Sofia stepped out of the bedroom, and the teasing smile that always lingered on her face instantly faded, replaced by a solemn and sharp expression.
Her footsteps quickened as she hurried downstairs and reached the front door of the villa.
There, two young knights had been waiting for quite some time.
“Commander, the carriage is ready.”
“Oh.”
Sofia nodded slightly and turned her gaze toward the carriage waiting on the road outside.
She raised her hand and gave instructions to another subordinate standing guard nearby:
“According to my previous orders, while I’m away, you and your squad are to guard the estate. Don’t let any strangers in, and under no circumstances allow the older and more beautiful of the two people inside the house to leave.”
“Yes!”
The young girl being addressed saluted confidently.
“Then, let’s go.”
“Understood, Commander. Please travel safely.”
Sofia climbed into the modest, slightly smaller carriage and spoke in a low voice to the driver:
“Head to the kingdom’s central district, to the Martyrs’ Cemetery of Holy Light.”
“Commander, you’re going to…?”
“To attend my elder sister’s memorial.”
“Eh? B-but…”
The young female knight behind the reins looked thoroughly confused.
Seeing her expression, Sofia let out a wry laugh.
“I know, it’s probably already too late at this hour…
“But no matter what, I have to at least show my face.
“Otherwise, won’t people just think I’m disrespecting the Model Knight Commander?”
“Eh?”
The girl behind the reins was stunned beyond belief at those words.
Everyone knew that the newly appointed Knight Commander Sofia was notoriously unconventional and eccentric, detesting any rigid rules or formalities.
Because of this, her style of leadership and way of handling matters had never been widely accepted, and many had been viciously slandering and smearing her reputation over the years.
But Sofia herself always maintained an attitude of “say what you want, I’ll do what I have to do,” making her a rather willful leader.
Though those around her knew she was approachable, highly capable, and took her duties seriously—quite unlike the incompetent image painted by outsiders.
Her utter disregard for public social image and workplace niceties caused her reputation to steadily decline, which even negatively affected the knight order internally…
Yet, despite this stubborn nature, why had Sofia suddenly decided today to attend a public event to maintain her image?
Had her notoriously zero social intelligence suddenly switched on?
Or had someone advised her to pay more attention to her public image?
Unless the former Saint Knight Commander had reincarnated, who could possibly persuade this obstinate mind…
“Let’s depart, but don’t rush the horses too much. It’s enough to get there before the memorial ends.”
Sofia’s calm voice brought her companion’s wandering thoughts back.
“…Yes.”
The young driver dared not argue, and gently urged the horses to start moving, slowly picking up speed as the carriage rolled out from the estate’s main gate.
Sofia’s eyes fixed on the passing scenery outside the window, her expression tinged with emotion.
Though only two days had passed, she felt as if everything around her had changed dramatically.
Just as she had always firmly believed in her heart… her elder sister was truly not dead.
For years, even though the entire kingdom was certain that the former Saint Knight Commander “Lia” had perished in battle,
Sofia alone stubbornly believed, against all logic, that Lia could never have been defeated by such a monster, and must still be alive somewhere in this world.
This baseless obsession was partly driven by resentment—“I haven’t avenged you yet, how can you just die”—partly by admiration and longing for her mentor and predecessor,
And partly by a kind of irrational, pathological attachment.
Though difficult for others to understand, Sofia had been the only intimate disciple Lia had ever personally taken under her wing, and her experience hadn’t been entirely oppression and bullying.
Having been immersed in the psychological manipulations of Florentia for so long and suffering as the chief victim, Sofia was left despondent and listless for a long time after Florentia’s death.
During those days, the more Sofia reflected on her time beside Florentia, the more she realized there was an indescribable evil charm about her.
While Florentia was Knight Commander, her attitude toward young Sofia had been capricious and unfathomable.
She could be incredibly kind at times, but also viciously cruel, making her someone who was simultaneously loved, hated, and addictively hard to forget.
Adding to that was her stunning beauty and queenly aloofness; as a sacred and lofty Saint Knight Commander, ordinary people rarely even caught a glimpse of her, let alone suffered her torment.
Whatever Florentia gave to others—good or bad—felt like a divine blessing, cherished and precious.
Therefore, after Sofia succeeded as Knight Commander, the first thing she did was not to focus on strengthening the order.
Instead, she utilized the resources of the order and the Intelligence Agency, spending years arduously searching the entire kingdom for any trace of the “dead” Florentia.
To outsiders, this seemed utterly irrational, as if she had lost her mind.
As a result, her reputation and prestige as Saint Knight Commander declined sharply throughout the kingdom, with many criticisms and slanders following.
“Huff…”
Thinking of this, Sofia took a deep breath and exhaled softly, curling her lips into a faint, relieved smile.
The efforts she had accumulated over time… had finally borne fruit, and not been wasted—that had always been her greatest fear.
And now, everything was moving in a positive direction.
She didn’t know exactly which woman had such power to make the once cold and cruel Florentia—a wicked woman who had taken pleasure in oppressing others—willingly bear a child and raise it alone.
But none of that mattered anymore.
What mattered was that the once evil queen-like Florentia had been completely reduced to a fragile state, like a canary trapped in a cage, tightly controlled by Sofia.
At first, Sofia wasn’t sure how to approach the “resurrected” Florentia.
But when she heard that the magic allowing same-sex couples to conceive required the two to be truly in sync, a wave of sour jealousy surged from her heart.
What a joke… that terrible woman like her elder sister could even have someone she truly loved?!
And why wasn’t that someone me?
So, Sofia ordered Florentia locked up without any chance of escape.
In a way, this was a form of tit-for-tat revenge.
What remained was a gradual process, like boiling a frog in warm water—wearing down Florentia’s defenses bit by bit with various methods of torment and manipulation.
To exhaust her body and soul, break her resistance under Sofia’s relentless offensive, and truly turn her into a toy canary that would stay by Sofia’s side forever, never faking death and running away again.
There was plenty of time.
She would succeed eventually.
“Hu hu hu…”
Imagining the happy life ahead, Sofia let out a morbid chuckle, mimicking the very same laugh Florentia had once had.
From now on, as long as she kept moving forward, the road would only stretch further ahead—
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