It was a bright autumn night, crisp and cloudless, with a golden crescent moon hanging in the sky and bathing the entire Forbidden Forest in clear light.
Below, the brightly lit Special Operations Office stood like a lighthouse in the silent Forbidden Forest. Roy, Cedric, and the others had simply set up a small table in the open space outside. Everyone sat around it, enjoying the cool autumn breeze and laughing loudly. The charcoal fire beside them was roasting the extra ingredients they had gotten from the cafeteria. The flavor was fairly ordinary, but when friends ate barbecue outdoors together, what mattered was never the taste—it was the sense of freedom.
"Well, aren't you living it up? You damn Haki Bee, eating all by yourself out here?"
Not long after everyone sat down, an unexpected guest arrived at the base. The moment Roy heard that voice, he knew who it was without looking. He shifted the little stool beneath him and made room for the uninvited Aisling.
"Hehe—"
Aisling carried a small stool out from inside herself and, at Cedric's invitation, sat down at the table as well. But when she happily saw the charred, sizzling wild meat skewers spread across the table, the young lady of the Grindelwald family, who had been raised in luxury since childhood, fell silent. She pinched a branch thicker than her own finger between two fingers, examined it in front of her, then casually tossed it onto the ground.
"You used branches this thick for skewers?"
"What else were we supposed to use? I even washed them in water. Come on, young lady, don't be such a princess. Look how fun outdoor barbecue is. You should be happy we let you enjoy it. Stop picking at everything."
As Roy spoke, he kept chewing away