent cultivating and guiding him, finally offering Meili as the result.
Turning past the old pages recording previous research, the later pages gradually became newer—these were the records and studies Madam Freese had written over these years.
From more than ten years ago, when Meili was born, Meili’s name was already written in this notebook, with Pegg’s experiments on Meili detailed there.
Pegg captured countless fairies, set up a magic laboratory in a basement, and extracted and transferred different types of fairy life force into Meili’s body. From the time she was born, this had continued for more than ten years.
Freese had intentionally allowed her brother to flee from her side back then, and secretly helped him capture fairies while coldly watching him give birth to a child with a compatible bloodline, using stolen information from her for his experiments—
She had waited so many years just for this one precious test subject. Now that it was only one step away, even she could not avoid feeling impatient and agitated.
She had waited far too long, and did not want even the slightest accident to appear.
If Meili’s body was not as perfect as she had envisioned, then everything she had done would have been meaningless.
Looking at the records in the notebook, Madam Freese felt as though every line of writing twisted together, like stitched wounds, dripping with vivid blood.
Outside, the sunset sank, and the flower-shaped magic lamps in the room automatically lit up, slowly rotating upon their stands.
Freese felt the pain in her body revive with the arrival of night, tearing at her heart.
This was the price for delaying aging and magical collapse.
Meili stayed in the huge study, learning the fairy language by lamplight.
The owl had been knocking at the window frame outside for a long time, yet Meili had no intention of getting up to let him in.
She held the thick fairy language book, showing expressions of agony from time to time, a model embodiment of a hopeless student.
After watching her for so long, even the owl felt that Madam Freese must have been mistaken. How could this little girl be pretending? She truly just could not learn.
Seeing her try hard again for a bit, then seemingly give up, shoving away the book in her hands and falling back in the chair, the owl hurriedly made more noise to attract her attention.
“Hey! Meili, let me in quickly!”
“Although I am Madam Freese’s messenger, you have to believe that I bear no ill will toward you.”
“You’ve been studying for so long, why don’t we chat for a bit instead?”
Meili lay motionless, staring at the ceiling.
The owl spoke again: “Why don’t we talk about the swamp monster? Do you want to know how he is now?”
Meili stood up and opened the window to let him in.
The owl hopped onto the desk and took a look. Seeing that her fairy language writing was still a mess with no magical fluctuation at all, he clicked his beak. “Madam Freese said, if you keep failing your studies, you will be locked up here, not allowed to rest, studying day and night…”
Meili reached out and grabbed his leg. “If you’re just going to say that, I don’t want to listen.”
The owl flapped his wings. “Wait wait wait, let’s talk about the swamp monster!”
He retreated a little from Meili, grooming his feathers that had been grabbed into a mess, muttering, “My feathers are going to be plucked off by you. They’re precious, you know. They have special uses.”
Reminded by his words, Meili suddenly remembered that last winter this owl had given her a feather, saying it could transmit longing… huh? Transmit longing?
Meili abruptly looked at the owl with a strange expression. Seeing him still sorrowfully grooming his feathers, he seemed not to notice that he had revealed something to her.
Reaching out, she poked his round chest and asked, “You said the swamp monster just now. Do you know how he is now?”
Owl: “I guess he must have reformed already. He might be looking for you everywhere right now, but he can’t find you. How pitiful, hehehehe~”
Hearing his laughter, Meili grabbed him once more and threw him out the window.
Late at night, Meili climbed out of bed and took out two small feathers from the little pouch she kept close to her body.
One was the one the owl had given her last winter, kept close with her handkerchief and some small things she had brought here. The other was the one she had plucked from him just now when grabbing him.
If the feather of this “forest messenger” could really transmit longing.
If possible, she really wanted to see that adorable swamp monster again and return with him.
She sat holding the two feathers for a long time, but did not see any change. When disappointment and gloom welled up, she suddenly remembered the fairy language book she’d read during the day.
It was indeed very difficult, she learned with great struggle. But she wasn’t as completely incompetent as she pretended—she had secretly grasped a little bit already.
Unconsciously speaking a short, strangely pronounced sentence, Meili suddenly felt heat in her palm. The two feathers transformed into two thumb-sized little birds and flew out through the window.
Meili chased after them, leaning on the windowsill as she watched the two inconspicuous tiny birds disappear swiftly into the night. Hope suddenly surged in her heart.
On the pointed roof above her room, the owl opened one eye, glanced in the direction the two little birds flew, then closed his eye again, pretending he saw nothing.
He was already old, so it was inevitable he made a few small oversights.
“Creak, creak—”
The swamp monster, carrying a lantern as he walked around the lakes, marshes, markets and forests, stirred up discussion among the fairies.
“Is it still looking for that strange human girl?”
“Yes, it has been searching for many days already, and hasn’t given up.”
“Ah, it’s here again, quick, hide!”
A moment later, the swamp monster trudged past, dripping with mud, turning a perfectly good path into a mire.
The fairies who had hidden away gathered and looked at the newly formed swamp, all troubled. “Is there any way to make it stop being sad? This whole area is about to become a swamp!”
When the swamp monster was in pain, the spreading of swamp around him would accelerate.
Recently, many muddy marshes had appeared at the edge of the forest. The fairies near the forest were helpless against this swamp monster, so they could only curse him while moving deeper into the woods.
The two tiny birds flew past burned houses and arrived by the walking swamp monster’s side, pecking at his hair.
The endlessly wandering swamp monster suddenly stopped. With slow, stiff movements, he looked toward the two little birds. He smelled a familiar scent.
It was the one he was searching for—the person he cherished dearly—
