Hearing Fina's words, Reiner's heart skipped a beat. He hurriedly turned to look at the girl. No expression could be seen on her face, but there was clearly a little sparkle in her eyes.
Fina slowly walked to her father's bedside, sat on the slightly worn chair, stretched out her hand, and gently held his withered hand.
"It's time to run out of medicine for bed number seven."
The nurse on duty downstairs walked into the ward at this time, mechanically removed the needle from Fina's father's hand, used cotton to simply stop the bleeding, and then left without saying a word to Fina.
"let's go."
After staying like this for a while, Fina stood up and walked out of the ward.
During this process, Reiner didn't say anything. He had noticed that Fina and her father didn't seem to have a good relationship, and the town was a little weird, but he still decided to wait for Fina to speak on her own.
After walking out of the hospital, Fina breathed a long sigh of relief, then pointed to a tower on a hill in the distance, far away from the town, and said softly.
"That's my home, Headmaster Iain Gray."
In the small town at night, only the dim lights on the roadside illuminated a small area of the road, but it seemed that there was no need to worry about hitting people, because the huge streets were silent and no pedestrians walked by.
This place is like a backward ancient village, where people work at sunrise and rest at sunset.
"Should I find a hotel to stay in?"
Reiner looked around. The doors of every house were closed and it was dark.
"There are no hotels in Sur Town. To be precise, outsiders generally don't come here."
Fina sighed, causing Reiner to look over.
"Principal Iain Gray, you'd better come to my house to rest for a while."
She didn't shy away from anything and seemed to trust Reiner quite a bit.
"Uh, okay."
Reiner could only obediently follow the petite girl who was no bigger than his chest and walked towards the tower.
The road was very dark, but Fina was familiar with it, as if she had walked it thousands of times. The two of them walked in the night for about twenty minutes before arriving at the foot of this secluded tower.
This tower has four floors and is located on a hill. It is enough to overlook the entire city. However, the outer walls are covered with moss and the looming walls are very dilapidated. Fina took out the key and opened the door. The long-decayed wooden door creaked. The sound slowly opened.
Through the starlight, Reiner saw what was inside the tower.
The table in the hall was covered with piles of parchment, and various materials needed to construct magic were scattered everywhere. There was almost no place to stay on the ground. Compared with Antoine's alchemy workshop that Reiner first saw, It's obviously much messier here.
Fina sighed, lit the candle on the wall, then bent down and started to tidy up the room.
Reiner stood at the door and waited for a while before Fina sorted out a small area where people could sit.
"Sorry, my father usually doesn't pay much attention to packing these things... I'm going to make tea."
Fina was helpless and turned around to go to work in the kitchen. In Reiner's opinion, this was a surprising side of this girl. She thought that Fina should be a good girl who focused on studying, but she didn't expect that she would be such a homely girl. appearance.
She was wearing a light long skirt and an apron. She was cleaning the teapot in the sink. For some reason, it reminded Reiner of the image of a sister who was good at taking care of others.
"Please use."
After bringing out a cup of clear tea, Fina also sat on the chair next to Reiner. From just now, she had been carrying a touch of sadness, which also affected Reiner.
"Yeah, it tastes good."
I thought that in such a messy room, tea and the like would have expired long ago and could not be drunk, but the tea made by Fina was unexpectedly delicious, and the light tea fragrance was unforgettable.
"My father is a mage."
Fina also held the tea cup with both hands and took a sip of tea, and then took this as an opportunity to speak.
"It's just that he has achieved very little over the years, but he refuses to give up his research and barely survives. It's really terrible."
Fina's father was the only mage born in this town. After graduating from the magic school and obtaining the official rank of mage, he chose to come back here for some reason. Later, Fina's mother died shortly after her birth. Passed away, leaving their father and daughter in this world.
According to Fina, her father may be the worst father in the world. Since childhood, her father has never cared about Fina's life, and has never taught Fina even a single magic. In Fina's childhood memory, her father He has not conducted any relevant magic research at all, just like an ordinary farmer, working every day.
Her mother died young and her father couldn't take care of others, which made Fina become self-reliant from a very young age. From cleaning the room to doing laundry and cooking, life forced her to learn all these things.
If this were all, then that would be fine.
"In this town, Principal Iain Gray, you may have noticed that they don't like mages, nor do they like magic."
Fina said, looking out the window at the dark town.
"The people here have always lived a primitive life. It is said that because they were deceived by a mage in the past, most of the town's income was wiped out for most of the year. Since then, people have extremely hated the mage and are unwilling to Accept help from other mages."
Her father, on the other hand, learned magic secretly and was valued by a passing mage before he could enter the magic school.
But Fina couldn't figure out why her father would come back to this place after becoming an official mage.
Even though her father never engaged in magic-related work at first, Fina was still ridiculed by her peers. Those hateful boys insulted Fina as a "witch" and a cousin who can lure men into bed. He threw rotten eggs and leftover fruits at Fina, and even poured cow dung on Fina's head.
This situation lasted until Fina was ten years old, and an uncle convinced her father to send her to Crescent Academy to learn magic. Only then did Fina escape from this nightmare place.
After Fina left, her father also began to study magic again, but it was of no practical value. Fina could only see some of his life conditions from her father's letters from time to time.
But Fina had already decided that she must become an official mage and leave this ignorant and backward town forever.
This also explains why Fina works so hard and gets excellent grades, because she has no choice. Other students can go home and inherit the family business, and they can slowly take the exam several times to become a mage, but Fina cannot.
However, all these plans were shattered by her father's sudden serious illness.
"It's raining."
Fina murmured to herself. Outside the window, the sparse stars were obscured by dark clouds, and a summer rainstorm followed.