Without looking at his eyes, Amidina slightly lowered her head, raising her hand to gently tuck a strand of hair that had fallen over her cheek behind her ear.
The elegant curve of her high nose bridge immediately framed the clear sapphire-blue sky outside the window into an L-shaped outline, giving her a touch of pure innocence.
Lin Nuo didn’t bother explaining.
He had always thought he knew Amidina well enough.
Before the story started, he had long prepared for encountering the aloof and unmatched Water Saint Princess, someone so cold and distant that she barely spoke a word.
But the princess before him now sometimes acted quite differently from what he had expected.
“I actually came over,” Lin Nuo walked to the desk, hesitated a moment, then pulled out the item he had just found in the Sacred Relic Hall from his pocket.
“To return your things.”
A Magic Book with a starry array emitting a faint glow on its cover lay on the desk.
It seemed to sense the magical power from its master’s call, slowly rippling out a circle of magical energy.
As if foreseeing this, Amidina glanced briefly at her Magic Book before withdrawing her gaze.
It seemed she was more interested in the person in front of her than the book itself.
After hesitating for a moment, Lin Nuo surprisingly pulled out a small white Fatty Bird, tightly bound with many strips.
“Jiji!”
Lin Nuo admitted he had a soft spot for those little yellow books—after all, the famous works here were all about heroes slaying demon lords, which he couldn’t understand, so he’d skim past them.
With nothing else to read, savoring such sparse novels word by word was quite normal, right?
So besides often bringing back shiny things, Fatty Bird mostly came back with stones and glass.
Sometimes it would also return with paper or notebooks it thought Lin Nuo might like, hoping to trade for some treats.
The moment Lin Nuo saw this weightless, glowing Magic Book, he guessed Fatty Bird must have stolen it from somewhere…
“Jiji…”
The little bird, wrapped up like a zongzi dumpling, sighed as if wronged and pitiful.
“That book is definitely my Holy Relic.”
Amidina only took Fatty Bird and gently smoothed its feathers, her eyes flashing with a subtle calculation.
For some reason, Lin Nuo always felt she seemed to be… comparing the fluffy bird in her hands to something else, as if deciding which pet was more pleasing to keep?
But…
‘Why did your gaze switch between it and me just now!?’
“Uh… No one else manages my bookshelf, so except for me, no one else could have touched that book. And I only just found out it’s yours… It’s very likely my Fatty Bird brought it back, but I really have no idea how it managed to take it from you…”
“Jijiji!”
Seeing Amidina slowly nodding while holding the little bird, Lin Nuo added, “I’ve also learned that even if you get a Holy Relic, you can use words to cast mental suggestions, but no one has ever deliberately changed anything. You can rest assured.”
“Is that all?”
Amidina actually seemed not to think that issuing orders was a big deal.
“You don’t have any other questions?”
Of course he did.
“The things you said that day were…”
Seeing Amidina sitting opposite him, her delicate skin so white it dazzled, legs neatly crossed, but without answering, Lin Nuo felt a heavy stone in his heart slowly lift.
‘She looked very calm, and it seemed that what she said… about me ordering Fatty Bird to steal her socks and touching her all over… was really just her guess?’
‘Even though we already know each other, it shouldn’t be a big deal…’
After a long while, Amidina said, “I can sense where that book is, even from a great distance.”
Lin Nuo took a tactical sip of water.
‘Phew~ Seems like she doesn’t even really know me.’
‘She only knows the thing mysteriously appeared here, probably found the Magic Book safe, and seeing me weak, decided not to take it back…’
After all, among those kids who were controlled by mental suggestion, Amidina was the one who even thought of stopping them with sculptures.
In her heart, he must mean nothing special…
“So… you really want me to say it outright?”
Her ethereal voice sounded lighter than usual.
Amidina’s naturally mesmerizing peach blossom eyes flickered with an inscrutable meaning, as if wrestling between evasion and sincerity.
Lin Nuo, who had just taken a sip of red tea, stared blankly.
“To be blunt…”
Her slightly raised, soft shoulders relaxed gently, she considered her words and added a hint of formality:
“I’ve been following you for two years.”
Pfft—!
“Cough cough cough…”
Two years…
Following!?
Lin Nuo nearly spat out his tea, stunned and buzzing from the reply.
‘Is this the kind of stalking… obsessive stalking I think of? And all of this maybe just because, compared to the original story, I like reading little yellow books more?’
‘Oh my god! What have I done… no, what has your bird that steals people’s Magic Books and brings them here done!?’
“If my memory is correct, that’s exactly right,” Amidina said softly.
Lin Nuo was still reeling from the shock her answer had caused.
From the tiny incident of Amidina’s socks being stolen triggering a series of butterfly effects, Lin Nuo was already mentally prepared for the original story to slightly deviate because of his careless actions.
But this—
It seemed to be deviating quite a lot!
‘Why would the illustrious Water Saint Princess be stalking me?’
‘I don’t have anything special that would warrant her attention…’
Thinking it through, the relationships with the surrounding maids were very normal, the only priestess close to him always looked down on him, no complicated interpersonal ties—it hardly made me a target for anyone’s notice.
Lin Nuo quickly realized, What Amidina probably meant was that she had investigated and observed him a few times.
After all, he looked like the one who took her Holy Relic, so following him was just a different way of saying she was wary!
Yes, definitely.
Being cautious is the normal reaction.
As for obsessive stalker… how could Her Highness the Princess be that!?
“Also,” Amidina pointed her finger, and the tightly bound Fatty Bird instantly freed itself from the natural unraveling of the twine, flying up to perch on her shoulder.
“My Holy Relic wasn’t taken by your little pet.”
“Jijiji!”
“…It wasn’t taken by it?”
Lin Nuo caught the bird that flew toward him, ready to land on his head like a crow about to fly, but seeing how calmly Amidina said this, and the way she seemed to already know such an important item was with him, an incredible thought flashed through his mind.
“Could it be… you put it here on purpose?”