The drama behind them was still underway, but Rumi rose, circled around the crowd, and slowly headed toward the theater shack.
His eyes remained lowered as he watched his soaking-wet feet move forward step by step, leaving one footprint after another. He was already immersed in his own world.
"My own story, setting the scenes, finding actors—"
He kept muttering the elements he had summarized, arriving at a conclusion as he thought. "I need to start with a script."
"Is it really okay to leave just like that?"
A familiar voice by his ear interrupted his train of thought.
Parting the dripping curtain of hair and looking up, he saw someone he had not expected. "Mr. Tang Qi? Do you have a wish you want fulfilled too?"
"I came to take you back."
Tang Qi spoke frankly. "Markwen and the others should have told you that the Queen cannot perfectly fulfill your wish. To keep you from falling into her prepared trap, they asked me to bring you back. It took quite an effort."
"Sorry, but I can't go back yet."
"Why not?"
Tang Qi realized that Rumi had, rare as it was, become a quiet and normal person.
Normally, he would not even need to ask. Rumi could fire off the whole story himself like a string of cannonballs.
"I'm going to bring Mom back."
"That Queen promised you a [Complete Resurrection Spell]?"
"No. But my mom isn't dead at all."
Rumi took a deep breath. "I saw her, just the night before last. I was lying in my bedroom when I sensed something strange outside the house. I pushed open the window, and among the sunflowers, I vaguely caught sight of Mom."
"That might have only been a dream."
"No, it wasn't. Dreams feel unreal, like those mangled,