3rd Day (4) | Midnight Conversation (1)

"Uhm... hmm?"

Anastasia stirred from her sleep, her brows faintly furrowing as she felt something was... missing.

She blinked slowly, her eyes adjusting to the dim light of the moon filtering through the wooden windows, before rising from her cloth bed.

She looked around and found herself in the spacious, empty vastness of her new wooden house... which felt more like a log cabin than a conventional house.

And of course, she'd slept on the wooden floor with her cloth bed... alongside her other servants, all under one roof.

She glanced to both sides and found her two servants, Bella and Martha, sleeping on their own cloth beds.

Her blonde maid was sleeping soundly, but...

"...No, Lady Anastasia, not the spoons... I already polished them..."

...she sometimes sleep-talked. It made the mistress wonder if this was something akin to a habit for her maid.

Then she turned to Martha... and she was sleeping soundly as well... but...

Her knight was sleeping in a rather... undignified position. One arm was tossed above her head, the other idly scratching her exposed belly beneath her tank top, while her legs sprawled out carelessly.

It was a sight unbefitting a knight of her pedigree, and certainly not appropriate for a young maiden either...

She could even hear light snoring from her too...

Anastasia was REALLY wondering whether this un-lady-like sleeping posture of her knight was something she'd kept behind closed doors or if it was simply because of exhaustion from their work.

'Not to mention... we have a man in the same house... hmm?'

She realized something... as she shifted her gaze to the other side of the house, across from where the three ladies were sleeping.

An empty cloth bed lay there—the very one that should've been used by her one and only male servant, Sebas.

Her brows furrowed slightly.

They had all insisted he sleep under the same roof. Sebas had initially refused, claiming he didn't want to intrude on their privacy. But even Anastasia herself had been adamant.

After all, he deserved to rest in a proper house just like them—especially after all the hard work he'd put into building it.

Yet now... he was nowhere to be found.

"Did he perhaps... go outside?"

The redhead noblewoman was curious about his disappearance, wondering what could have pulled him away from the comfort of their new home.

But she saw a faint flicker of light seeping through the gaps in the wooden window... not from the moon, but from something else.

Her curiosity deepened, and quietly... Anastasia rose from her cloth bed, careful not to wake Bella or Martha, and made her way to the door.

The cool night air greeted her as she stepped outside...

And there he was.

Sebas sat in front of the campfire, his broad back turned against the house. The fire's glow danced across his figure, casting long shadows that flickered in the night.

Anastasia stood there for a moment, silently watching him, before finally taking a step forward.

"Sebas...?"

"Hmm...?"

Her butler finally noticed her presence as he turned his head back from where he sat.

What caught her curiosity even more was that his expression had, for a brief moment, been rather distant—seeming as if he had just been lost in thought... contemplating.

But as soon as he realized it was her who had approached him, his expression quickly softened into his usual friendly demeanor, his voice warm and gentle.

"Lady Ana...! You're awake?" He offered her a faint smile.

She slowly nodded, affirming, "I've... woken up from my slumber..."

"...Did something happen, my lady? Are you not comfortable with your sleeping arrangement?"

"N-no... I am quite content with it..." She averted her gaze slightly, "...it's just that I woke up feeling something amiss... and found that you were missing."

"Ah... well, sorry about that," he chuckled softly, "I couldn't sleep myself, so... I've just been chilling by the campfire."

"I see..."

"Well, now that you've found me... would you like to go back to sleep again, my lady?"

However, Anastasia rubbed her arms lightly, the cool night air nipping at her skin.

"I... no longer feel inclined to sleep," she muttered softly, her gaze drifting between him and the flickering flames.

There was a brief pause before Sebas tilted his head slightly, a faint smile tugging at his lips.

"Well then... would you like to hang out by the campfire with me?" he asked, his voice gentle, almost teasing.

For a moment, she hesitated... but to even her own surprise, she nodded.

"I... suppose I will."

Without another word, she walked over and promptly sat down in the folding chair beside him, the warmth of the fire brushing against her face as the night stretched on.

A silence ensued between them... a comfortable one, at the very least. They were both simply enjoying each other's company.

But eventually... Sebas broke the silence.

"So... what do you think so far, Lady Ana?"

"Pardon...?"

"Haha, sorry, I'm just asking how you're feeling. What do you think of this new place of yours, and, well, pretty much everything so far," he chuckled softly, leaning back in his chair. "If you don't mind sharing, that is."

"A-ah, I see. I don't mind," she replied softly, but her words trailed off as she shifted her gaze back to the campfire. "It's... a nice place."

"A nice place, huh."

"Yes... although I cannot lie, I did have some bad feelings about what kind of place this land would be..."

"What? Like a bunch of monsters swarming this whole region?"

She simply nodded, being reminded of the very scene of rampaging monsters that had attacked them yesterday.

"Well, that's just how it is in this place," he said, his tone matter-of-fact, "this land is like the ground zero for their breeding nests, so it makes sense that there's gonna be a swarm of them here."

His further reminder brought back the feeling of unease that she'd been trying to hide, which he noticed right away.

"Ugh... sorry, my lady. I didn't mean to scare you," he quickly apologized, realizing the effect his words had.

"I-it is quite fine, Sir Sebas," she said, though her voice was tinged with slight discomfort. "I understand well enough that the monster problem would not just go away, even if you have slain many of them here."

"Yeah... sadly, those things would likely appear again, and, of course, this place of yours would be their first target in sight."