(From the point of view of Damian Carmichael)

***

When Madame Belladonna woke up, she quickly stumbled around all over the place. By the look on her sweaty face, she seemed to be scared about something. Her beautiful countenance was now covered with a dreaded expression as she continued to shuffle her hair while muttering beneath her breath.

I decided to approach her with a weary look. I was about to extend my arms towards her to tap her shoulders, but midway through it, I decided not to do it instead. I then straightened my body and asked as I stood behind her panicked figure. "W-what's going on, Madame Belladonna?"

"THE PRINCES!" Madame Belladonna uttered as she turned her head towards me like she was under some kind of psychic spell that threw her psyche in some sort of unbearable trance. "HAVE YOU SEEN THE PRINCE HERE!? ANYWHERE? WHO TOOK THEM, SIR DAMIAN!?"

"C-calm down, Madame!" I said with a puzzled look on my face as I waved my hand in an attempt to ease her nerves. "Th-they're inside of the Captain's Quarters with Uncle Bert!"

"Eh?" Madame Belladonna muttered. Like a bug scurrying around the surface of the world, she hurriedly ran towards the room beside ours. She swiftly swung the door of the Captain's Quarters open. Madame Belladonna still had a dreadful expression on her face when she heard the whereabouts of the princes, but she only managed to heave a relaxed sigh when she saw that the princes were soundlessly sleeping beside the now snoring Uncle Bert. "I was so worried..." Madame Belladonna said as her legs slowly fell onto the ground in the Captain's Quarter's doorway. She continued looking at the princes with a relaxed smile, but her shaking body made her unable to go towards them.

I then approached her while the voices in my head battled among each other as to what I should do next: Should I console her? Should I wrap my arms around her? Should I give her a dazzling smile to ease her pain? OH, MUST I REALLY THINK THIS PROFOUNDLY BECAUSE OF THIS SMALL MATTER!?

However, when I saw the way Madame Belladonna tried her best to crawl towards the princes with her tired feet, I knew then what I had to do.

"M-Madame Belladonna, may I help you move towards the princes?" I said as I knelt beside her with a worried expression.

"It's okay, I..." She then tried to stand up, but her legs surrendered once more, and her weakened body fell into the wet wooden floor once more. Her beautiful pale face then flushed as she looked at me with an awkward grin. "... I guess I can use some help..."

A bright smile then started to appear on my relieved face when I heard the words that came out of Madame Belladonna's lips. "Yes!" I then ever so gently lifted Madame Belladonna's hobbling hands and placed it above my shoulders before raising her body entirely with my arms around her waist. "I hope this is not... uncomfortable..." I weakly said as I saw that Madame Belladonna's feet are pretty much limping powerlessly on the floor. Thus, it almost felt like I'm dragging her body forcefully from the ground.

She then chuckled as she tightened her grip around my shoulder. "It's fine, Sir Damian. You're doing me a great service already." She then diverted her gaze at me before showing a smile that could send the world into a wave of eternal peace. "I should be apologizing for making your carry a powerless woman like me when you're still injured."

"N-n-n-n-n-n-n-not at all, Madame!" I said, trying my very hardest to utter the first syllable of my words but inevitably failed... hard! "I hope... you can rely on me more too..."

"I've already relied on you enough for these past few days." She gently whispered as I slowly helped her sit beside the peacefully slumbering princes. It would have been a beautiful sight if it weren't for Uncle Bert's unbearable snores. 

"Is this a comfortable spot, Madame Belladonna?" I asked as I looked at her with a wave of worried expression creeping upon my countenance. 

"It's quite alright, Sir Damian." Madame Belladonna then sighed weakly. "Unbelievable." She uttered weakly with a defeated sigh. "I must be getting older, indeed. I remembered hearing that magicians' bodies will turn into a vegetable-like state if they overused the mana in their bodies. Still, I never once expected that it would ever happen to me."

I then looked at Madame Belladonna with a puzzled expression. I have never once known what it felt like to wield magic in my whole life, and this is also the first time I spoke with someone who actually casts spells, unlike my Uncle Bert. I would usually only mingle with the type of people who only know how to use the sword and the shield, so I must be showing some kind of dumbfounded look on my face right now.

Madame Belladonna must have realized this, so she quickly explained what had happened to her with a refreshing chuckle. "Magicians are like bottles, you see, Sir Damian, but unlike normal bottles, humans break if you take too much liquid inside of it. The same principle can be applied to blood, but when it comes to mana, well... things can get complicated."

I loved the way she spoke. It's filled with so much power and confidence that she wouldn't even need to try so hard to exude an aura of authority—heck, her very being is the very definition of what power is. I would love to hear her talk more, just a little bit more. Heaven must be the sound of Madame Belladonna's voice speaking for an eternity. 

She then smiled at me, and I must have looked silly because she suddenly laughed lightly, perhaps concealing her joy in order not to wake the sleeping babies—including my uncle. As she continued to sit comfortably beside the princes who were happily laying on what seemed like 12 layers of blanket, Madame Belladonna spoke in a weak whisper.

"Sorry. I must have been talking about something boring!" She jokingly uttered as she tilted her head to her side, making her straight black hair gently fall into her shoulder.

