Sylvia didn’t stop there. Around the central tree pillar, she created vine beds that could fit one or two people each.
Between the ceiling vines, she grew various fruits: apples, pears, grapes, persimmons, peaches, dates, apricots, plums, cherries – all kinds of fruit on one tree.
Though it was her first attempt at such an endeavor, Sylvia was confident of success, based on her small experiments. In terms of plants, they moved as she wished. She expended a great deal of magic to create their sleeping quarters, feeling quite drained.
Regardless of the success, this new expression of plant magic was quite taxing on her body.
Carefully, she moved the ailing people with wind magic to each bed. Then, she served them ginger tea she had prepared earlier in wooden cups.
“This is tea made with ginger and sugar; it should be somewhat effective. Please, have a sip.”
Tending to each person, she washed their faces with magic and created ice packs.
After ensuring they sipped the ginger tea, she went outside. To those not afflicted by food poisoning, she handed long wooden barrels filled with barley tea and ginger tea, along with ice packs.
“Keep hydrating with barley tea frequently. And here are ice packs; please place them on your foreheads. Lastly, have some ginger tea as well. You might not show symptoms yet, so always wash your hands thoroughly and maintain cleanliness.”
Having finished speaking, she filled a large barrel with water and placed it in a corner inside the wooden house. Sylvia sighed deeply at the break of dawn and started moving.
It was harder than she had thought.
Ethan was in awe of the splendidly built wooden house. He called others over with even greater admiration after seeing the inside.
Meanwhile, Felix followed Sylvia into her makeshift home.
“Are you okay?”
Knowing she had used a significant amount of magic, Felix asked.
“No, I’m quite tired…”
Sylvia sprawled out on the bed, and Felix watched her with concern, then reached out to hold her hand, channeling his magic into her.
“Huh?”
Warm and solid magic began to slowly fill her up from her toes.
The feeling was peculiar because their magics were very similar. She had learned from a magic book that magic couldn’t be shared with others.
Yet, their magic, coming from the same source, was being accepted without any issue. Sylvia’s hair even turned black at the tips due to the sudden increase in Black Dragon’s magic.
However, neither Felix nor Sylvia noticed. Sylvia was too engulfed in a cozy feeling with her eyes closed, and Felix was only observing her complexion…
Felix felt grateful to Sylvia for taking the initiative to do things. He was always thankful to her, but his sense of debt kept growing, making him anxious.
How could he repay her?
Watching Sylvia, who had fallen asleep breathing deeply, Felix was lost in deep thought.
He hoped Sylvia would stay by his side forever.
***
The next day, Sylvia was very active from the moment she woke up.
She first checked on those who had been poisoned and served them porridge made only with rice. She gave beef porridge to the children and hastily prepared meals with rice and available side dishes for the rest.
Then she immediately fixed the house she had built the night before. She made a hole in the wall to create a connecting space.
She constructed small spaces out of sturdy vines like an ant colony and moved the vine bed from the widest area with a wooden pillar to a smaller space.
Felix came to build a defense wall from their living area to the lake upon Sylvia’s request. He placed gems made from Black Dragon’s blood into the ground and carved defensive wind magic circles into them one by one. The breeze felt gentle, but it would become as solid as any wall to those trying to invade from the outside.
This would definitely keep out coconut crabs. The defense magic circle was originally designed with demon beasts in mind.
Felix also set traps near the defense wall at Sylvia’s other request. He placed gems that acted as snares and flowed magic into them, pulling nearby coconut crabs into them with wind magic.
In an instant, the wind sprung up like a net. Though invisible, the coconut crabs were perfectly restrained like in a dense snare.
“Lastly, you wanted mussels and oysters to climb up on their own, right?”
To finalize the carefully instructed requests, Felix crossed back inside the defense wall and headed to the lake.
[Felix, the weather has gotten quite cool.]
Daisy, who had flown after him, commented on the weather, and Felix looked up at the sky. Indeed, it was different from the summer sky. A deeper blue sky looked down upon him.
