Episode 3

Hah.

Hestia’s head hung low, and she let out a long sigh as if holding something back.

“Now, child, I’m going to give you a choice: turn your head to the left to eat alone in your Loum, or turn your head to the right to come outside and eat with me. I’m sorry, but you can’t leave now.”

Hestia crossed her arms in an attitude of helplessness and pressed the boy for an answer.

The boy’s golden irises quivered slightly, and he curled his lower lip in a determined expression.

After a moment, the boy’s head tilted to the right with difficulty, the brief nod showing how much thought he had put into the question.

Hestia curled her smooth lips in satisfaction at the boy’s response.

“I‘m starving, so come on out.”

Just as quickly as their first meeting, she disappeared from his sight.

Once outside, Hestia placed the roasted sparrow on a small table.

She sat down and waited for the boy to come out, but after a while, he showed no sign of coming out.

“You’re going to make me sick. It’s not good when it’s cold.”

Hestia, one hand on her chin, tapped the plate with her fork, her voice filled with frustration.

At Hestia’s urging, the boy clenched his sweaty hands and slowly stepped outside.

The living Loum was brighter than the Loum itself, with a shaft of light streaming in. The boy raised a hand to block the light and squinted.

When his eyes adjusted to the glare, he slowly lowered his hand to reveal his face.

“Tsk. You’re even thinner than I thought. How did you get into this forest if you’re so skinny?”

Hestia looked the boy up and down with a pitying glance and clicked her tongue briefly.

The boy glanced down at his own body.

He might be smaller than his peers, but his nicely defined muscles didn’t deserve such a pitying look.

I don’t know if he realizes the boy’s natural narrowing of the brow.

“You can sit in front of me.”

Hestia gestured to the chair across from her.

The boy walked cautiously toward it, keeping his center of gravity low to muffle his footsteps. His wary gaze remained on Hestia.

When the boy pulled the chair away from the table.

“For your information-”

Before Hestia could finish her sentence, the boy’s body tilted as he tried to sit down.

Thud!

There was a loud thud, and Hestia quickly grabbed the boy’s arm as he lost his balance and was about to fall. Louckily, only an old wooden chair littered the floor.

“Haha. Sorry, kid, sorry. I was just about to tell you to sit down more carefully because the chair isn’t balanced.”

The surprise in the boy’s eyes as he looked at her was palpable, and Hestia apologetically averted her gaze.

The boy’s eyes widened and he stood upright. Even with the surprise in her eyes, she kept her guard up.

Tsk!

The boy’s hand grabbed Hestia’s arm, and she slapped it away.

Hestia slapped her aimless hand away, bit down on her outstretched body, and sat back down.

“No one else in this house has ever sat in that chair but me. So I didn’t bother to take care of it, and this is the result of neglect. I guess no matter how long you live, you never learn.”

Hestia smirked and shrugged, then locked eyes with the boy who was still standing.

“Hmm. You’re taller than I thought. Speaking of which, I have a sore throat, so would you mind sitting down? Ah. If you prefer to eat standing up, so be it.”

“.…...”

The boy pulled up a wobbly chair, still not taking his eyes off her. The gesture was so cautious that Hestia was almost impatient and pulled up a chair for him.

The boy’s brow creased as he finally turned to face her.

“Uh-huh. I can’t believe he’s already frowning like that. You’re running away from your Louck.”

Hestia flicked her index finger across her forehead and gave the boy a stern look.

The boy’s eyes narrowed as if he were trying to gauge something, as Hestia, who could only be in her early twenties, spoke as if she had lived a lifetime.

Whether she knew what he was looking at or not,

“Now, don’t worry, it’s not poisonous or anything!”

Hestia pointed to the almost-cooled sparrow meat. She looked a little impatient as if she was hungry and her patience had reached its limit.

“.…...”

The boy’s eyes widened at the word poison, but then his gaze returned to the food Hestia had pointed out.

His brow furrowed again as if he was trying to decide if it was indeed poisoned or not.

“Doubt is certainly a useful thing to have in life, but that’s enough for today.”

Because it can be poisonous.

Despite the weight of the words, Hestia smiled brightly at the boy.

Pook.

Then she picked up a fork and knife and began to chop the meat into edible pieces with a serious expression.

“I know time is meaningless to me, but I’m not one to sit around and watch my hard work go cold.”

The boy was still speechless.

He simply watched as Hestia busily placed the cut meat on his plate.

Dozens of doubts and assumptions must have been running through his tiny mind.

