They ripped the castle a part, looking up and down, and into the tunnels that twist and turned under the castle. The tunnel system only the Plumbers knew of, and there were no traces left of Mike Morningstar. It was as if the man had never been in the castle at all. There were no traces left of any of his belongings either. Who knows where he could have disappeared and with what information he took.

On one hand that made Gwen slightly terrified, on the other hand, she felt overwhelmingly relieved to know that he wasn't in the castle.

Gwen has felt fear and dread before, but only once. When her parents died, Gwen felt as if her world had crashed. She didn't know what to do, and Ken was her sole guardian at the young age of eighteen. That was the worst feeling in the world for her, everything was so unknown. She still knew that she and Ken would be fine, because they had each other. They would always have each other, well they used to.

Even Gwen trading her freedom for Ken was nowhere near the same feeling of loss and dread she had when her parents died.

When Morningstar drained her of every ounce of energy she had... that was something entirely different. It left Gwen feeling hollow. She has never felt something so dark and endless. The pain and sorrow that overcame her body and soul felt endless.

Gwen didn't think she could find the strength to in herself to even take her energy back.

She wasn't lying when she told Kevin thank you for saving her. He did. If Kevin hadn't come when he did, Gwen doesn't know if she would even be here still.

Gwen may have taken her power back, but it was only because Kevin had helped her break free.

Since the unveiling of Morningstar's character, Max told Gwen she can roam more freely, without Rook or Ben escorting her.

She misses them in an odd way the first time she leaves her bedroom and finds no one waiting for her.

In another she's excited to finally do what she's been waiting for this whole time, read in the library.

Kevin wasn't lying when he said the library had magical texts and artifacts, in fact the royal library has more texts than she can imagine. Even if it was a lie that Kevin fabricated about Gwen breaking in for these texts, Gwen thinks she could see herself breaking in to steal them. She imagines if she did know of them, and had more skilled use in her own abilities, she could have easily snuck in to this library.

That or she's a little too confident in herself.

She's vibrating at the idea of all those magical resources at her fingertips. For years all she's had is the tiny spell book from Mr. Baumann's bookshop. She can't help but feel excited at the endless number of resources she's receiving.

There is a small voice in the back of her head that reminds her that these sources come at the cost of her freedom, so she can provide a service for Kevin. She just can't find it in her to listen too closely to that voice.

The first thing she focuses on upon arriving at the library, is helping the Plumbers fix the damage Morningstar had caused. He burned a few texts that Gwen hopes are not the only copies of those books, magical or not. Not to mention the bookcases that were broken by Ben flying into them.

Gwen's in the large library with a team of about ten individuals who are trying to sort out the books to see what is still useable. Gwen takes it upon herself to handle the bookcases.

She uses her mana and can grab the bookshelves that have fallen over. The ones that don't have too much damage Gwen is able to lift and put back where they belong. The ones that had various shelves broken, Gwen frowns and lifts those into a pile to be disposed of.

With Gwen using her mana freely and without being drained constantly, she finds that she can easily move these large objects. She finishes her job quickly and moves on to help sort through the books. That was the biggest job.

The Plumbers that are in the room with her thank her for lifting the bookcases back up. The relief on their faces is clear when they realize they didn't have to try and lift those twelve-foot-tall oak bookcases.

Gwen helps sort through the books and tries to sort them by genre rather than by author. She has them place the books on the table in rows, and she uses her mana to put the books back on the shelves. The whole process takes less than two or three hours. The Plumbers who she helps thank her again and let her know that the clean-up would have taken all day without her. She flushes from the compliments and waves them off. She was just happy to be in the library.

She spends the rest of her afternoon there, finding a few magical texts that she wants to read through. She finds one book that focuses on battle charms and she starts studying what seems manageable to her.

It isn't until Kevin comes to look for her that she realizes how late it is. Or that she hasn't paused to eat anything.

Kevin interrupts her flow of reading just by walking through the door to the library. His large form is easy for her to see out of the corner of her eyes, but also just hearing his heavy footsteps makes his presence clear. He doesn't press her immediately but waits for her to come to a stop and acknowledge him.

