The boy continued to eat the chicken porridge in silence, all the while wiping the tears from his cheeks.

The old man smiled, feeling satisfied when the boy finally ate. He stood up and turned to the grimoire, “Take your time, filling your stomach. Don’t hesitate to call me if you need anything else.”

The boy was silent. It wasn’t because he was rude, but rather, he was just so overwhelmed with emotions that he didn’t pay attention to his surroundings at that moment.

Seeing that the boy still did not has any reactions to what the old man had been saying, the grimoire just nodded in his stead.

“Must be nice having a reliable friend.” The old man grabbed his cane and left the room, waving goodbye to the two of them. “I’m going to work in the other room.”

The grimoire nodded again.

After the old man had left the room, it turned to the boy, who was still eating in silence. It then waited beside him patiently.

Few minutes later, the boy was finally done with his meal. He turned to the grimoire, asking whether he could clean his face.

The grimoire went to a table where the old man had left a few things there and grabbed a napkin. It returned back to the boy and handed the napkin to him, who then wiped his face clean.

Once the boy was done cleaning his face, the grimoire handed him a glass of water.

“Thanks.” The boy smiled and drank it in one go. “Where’s the old man?”

The grimoire answered him and the boy nodded.

“I see…” The boy then looked around the room.

‘There seems to be a lot of paintings here. Is he a painter or something? Is he painting right now?’

The boy was somewhat curious about the old man. But because of his injuries, he couldn’t move as much as he wanted. All he could do was to continue and rest in bed.

The boy was staring up at the ceiling when the grimoire entered his line of sight, flying above him. “Hey, do you still have the thing that we got from Ted’s body?” he asked.

The grimoire nodded.

“Let me see please.”

The boy took the ‘thing’ that he retrieved from Ted’s body and studied it.

“Such a round thing… Is this silver? It does seem like it can withstand high heat… Was it casted with some kind of enchanted magic? But then again, enchanted magic should be expensive. Why would Ted enchant this thing? Or was this something that he had stolen?’

The boy continued to fiddle with the rounded thing when suddenly, it moved a bit.

He was surprised when he realized that it can be open. He slowly opened it and when he saw what was inside, his eyes widened in shock.

“It can’t be!”

Inside, there was a small portrait of a woman!

However, the one that made him shocked was the fact that the woman was very familiar! It was the same woman that he saw in his weird daydream when he was fighting Ted.

“Th-this is the on—” Before the boy could finish his sentence, the grimoire nodded and wrote.

“Correct. That’s the woman we saw before.” The grimoire nodded repeatedly.

The woman in the portrait was Rebecca. Ted’s older sister who sacrificed herself to save her younger brother on that rainy day.

“Wait, we?!”

“Yes. When ‘Resonance of Emotions’ happened, we were linked.”

“Resonance of emotions? Is that what it’s called?”

“That’s right. We linked together when you killed someone with the breathing technique .”

“Then, the one that I saw earlier was Ted’s memories?”

“That is correct. To be precise, what you’ve seen was his most painful experience he ever went through.”

“The most… painful?” the boy repeated.

The grimoire just nodded.

“...But why does it only happen after I’ve killed Ted? I’ve killed Scar Face too...”

The grimoire moved its pages in disagreement.

“How could you not know?!”

“That was the only information that appeared after that fight.”

“WAIT, WHAT?! NEW TEXT APPEARED?!” The boy was clearly surprised by this development.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Without answering him, the grimoire opened up and showed him the page. “Here, take a look at it yourself.”

When the boy saw the page, he was taken aback. “Whoa! It really is true!”

‘Then… What is the purpose of this phenomenon? I don’t care about Ted! Whether or not something bad happened to him in the past, what he did to us doesn’t change! He’s a bad person!’

Seeing that the boy was lost in his thoughts, the grimoire decided to give him some time as it flew around the room.

‘But why? For what purpose? Was it even necessary? Resonance of emotions only triggered by killing someone, right? Then, what’s the point of learning about my enemy’s past?’ The boy thought in his heart. He was too shocked by this new development, at the same time, confused about the purpose of this phenomenon because in his eyes, it was useless.

The boy looked at the window, still being quiet. The curtains covered the window panes, blocking the moonlight from shadowing in.

He leaned against the headboard of the bed, lost in thoughts once more. It was then he remembered about Summer and George.

Were they okay?

Where were they now?

Have they eaten?

Many questions swamped his mind, making it hard to calm down. He felt his chest tightened up again as the feeling of sadness washed over him again.

...

Time flew by quietly and before the boy realized it, it was already ten o’clock in the evening.

At that time, the old man was done with his work. He started to clean his painting tools, replacing the washed palette and brushes back in their places before exiting the room. He then went to the bathroom to wash himself.

After he was done washing, wiping his face with a towel, he looked in the mirror and thought, ‘Hmmm… I guess it’s time to check on the kid.’ With that thought, he hung the towel on its rack and headed for the boy’s room.

He opened the door slowly and saw that the boy was still lying in his bed, looking at the ceiling with empty eyes.

But there were traces of tears on his cheeks.

