Tale Of The Half-Blood Wizard

"There were people looking for you here," He said in a hurry. "You were not coming yet," 

"Who? Do you know them?" I asked him with curiosity and asked him to go in and sit on the kitchen chair.

"She is a woman, perhaps in her late thirty, and a bit strange..," He was trying to recall the guest for me. "Well, she dressed up strangely." He finally found the words to recall the guest. 

I glared at his reply. He was really good at making people upset when they took him seriously. "I mean, how is she like Mr. Cranky Erick? I really wish I can beat you up." I gave him a horror smile due to annoyance. 

"I don't know how to define it but she called the man she was with Ner or Nir?" He was still trying to remember. "I don't know, I forgot." 

All right, I knew he was referring to. "Then, what did you say and what did they ask?" I asked quickly.

"They did not say much,…just…," Erick picked up something he was hiding from me from the first he knocked on my door. "The man he was with that woman asked me to leave this to you and said you should visit them. That's all." He handed me a knife with my name on it. it was the thing that Naar gave to me. 

"Tha, what is your connection with them? Sorry I didn't mean to meddle in your business, but you seem very close to them." Erick investigated me.

I just kept quiet because I couldn't say anything to him. I could not involve him in this issue. "They are just friends of mine." I took the knife and looked at it closely. Every Time I saw this thing, everything about the place of wizards and things I had done there, including the time I was in the town square with Naar just recently came to light again. Honestly, I really wanted to go to that place and with him again if that was possible. But--, 

"Is he your lover, Tha?" I knocked his head as soon as he finished those words. 

"Don't even say that again if you still want to breathe." I threatened him. He groaned in pain and I stood up to keep the knife Naar gave me.

It had been a month since I lived in my old house where I had to wake up at two or three in the early morning, and that was a habit I could not easily clear. Once I opened my eyes I did not get up right away, spending some time in bed tossing and rolling. For some time I sat still on my bed and facing the window of my room, looking at the dark and dim light of the quiet street in front of my house. The soft brisk of the wind blew and the typical warmth of the summer that was about to end went into my room. Distinctively I smelled a petrichor scent because the rain was falling quite often. And autumn was likely to come late this year. 

After five to ten minutes sitting still and unmoving, I got up to reach a glass jar containing silver tea shoots that were still unopened. I put a teaspoon of the tea in an old porcelain teacup by the window. While waiting for the water to boil, I picked up oatmeal and dried fruit from a cupboard in the kitchen and I cooked them with milk and some honey. 

It took only ten minutes for my breakfast to get ready, a bowl of oatmeal, a cup of white tea. Mickey would accompany me to breakfast every morning. 

While for Mickey was a bowl of fish cake of his favorite and fresh milk. Sometimes I added additional wet cat food that was of course to reduce his fat, perhaps? That sooty chubby cat grew fatter by day and surely he got louder too. He sometimes grumbled when I gave him less than I should have. To be honest, I was worried that he would suffer from obesity. 

'I am just an ordinary person was something I wanted to keep planting in my mind. At 5.45 in the morning, I got ready. A gray shirt and black pants, a light brown maple patterned jacket and a black backpack, and a large Bulbasaur hanger accompanied me. 

And I did not miss a medium-sized bento with a side dish of freshly picked vegetables from the small garden at the back of the house. I pedaled my bicycle to school. That was a little fear in my heart but I tried to get rid of it. 'I am a normal person I said in my heart.

A month ago I enrolled in a male academy which was quite far from my house. It was located outside Neuron. I had an acquaintance who worked there. He was someone once I helped with data processing for his final project. It was about twenty-five to thirty minutes riding a bike.  Some people chose to take a bus but I did not like waiting for a long time for the bus to arrive and squeezed up during school hours. 

I saw some students were walking to the school gate when I arrived there. Others jumped from the back fence that was quite low and it was near a bicycle stand. The dormitories were provided especially for the first year and the last year students. While middle year students had to earn permission in advance if they wanted to live in the dormitories. 

…

At ten o'clock in the morning was the first break. And having breakfast at three in the morning made me hungry already. 

"What is that?" a friend asked when looking at my lunch. 

"It is spicy taro leaves, grilled salmon, and cherry tomatoes. Do you want it?" I handed them my lunch box and offered him my lunch. 

"Can I try it? " another friend chirped from another side of the bench. 

Bringing a lunch box was something rare for them. Some who still lived with their parents would still be able to have it, but for others who were married but had no children yet, they preferred buying food at the café during lunchtime. 

They said that the food I brought was special with unique taste. It was reasonable because the seasonings used in Euron were often said to be complete seasonings that might not be found in other places. Some typical foods were of a strong taste. 

"Pstt," a friend gestured to me as she walked out of the room. I got up from my chair and followed her. "I really like your pumpkin pie." Her face blushed. A mother of two children slapped my arm lightly. "You are very good at cooking. Come on, follow me." I smiled and walked to follow her without any words. 

We walked down the narrow office hallways, down the stairs to the first floor which was for exclusive classrooms. "We have planted pumpkins and they are bearing a lot of pumpkin fruits now." She said cheerfully. 

"Wow, that must be great," I said sincerely, "My backyard is very small so that it can grow vegetables which don't take up too much space," I was trying to blend into the conversation she was creating. 

"I brought some for you," She said as she took me walking to the parking space. A back with a small brown sack was lying against the mossy walls. When she mentioned some, I really thought she might bring two or three, but I was wrong. I was surprised when she in fact carried around seven to ten medium-sized pumpkins. 

'How is she carrying all these pumpkins?' I was wondering. 

"Please, make me pumpkin pie like the one of yesterday," She said, "My kids really like it." She smiled and looked at me with a pleading look. 

Of course, I could not say no to her request, "Mrs. Lim, please don't be like that. Feel free with me. I will make some for you." 

Her face was blushed with joy. "Is this enough?" She asked after she handed me a stack of pumpkins. 

"This is too many," I laughed. "I need one or two pumpkins. It is enough for some jars of cookies." I explained it to her. 

"Such many pumpkins will be enough for the whole villagers if I take them all," I winced. 

"It is okay, take them all. I have told you that I have harvested it, haven't I?" finally I could not let down that woman, Mrs. Lim's gift. 

…

I wanted to have a simple life, as simple and enjoyable as a cup of warm sugar-free coffee. On Monday, I woke up an hour earlier to make pumpkin cookies. At first, I thought I would only make ten jars but I ended up finishing thirty jars. I packed twenty jars and twenty jars for Mrs.. Lim, and the rest would be delivered to my teachers and friends, while the rest of the pumpkins would be processed for other dishes.