Bouts of Her Fears and Sadness

Waiting for Luna to came back, Akiro sat on the chair comfortably. There was no hint of worry in his face as he was expecting that Luna would be able to get back inside the training room using teleportation. Although several minutes had already passed.

'Why is she taking so long?' Akiro thought.

Inside the unknown room, Luna could not see anything because the entire room was shrouded in darkness. Her knees began to wobble slightly but she leaned on the wall for support. The room did not have any windows for sunlight to go through and there were not any candles like the one in other rooms they use.

"W-where am I?" Luna uttered. She tried to walk slowly and sensed her surroundings to avoid bumping into things and also find the door outside immediately.

Unknowingly, the room seemed incredibly huge as she could not find the door after looking for several minutes. Luna was doing better in the dark, unlike the ones she experienced in her dreams. Although her mind was clouded with a slight hint of fear that she couldn't focus entirely.

"Calm your mind Luna," she whispered as she held her shoulders tightly. While she was busy calming herself, she felt someone was watching her inside the room and a faint light seemed to appear at her back.

"O..."

"I-I want to get out," Luna said and took her pocket watch, hoping for it to work. Amidst it, she unconsciously imagined getting out of the eerie room. With her closed eyes, Luna felt something happened changed and felt very cold. When she opened her eyes, she saw a garden filled with snow together with heavy rain.

"I managed to get out? Right, the teleportation skill! I'm glad it worked," Luna uttered.

"I-it's cold!" she continued.

Hurriedly standing up, Luna walked inside the mansion still freezing a little despite the warm temperature inside. She changed her clothes first because they ended up being wet from the cold snow. After that, she hastily ran towards the training room. Knocking on the door, she heard Akiro permitting her to enter. She showed up and saw him comfortably leaning on the chair near the fireplace.

"What took you so long?" Akiro said as he sideglanced from the door while he was sightly swinging his feet.

A frown appeared on Luna's face after hearing his question. Hearing him ask that made her think how Akiro was comfortably waiting inside. While here she was, struggled to find the exit to the darkroom and had also ended up on the cold snowy day outside the mansion.

"It's not like I can control my teleportation skill. I just ended up in a dark room and couldn't find the door no matter how long I searched for it. Fortunately, that still worked and I found myself in the middle of your garden outside. I decided to change first before showing up here," Luna explained.

However, Akiro remained silent after hearing Luna's explanation. She ended up thinking that it was something that he could not tell her so she didn't go further into that matter.

But Akiro faced her and asked. "What kind of darkroom you ended up to?" he said.

Confusedly, Luna chose to answer him. "It looked like a pretty big room since I could not even find the door. Someone was watching me too, and a faint light appeared behind my back. Although I don't know if it's just my imagination but the room is still a creepy ominous room!" Luna answered

He stood up and faced her. "We'll stop your teleportation skill training for the time being. Since you can use it with the Yellowbridge stone dust, there's no need to practice it more. Although without using one, we can use your teleportation skill together with your umbrella in dire situations during our missions. Moreover, I'll be lending you some of this dust. Remember that it'll be only used on important occasions," Akiro said and stood up.

He gave him a brown bag that's similar to the big pocket of coins that he used. Luna went confused on how Akiro unhesitatingly gave her the Yellowbridge stone dust that even the higher-ups have only limited access to the said stone.

'Why did he turn such a valuable stone into dust?!' Luna thought.

Seeing that Akiro was like a powerful man that could get whatever resources there were, Luna didn't choose to probe into this matter as the latter was most likely to only mock her for being ignorant.

'Hmp,' Luna thought.

"Rest now. Our next mission is getting nearer so be sure to always be at your peak and I'll lend you some more books later. It seemed that you fancy reading one," he said.

After that, they went out of the room and Akiro locked it once more. He left her alone saying that he had to show up before Lady Liliana return to her household. Since Luna had more time than usual, she also went downstairs and saw the lady and her knight near the door. The weather calmed down so they were able to leave early.

"We'll be leaving now, Honorary Master Mage. I hope that I can visit again," she said.

Akiro nodded but did not say anything as to Lady Liliana's dismay. When she turned towards Luna, she slightly jolted but smiled afterward. "See you again, Lady Luna," she uttered.

Luna mimicked Akiro and didn't say another word. Whether they could still be friends in the future, only time could tell. When they left, Akiro instructed Miss Zione to bring more books into Luna's room. Delighted, Luna chose to help her no matter how Miss Zione was insistent to have her help.

"Let her join," Akiro said.

Helpless, Miss Zione walked with Luna on the third floor which the latter has been curious to.

But after they walked upstairs, Miss Zione whispered some words which made the barrier disappeared. It only came back the moment their feet stepped on the first step of the stairs.

"What was that Miss Zione?" Luna asked as she turned back to see the barrier.

"It's a barrier that only a few were permitted to enter," she said.

Luna nodded in amazement. They reached the hallway after and were welcomed by the huge library and wide collections of books.

"Wow!" Luna uttered. Then, Luna faced Miss Zione.

"Can I ask what books I'm only permitted to take?" Luna asked.

Stunned, Miss Zione answered her. "That side and that one," she said.

Then she saw Luna happily making her way into the shelves she pointed to. Miss Zione did not expect her to ask first which book she's only allowed to. She thought that it was no wonder her Master allowed Luna to enter his library. It's because Luna wasn't a greedy person as some shelves housed special and restricted books that not any person could just barge in.

Ever since Luna appeared in the mansion, Miss Zione treated her nicely despite her cold attitude towards Luna. The latter was even friendly with her and did not treat her as a servant when her master was not looking.

Meanwhile, a gentle smile arose through her lips while taking some books that suited Luna. She kept Luna's books one time so Miss Zione knew what kind of it she likes to read. An example was fictional novels. She was sure that it would make Luna entertained. They took almost two hours selecting books and ordered some servants to help because they wouldn't be able to carry all of it.

When Luna entered her room, she saw an empty shelf beside the full ones. 'Wow, they're so fast to put one inside my room,' she thought. Then she happily put the ones she brought and looked around happily while the maid entered one by one and placed all of them on the bookshelves.

"I wish everything will just be always like this. Peaceful and everyone feels like family," she whispered. With sudden bouts of sadness in her eyes, she looked through the window solemnly.

--To be continued...