The old man sighed and decided not to come in.

'I'll let him be alone for now.'

…

Chirp, chirp, chirp!

The sound of birds singing outside along with the sound of the wind knocking on the window woke the boy up.

‘Ugh…’ the boy held his forehead and sighed.

‘So I fell asleep.’

Knock, knock!

The boy turned his head toward the door and saw the old man coming in.

“Hey, kid. How is your body?” He asked as he walked toward the window and opened it.

“I… I’m fine.”

“That’s good. Can you walk?”

“I think I can…”

The old man waved his hand. “Don’t force yourself, if you really can’t then it’s okay. I’ll just bring you your food.”

“Uh—uhm sir…”

“Hm? What’s this? Why are you suddenly so polite?”

“Uhm… I feel I’ve been troubling you and I don't even know your name …”

“Oh? I see.” The old man smiled as he walked towards the door. “You can call me Grandpa Seyl,” he invited.

“Seyl? Is that your name?”

“That’s what people here call me.”

“Hmm… okay… I’ll call you ‘old man Seyl’.”

“If you’re able to stand up and want to look around the place, you can come and join me. I’m going to make breakfast.”

“Okay.” The boy nodded, though he was still sitting on the bed.

Once the old man left the room and was out of earshots, the grimoire suddenly appeared out of nowhere. It then flew towards the boy, poking the latter on the shoulder as if it was excited. “What is it?” the boy asked, looking confused.

The grimoire then started to point towards the direction where the old man had gone.

“You want to go and look around?”

The grimoire nodded excitedly.

“Then go, I’ll be right behind you.”

The grimoire was happy as it hovered around the boy twice before flying out the room .

The boy shook his head and smiled.

‘Guess, I’ll take a look too.’

The boy slowly gets out of bed, albeit weakly. It seems that although his body was still hurting a bit, he was still able to stand on his own now.

The boy had just stepped out of the room when sounds of metals clashing against each other reverberated to his ears. He then could smell an aromatic smell, coming from one of the rooms ahead.

‘What a nice aroma…’ The boy’s eyes sparkled with excitement as the smell actually whet his appetite. He followed where the sounds came from and found old man Seyl standing in front of a stove with a wok and a metal spatula in his hands.

“Whoa…” The boy was slightly taken aback by the heat that was accumulating in the kitchen. The old man was cooking up the storm, looking at how huge the fire was from the stove.

Clang, clang!

"Book, get me two plates!"

The grimoire nodded and flew toward the dish rack. It then grabbed two plates with its pages, flew back and placed the plates on top of a table.

"Good! Now get away! It's going to be very hot! Be careful of the wok!" the old man warned.

The grimoire quickly moved aside. And soon, old man Seyl served the food onto the two plates. “Alright! Brunch is ready!” he exclaimed proudly.

The food served was something that he has never seen before. At first, he thought it was some kind of grain. But it was different from the wheat grains that he had seen before. The cooked dish was yellow-ish with bits of scrambled eggs, mixed with cabbages and green onions. It looked quite delicious.

"Wh—what's this called?" The boy asked, pointing at the food.

Old man Seyl looked up and saw the boy standing at the door, his finger pointing at the food. He put his hands on his hips and guffawed with pride,

"Behold my egg fried rice! Haha!"

The boy was really taken aback by old man Seyl's behavior. 'He—he's so different from before…'

All this time, while he has been talking with the old man, the latter has always been quiet and gentle. So, seeing him like this surprised the boy. It made him think twice about old man Seyl’s real character.,

"Why are you so quiet? This is a masterpiece that only I can make in this world!"

"I—isn't that an exaggeration?"

"Not one bit!" Old man Seyl furrowed his brow. "Just try it, and you will understand!"

The boy swallowed a mouthful of saliva. 'Judging from the aroma, it's at least edible, right?'

"What is rice?" That was the first thing he asked old man Seyl.

"Oh! Right. Rice isn't something commonly eaten here." Old man Seyl stopped furrowing his brows. "Just try it! I guarantee it's delicious!"

The boy was still skeptical about it. But seeing the expectant look on the old man's face, the boy could only nod his head.

It wasn't because the boy didn't trust the old man. But everyone was always scared of the unknown.

Food wasn't exception.

'Well, what could be worse than the soggy black bread that I had before?' The boy walked over and sat down at the table. He grabbed a wooden spoon and took a bite.

Nom!

The boy’s eyes went wide and excitedly looked toward the old man Seyl.

“This is awesome!”

“Hahaha! I told you so!” Old man Seyl said, looking very proud. “How does it taste?”

“It’s delicious!”

The old man waved his hand. “No, no, I mean, what’s the taste like? Sweet? Sour?”

The boy thought for a second. “It’s savoury, a bit spicy, and very garlicky! Also, there is a slight sweetness!”

“Not bad, haha!” Do you know where the sweetness comes from?”

“Uh… sugar?”

“Not quite. It is from sugar, but I use something else that was made from fermented black soybean and palm sugar as the main ingredients!”

“Fer—fermented?”

“Don’t sweat the details, haha! Let’s eat together!” Old man Seyl laughed heartily.