“Here, look.”

Hestia drew the boy’s attention away from his full plate and back to her.

At her call, the boy suddenly looked up at her.

“Ahem!”

Then Hestia dipped her fork into the meat and shoved it into her tiny mouth, chewing it for a long, messy moment.

Gulp.

Then she showed the boy how to swallow it as if to say.

“How about that? You can starve to death or not, that’s your choice, but you can’t die in my house, so eat it.”

“.…...”

Of course, Hestia could have taken the antidote beforehand and eaten the poisoned meat, but there was no reason for her to do so based on her behavior so far.

The boy cautiously picked up his fork.

He rationalized it, but it was more like a compromise between caution and the flimsy excuse of extreme hunger.

The boy carefully and deliberately placed the small piece of meat into his mouth.

From the moment it touched his tongue, he searched for any unnatural flavor, but there was none. Only the savory flavor of the meat lingered on the tip of his tongue.

The boy glanced away, watching Hestia carefully.

“If you don’t eat soon, I’m going to eat it all by myself.”

Hestia didn’t even make eye contact with the boy, just continued to play with her hands and mouth.

A faint smile tugged at the corners of her mouth, suggesting she was pleased with the flavor of her creation.

The raw wariness in the boy’s golden eyes thinned like a drop of water.

The boy’s fork picked up speed, and his glances at Hestia diminished.

“I see you’re not just a commoner’s child after all.

Conversely, Hestia’s movements slowed, and she began to watch the boy more closely.

The boy made no sound of chewing food, no clinking of utensils. He kept his back straight despite the uncomfortable chair, and his hands were not at all awkward with the mismatched fork.

“You look good, eating well.”

Hestia stopped eating altogether, resting her hands on the table and looking at the boy with a pained expression on her face.

A wistful smile that seemed to recall a time in her distant past, a smile that could be extinguished at a moment’s notice.

Perhaps because of Hestia’s gaze, or perhaps because he was full, the boy set his utensils down at an angle.

“.…..Well, I’ve eaten.”

The boy hesitated, then spoke the first word.

Hestia’s eyes widened at the unexpected words.

“At least you have manners.”

Hestia smiled, the corners of her eyes curling into a smile.

Even though her fur was still matted, she looked adorable in her gratitude.

The boy looked dumbfounded for a moment, then shook his head.

Soon, Hestia cleared the table and served hot tea.

“I‘ve prepared a rather sweet flower tea, but if you don’t like it, let me know and I’ll add sorghum syrup, it’s all I have at home.”

The boy stared into the worn cup in front of him. A bright red flower danced gracefully in the steaming glass.

“Well, it’s not poisoned this time, but you don’t have to drink it if you don’t want to.”

After she finished speaking, Hestia lifted the steaming cup and swirled it, wetting her mouth with the tea.

The boy, who had been staring at her, said.

“Thank you, …….”

His voice was barely audible.

“You seem to have learned your manners well.”

Hestia was pleased for the boy because she hadn’t expected him to thank her again. Had she been closer, she might have patted him on the head.

The boy seemed embarrassed by Hestia’s compliment and quickly raised his cup to sip the flower tea.

The boy’s sharp eyes widened as the aroma wafted into his mouth.

“Wah…… huh!”

The boy’s mouth fell open in surprise at the exclamation that escaped him.

The boy’s golden eyes widened, reflecting his confusion.

“I like your honesty.”

Hestia laughed softly, as if pleased with the boy’s reaction.

“And the tea seems to fit your mouth, thankfully.”

Satisfied, Hestia looked at her cup and savored the aroma.

Whether it was the soothing aroma that filled the house or the chirping of the birds outside, the tension in the boy’s body seemed to slowly melt away.

I could see the boy’s shoulders, which had risen so high, slowly falling back down.

After a few moments of silence.

“What is this…… car?”

The boy finally asked Hestia his first question.

“I didn’t think you’d ask that as your first question.”

Hestia let out a small, amused laugh and replied.

“It’s a common sage flower tea, but it has my special secret recipe that I’ve learned over the years. You won’t find a tea like this anywhere else, I’m honored.”

She squared her shoulders and gave a confident two.

“.…...”

The boy couldn’t tell if Hestia was serious or joking, so he gave up trying to respond and shifted his gaze back to the teacup.

The boy’s golden eyes sank deeply into the white smoke from the teacup.

The teacup hadn’t even cooled.

“Child.”

The boy looked up at Hestia’s weak call.