The next day.
It was another morning just like any other.
Lilian was eating with Eileen and the others.
Maybe because she hadn’t trained much and had gone to bed early, Lilian felt especially energetic, as if all the negative emotions from yesterday had completely vanished.
Eileen, sitting beside her, puffed up her cheeks and nudged Lilian’s elbow.
She chewed her food like a hamster, swallowing before she spoke. “Lilian, did you bring back something tasty?”
“No, why would you say that?”
“Didn’t you take the Spoon?”
“The spoon? What spoon?” Lilian looked puzzled.
Seeing Lilian’s reaction didn’t seem fake, Eileen scratched her head.
So who took the spoon?
It couldn’t be…
Oh, now it made sense—
Detective Eileen felt pretty clever.
Surely, the young lady had just taken a spoon casually to eat something last night.
There was no way she’d purposely stash it away, right?
That would be too strange, and wouldn’t match Eileen’s image of the young lady at all.
“By the way, yesterday, did you add some embellishments to what the master… ahem, young lady said?”
“What are you talking about? I don’t understand, meow…” Eileen looked away, planning to play dumb.
Lilian wrapped her arm around Eileen’s neck.
With her right hand, she squeezed Eileen’s cheek hard.
“You’re wrong, meow, wrong, meow, don’t squeeze me anymore, meow. I just wanted the young lady to know your situation. She really cares about you, meow.”
“Really cares about me?” Lilian loosened her grip.
Eileen rubbed the pinched spot, pouting. “Yeah, after you left yesterday morning, the young lady was lying in bed, giggling to herself.”
Uh-oh, did she say something she shouldn’t have?
Eileen wanted to punch herself.
Lilian didn’t think much of it though.
Probably just the young lady wondering how to tease her again.
It didn’t matter.
Elenora’s little antics were just light splashes to Lilian.
Let her be.
“Let’s go, time to work.” Breakfast was finished in no time, and Lilian and Eileen headed to Elenora’s bedroom.
As usual, Eileen went in first to help Elenora get dressed.
She gently opened the bedroom door and slipped inside.
Suddenly, she noticed something was a little different from usual.
The curtains weren’t drawn, and the morning sunlight streamed in, spilling across the bed.
Elenora was already awake, which was odd because the young lady usually slept soundly at this hour.
Eileen stepped to the bedside and took in Elenora’s condition.
“Waaah—young lady, are you okay?!”
Elenora’s hair was disheveled, her eyes vacant, with dark circles clearly under them.
Yet somehow, she still looked surprisingly alert.
“Young lady? Young lady!”
Eileen nearly shouted before Elenora snapped out of it.
“Eileen, what are you doing here?” Elenora asked, confused.
Then she noticed the morning light outside the window.
It was already morning.
All because of Lilian! Stupid Lilian—if not for her, how could she have stayed up all night without sleeping?
“Young lady, are you getting up?”
“Let’s get up.”
As the Demon Lord, Elenora couldn’t afford to be sleep-deprived for long.
Eileen smoothly finished her task.
Elenora sat at the dressing table and noticed the spoon still lying on it.
The door opened—it must have been Lilian entering.
Elenora sprang up, grabbed the spoon, and shoved it into a small drawer of the dressing table.
Hopefully, she hadn’t been noticed.
“Master?”
Lilian’s voice came from behind.
Suddenly, Elenora felt like she was back to last night.
Soft, tender…
A tingling sensation shot up her spine.
Her legs went weak, and she slumped back onto the chair.
【Make the master feel comfortable, EXP +3】
Leveling up.
Lilian lifted Elenora’s hair and began to comb it.
The task was completed smoothly with nothing unexpected happening.
Lilian did notice Elenora kept looking at the dressing table.
But there was nothing on it at all.
This made Lilian a little curious.
“Lilian, about learning magic…” Elenora suddenly spoke. “From now on, three days a week—Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Is that okay?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Lilian had no objections.
She hadn’t expected Elenora to be so generous with her time.
She’d thought one day a week would be good enough.
“I’ll tell Miss Saya today.”
The bet wasn’t over yet but ending early, and from Saya’s attitude, it seemed Lilian’s training was almost complete?
“Yes, Lilian, your Training is indeed almost done. From now on, it’s up to your daily exercise, accumulating over time,” Saya nodded at Lilian’s question. “Originally, I planned to teach you the Imprint: Body (Lower) in a few days, but if you’re short on time, we can do it today.”
“Remember what I said: sense your body and recall the feeling when you broke through your limit.”
It sounded mystical, but Lilian only had to think back briefly before something clicked, and her body felt lighter.
【Imprint: Body (Lower) unlocked】
Saya clearly noticed Lilian’s change.
She hadn’t expected Lilian to succeed so easily.
Normally, this phase of sensing the Imprint would take a week to a month.
To succeed in the time it took to say a sentence—wasn’t that a bit overpowered?
Then, remembering Lilian could even take a few sword strikes from the Princess Royal, Saya sighed.
Ah, is this what genius looks like?
Terrifying, truly terrifying.
“I did it!” Lilian was happy.
She officially possessed her own power now.
Given time, she could rely on it to accomplish what she wished.
With the Imprint unlocked, Lilian felt her body grow lighter.
【Strength: Lv.1+ (100/100)】 → 【Strength: Lv.2 (0/100)】
So that’s how it was.
To break the limit of an attribute, you needed the power of the Imprint.
“After unlocking the Imprint: Body, regular Training is less efficient. Usually, progress happens during combat, sensing life-or-death moments. But Lilian, you probably won’t encounter that, so just focus on steady accumulation.”
That was hard to say.
Maybe someday she would have to draw her sword and fight monsters or even an evil god?
Though the Count’s Manor was safe, Lilian couldn’t live under its protection forever.
One day, she would leave.
“Oh, what about the Imprint: Tool?”
“That requires a special weapon made with rare materials to resonate with you. When your mastery of a weapon reaches a certain level, the moment you get it, you’ll sense and bind it immediately. The knight’s longsword you trained with before was a Resonance Weapon but couldn’t be bound.”
“Usually, weapons that can be bound are extremely powerful but also expensive. For you, Lilian, it won’t be a problem,” Saya smiled and patted Lilian’s shoulder, as if to say, “You’ve got this.”
No problem? She was short on money, thank you very much.
“That’s basically everything,” Saya rubbed her head. “Oh, and you can only use the small training ground this morning.”
“Huh? What’s going on?”
“The Princess Royal requested it. Something about preparations and renovations—I don’t know the details. Anyway, the Knights’ Order won’t be open to outsiders for the next three days starting today.”
“Oh, alright then.”
Tomorrow she’d learn magic, then find time to go home.
Still, something felt a little off…