Lina left the garden after burying the paper and entered inside the house. Hina had already started to prepare lunch, her eyes back to normal again instead of sore.
"Lina can you please clean the table..."
Hina said from inside the kitchen, cutting onions.
"Yes..."
Lina replied, taking a clean towel from the bathroom, and entered in the dining room, wiping the table while deep in thought.
'My seal crack...it actually cracked'
She thought to herself.
"Lina can you clean the plates too!"
Hina's voice echoed again from the kitchen. Lina didn't answer.
"Lina?"
Hina asked again, still no answer.
"Lina!?" she shouted.
"Y-yeah!!!"
Lina jolt out of her thought, bumping into a chair and–
Thud!.
She fell face first on to the floor.
"Ow!"
She covered her nose, face red, blood pouring out of her nose.
Hina came out of the kitchen hearing the sound–
And saw Lina on the floor covering her nose, groaning in pain.
"Lina!"
She screamed, quickly helping Lina to stand up, and she sat on the chair.
"Lina, are you okay?"
Hina asked, handing her a towel to clean her bleeding.
"What happened? you aren't paying attention..."
She asked worry creeping on her face.
"It's nothing, It's just that i was very stunned.."
Lina answered wiping her nose.
"Are you still shock that your seal crack? "
Hina mentioned, observing Lina's nose, with unreadable expression.
"Y-Yeah, i never thought a baby would....a baby would crack a saint-tier seal withjust raw mana, and on top of it being not only once but twice..."
Lina responded, her hands clenched tightly around the towel.
"I am shock too, i never thought that Free would have that much mana"
Hina added, resting her hand gently on Lina's shoulder.
"Your master would've been shock too, you know? "
Hina said gently squeezing Lina's shoulder.
"Yeah she would have been shock... if she was here..."
Lina added with glassy eyes, her mind recalled something from the past, a battlefield, dead bodies scattered everywhere, soldiers yelling, and a woman's lifeless body shielding a crying girl.
"Lina... you should take a break today"
Hina suggested, her voice low, barely above a whisper.
"T-Thank you, lady Hina"
Lina replied, standing up and walking toward her room on the second floor.
Just then–
Thud!.
The door swung open and Philip barged in with his sword in hand grinning like he just won a war.
"Hina! Where is food! I need energy!!"
He yelled.
"Shut up, Philip!"
Hina roared, throwing a pan at his direction.
Clang!.
The pan landed in philip's the forehead, he fell flat on the floor.
"Ouch! What did i do!?"
He shouted from the door touching his sore forehead, where the pan landed.
"Nothing"
Hina said putting lunch on the table.
" Dear, go wash your hands before eating"
she sweetly said, too sweetly.
"Yes yes"
Philip muttered, standinh up from the floor still holding his forehead.
On the second floor, opposite to Hina and Philip's bedroom, Lina laid flat in her bed, staring at the ceiling, still deep in thought.
'Young master crack a seal that can even seal a experienced royal mage's mana easily, just how much mana does he posses?'
She thought and sat up.
Walked to the door and standing infront of Hina's bedroom where Free is sleeping.
Her hand reached for the door knob but hesitated, trembling and questioning herself ifshe should open it or not.
'Should i do it or not?'
She thought her hand an inch away from the door knob, her question hung in the air, but at the last moment she pulled it back.
Meanwhile inside the room earlier before Hina and Lina left...
Hina left the room with Lina after watching Free a bit longer, then went to the garden to bury the mana sucking paper.
Free's eye slowly opened right after, and he yawned.
'That was quite the nap'
he thought, looking outside the window, and saw that the birds were chirping again in the Root Tree.
'Ahh... they came back'
He thought, reaching his hands toward the birds even though they were far away.
The birds flew away shortly after from the tree branch, shortly after.
"They're gone. maybe i should try the magic again... '
He thought, shifting all his focus to his left hand.
After chanting the spell, his hand glowed with radiant green light, but for some reason, it was barely audible.
'Why is it so small?...'
He thought
Putting all of his focus more on his hand, the light started to glow a little brighter and slowly it sparkled with the same dazzling colour like before.
'It's back...'
'It's working! Just a bit more...'
His hands glowed brightly, sparkling more than before and it kept on increasing.
Crack!.
'...? What's that sound?'
He looked left, then right, nobody was around as silence hung in the air.
'Maybe i'm just hearing things'
He thought, shifting his focus back on his healing.
The green light grew brighter and more Radiant with each passing moment, Free grinned, but unknown to him, the seal beneath him was slowly cracking.
30 minutes later...
Free stared at the glowing hand.
'This is so boring...'
He thought to himself, but he chant anyway, because except that, he didn't have anything to do.
Just then–
Thump.
Thump.
The sound of foot steps came from outside the room and stopped right at the door.
'Ah crap!Hina will come anytime...'
Free tilted his head to the left, and quickly deactivated the spell.
Silence...
'No one's entering....? '
His gaze didn't move from the door, he could see the shadow outside the door.
