"How does your body feel?"
The living room door was pushed open from outside, and Louise, who had just returned from the kitchen, smiled as she greeted Yanila, who was sitting blankly in a recliner by the fireplace.
"Not very good. It still hurts a lot."
Yanila shifted her gaze away from the fire and looked at the lavish dinner Louise had placed on the table. Frowning slightly, she asked, "Is Albert not dining with us tonight?"
"He seems to have something to do today, so he'll be staying in Avalon to eat with his companions." As though she knew what Yanila wanted to ask, Louise continued, "Isobel needs to stay home and look after Little Alice. She and Katrina will come over after nine."
"What about Catherine and Valeria?"
Yanila lifted the thin blanket covering her, rose from the recliner, and slowly made her way to the dining table before sitting down.
"They're holed up in the study, going through Albert's Potions notes." Louise moved the exquisite, plentiful dinner in front of Yanila and kindly reminded her, "Eat quickly. It won't taste good once it gets cold."
"Are Catherine and Valeria still studying that so-called Beauty Potion?" Yanila scooped up some Spanish seafood rice and put it into her mouth, muttering, "It tastes great, but Spanish food is a little too monotonous."
"Albert is equally accomplished in Potions. His notebooks usually don't disappoint."
Louise had also been fortunate enough to read through those notebooks, but she was only mildly interested in such things and had never paid as much attention to them as Catherine and Valeria.
After swallowing her food, Yanila asked in confusion, "Didn't they say the Beauty Potion research had hit a bottleneck and there hadn't been any new progress?"
"Who knows? Albert always manages to surprise