"Ahm."

'If I ignored it it'll let me be.'

"Ahm!"

'Come on! It's not every day I get to be alone!' I begrudgingly open my eyes to find some loose red hairs blocking my view, I brush them off and sit up.

'Yeah, I was right we passed out on the floor.' I look to my side to find her still sound asleep.

I look to the door to find the brat standing in the doorway with an irritated look on him.

"Get up already." I stand up and stretch my arms and there was some discomfort in my back.

'Shouldn't have slept on the floor.' I walk to the bathroom and turn to Angel who was sitting at the table eating some bread.

"Good morning." Even though it's probably not even morning, then I go into the bathroom.

"Pandres, wake up." I hear the brat try to wake her up as I close the door.

'This is the worst, my right eye feels like it'll explode. I'm never drinking ever again.'

I finish up and then wash my face.

"Hm." I look up at the mirror to find a shadow of a person on the wall.

"What the hell…" I turn around to find it still there.

"No way, no, am I still asleep?"

"No, you're awake." No, this feels too real, I can still feel the water dripping off my face.

"How?!" I look down and it's attached to my shadow just like in my dreams.

"I'm just using your shadow since I wasn't able to get in contact with you last night."

'I must've gone crazy.' I laugh and create a fire on the tip of my finger with magic.

"So you're real? Does that mean you physically exist? Is this your body?"

"I'm just using your shadow, I'm not actually here, you could say I'm using magic to communicate using your shadow." I point my finger at him.

'It's using my shadow as a medium which means I can get rid of it.'

"Calm down. Again, I'm here because I couldn't get in contact, I thought something might've happened and came to check in." I ready my flame to shoot out at my command.

"Sebastian, What's going on? Who're you talking to?" Shit, it's Pandres.

"It's nothing, I just found a rat." I put my finger to my mouth to tell it to be quiet but I almost burnt my lips in the process.

'Shit!' I use ice magic on my other hand and cover my mouth.

"Get rid of it and get out, I need to use the bathroom."

"Alright, will do." And after that, I hear footsteps going away.

"You can read my mind, right?" I whispered.

"Nope, not here." That's good to know.

"Say what you want and leave, before I force you to leave."

"I don't have anything to say, I just wanted to check in." Was it worried about me or something?

"Can you just appear whenever you want or is there a restriction?" I've never heard of communication magic through shadows but researching it might come in handy, so any information might be useful.

"No, I'm restricted due to my own problems, nothing to do with the spell itself. And no, you can't learn this magic so don't bother."

"So you can read my mind?!"

"No, but I've been inside your mind enough times to be able to tell what you're thinking most of the time." I very much dislike that.

"Whatever, leave me alone… Wait can you appear like this instead of my dreams next time."

"Hmm sure, if you prefer it that way." And with that, he disappeared.

I get rid of the fire and ice and dry my face with a towel.

I open the door to a smiley Pandres.

"Are you not hungover?" She shakes her head and goes past me into the bathroom.

'Almost finished a whole bottle by herself and yet is not hungover… she might actually be a dwarf.'

I get a cup and pour me a glass of water using magic.

"What the…" I look back to find the brat with a shocked expression on his face.

'Ah, crap.' He immediately backed away.

"Are you a witch?!" He stands between me and Angel.

"Um no, just a simple trick or sleight of hand."

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"Bullshit, oh for god's sake, I knew that girl attracted strange people but a witch is something else." He reached for his sword.

Fortunately, Pandres left the bathroom and noticed the tension in the air.

"Oh come on, what did I say yesterday?"

"You didn't tell me he was a witch!" She puts her hand on her chin and looks up and then as if she figured it all out.

"You used magic in front of him?" I nod and keep my eyes on his hands, even the slightest movement from him was dangerous.

"Klaus, he's no witch. Look at this." The brat takes a glance at her to see her with a flame in her palm.

"Huh?!" We both said in shock but for different reasons.

"When did you learn that?" She smiles and puts it out.

"It was relatively simple, and by that I mean you taught me." She smiles and now that I recall I can vaguely remember lighting something on fire…

I look at the curtain and it had some burn marks on it.

'Hope I don't have to pay for that.'

"I need some time to process this…" he keeps his eyes on me.

"We're not witches, Klaus. Mana is something that exists all around us." She uses wind magic and lifts the curtains and his mouth was agape at this.

She looks at me "This is something I learned on my own." Not surprising, wind magic is the easiest magic to use due to the natural mana in the air.

