Ryan stared up at the ceiling, laying in his bed. He was seriously trying his best to fall asleep, but he just couldn't. And he was so exhausted when he woke up this morning, too. But now, there was far too much on his mind to just move on from.

  Because of the party they threw, without knowing everything about this property, Michael had gotten seriously hurt and his mana was out of whack now. He really had to go see him soon, but he was told that they had to continue isolating him for a little while to stabilise Michael's mana, so he had to wait for a while first.

  There was also the stuff with Arianda. So, all of a sudden, he's useful to fate instead of harmful, so he's allowed to keep on going whatever he wanted. But that might also change at a moment's notice again, just as it had before. Then he randomly met an old friend of his father's, who apparently had something to do with the Church of the Dead God. Oh, and apparently star-bearers were a thing, and his uncle was now actively antagonistic toward one of them.

  But somehow, Ryan's mind couldn't help but get stuck somewhere else entirely. His date with Jade. It was all seriously confusing for her. He liked her, sure, but Ryan was genuinely worried about whether or not this was all happening... correctly. He had met Jade not long after having a big talk with Silvia about his fears and insecurities around love and all that, so what if this was just him forcing himself to like her? Was what he was feeling actually 'love', or did he just really like her as a friend?

  And from her perspective... that kiss earlier came right after Ryan cured the deadly curse that was killing her grandmother, even though they thought she would just have to rot away slowly in her bed. Sure, it seemed like she liked Ryan even before that, but what if she had just kissed him because she felt like she had to, after what Ryan did?

  With a loud groan, he pushed his hands onto his face and pulled his feet back over the edge of the bed. Just the fact that he was this anxious about some stupid love troubles made Ryan mad at himself. There was so much other shit going on that should be the priority right now, so why wasn't it?

  He stepped out onto the small balcony at the side of his room, that was connected with a stairway down to the garden. Ryan leaned onto the railing, and stared off into the woods surrounding the property. Things just kept getting more and more complicated. For a few months, it felt like everything was fine, and then all of this started happening all at once. But maybe it was better like this. It maybe sounded a little dramatic, but what if Ryan wasn't meant for 'normality'?

  Even back when he wasn't involved in all this, Ryan wasn't normal. Hell, the nickname 'Knight in Scuffed-Up Armour' had to come from somewhere.

  Ryan walked down the steps into the garden, basically just wandering around aimlessly. He just needed to take a walk to clear his mind. And as he did, Ryan went past the workshop. It was pretty big, so they had split it into multiple areas, and part of that was an atelier for Silvia. The lights were on in that section, and music was blaring through the cracked window.

  Curious, he decided to go and take a look at what Silvia was making in there. He pushed the door open, and the first thing he saw was a massive canvas. It was basically as big as the entire wall, to the point where Ryan was a little confused how Silvia even got it in here.

  In front of it, Silvia was sitting cross-legged, just staring at the blank white fabric.

  "Yo." Ryan waved slightly, and Silvia turned her head around.

  "Oh, hey! I thought you were headed to bed?" she replied, surprised to see Ryan here. But he just shrugged and dropped down on the beanbag that Silvia put into the corner of the room.

  "I meant to, but I can't fall asleep. What about you, it's pretty late. Why are you still up?"

  Silvia smiled lightly and looked back at the canvas. "I'm trying to figure out what to make with this. It'd be my first time drawing on a canvas this big."

  "No kidding. Any ideas?"

  "Not a single one. It'll come to me at some point, I'm sure," Silvia said. "That was the case with the others, at least."

  Ryan nodded, looking over at the wall to Silvia's left. There, tons of paintings were leaning against each other. They were all moving in one way or another. Rustling leaves in the wind, a cat cleaning itself, or a train driving past the horizon. Silvia had been drawing a lot of things ever since they moved in here. Well, she wasn't just drawing. She was sculpting with clay, carving things out of wood, making clothes... basically anything and everything she could think of doing. It was really nice seeing her in her element like this.

  "Is this supposed to be your... I don't know, 'magnum opus', or are you just trying to push yourself?"

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  "The second one. I don't really believe in the whole 'magnum opus' thing. I mean, not the way others do, at least."

  "Hm?" Ryan asked, raising a brow.

  "Isn't it a little sad? You know, your 'greatest work'. If you make your magnum opus, that means that everything else was worse," Silvia pointed out, staring at the canvas. "I love my very newest painting just as much as I love my very first. Everything I make is my magnum opus."

  With a slight laugh, Ryan nodded and leaned back in the beanbag. "That sounds like you, at least."

  "Right?" Silvia said, starting to push herself over to Ryan while still sitting on the ground, until she was finally using his legs as a back-rest. "What do you think? Does the canvas tell you anything?"

  Ryan narrowed his eyes and stared at the white wall in front of him. "I think to me it says... snowstorm?"

  With a scoff, Silvia leaned her head back and stared at Ryan upside down, laughing slightly. "Sure, a snowstorm."

