"Roast goose, vegetable salad, steak. It looked really good. This new spell of yours had almost no drawbacks, aside from the spellcasting materials being too expensive."
Luvia commented as she put Little Mia, who had caught the scent of dinner, back into Shade's arms.
Thus, the two of them and one cat sat around the campfire for dinner. Once they had finished eating, washed the plates and pot before turning them into toys and putting them away, Shade hesitantly brought up something else:
"Actually, I received an incoming letter from Miss Goode this morning."
"Miss Goode? Who was that?"
Luvia thought for a moment before remembering:
"Oh, Little Mia's owner. I remember you said that in the letter you sent last month, you mentioned formally adopting Little Mia."
"I only mentioned it as a joke."
Shade spoke slowly. Sitting on a rock with the cat lying across his lap, he took the folded letter from his pocket:
"Actually, I still haven't opened it to see what it says."
The envelope was tinted red by the campfire's glow.
"Aren't you always decisive when it comes to doing things?"
Luvia took the letter, glanced at the sender's address, and opened it for Shade. She first removed the customary monthly "Mia's Upkeep Fee," then read the contents of the two sheets of letter paper before handing them back to him:
"That Miss Goode has such beautiful handwriting. Don't worry, there was no mention of your 'joke' from last time. But was Miss Goode in poor health? She said she was sick again."
"Sick again?"
Shade read the letter. Miss Goode wrote that she had been busy with family affairs, handling the family's estates, docks, old houses, farms, and all sorts of other matters, to the extent that she had collapsed from exhaustion again