By the time the sun dipped below the trees of Hidden Throve, the house… actually looked like a house.
Not "barely standing, might collapse if you breathe wrong" kind of house.
A real one.
Walls secured, roof patched, floors steady enough that I wasn't questioning my life choices with every step. It still smelled like fresh wood and dust, but there was something warm about it now. Something… ours.
Kael stepped back, hands on his hips, inspecting their work like a man who just conquered a kingdom instead of fixing a roof.
"Not bad," he said, nodding to himself. "Think it'll hold?"
Zeref ran a hand along one of the beams, testing it quietly. "It will."
There was a pause. A rare one.
The kind that wasn't awkward. Just… full.
We stood there, the three of us, staring at something we built with our own hands. No magic. No system shortcuts. Just effort.
Weirdly satisfying.
"Alright," Kael suddenly said, cracking his knuckles. "Time for the real test."
