Faust stood in front of the wooden house. He had built it himself—hurriedly, yes, but with care. Yet now, there was nothing left of its old form.
He carefully checked around the house in the middle of the forest. He trusted his barrier; he was sure nothing would happen. Still, an odd sense of unease always crept into him.
Faust returned to the front of the house and knocked on the door.
Knock, knock!
"Are you there, Maria?"
Even though he knew she was inside every single time, he couldn't stop himself from asking again and again. Strange.
There was no answer, but Faust never got one anyway. Maria only spoke once he entered, but it wasn't his place to judge people… at least not her.
Creak…
Faust pushed the door open gently with his right hand. It was never locked, because it didn't need to be. If anyone could get through the barrier, a lock wouldn't matter.
Once Faust stepped inside, Maria immediately called out from the far right corner of the room.
"Ah… Faust, welcome. How are you?"
She responded instantly, yet her expression wasn't lively. Her voice was calm and subdued.
Maria. Always quiet, always still. No one forced her to be cheerful. She could speak or act however she wanted—like most of us, even if not all. She helped him enough…
"So? Tell me, I'm curious. How are you today?"
Maria is like an elderly relative on their deathbed. She had nothing to talk about except for the one person who cared for her, yet she didn't seem troubled by that. She listened to problems. She shared troubles. She gave advice. She listened. She never objected. She told him exactly what he wanted to hear…
Faust continued talking as he sat down on the chair beside Maria's bed.The chair had no armrests; you couldn't rest your hands anywhere. It was extremely simple. Faust didn't seem to care. He was there just to talk.
"I… I'm fine, I guess. It was a strange day, but I thought you might be able to help."
"Hm… I'm curious what's troubling you, but maybe start by telling me about your day first?"
"Uhh… I mean… why not."
"…"
"In the middle of the night, Klint suddenly came to my door and told me I needed to go to the Winter City. He woke me up just to say that, so honestly it made me furious. I guess that anger messed with my sleep because… I had a bad nightmare. But I'll talk about that later."
"Ah? A bad nightmare, you say. I don't recall you ever being scared of nightmares. So I'm guessing it wasn't something terrifying—not a nightmare—just… a dream you didn't want to see, perhaps?"
"Hah. Maybe. But as I said, I'll get to that later. Right now I want to talk about something else."
"Faust~ You know I always agree with you. So much so that you always hear exactly what you want to hear, right?"
"Uh… I mean, yes, that's true."
"That's why I think you should make a tiny, teeny-tiny change of plans—because you're here to tell me and ask me things. And if you ask me? What you're about to talk about is definitely related to your cute little nightmare. So I think the place we should start is obvious."