"NO!" I shouted, which sounded too loud that I hastily covered my mouth; I even heard my voice cracking when I roared that one single word. I then looked at Uncle Bert and saw that my sudden uproar didn't wake him. Instead, he just grumbled something indistinguishable and changed his sleeping position, facing his back towards us and making us see his ass-crack peeking out of the rug he's wearing. I then diverted my gaze back to Madame Belladonna, avoiding my uncle again entirely. "Err... I mean... I don't mind you talking some more..." I then scratched my nape a bit as I sat beside Madame Belladonna with my gaze directed to the creaking wooden floor. "I mean.... um... Of course, if you're willing to..." I then grumbled the rest of my sentence into an incomprehensible mess as my face started to get a bit hot.

Madame Belladonna's smile widened even more as she looked at me. Her high cheekbones showed even better when she revealed a relaxed smile, a twinkle appearing in her eyes.

"Well, in a nutshell, spells need mana to be used. Let's use blood as an example so you can understand. Imagine that in order to summon a weak spell, you have to sacrifice a drop of your blood. If you use that spell a few thousand times, the blood in your body would be depleted." Madame Belladonna then moved her body slightly towards me as she leaned her head forward into my chest. He then dug her fingers into my chest, making me nervous that she might feel my exaggeratedly beating heart. I then looked down at her as she continued to focus her stares towards my hardened chest. "The heart pumps out blood and mana, and the rest of your body clamors around to get it. If you use some kind of weak fire magic, it would only cost such an insignificant amount of mana that you wouldn't even feel it affecting your body. Do you remember the spell I used while we were fleeing in the jungle." She said as she suddenly raised her head, making our face meet midair with only a few centimeters between us. Since I'm sitting in front of her, it would have been easy for me to pull my body away, but I just can't... or maybe I don't wanna...

"Y-yesssss..." I said as I tried to move my body away from her face, but somehow, my body is too paralyzed to move like I was petrified and turned into a talking stone.

"Usually, if I used that spell for 10 minutes, I would have used up a considerable amount of mana in my body." The same smile remained on Madame Belladonna's face as she continued, "If I kept it for an hour, I would have died."

"D-dead?" I uttered slowly as my body suddenly trembled upon hearing this fact. Does that mean... using magic can kill a person? A magician's body can kill itself? I... Then... "How long did you use that spell in the jungle then?"

Madame Belladonna's eyes then fell on the ground slightly before she established eye contact with me again with a chuckle. "About 40 minutes." She said as she moved her body away from me and directed her gaze towards the two princes.

"Holy shit..." I said as the whole strength in my body slowly dropped to the floor like I was some kind of slime, trickling down and melting to my demise. Since I'm sitting here with Madame Belladonna on the floor, it's much easier to say that I feel like I'm a liquid-based life form getting drained down into the tiny cracks in the wood.

"Yeah... It's crazy. I know..." Madame Belladonna chuckled as if the fact that she almost died was just an irrelevant factor in this conversation. Let me repeat that: 20 minutes more, and she would have died, but she just still kept on laughing away here like it wasn't even a big deal. She then continued her words as she tapped my shoulders. "Oh, don't look so gloom, Sir Damian! I'm still here, right?"

"Yes, but..." I then leaned my body forward to meet her gaze, but when our eyes did meet, I felt like I became too weak to react; I didn't know what to do. Thus, I immediately averted my eyes off her twinkling stares, making me lose composure as I forgot what I was supposed to say.

"Something similar to this happened when I was young. I went just full RAMPAGE on so many people. RAH! RAH! RAH!" Madame Belladonna then mimicked the way monsters would move along with a silly anger-filled expression on her face before a hearty laugh escaped her pretty little lips. "It lasted about 50 minutes, but even then, I wasn't... like this..." She said while pointing her hands at her throbbing legs as she continued to laugh along with her words. She started kicking her feet along with her silly performance too, which made me realize that she must have been feeling better now after sitting on the floor for a few moments.

"I think maybe... It's because... when you saved me, I..." I said, stuttering as I remembered what Uncle Bert told me earlier, about how Madame Belladonna saved my life using her psychic powers.

"Oh... That? That's nothing! |A woman of my skills wouldn't be paralyzed like this just because of THAT!" She then chuckled, making her high cheekbones show ever further while her soft linen dress flows around her still shaking body. "I think it might be the barriers..."

"Do the barriers put too much strain on your body?" I said while looking at the way her hands softly touch the cotton-like texture of the princes' faces alternatively.

"Not really, but, Sir Damian, you have to understand that I have coated the princes with seven layers of barriers for almost four days. Amateur magicians could never!" Madame Belladonna said her last sentence with a more grungy voice as she suddenly moved her gaze towards me with a pair of burning eyes but still with the same gleaming smile. 

I then chuckled softly as I finally lost my train of thoughts; now, I don't know what to say to continue this conversation. Suddenly, a thought came into my mind, but I wasn't sure if I really have the right to say it...

"Madame Belladonna... may I ask, umm..." I said, not knowing how to articulate my words properly as my thoughts started to jumble all over my head.

"You wanna know why I would push this hard for two babies that are not even related to me?" Madame Belladonna said precisely what I had in mind as if she was looking right inside of my head.