Susan was speechless.
There was too much to process, but it all made sense. She now understood his unwillingness to trust—except for Marc—since the only time he did, he almost died. She also understood now his weight problem and his wounds.
Then she opened her mouth and said:
"So what?" was what came out of it.
"Huh?" Alex's brain malfunctioned; he didn't understand.
"So what if you stole the books? Desperation brings people to do things they would normally not—in your case, deciding to rob a house," Susan expanded on her initial words.
"Besides, it wasn't even a populated house. And the money? From corrupt officials. And you even saved a woman going out!" she kept talking.
"You think that what you did was some sort of unforgivable crime, but to me, it was not. You went through danger and put yourself in the position of risking your life for your own sake and that of your best friend.
"To me, what you did is only a consequence of being kicked out of the orphanage unjustly before you could truly fend for yourself. In my sight, the ones responsible for what you went through these last 16 days were the people at the orphanage," Susan said. She sounded strong, but she was trying hard not to cry in front of Alex.
These last days, he had suffered things that would even break adults, much less kids—and still had the energy to smile and care for others, when all he should have been doing was enjoying his youth, making friends, and playing outside.
His story also brought her the idea of trying to do something to help him, but she didn't know how.
Alex felt a warmth spreading from his chest outward. It was an overwhelming sensation that he had only felt scarcely—when Marc did something for him, or something that made him proud.
'Happiness, huh,' Alex thought. He didn't even know how many times he had actually felt it.
Unknowingly, tears started flowing from his eyes. After feeling that warmth, he was reminded again of what it felt like to have a family, and his heart ached at the fact that it was something the world seemed to deny him.
Susan, seeing him, simply reached for him and pulled him into a warm embrace.
"Why are you crying, doofus? Is your own story so sad that it made you cry as well?" she said, gently patting his head.
Alex let out a short laugh between tears and said:
"Hah… It's not that, I just… my heart hurts, knowing the feeling of family—something I can't enjoy, something that was taken from me, and then something that seemed to evade me all my life. It made me feel as if I was unworthy of such things, more than once."
"Then… why don't you join mine?" Susan suddenly said. She now knew how to help him. In fact, it was there all along, but she simply thought that Alex would leave the moment their agreement reached its end.
"What?" Alex's mind short-circuited. He stretched his head back from the hug, looking at Susan in the eyes.
"Why, are you unwilling?" Susan asked. A small smile formed on her face at the sight of Alex's expression.
"It's… it's not that, but why? We've only known each other for one and a half days—half of which I was out cold," Alex replied. He didn't know what to do.
"Why not? You're an orphan kid in need of a home, and I'm a woman who once wished to have two kids. But my husband died not too long after Evelyn's birth.
"Also, although short, in the time you were here I got to know that you are a good kid. You have a good heart, and you're good with kids as well, seeing how Evelyn opened up to you in such a short time. Honestly, if you truly believe yourself undeserving of family, then boy, honestly, I don't know who actually is.
"So, Alex, do you wish to be adopted by me?" Susan finished, asking the same question she did moments ago.
Alex stood frozen. He didn't think things were going to turn out like this at all.
Yet again, he found himself tearing up, but before tears could fall he embraced Susan again and said:
"Yes… I would be delighted to."
"Fufu, you sure seemed to have a strong façade before, but it seems you're quite sentimental," Susan teased at the feeling of her shoulder's fabric getting wet.
Alex chuckled and replied:
"It's for survival."
"I can imagine," Susan said, understanding.
Some moments later, Alex was drinking the tea. It had gone cold, but still, it tasted the sweetest.
He had a permanent stupid smile on his face—he seemed unable to get rid of it.
His now adoptive mother was looking at him with an amused expression, clearly entertained by the joy she had brought him.
"What were you planning on doing when you asked me to stay some days here?" Susan broke the silence and spoke.
"I'm waiting for Marc, actually. We agreed to meet in Perrin's Gate after 15 days, in the night we robbed the noble house, if things went wrong—which clearly did.
"Then we planned to go to the city and start a new life. I originally wanted to open a shop, but now I find myself wanting to go to an academy to properly learn magic after my visit to the library yesterday," Alex said.
"Oh? Opening a shop to sell what?" Susan was curious.
"I didn't think that far back then," Alex replied.
"Also, going to a magic academy is expensive, you know. Even the smallest start at a price of 300 or 400 gold right now. You didn't tell me exactly how much money you got from the guards, but I don't think it was that much, right?" Susan added. She found Alex's idea of going to a magic academy nice, but she knew how expensive those were.
"Actually… until yesterday I could have afforded it. That day I think I stole over a thousand gold coins, and even though I gave Marc roughly half, I still had a little over 500 left," Alex told her honestly.
Now that they were family, and since she knew what he had done, there was nothing to hide. Well, perhaps the dreaming thing—but for now, the moment he could explain it, he'd tell her.
"Cough!" Susan choked on air.
"What!?" she added.
"Yeah, the guards probably had the operation going for a long time and amassed quite the fortune. Why do you think they started chasing us so fervently?" Alex added as a matter of fact.
"But where did you even carry that amount of gold? Because your bag wasn't that heavy when I picked it up." Susan still had questions—reasonable ones.
"Oh, from this." Alex took out his pocket watch.
He then added mana and took 10 gold coins from it.
"God… you're a box full of surprises, huh…" Susan was impressed. She knew such magic items existed, but did not expect a teen to have one.
"This is the only thing my biological parents left me. Inside were the potions I used in the forest, a book of basic alchemy plants, and some coins," Alex explained to her.
Alex then also took out all his collection of magic books from the pocket watch, and together with the 10 gold coins, he gave them to Susan.
"Here," he said.
"Wait, wait, wait!" she said quickly.
"What?" he answered.
"You don't need to give me such expensive stuff!" she said hurriedly.
"Well, we are a family, are we not? With the money, you could just focus on taking care of Evelyn, and with the magic books, you could keep her and yourself safe. Besides, I already know these, so for me, they're dead weight."
Now that Alex was family, he didn't want Susan to be so taxed by having to work, besides taking care of Evelyn and the house all together.
He also wanted her to be able to defend herself and Evelyn from harm's way if he wasn't there to do it himself.
So he made up his mind to teach her magic—the same way she had taught him cooking.