NOVEL NEXT Chapter 46: Mysterious Fira
Fira took a deep breath and said to Arthur.
"Okay, go ahead."
Arthur heard her confirmation and decided not to hold back.
"Fira, could you please give me a little bit of your hair? I know you are going to leave in one month, so could you please give me yours as a safekeeping?"
Fira was expecting words like 'I want you' or 'I want your heart,' but hearing him say that he wanted her hair as a keepsake felt a bit weird, but she did find it romantic too.
'Has he already given up, knowing that I didn't have feelings for him?'
She didn't know if he got that or not, but she is not complaining, as this is for the best of both of them.
A sigh of relief escaped her mouth, and her poor heart started to calm down; he only wanted her hair.
She remembered that word her mother had said to her.
"Firiel, be careful of giving your belongings to someone. You don't know, but there is a type of magic called a curse. It's a very rare kind of magic, and very few people could actually use it, but it is a deadly magic, so be mindful of it."
'Mother had warned me about the curse in regard to my belongings, and my hair is part of me. If it's used against me, it would be deadly. '
'I know Mother would protect me, but I don't want to burden her.'
But with giving her hair to Arthur, she didn't have to think much. He is a lower human slave who was brought to this mine when he was 11. It could be said that most of his childhood was spent here. She hated to think about it, but he is as weak as a fly.
She had only known him for two days, but she trusted him as her friend. She didn't think he would do anything to harm her.
'He doesn't even know my actual identity.'
'It's just an innocent request of his, so I don't think it's a problem to give him some of my hair.'
But she didn't know if she cut off her hair, the illusion of her hair would be gone, and it would reveal the actual color of her hair.
'I would tell him it was because of my magic.'
She knows he doesn't know anything about magic or the outside, so it would definitely work.
Fira showed a warm smile on her face.
'I know I can't return your love, but I could at least give this to you.'
"Okay, you can have some of my hair, but just so you know, the color of my hair will change once it's cut off because of the magic I learned, so don't be surprised when that happens."
She said with a proud look on her face.
Arthur, hearing her accept his request so easily, felt very grateful to her, and the fact about the color of her hair changing, he believed that in an instant, as he didn't know anything about magic.
The smile on his face couldn't leave his face, as if what he had thought was correct; this would be enough to make a clone of her.
Fira, seeing the excitement and happiness on his innocent face, didn't let him wait and quickly formed a blade of mana on her finger and cut off a little bit of her hair from the bottom. Her hair was long; it didn't even look much different, since a small amount of her hair was gone.
This time, she cast an illusion magic around her using her silent casting. She didn't want others to witness this.
Arthur can see that the small amount of black hair she cut has now turned into a bright red color.
He found the transition beautiful, as each strand got cut, it would magically change into crimson.
She couldn't just hand him her hair—it would be too crude—so she took out a rank 3 elixir from her space ring, which was kept in a beautifully decorated yet simple-looking box. It was an elixir that would increase the efficiency of her cultivation, so she had lots of them, given by her mother.
She swallowed the elixir as if it were candy and used the box to keep her crimson hair, and gave it to Arthur in front of her, who had a shocked look on his face.
"Don't worry too much; it's just magic."
She gives the box to Arthur, who seems to have accepted her explanation, but she can feel he is a little suspicious of her.
'If he really is that curious, I hope he would find me in the outside world—the real me, not this fake persona.'
But she knows that's just impossible, because first, he is just a slave, and observing him for the past 2 months, she realized he is pretty comfortable in his small world. She had thought of freeing him completely, but she didn't want to make that decision for him.
'If he expressed he wanted to travel the outside world, I would just free him.'
She knows the outside world would be dangerous for someone as weak as him, so she would just hire him after freeing him, but that is completely up to him.
'I am not going to disturb his life on my own whims.'
She had regarded him as her friend, so she had to treat him as such.
'When I had free time, I would occasionally visit him.'
After giving him the box, she left him, as she couldn't waste the elixir her mother had given her, even if she had hundreds of them, so she left to cultivate.
Arthur can see her receding figure in the distance. Seeing her do so many strange things and the strange white small ball she had just eaten, taking it out of the expensive box as if it was nothing, he knows there is more to her than just meets the eye.
He remembered when she had talked about The Gourmet Guild and her master; she had boasted she had a lot of reach in the guild. He still doesn't know what the Gourmet Guild is and how powerful they are, but he knows one thing—that Fira is not just a brilliant cook who knows magic.