She bookmarks the page she's on and looks up at him. She waits for him to address her first.

"You know that it's dinner time, right? You've been here since this morning. They thought you'd need brute force to drag you out of here." Kevin tells her with a small, playful smirk on his face.

Gwen rolls her eyes at him and stands, holding her book tightly to her chest.

"Oh relax! I've been practically begging Ben or Rook to bring me here and they were always too busy to do it. Of course, this is where I'm spending my chaperon free time." Gwen replies and moves to step next to him.

"So, you've conveniently decided to skip lunch?" Kevin remarks to her and starts to walk to the entrance, his steps much larger than Gwen's.

She shuffles next to him to keep his pace, "No!" she replies defensively, "I just forgot..."

Kevin chuckles at that statement and turns to look at the small woman beside him.

"Come on, you'd forget to sleep too if I left you in there. I don't think we'd see you for days." Kevin simple says.

Gwen is trying to keep her pace set with Kevin's but it's more of a workout than she'd care to say. Kevin's one step is about four of her own.

Kevin turns his head to see Gwen's face tinting pink in warmth, he can hear her footsteps falling quickly to try and keep up with him. She's been sedentary almost all day besides when she was helping clean the library. She was getting winded trying to keep up with Kevin's large pace.

He slows down slightly so they can keep a similar speed, she sighs a little in relief.

"We usually don't eat together." Gwen ponders out loud, trying to keep the conversation going. "So why did you come get me?"

Kevin gives her an offended look. Gwen's face burns brightly in embarrassment.

"Not that I don't want to eat with you! We just usually don't have meals together. I'm just curious." she says quickly in a flustered tone.

Kevin scoffs but replies anyway, "You're curious about a lot of things."

Gwen makes a face at him and holds his gaze.

Kevin shakes his head at her, "Ben and Rook already ate, they realized after that you weren't there."

"They didn't notice that I wasn't there?" Gwen questions.

Kevin laughs, a good loud deep laugh, "They never have alone time together. I'm not surprised they didn't notice you weren't there."

Gwen nods her head in agreement, "So they sent you to grab me?" she cocks her eyebrow up.

Kevin, without missing a beat says, "No, they had no clue where you were. I knew you'd be in here, you looked like you wanted to cry last night after you saw the bookshelves littering the floor." He chuckles to himself a little and leads himself and Gwen into the dining room.

"I did not look like I was going to cry last night..." She huffs as she follows Kevin to grab one of the few dinners left on the buffet table against the wall.

Kevin hums in reply, "No I'm pretty sure there were tears in your eyes. Some mumbling about the loss of knowledge or whatever."

Gwen places her food down on the table and shoves Kevin affectionately, "Oh ha ha! Make fun of the girl who loves books, you're so original!"

Kevin's form doesn't even budge for the slight force of Gwen's hand.

Kevin takes a seat at the head of the dining table, the only chair that can really support his form, without a plate.

Gwen starts to eat but eyes that Kevin hasn't grabbed anything. Gwen doesn't even have to ask because Kevin can read her face. Gwen's emotions always read on her face. She forgets that she doesn't have a poker face sometimes.

"I already ate." Kevin says softly, nodding at her to finish her own meal.

"Oh." Gwen says and focuses all her attention on her plate. "You don't have to stay with me if you need to be somewhere." she says quietly, still looking at her plate.

"No, I want to be here." He replies smoothly.

Gwen looks up in surprise at that statement and finds Kevin smiling at her softly, or as soft as his face can be.

"No one should eat alone." he clarifies to her.

Gwen returns a smile to him, "Thanks Kevin." she says gently.

Gwen had spent many years eating meals alone. With Ken working in his own shop, usually at all hours, Gwen had eaten many a meal alone. She was used to it. During the past month of being in the castle and having Ben or Rook, and sometimes both sharing meals with her, she had forgotten how lonely it can be alone.

She wonders how many meals Kevin must have had alone to feel the need to be with her as she has a much to late dinner.

She thinks about the King and Queen dying when he was roughly ten or eleven, and how long Kevin has been alone.

She decides that she would like to eat many more meals with Kevin, whether he likes it or not. He shouldn't be alone either.