"Does that mean I can use Magic now?" Noah asked as he ran towards the village. "Since I have Mana now."
His Mana Stat had jumped from 0 to 10, and his Mana Points from null to 100 after all!
[That's what you're worried about?]
There was a certain derision in the tone that Noah didn't appreciate.
"What do you mean?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
[It might not feel like it but, as I said, three days have passed.]
"So?"
[You've disappeared for three days.]
[Aren't you worried about your auntie?]
"I am. That's why I'm running."
[She must be quite shaken up, wouldn't you say?]
"The letter was nice enough," Noah muttered.
[A bit coldhearted, no?]
"It wasn't exactly my idea. I didn't really have a choice."
[You did say you would do anything for my Blessing, didn't you?]
"Yeah, that's on me, I guess." He scratched his head. "Still, nothing talking to Naomi won't fix."
[You refer to her by name, huh?]
"Sometimes."
The voice remained silent for a moment, only talking again once the lights of the village were visible in the distance.
[Your auntie took care of you when your parents left.]
[You should be more thankful.]
"I am thankful."
[Are you?]
Noah didn't appreciate the implication.
[Your parents left ten years ago when you were only eight years old.]
[Your Auntie Naomi was forced to take care of you, only twenty years old at the time.]
[Such responsibility dumped on a twenty-year-old… Your parents sure are heartless.]
Noah had made his peace with his parents leaving him, but it was the first time he thought about it this way.
"I always knew I was a burden on Naomi, but I never thought about how my parents could dump me on her. Yes, I suppose they were heartless."
[She was only two years older than you are now.]
Noah slowly decelerated before coming to a stop. The village's lights were close, and the voice's words hit like a truck.
[At eighteen years old, you selfishly left her behind to pursue a future for yourself.]
[Meanwhile, your auntie, at twenty years old, gave up everything to take care of you.]
[At the time when she was supposed to travel the world or find love, she was with you.]
[Instead of finding a husband and having a family of her own, she remained with you.]
[Most men refuse to look at a woman with a kid attached to her, you know?]
"What… Are you trying to say?"
[It must have been hard, and lonely.]
[That's all I'm saying.]
[To be abandoned after so many sacrifices…]
The voice trailed off, but the words echoed in Noah's mind for a while.
He blamed himself. He couldn't help but blame his parents as well. They were the ones who had decided to have a kid after all. To then run away and, as the voice said, dump the responsibility on a relative… For the first time in a while, Noah wondered what kind of woman his mother was to dump such a responsibility on her younger sister.
Thinking back, Noah found that he had never really thought about his auntie's loneliness. She never seemed lonely or expressed the wish to have someone. Still, Noah couldn't remember his auntie ever having anyone, whether inside the house or outside. He couldn't even remember her ever spending a night away.
'How come I never thought about that until now?' Noah asked himself.
Usually so worried about Naomi's well-being, discovering such a blind spot was a slap to the face.
He wanted to think that freeing her from the burden was for the better, but thinking about it created a painful knot in his stomach that Noah couldn't quite understand.
[Your Auntie Naomi has been a mess for the past three days.]
Noah started running again, rapidly approaching the village's lights.
[Oh, if you could see how puffed her face was, how much she cried…]
Noah almost wanted to retort, but there was nothing to say. At the end of the day, the voice was right.
Whether Spirit or Deity, it had no reason to lie, and he had no choice but to purse his lips and continue running.
"..."
Noah stopped a dozen steps away from his home, anxious and strangely frightened.
He looked around the village. It was plunged in darkness, save for the couple of lit torches and lamps hanging above each structure's entrance.
Used to waking up at or before dawn to train, Noah couldn't remember the last time he had seen the village this deep into the night.
[It's midnight.] The voice purred. [Isn't it time to see what Auntie is up to?]
The question sent a shiver down Noah's spine, and he approached the house.
Noah frowned as he focused on his hearing to better discern the sounds coming from inside.
He couldn't quite tell if they were whimpers, sobs, or something else.
Noah followed the noise without going inside, and soon found himself standing on the other side of the house, one thin wall separating him from his own room, the one he used to sleep in.
He stepped closer to the wall and,
"Aahhh…"
His stomach dropped at once.
"Aahhh…"
There was no mistaking it.
"Aaahhh…!"
It was his dear Auntie's voice.