Chapter 1111: Make a Wish
"Can you imagine that?! Me of all people?!"
The croaking voice of despair echoed throughout the buzzing room.
At this point, however, the bees guarding Jax’s medical bay no longer seemed particularly bothered by the intruder’s suffering. Unlike earlier, when Ollie first barged in to hide—err, complain—about how various interested parties were apparently planning to use him as bait to uncover DG’s secrets, the resident bees had grown remarkably tolerant of his daily dramatics.
Or perhaps they’d simply accepted that this blonde mop came with sound effects.
Still, before Ollie could launch himself into another lengthy rant, Jax suddenly sat up straighter.
"Op! Wait!" the redhead exclaimed.
"Huh?"
"It’s 11:11! Make a wish!"
The announcement came so abruptly that Ollie could only stare.
"What?"
"Make a wish!" Jax repeated enthusiastically. "Quick! It really works!"
Ollie looked at him strangely.
Still, it wasn’t exactly harmful, right?
So after a moment’s hesitation, he shrugged and made a small yet realm-altering wish.
Silence briefly settled over the room.
Then the blonde blinked.
"Wait. Are we supposed to hold our breath while wishing?"
Now he was genuinely curious because he was almost certain Jax hadn’t been breathing.
Normally, Ollie wouldn’t have noticed something like that. But for one strangely surreal moment, absolute silence had descended over the room. Even the bees seemed to stop buzzing, as though the entire world had politely paused until Jax finished making his wish.
"Sweet!"
The redhead looked deeply satisfied.
"As for breathing... when I saw Luca make wishes, he wasn’t breathing either."
Ollie stared.
"He also said that if you go through a really long tunnel and manage to hold your breath from the beginning all the way to the end while making a wish, then you’re basically guaranteed success."
The redhead shrugged with an easy grin.
"So I just copied what Luca did. It works."
"You learned this from my brother?" Ollie asked.
"Yep."
"And the tunnel thing...?"
"Yep."
The hiding mechanic had a lot of questions about what he just heard but put it off because the patient suddenly asked,
"So what did you wish for? I wished that—"
"You. You do realize you’re supposed to keep wishes secret if you want them to come true, right?"
A familiar voice came from the doorway.
Ollie turned. As usual, it was the same person who really knew how to walk around hiding his presence.
Killian was walking inside carrying a tray, looking like a man who’d already regretted entering the room.
"Hey, you’re here!" Jax brightened considerably. "Is it time already?"
"Also, what do you mean by ’secret’? Is that really necessary?"
The redhead looked genuinely confused.
"But my wishes come true even when I say them out loud...?"
There wasn’t even a moment of contemplation before his attention shifted elsewhere.
And whatever that was caused his eyes to suddenly light up.
"Like right now! I had just wished for a jar of honey butter—"
Jax abruptly stopped talking as his nose twitched.
Then he pointed directly at the tray in Killian’s hands.
"That."
He sniffed again.
"There’s honey butter there, right?"
The redhead practically shimmied where he sat.
His expression brightened with alarming speed as his eyes locked onto the tray.
Then he licked his lips.
Once.
Twice.
And proceeded to stare at Killian with all the patience of a starving predator waiting for prey to walk closer.
To his credit, said Killian still managed to look down at the tray and then at the mass of muscles and sheets occupying the bed.
After a moment of consideration, he arrived at a rather urgent realization.
He really needed to figure out what was happening, and soon.
Because at this rate, he had the distinct feeling he would continue hearing about Honey Butter for the rest of his natural life.
Meanwhile, in the very same room now filled with the aroma of hope and dreams, Ollie’s eyes immediately widened.
"What the! Where did you—"
His stomach reacted just as quickly.
He may be experiencing trying times, but there would always be special awareness dedicated to things like these.
Obviously, the blonde had questions.
Really pertinent ones!
Meanwhile, the redhead looked exceedingly pleased with himself.