"So you're not witches?"

"No, you can relax." He does relax his stance and puts his sword on the table.

"I'm sorry… I'm just a little shell-shocked." He puts his hand on his forehead.

Angel, who had finished her food ran to Pandres and was excitedly asking her how she did that.

I took a seat next to him, "just so you know if you tell anyone about the existence of magic, I won't hesitate to kill you." Folks would just react the same way he did and I don't need people starting a witch-hunt because of me.

He seemed like a man who has been in some battles so I believe he could tell that I was serious.

He didn't reply and simply stayed silent with his head down.

"And also witchcraft, the use of demonic spirits to do your bidding to be specific, doesn't exist anymore. So keep that in mind next time you accuse someone of being a witch." Did they exist? Probably, but not anymore.

"Sebastian, quit talking like that, trying to intimidate people doesn't suit you. You look very unserious." I look up to find Pandres looking down at me.

"I'm just giving him a warning, nothing to do with intimidating him." She claps right in front of his face, it snaps him out of the little thinking session he was having.

"Klaus, trust me, will ya? We're not bad guys… at least not me, I don't know about him but you know for a fact that I'm not." He gives a little smile and sighs.

"Fine, magic exists, whatever that's fine." He stood up and had a determined expression on his face.

"I have some questions, but I'll save that for later. Now to talk about what I came here for." He pulled out a map.

While he explained stuff, food had arrived and we discussed it over food.

Here I zoned out a bit, but I got the important stuff memorized.

"So we'll be going through the north gate and go towards northeast until we arrive at the next town and then we'll be home free?" He nods.

"By the way, Klaus, make sure to get us two horses, alright?"

"Alright then, and I'll remind you again, after you leave the gate, you're on your own and I won't be able to help you." We just nod and continue eating.

He gets up, "get rested, you'll be leaving tomorrow. And please be competent adults and don't get drunk."

"We weren't planning on it." And with that, he takes his leave.

The time was '4:32 PM'

After we finished, I picked out a book called 'The Gamble We Call Life by Melpomene M. Magnolia.' And went on to read it the whole evening.

'Nothing to write home about, just a boring story about some guy who gambled himself into losing everything he owned. The only interesting thing about it was the protagonist's deteriorating mental state even then it barely got explored and mainly focused on his terrible decisions. The best thing about the book was the title.'

'It wasn't even entertaining, what's the point of writing a fictional story that was just depressing, it even managed to fail at being depressing. 0/10, definitely wouldn't recommend.' After I finished writing my review in my notebook, I got up from my chair and put my notebook in my bag.

'9:23 PM'

I look around to see Angel asleep.

'Poor kid, being stuck in here must be boring but at least she has Pandres to talk to, speaking of Pandres, she was in a corner playing with fire.

"Be careful."

"You aren't one to talk, you almost burned everything down yesterday." She wrapped the flames around her forearm.

"Whatever." I return the book to the bookshelf and go to the bathroom.

'I'm bored out of my mind so why not.'

'I don't even know what to call it…' I created a flame on my finger for some light.

"Perverted shadow person?" I whispered to no response.

"Shadow person?" When I said that my shadow grew out.

"You don't like being called perverted?"

"No. Not at all." I could sense a bit of attitude from it.

"Then tell me what to call you."

"Hmm call me [One Who Hates Tragedies]."

"Too long."

"Tch then call me, Shadow man." So it's a male, I couldn't tell from his voice alone.

"Alright Shadow man, tell me what I did today." I need to gauge how much it sees of my life.

"I don't know, I have better things to do than keeping up for your life. A boring life means people aren't going to be interested."

"I couldn't care less than I already do."

"Whatever. What do you want?"

"A talk, it's about time I got to know more about you, and I'm also terribly bored." I could just read another book but that book took me out of my reading mood.

"Fine, you ask, I'll reply, make it quick."

"First, can other people know that you exist?"

"I guess."

"Wait, stay right there." I opened the door and gestured for Pandres to come and she was confused by this.

"Why?" She whispered.

"Just come, I have something to show you." She looked a bit worried then it dawned on me that this was weird.

"I know this sounds weird but just trust me, you'll understand once you see it." She reluctantly got up and was standing next to me looking into the bathroom.

"What?"

"Focus on my shadow."

"What about it?"

"For goodness sake, I don't have all day." The pervert spoke.

"Huh…" she looked at me and then back at the shadow.

"What is that?" She took a step back.

"I don't know, but I do know it's not dangerous." At least I think it's not.

