"What's so interesting about this?"
It was like the tale of "Maggie and the Little Elf" in Mailin's Fairy Tales, where the little elf filled Maggie's home with food. Now the Castle storeroom was piled high with grain and tools.
Idelia had not left yet. Her attention had been caught by the Magic Film.
"I've never seen these before... Annan, is this the Mage Tower in Breeze City?"
Eldest Sister liked Magic Films—or rather, she liked the outside world they showed her.
"Yes."
"That couldn't have been easy..." Her gentle sympathy was enough to make his nose sting.
Do you want to go to Breeze City? Annan almost asked, but held back.
He could not let emotion overpower reason. Annan reminded himself of that. If they could go to Breeze City, they could go to Star-Moon Bay. Having Levis's Sisters around him day and night would hardly be a blessing.
“So how much longer are you two going to stay in the Warehouse?” Leila complained.
"Let's go out."
Maid carrying Idelia led the way, and Annan put away the magic stone before leaving the no-longer-empty Warehouse.
The Castle corridors were lined with tattered wool carpets of mismatched colors, with bare stone showing in places. Lei said that after his accident, the servants who fled had taken everything they could carry. Oil paintings, sculptures, armor—they had emptied every warehouse they passed through.
"Didn't I send back a shipment of grain?"
With the food shortage over, the Family should have had money to repair the Castle.
"That money needs to go toward more important things," Idelia said. "It's all right. Guests don't come this way."
Idelia and Leila led Annan along a maze of corridors to the second floor. Two months of letters had helped Annan quickly grow comfortable with them. Then