“Winter is coming, then.”
He finally understood why Sylvia was in such a hurry. Or rather, it was strange that he had only realized it now.
[It’s surprising that you, sensitive to the weather, didn’t notice.]
Daisy muttered, surprised at his reaction.
Indeed, it was true.
Having almost lost his sense of taste and smell, he was unusually sensitive to changes in the weather compared to others. It was probably a habit developed from not being able to smell well.
He installed a pulley-like device at the first lakeside, similar to the one at Emerald Lake, and hurried off after confirming that mussels and oysters were climbing up on their own.
Upon reaching where the people were, Felix found Sylvia busily roasting something over a spread-out campfire.
The skewers she had, each pierced with something, looked entirely different from any he had seen before. The sight of what looked like brown stones skewered and stuck around the fire was amusing.
“Siri.”
At his call, Sylvia shrugged her shoulders up and down and turned her head away with a roll of her eyes.
“Are you going to keep calling me that?”
Every time he called her by her nickname, her eyes would narrow and her lips twitch, clearly indicating her dislike. However, Felix felt slighted. It was her nickname, and he couldn’t understand why she didn’t like it.
She had never called him by a nickname either. Like her, with half-closed eyes, Felix belatedly responded.
“Yeah, Siri.”
He felt a strange urge to rebel.
Sylvia was displeased with Felix continuing to call her ‘Siri’, a name unrelated to this place, but now wondered if it was strange of her to care.
“Big sister, do we keep roasting this?”
While Sylvia was having a staring contest with Felix, Noel’s voice pierced through. She answered dully, but then, her voice turned sweet and gentle as she smiled brightly.
“Yeah, this is called a sweet pumpkin potato. It’s really delicious when roasted.”
“Sweet pumpkin potato?”
“Yeah, and it’s especially tasty with a type of kimchi called dongchimi…”
Children gathered around her, listening intently to her kind voice.
The children adored this kind and beautiful sister or big sister. She had taken care of them with devotion when they were sick and always handed them tasty food and snacks.
For the first time, the children tasted fruit. Curious about the fresh, sweet, and sour taste, they asked about it, and she even showed them how it was grown.
They wished they could become magicians like her if they had magic.
“Looks like it’s all cooked now. Shall we peel one and see?”
Felix, who had now crouched beside her, watched intently as Sylvia peeled the sweet pumpkin potato.
[Wow! The flesh is so yellow.]
Daisy flitted around them, spinning in circles. Then, a child stared at Daisy but quickly turned his attention back to the sweet potato.
“Be careful, it’s hot. Understand?”
“Yes.”
She wrapped the bottom with leaves and handed one to each child.
“What about me?”
Felix, who had been waiting quietly by her side, prompted Sylvia.
“Just a moment.”
After peeling another one, she handed it to him. Instead of taking it, he just opened his mouth wide.
“Ah.”
Seeing him now saying ‘ah’ himself was both amusing and endearing. Sylvia chuckled and blew on the sweet potato before holding it in front of him.
“Here, be careful, it’s hot.”
Heeding her warning, Felix nodded and carefully took a bite of the sweet pumpkin potato.
“Mm.”
It was really delicious, sweet, and chewy.
His black pupils dilated, sparkling with light. Sylvia felt a strange emotion stir within her at the childlike expression he often showed lately.
When she first saw him, even though his pupils were black, they were like dark voids, devoid of light. They seemed to absorb all light, vast and unfathomably deep.
But now, they gleamed like obsidian, a beautiful jewel that absorbs light to make it its own. The lips munching on the sweet pumpkin potato were so red… They looked as if they were coated with lipstick, like those of a woman who had carefully applied it.
“Eat slowly, will you?”
Despite her nagging, Felix didn’t seem annoyed but only rounded his eyes more. Sylvia stared blankly at his slightly curved eyes.
The thought that she might genuinely be mesmerized struck her hard.
