As Victor carried Wednesday closer to the school, they found Enid pacing anxiously at the gate, biting her nails like a little wolf trapped in a cage.
"My god! Victor! Wednesday!"
Seeing the two figures, Enid immediately rushed over, her blonde hair flying behind her.
"I'm so glad you're okay!"
Seeing Enid approach, Wednesday instinctively wanted to release her arms from around Victor's neck, but the movement stopped halfway.
She seemed to weigh the pros and cons of "maintaining Gothic detachment" versus "falling into the mud from Victor's arms," and eventually, "extremely reluctantly"... tightened her grip.
As Enid drew near, her footsteps abruptly halted, the joy on her face quickly replaced by worry.
The sight before her made her gasp—both were covered in mud and dry leaves, and the dried blood on Victor's ear looked particularly jarring in the twilight.
"Hey, Enid!"
Victor's voice was unusually loud, accompanied by an overly bright smile.
"Guess what? We won! Those Plague Doctors were no big deal!"
He tried to hide his disheveled state with his usual madness, but his trembling arms and pale face betrayed him.
Enid's gaze was locked onto Victor's ear, her voice trembling:
"V-Victor... your ear..."
She reached out carefully, her fingertips lightly touching the darkened blood, and large teardrops instantly welled up.
"Oh, I should have gone with you... does it hurt?"
Although he couldn't hear what Enid was saying, Victor could guess.
"Don't worry, it's fine!" Victor comforted her hurriedly, while struggling to adjust his hold on Wednesday.
"Once that sleepyhead Venom wakes up, he'll fix the eardrum in minutes! I just can't hear for now."
Hearing that Venom was also seriously injured, Enid's body visibly shuddered.
She could hardly imagine the fierce battle they had endured.
"Today is a good day for me, Enid."
Victor tried to change the subject, his voice hoarse from exhaustion.
"Come on, give me a hand. Wednesday looks light, but carrying her all this way has worn me out."
This sentence caused Wednesday's arms around his neck to quietly tighten, her fingertips giving his ear a warning pinch—Miss Addams had mastered a new skill without a teacher.
"Uh, I mean..." Victor quickly corrected himself, "this chocolate cake she's holding is quite heavy. Can you help carry it?"
"Of course!"
Enid hurriedly took the cake box, the rich sweet aroma forming a bizarre contrast with her current heavy mood.
The walk back to the dorm was unusually quiet.
Victor lacked his usual chatter, leaving only heavy footsteps and slightly rapid breathing.
This abnormal silence made both Enid and Wednesday feel uncomfortable—the frantic Victor Black suddenly falling silent was more unsettling than any clamor.
Finally arriving at the dorm, Victor carefully placed Wednesday onto her bed covered in black silk, his movements gentle to the point of being reverent.
He turned to look at Enid, then at Wednesday, and suddenly spoke, his voice low and serious:
"Enid, Wednesday... you know? I'm really lucky to have friends like you."
Both were stunned. This was the first time they had seen such a... soft Victor.
"During the time after escaping the lab..."
He continued, his gaze somewhat distant.
"Venom and I were truly lawless, doing a lot of messed-up things. Robbing candy stores, blowing up assembly lines in chocolate factories..."
"If I hadn't met Dracula and been brought back to the Elf Inn, I might have really become a total antisocial villain."
He smiled, a rare warmth in that expression:
"Even though Dracula shouted about throwing me out of the inn every day, he still took me in. Mavis would always secretly leave an extra portion of Blood Pudding for me."
"Jonathan dragged me to listen to that noisy, tacky dance music, and little Dennis... that kid was always pestering me to tell him fairy tales."
"Later I came here and met you both." His gaze shifted between Enid and Wednesday. "All the good luck of my life has probably been used up right here."
"It was the Dracula family's nagging that kept me from becoming a villain; it was the way little Dennis grew fangs to protect his friends that gave me the courage to step out of Transylvania."
"It was your smile and chocolate, Enid, that pulled me back from the edge of nightmares time and again..."
He looked at Wednesday, his eyes complex and tender:
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