'Should i pretend to cry or not'
he thought to himself, staring at the still shadow.
Outside–
"Should i enter or not?"
Lina spoke to herself, with a grim expression.
Just then...
"Neh....waaah!!....waaah!...."
Free cried inside the room.
Lina quickly opened the door hearing his crying voice.
"young master!"
She shouted, scanning the room to only see Free crying by himself alone on his bed.
"Waaah!....waaaah!...."
he pretended.
"Young master, are you hungry?"
She asked(Even though Free can't speak), walking to Free's bed. And picked him up from his bed, holding him gently against her arm.
'So it was Lina. I thought it was Hina outside the room'
He thought, observing her trying to stop his cries.
"...waaah!....waaahhh!!"
he continued his fake cries, while Lina tried her best to calm him down.
After Free didn't stop his cries, Lina left the room and headed dowmstairs.
'It's rare to see young master cry like this'
She thought.
'I'm always worried about your well being, because unlike other infants, you were always calm'
She added.
'That night when you were born, you weren't breathing, even lord philip had lost all hope and cried, but...'
'....But by a miracle, you moved again! Alive! I should have been filled with joy. Yet....yet, when my eyes landed on you... It felt like you were someone else, someone much older than you look, wiser than your age, older than everyone in the house...'
she thought, watching the baby crying on her arms.
The corner of Lina's lips moved up, and she kissed Free on the forehead, before entering in the dining room.
"lady Hina, young master is hungr-"
Her voice stopped, hearing a sound coming from Free.
Crack!.
Crack!!.
Craaaaakkkk!
BOOOOOOM!.
The seal broke, Hina choked on her food, Lina knees nearly gave up from the immense raw mana Free was releasing.
'Wh-what! The mana! The mana ha-had grown ten times in just that short span of time!!??'
Lina thought, her stomach tightened.
Philip unaware of the atmosphere, standed up from his table
"FREE! I MISSED YOU MY BOY!!!!"
He yelled, taking Free from Lina's arm and pinched his soft cheeks softly.
"So soft!"
he screamed in awe, placing one hand dramatically against his chest.
Meanwhile, Hina got up from her chair and walked to Lina who was somehow standing there.
"Li-Lina do you have another seal?"
She asked, and Lina's heads moved down faintly.
"Y-yes, i have another one"
Lia answered, leaving the dining room and ran to the second floor. As soon as she reached the door, she opened it with a loud creak.
Ignoring the pressure, her hands desperately searched for am extra seal.
A few seconds passed, and Lima pulled out a paper seal, a stic(5 inches tall) and a mana sucking paper, she quickly lit the stick and blew the fire off, smoke started to rise from the it, Lina walked downstairs with the .
Down Philip was having fun with Free.
"look Free! One day you will be like your father! Supportive and strong and most of all! Responsible!!!"
He raised Free upwards proudly.
'I don't want to be muscular like you...'
Free thought, his foot lightly kicked against Philip's chest.
Philip brushed his face against Free's cheek when suddenly, Philip yawned, blinking many times.
"Why am i feelin' sleepy so suddenly?"
He muttered, putting Free down on the floor before layingflat on the floor.
A few moments later, Hina and Lina stepped inside the dining room.
Hina held the seal and mana sucking paper in her hands, while Lina gently picked up Free from the floor, and held him on her arms.
"Lady Hina, hurry and put the seal before young master or Lord Philip wake up!"
she requested .
"y-yees!..."
Hina replied, placing the seal on Free's back.
The seal released a blinding radiant light, Hina and Lina closed their eyes.
After a few minutes of silence, the immense aura faded.
"Lady Hina, i think we should change the seal once every hour"
Lina suggested, gasping for air while sweating heavily, putting Free down on the floor.
"Replacing the seal every hour sounds kind of difficult, but it should be better than getting choked under constant pressurre"
Hina replied, sitting on her chair wiping the sweat from her face.
And so on that day.
Both Hina, and Lina came to a conclusion either replace Free's seal or be choked down by the mana he had.
Crackk!.
"NOT AGAIN!"
both screamed in terror.
1 year later...
Free crawled in the living room, still unknown about the seal on his back that is getting change every hour.
"Ma!"
he shouted.
"Yes?"
Hina replied from the kitchen, her hair tied behind her back. Blue eye staring at Free's small figure crawling in the living room.
"brds our!!"
He said pointing a tiny finger outside the window, giving a faint smile.
"Do you want to go outside sweetie? "
She asked, chuckling softly.
"Yahh"
he nodded, now standing with both hands up.
"Can i take young master out on a walk" Lina asked entering the house, wiping her hand with a towel.
"Please do!"
Hina agreed, allowing Lina to take Free out for walk, Lina picked him up on her arms.
"Let's go on a walk then, young master"
She said, exiting the living room with Free on her arms.
"than u lia(thank you Lina)"
Free thank her, gripping Lina's shoulder with his small hands.
'It's embarassing calling their name by mistake in purpose'
Free forced a smile on his face as Lina walked toward the village square holding him to her arms.
To be continued...