Sylvia didn’t stop there. Around the central tree pillar, she created vine beds that could fit one or two people each.
Between the ceiling vines, she grew various fruits: apples, pears, grapes, persimmons, peaches, dates, apricots, plums, cherries – all kinds of fruit on one tree.
Though it was her first attempt at such an endeavor, Sylvia was confident of success, based on her small experiments. In terms of plants, they moved as she wished. She expended a great deal of magic to create their sleeping quarters, feeling quite drained.
Regardless of the success, this new expression of plant magic was quite taxing on her body.
Carefully, she moved the ailing people with wind magic to each bed. Then, she served them ginger tea she had prepared earlier in wooden cups.
“This is tea made with ginger and sugar; it should be somewhat effective. Please, have a sip.”
Tending to each person, she washed their faces with magic and created ice packs.
After ensuring they sipped the ginger tea, she went outside. To those not afflicted by food poisoning, she handed long wooden barrels filled with barley tea and ginger tea, along with ice packs.
“Keep hydrating with barley tea frequently. And here are ice packs; please place them on your foreheads. Lastly, have some ginger tea as well. You might not show symptoms yet, so always wash your hands thoroughly and maintain cleanliness.”
Having finished speaking, she filled a large barrel with water and placed it in a corner inside the wooden house. Sylvia sighed deeply at the break of dawn and started moving.
It was harder than she had thought.
Ethan was in awe of the splendidly built wooden house. He called others over with even greater admiration after seeing the inside.
Meanwhile, Felix followed Sylvia into her makeshift home.
“Are you okay?”
Knowing she had used a significant amount of magic, Felix asked.
“No, I’m quite tired…”
Sylvia sprawled out on the bed, and Felix watched her with concern, then reached out to hold her hand, channeling his magic into her.
“Huh?”
Warm and solid magic began to slowly fill her up from her toes.
The feeling was peculiar because their magics were very similar. She had learned from a magic book that magic couldn’t be shared with others.
Yet, their magic, coming from the same source, was being accepted without any issue. Sylvia’s hair even turned black at the tips due to the sudden increase in Black Dragon’s magic.
However, neither Felix nor Sylvia noticed. Sylvia was too engulfed in a cozy feeling with her eyes closed, and Felix was only observing her complexion…
Felix felt grateful to Sylvia for taking the initiative to do things. He was always thankful to her, but his sense of debt kept growing, making him anxious.
How could he repay her?
Watching Sylvia, who had fallen asleep breathing deeply, Felix was lost in deep thought.
He hoped Sylvia would stay by his side forever.
***
The next day, Sylvia was very active from the moment she woke up.
She first checked on those who had been poisoned and served them porridge made only with rice. She gave beef porridge to the children and hastily prepared meals with rice and available side dishes for the rest.
Then she immediately fixed the house she had built the night before. She made a hole in the wall to create a connecting space.
She constructed small spaces out of sturdy vines like an ant colony and moved the vine bed from the widest area with a wooden pillar to a smaller space.
Felix came to build a defense wall from their living area to the lake upon Sylvia’s request. He placed gems made from Black Dragon’s blood into the ground and carved defensive wind magic circles into them one by one. The breeze felt gentle, but it would become as solid as any wall to those trying to invade from the outside.
This would definitely keep out coconut crabs. The defense magic circle was originally designed with demon beasts in mind.
Felix also set traps near the defense wall at Sylvia’s other request. He placed gems that acted as snares and flowed magic into them, pulling nearby coconut crabs into them with wind magic.
In an instant, the wind sprung up like a net. Though invisible, the coconut crabs were perfectly restrained like in a dense snare.
“Lastly, you wanted mussels and oysters to climb up on their own, right?”
To finalize the carefully instructed requests, Felix crossed back inside the defense wall and headed to the lake.
[Felix, the weather has gotten quite cool.]
Daisy, who had flown after him, commented on the weather, and Felix looked up at the sky. Indeed, it was different from the summer sky. A deeper blue sky looked down upon him.