  In the end, Ryan just shrugged. "I don't know, I really don't see anything. You know I'm bad at that kind of thing. It really just looks like the void in my head."

  "The void? Oh, like, all that space around the spirits' domains?"

  "Mm-hm. It's just white."

  "Maybe I should paint what I think my own domain would be." Silvia laughed a little, and Ryan smiled.

  "That'd be neat. Though I don't think I'd want you whirring around in my head," he replied, but Silvia groaned.

  "I'd be such a great spirit, though! I could paint you cute pictures all the time."

  "Sure, but you'd be too tiny to hang out with Fae properly."

  Silvia narrowed her eyes and stared at the canvas. "Yeah, you're right, never mind. But at least I'd be able to get some more pigments every ten levels. It was so cool to use the shop in the dungeon." she let out a long sigh, looking over at the shelf with the different paints that she had mixed together. But the moment she did, Ryan jumped up from the beanbag, and she slipped down from her friend's legs.

  "What was that for?" Silvia asked confused, as Ryan knelt down in front of her.

  "I just have an idea. Come on, give me your hands," Ryan said, holding out both of his toward the elf. She took them, a little confused. "Now pour your mana into me."

  "Uh, are you sure?"

  "Yes, I'm sure, just do it. I want to check something."

  Even if she was still confused, Silvia did as Ryan asked. She started pouring her mana into his body, and the moment she did, he would pull it into the space between the domains. Ryan knew he could do this, since he had done this exact thing with Michael earlier this year. And since then, with Morgana's help, his ability to manipulate mana had gone up a lot, so he was able to easily pull all the mana into himself.

  It appeared in the space within Ryan's mind, floating far above him. A small orb of purple, blue and pink mana that was shifting in colour and texture the entire time. Ryan used his own mana to surround Silvia's, pushing it toward the tree. And soon, that blob pushed against the trunk, and was quickly absorbed. Ryan had Silvia keep going until she had used up around five points of her own mana, at which point, he noticed something new.

  One single coin fell from the tree, which Ryan quickly rushed over to grab. One side had a paintbrush, the other side had Silvia's face drawn on it. Just in case, he quickly placed it onto the stone in the hollow of the tree. And just like with the spirits, a branch came down from the tree, with numerous colourful leaves with small drawings on them. Half of them seemed to be some kind of art tool, and the others looked like the pigment pots that Silvia got in the dungeon's shop before.

  Of course, there was just a single coin saved up, so nothing could be bought, but just knowing this was already amazing.

  Ryan opened his eyes with a broad grin on his face. "It worked."

  Silvia was confused, just staring at her friend confused. "Huh? What worked?"

  "The tree of blessing, it responded to your mana, and... you can use the shop, too!"

  With immediate excitement coming over her, Silvia pulled her eyes wide open. "Wait, what? Shop? Did you manage to figure out what that ability was?"

  "Yes! It's a bit different than in the dungeon, but it works great! Essentially, the tree of blessing takes in mana or aura and then produces coins, that can then be used to buy stuff. It looks like for anyone beside me, five points worth of energy make one coin," Ryan explained, and Silvia nodded excitedly.

  "That's awesome! So how much do my things cost?"

  "Well, they started at around 350 coins at the lowest, but the pigments started at 500..."

  Silvia's excited smile quickly disappeared. "500? So that's... 2500 MP? Ryan, I barely have 80 MP right now, do you want me to give you my mana like this for months or something?"

  "No, no! Just, uh..." Ryan stopped, and started to think. "What if we have Modak make some sort of mana-battery for you, that you can then fill up with a few hundred points worth of mana, and then I take that in all at once? That should be a bit easier, right?"

  Silvia thought for a moment. "Well, I guess... It'd be awesome if I could just draw a tunnel right into your head or something, and then I can walk inside and put my mana into the tree directly."

  "... Yeah, please don't do that," Ryan shuddered at the idea. "But... the spirits now all have a root from the tree sticking into their domains, so maybe that's something? It might be possible to do it that way, I don't know. I have no idea how your magic works."

  With a laugh, Silvia nodded her head. "Tell me about it. But we'll figure something out! I want some new pigments, and brushes!"

  "We'll get you those, don't worry." Ryan smiled.

  "Actually, I think I've got an idea for the big canvas now!"

  "... It's not my head, right?"

  "No, of course not! It's a landscape, not everything's about you!" Grinning, Silvia walked up to her paints. "I'll let you know if I come up with something. But for now, I'll concentrate on this one... should take me at least a couple weeks to finish, with how big this is."

  Ryan shrugged. "As long as you remember we have exams coming up."

  Shuddering at the mention, Silvia turned to her friend. "Shush! Stop it! Get out, before you curse this room!"

  "Yeah, yeah." Ryan stepped back outside. Even though they hadn't spoken about a lot, his mood did improve a bit. His mind was still whirring with all the problems that have been coming up, but as long as him and his friends worked together and relied on each other, surely, they were going to find a way to push through it all.