"See?!" Jax pointed triumphantly. "I told you! I only learned about this wishing thing recently, and so far, it’s worked every single time!"
"What?!"
"Crazy, right?" The newest wishing machine nodded enthusiastically. "Last time, I really, really wanted—no, needed berries with honey. But not just any berries, either. They had to be a specific size and color."
He spoke with the seriousness of someone recounting a near-death experience.
"I wanted to go get them myself, and under normal circumstances that would’ve been easy. Unfortunately, it was already dark outside, and I’m not exactly allowed to leave because these guys over here would probably swarm."
"It was terrible."
Ollie blinked.
"I couldn’t sleep. Like, genuinely couldn’t sleep. Normally, I’d just lie down and be out in seconds. But this time? Man, I felt like I was going to die if I didn’t get to eat those berries."
The redhead slapped a hand over his chest.
"So I made a wish."
"A wish?"
"A very desperate wish," Jax corrected. "I even told the bees about it."
"The bees?"
"The bees."
The incident reporter nodded solemnly.
"But then, before the night was over, our Killian here suddenly arrived carrying a bowl of berries with honey. Just poofed here! And bam!"
The redhead pointed toward the increasingly uncomfortable Chief of Staff.
"The berries were perfect too. Exactly one-and-a-half centimeters in diameter for the other kinds."
"..."
"And only twin strawberries in the bowl."
"..."
"And it was damn good."
Jax nodded again, looking deeply satisfied as he revisited the memory.
Then, as though remembering something equally miraculous, his eyes brightened.
"And during lunch today, I suddenly wanted square pancakes with honey butter."
Ollie stared.
"Square?"
"Square," Jax confirmed.
"I wanted them the same way people want water."
The blonde wasn’t entirely sure that was a normal comparison.
"So I did what Luca said and made another wish."
The redhead gestured dramatically with the warm bread roll in his hand.
"And bam!"
Jax spread his arms wide.
"Next meal session, he got here with square pancakes!"
He looked utterly convinced.
"I’m telling you, this thing really works."
Then he pointed directly at Ollie.
"So if you want to do something about that exam, you should definitely make a wish."
The speech would’ve probably sounded more convincing if it weren’t being delivered by a man holding a soft, sweet-smelling bread roll while preaching about mystical wish-granting techniques.
Still.
During the entire exchange, Ollie found himself looking less at Jax and more at Killian.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
Back and forth.
Because while Jax looked proud enough to start writing a handbook on advanced wishing techniques, Killian looked increasingly distressed with every word leaving the redhead’s mouth.
At first, the Chief of Staff appeared as though he wanted to say something.
Several times, actually.
The suddenly investigative blonde even caught him opening his mouth once or twice.
Only for him to stop.
Then stop again.
And eventually give up altogether.
By the end of the conversation, the towering Nox merely pinched the bridge of his nose and released a long, surrendering sigh.
Really.
If Kyle or Xavier had been present for this discussion, they would’ve immediately recognized what kind of wish-granting fairy Jax had apparently acquired.
One who worked overtime.
One who somehow foraged for berries of a specific diameter in the middle of the night.
One who had likely gone out to specifically request square pancakes and honey butter while evading increasing suspicion.
Fortunately for the exhausted Chief of Staff, however, neither Kyle nor Xavier was here.
Instead, the only witness was another similarly pampered and doted-on blonde who barely knew what the ground under his feet felt like.
So after processing everything he’d heard, the newest member of House Nox arrived at a completely different conclusion.
"!"
The blonde’s eyes lit up.
Maybe he should start talking about his wishes too.
Who knows?
Maybe he’d accidentally wish himself into a breakthrough in mecha manufacturing.
Though before that, he had to do something about how his brother-in-law was reacting. Surely he, too, wanted to know the secrets of wishing but was simply too shy to ask.
But never mind that! As a good family member, Ollie would simply uncover it himself and even teach Killian for free!
That way, he wouldn’t look so constipated whenever Jax spoke about wishing!