“Winter is coming, then.”
He finally understood why Sylvia was in such a hurry. Or rather, it was strange that he had only realized it now.
[It’s surprising that you, sensitive to the weather, didn’t notice.]
Daisy muttered, surprised at his reaction.
Indeed, it was true.
Having almost lost his sense of taste and smell, he was unusually sensitive to changes in the weather compared to others. It was probably a habit developed from not being able to smell well.
He installed a pulley-like device at the first lakeside, similar to the one at Emerald Lake, and hurried off after confirming that mussels and oysters were climbing up on their own.
Upon reaching where the people were, Felix found Sylvia busily roasting something over a spread-out campfire.
The skewers she had, each pierced with something, looked entirely different from any he had seen before. The sight of what looked like brown stones skewered and stuck around the fire was amusing.
“Siri.”
At his call, Sylvia shrugged her shoulders up and down and turned her head away with a roll of her eyes.
“Are you going to keep calling me that?”
Every time he called her by her nickname, her eyes would narrow and her lips twitch, clearly indicating her dislike. However, Felix felt slighted. It was her nickname, and he couldn’t understand why she didn’t like it.
She had never called him by a nickname either. Like her, with half-closed eyes, Felix belatedly responded.
“Yeah, Siri.”
He felt a strange urge to rebel.
Sylvia was displeased with Felix continuing to call her ‘Siri’, a name unrelated to this place, but now wondered if it was strange of her to care.
“Big sister, do we keep roasting this?”
While Sylvia was having a staring contest with Felix, Noel’s voice pierced through. She answered dully, but then, her voice turned sweet and gentle as she smiled brightly.
“Yeah, this is called a sweet pumpkin potato. It’s really delicious when roasted.”
“Sweet pumpkin potato?”
“Yeah, and it’s especially tasty with a type of kimchi called dongchimi…”
Children gathered around her, listening intently to her kind voice.
The children adored this kind and beautiful sister or big sister. She had taken care of them with devotion when they were sick and always handed them tasty food and snacks.
For the first time, the children tasted fruit. Curious about the fresh, sweet, and sour taste, they asked about it, and she even showed them how it was grown.
They wished they could become magicians like her if they had magic.
“Looks like it’s all cooked now. Shall we peel one and see?”
Felix, who had now crouched beside her, watched intently as Sylvia peeled the sweet pumpkin potato.
[Wow! The flesh is so yellow.]
Daisy flitted around them, spinning in circles. Then, a child stared at Daisy but quickly turned his attention back to the sweet potato.
“Be careful, it’s hot. Understand?”
“Yes.”
She wrapped the bottom with leaves and handed one to each child.
“What about me?”
Felix, who had been waiting quietly by her side, prompted Sylvia.
“Just a moment.”
After peeling another one, she handed it to him. Instead of taking it, he just opened his mouth wide.
“Ah.”
Seeing him now saying ‘ah’ himself was both amusing and endearing. Sylvia chuckled and blew on the sweet potato before holding it in front of him.
“Here, be careful, it’s hot.”
Heeding her warning, Felix nodded and carefully took a bite of the sweet pumpkin potato.
“Mm.”
It was really delicious, sweet, and chewy.
His black pupils dilated, sparkling with light. Sylvia felt a strange emotion stir within her at the childlike expression he often showed lately.
When she first saw him, even though his pupils were black, they were like dark voids, devoid of light. They seemed to absorb all light, vast and unfathomably deep.
But now, they gleamed like obsidian, a beautiful jewel that absorbs light to make it its own. The lips munching on the sweet pumpkin potato were so red… They looked as if they were coated with lipstick, like those of a woman who had carefully applied it.
“Eat slowly, will you?”
Despite her nagging, Felix didn’t seem annoyed but only rounded his eyes more. Sylvia stared blankly at his slightly curved eyes.
The thought that she might genuinely be mesmerized struck her hard.
