If her Crystal Sickness had not flared up back then, leaving her stuck in a wheelchair, she would have almost hit him with a stick. Later, one day, he simply disappeared, probably dying somewhere from being too obnoxious. Thinking back now, Lilith was not even sure whether the grave she had set up was still there.
"Yes, that is right. Wait, I never told you these things, so how do you know them so clearly?"
Lilith finally reacted. Bella pointed toward the kitchen. "Because that old man is in there, and he is eating our breakfast."
"…?"
Lilith froze for a moment. She grabbed her CrystalMagic Staff and rushed into the kitchen, and sure enough, an improper-looking old man was stuffing sausages into his mouth with a fork. When he saw Lilith come in, he tried to speak, but with his mouth full, nothing came out clearly.
Eager to see his disciple, Safas had used Spatial Magic to find the coordinates and rushed over without stopping. He happened to teleport directly into the kitchen. After smelling the food, he could not resist, since he had not eaten anything for countless years.
After taking a few bites, he saw someone who looked exactly like Lilith run past. Then the genuine Lilith arrived as well. As he chewed, he was still thinking about how to greet his long-lost disciple in a friendly way.
What he saw next was Lilith raising Magic Staff at him with a blank expression, as a surging white light burst out. The kitchen filled with a deafening explosion. Everything went white for a moment.
"Breakfast is ready. Three portions, and you too, old man. Do not steal mine again."
Safas touched his slightly singed beard and looked at the greatly changed Lilith in front of him. He sighed that children really did grow into people you no longer recognized if you did not pay attention. "Your illness is cured? Was it the effect of that staff?"
He looked at the CrystalMagic Staff set aside. The material of that Crystal looked vaguely familiar to him. Lilith simply nodded lightly and continued eating breakfast.
"…A friend gave it to me."
"Having friends is a good thing."
When he taught this little girl back then, he could tell from her temperament and that strange illness that kept her tied close to home that she probably did not have many friends. Now, looking at her like this, and at the girl beside her named Bella, whose nature surprised him a little and whose face was exactly the same, he finally felt some relief. Adding in that powerful shot she had fired at him earlier, her level was already enough to graduate, and that at least made him feel reassured.
The two of them and the little one started eating breakfast, but it did not feel as simple as that. They all ate very slowly, on purpose or not, as if using breakfast as an excuse to avoid doing anything else. Perhaps it was just a way to hide from something they did not want to face yet.
Bella watched the two of them finish eating and then sit there without speaking, glancing at each other from time to time. They clearly had something to say, but neither opened their mouth, and she had no idea what they were thinking. She did not plan to interrupt, since this was Lilith's matter after all.
"I will go wash the dishes first."
She took the plates from the table and walked into the kitchen, deliberately creating some space for the two of them. With a casual toss, the dishes broke down automatically into Nanometal, while Bella hid behind the wall and tried to listen in. The reason the two outside were silent was very simple, they did not know how to start, and it was awkward.
It felt like two people chatting online who both said they were going to sleep and then went quiet, only to meet each other later in a ranked match. Lilith had already moved on from the incident where this old man vanished from the human world. Between her own mindset and the passage of so many years, she did not really mind anymore.
She had long believed that he probably died somewhere during one of his reckless trips, finally failing to survive the local the Lord's beating and ending up in some forgotten corner. Then, after all these years, he suddenly cleared a revival match and announced he was back, leaving her speechless and unsure how to respond. Safas also had no idea how to speak to the child he had not seen for decades.
In his memory, Lilith was still a tiny thing, though she was not exactly big now either. Back then, he had no choice but to return and guard a library, leaving without even a message, and decades passed without a meeting. To be honest, even Safas himself thought that he had effectively died in Lilith's life.
What was supposed to be a life sentence somehow ended, and after he stumbled out in confusion, he was immediately given another task. He might need to rely on his old apprentice to gather help, which left him stuck in this awkward situation. He had never had much face to begin with, but even so, he truly did not know how to start.
Nearby, Bella munched on popcorn until she felt like the flowers were about to wilt. She could not stand the atmosphere between those two anymore, both clearly wanting to speak but stubbornly waiting for the other to start. How was she supposed to enjoy the show like this?
She strode over in a few quick steps and opened the conversation for them. "I heard you were Lilith's teacher back then. Where did you go all these years?"
He glanced at Bella's face and spaced out for a moment before answering. "Do not ask. Back then I messed something up again, so every so often I had to go stand guard for someone and watch over a library. But recently that library shut down, so I am no longer in prison, and I decided to come back and take a look."
After hearing the answer she wanted, Lilith let out a sigh, not surprised at all. At least this old man had only caused trouble and gone to jail, rather than creating some massive disaster. That alone was a relief.
"During those decades I spent locked up, I searched that entire library and still could not find a way to solve the Crystal Sickness on you," he continued. "You look much more relaxed now, so I am relieved."
"More or less, yeah," she replied.
With the conversation finally open, Lilith sighed again and rested her cheek on one hand, lifting the crystal-clear, ornate Crystal Magic Staff beside her. Gold threads and green leaves clung to it, making it look like a work of art. When Safas first came in, he had been staring at it because of the strange aura it carried.
"There were some changes to my body, but it is fine. You could say it is cured," Lilith said.
In truth, this kind of treatment was nothing like removal and was closer to doubling down. Many of her organs were now turning into Crystal. If one had to compare it, it was like cancer where the usual methods were surgery or chemotherapy, while Belial's approach using Laws was to spread the cancer cells through the entire body and replace all original cells, letting the patient ascend on the spot, if that even counted as treatment.
Bella had another theory after some research, but that was not something to say lightly. Seeing that the topic had finally opened up, both Bella and Safas cheered quietly in their hearts and gave each other mental thumbs up. Their relationship was not bad, and there was a lot they could talk about, they just needed the right opening.
Bella quickly sat down and took out sunflower seeds and cola. "So you stayed at home all those decades and did not go anywhere else until recently?"
"Only a few years ago," he replied after a pause. "There were some small accidents. The Barrier you built finally could not hold, and I also needed to come out to handle something."
Lilith looked a bit distant as she spoke, recalling that sunny morning when she was drifting between the gaps of the world, studying a strange phenomenon. Out of nowhere, a red light blasted her Barrier apart along with half of Sky Island. If she had been standing just a bit off, she might have been blown away too, and she still did not know the source.
"It broke? Then maybe I should take a look later?" he said.
Although he did not understand how a conservatively built Barrier meant to last hundreds of years could fail, he did not press the issue. In the end, Lilith glanced at him a couple of times, frowned, and spoke directly.
"Just say it. What did you come to find me for? No need to beat around the bush. If you forgot my temperament, I can explain it again."
"Alright."