"It's safe, I'm a friend, not foe."

She creates a fire on her finger just like me and we enter the bathroom and close the door.

"Just so you're aware, this thing has been in my head for a while now, and when you heard me talking in the bathroom it was because he randomly showed up."

"And so I thought it would be best to show you, you know so you wouldn't think I was crazy."

"Are you sure it's not dangerous?" I shrug.

"He hasn't attacked me yet."

"Anyways, I brought you here because I thought it would be better if we both knew more about it."

"Ahm, as I've told you I don't have time to dilly-dally so get on with the questions."

"What are you?" She wasted no time.

"I can't give you a clear answer, but I'm someone you can trust."

"How can we trust you?" I wasn't even given a chance to speak.

"Come closer, I'll tell you something only you know." She steps back.

"No."

"Then he should leave because I'm sure you wouldn't want him to know."

"No way." She looks at me with confident eyes.

"It's fine, I can handle myself and if something happens I'll call for you." I begrudgingly go to open the door.

"Wait! No, I forgot I was attached to your shadow…"

"Then just cover your ears."

"If it's something you don't want me to know then how could you know I won't fake it?" She smiles and slaps me on the back.

"Because I know you're not that type of guy." Talking as if she knows me… the worst thing about it is that she's right.

I cover my ears and see the shadow's mouth move.

I then look at her and her expression has changed to complete horror.

I remove my hands from my ears, "Pandres?" She doesn't respond, I shake her shoulders a bit and she snaps back to reality.

"Uh… yeah, I think we can trust what he says…" she puts her hand on her forehead and looks down.

"Are you okay?" She nods and closes her eyes and inhales deeply.

"Yes, I'm fine, we can continue."

"Alright, I'll ask a question this time, what should we do next?"

It sighs, "I don't know, as of right now you can do whatever you want."

"Alright, what do you mean by that?"

"I mean that I don't care what you do for now."

"Then why did you give me advice and why are you here?"

"Call it an investment."

"What's your name?" She suddenly asked.

"[One Who Hates Tragedy]."

"Are you god?"

"No, I'm not all-knowing nor am I all-powerful. I'm actually pretty weak." He laughs.

"Why-"

"Times up." and with that the extension of my shadow disappeared.

She turned around and walked through the door.

'She's probably still a bit shaken up from what he said, I should probably leave her alone.' She then sat next to the window and just sat there, looking out at the snowfall and her eyes were completely vacant.

'Maybe I should probably say something…'

"Um if you need someone to talk to I'm willing to listen or I could go call for Klaus if you want." She glances at me.

"Sebastian, do you have a goal in mind? A goal that you strive to achieve every day?"

"Hm yeah." She chuckles.

"I see." That's it? Don't you have anything else to say?

"Do you have a goal?" She runs her hand through her hair.

"Unfortunately yeah, a very heavy goal, one misstep could cause it to crush me."

"Your goal is to become king, right? Of course, it'll be hard."

"No, that's just a part of it, there's more to it."

"Alright, then why do you strive for it? Why don't you give up on it?"

"Would you give up on your goal?"

"…No, I wouldn't."

"You see, a goal is like a double-edged sword, depending on how you are, it may be the sword that saves you or the one that kills you."

"And mine is a curse, I want to give up but I just can't give up on it."

"I just wish I could just give up and run…" in the moonlight her eyes were shining brightly, I could even see the stars reflecting off of them.

And I think I could see tears welling up in her eyes…

"Listen, I don't know what your goal is but ask yourself would the you that worked hard give up?" She just hums a response. Shit, I don't know what I'm saying, I don't even know if it makes sense.

"Pandres, if your goal is heavy then let others carry it with you."

"Me, for example, isn't that why you hired me in the first place?" She glanced at me once again and then covered her mouth to hide her slight smile.

"Yeah… you're right, that is why I hired you." She then stood up and stretched her arms.

"Just know this goal could crush the both of us." I laughed.

"As long as I get paid I'll handle anything."

She then put on a robe, "What're you doing?" She tossed another robe at me and I caught it in my hand.

"We're going out."

"No."

"Come on, the streets are empty and Angel will be fine." I looked out the window and she was right but still, I had to be firm.

That was when there was a knock at the door.

Then two people entered, "where do you think you're going?" It was the brat and the idiot.

Before I could tell them that she was planning on going out she grabbed my hand and pulled me out of the room past them. "Great timing, Klaus. Take care of Angel for me for a bit!"