Time flowed silently.
Until the sky gradually became stained with a bit of orange-red, the young girl still refused to move.
She sat there quietly, holding a box, sending her vacant gaze into the abyss of memories…
In Elena’s room, the frost still hadn’t receded.
But Elena’s out-of-control mana had gradually calmed down.
She clutched the box her mother had left her. Her frost had covered the box during the previous outburst, and she wanted to melt it with her own body heat.
She didn’t know how much time had passed…
The light outside the window had turned a dusty yellow, and the flame-colored sunset had dyed the edges of the clouds.
Sensing that the frost on the box in her arms had melted quite a bit, Elena’s previously vacant eyes gradually regained some light.
“Ai’er…”
She slowly turned around. The door was still open. The broken plate and the fallen cake were still frozen in the ice—but the silver-haired girl was gone.
Elena remembered the last thing she saw: the silver-haired girl clutching her heart tightly, struggling as she fled the room.
‘Ai’er… she actually didn’t do anything.’
‘She just accidentally picked up the box Mother left me… didn’t she?’
Elena lowered her gaze and caught sight of the pale gold crystal ring.
— “Doctor, what is the relationship between this Magic Stone you mentioned… and the original body of the Blood Clan member who condensed the crystal?”
— “This Magic Stone has another name: Life Crystal. Any influence the crystal receives will directly affect the Blood Clan member themselves.”
Without warning, the words the doctor had said previously popped into Elena’s mind.
— “Any influence the crystal receives will directly affect the Blood Clan member themselves.”
Suddenly, Elena’s pupils constricted. She immediately stood up and leaned forward as if to sprint toward the door, in the direction Ai’er had “fled”—
But her feet felt as if they were made of lead and couldn’t move.
She wanted to find the silver-haired girl immediately, to see how she was doing, and then beg for her forgiveness…
But she couldn’t take a step, unable to move even an inch.
‘I hurt her… didn’t I?’
‘Because I am a Witch, I cause the people around me to fall into misfortune…’
‘Father and Mother… they both died because of me.’
‘Didn’t they—Elena?’
She suddenly felt a sharp pain in her chest, as if a sharp, massive rock was pressing against her, aimed directly at her heart.
Elena slumped to the ground, and the box in her hands slipped away—
*Snap.*
The sound of frost cracking came from the surface of the box, but the sound didn’t seem to stop there.
*Clang, clatter.*
A purple-black crystal fell from the bottom of the box and rolled to Elena’s feet.
The girl’s unfocused eyes gradually focused on this crystal.
‘What is this?’
The purple-black color of the crystal was unnatural, like an ominous color refined from snakes and scorpions.
Elena was stunned. In her memory, she had never seen her mother wear or take out a crystal with such an ominous color.
Therefore, Elena was certain—this definitely wasn’t her mother’s.
She reached out to pick up the crystal.
But the moment she touched it, the mana within her body surged violently! Startled, she immediately threw the crystal away.
After the crystal flew out, it smashed into several pieces on the ice in the room! Amidst the crisp sound of the crystal breaking, the fragments transformed into black mana smoke and completely dissipated.
“Young Lady?! What happened?!”
The Head Maid, hearing the sound of something breaking, rushed over. By now, Elena had retracted her mana, so an ordinary person could enter the room.
Seeing the box lying to the side and Elena slumped on the ground, the Head Maid immediately rushed to her side to check if she was injured.
“Young Lady, you don’t feel unwell anywhere, do you?”
The Head Maid sighed in relief when she saw Elena shake her head slightly.
She looked at the box lying next to Elena and suddenly remembered what Sebas had told her not long ago—
“Miss Ai’er said that Madam’s box…”
After a moment of hesitation, the Head Maid decided to relay it to Elena now.
“Young Lady… although I don’t know if I should say this, Miss Ai’er told Mr. Sebas earlier to have you stay away from that box. She also said—you would understand if you tried to use magic in front of it.”
Elena was stunned.
She suddenly noticed something—it didn’t seem as cold as before.
And this change happened right after that purple-black crystal shattered!
Elena suddenly recalled that afternoon—the afternoon she learned of her mother’s death.
This box was handed to her after Uncle Sirius had arranged for people to help clean out her mother’s room.
Then this eerie crystal—could it be?!
Even though she realized something, Elena cared more about the silver-haired girl right now.
“…Where is Ai’er?”
According to the doctor, Ai’er was a special member of the Blood Clan—and Elena had heard that races other than humans were more sensitive to mana.
‘So when she picked up the box then—had she noticed something?!’
“Ai’er… Ai’er! I need to find Ai’er. I have to apologize to her!”
“Young Lady! Wait a moment!”
The Head Maid couldn’t catch the suddenly rising Elena, nor could she stop Elena from rushing out of her room—
At this moment, the fuse began to spark.
Rushing out of the room, Elena found that everyone in the manor seemed exceptionally busy.
—But among these busy servants, there was no sign of the silver-haired girl.
“Young Lady!”
Ignoring the Head Maid chasing behind her, Elena started to run—she ran up to a maid and even used magic to stop her!
“You, answer me! Where is Ai’er? Why haven’t I seen her?!”
With the sudden appearance of ice spikes and Elena’s aggressive expression, the maid was terrified.
“Y-Young Lady! I… I!”
Seeing the maid stammer and unable to speak, frost began to gather around Elena—
“Miss Elena!! Please calm down!!”
Sebas arrived just in time, using Fire Magic to shatter the ice spikes Elena had summoned, standing in front of the terrified maid.
“Sebas… where is Ai’er? Tell me, where is Ai’er? Where is Ai’er?!”
“Please calm down first!”
“Tell me! If you don’t tell me… how can I be calm? How can I be calm?!”
“Answer me, what happened to Ai’er? Answer me!!”
The frost erupted once more, like a sudden blizzard. In an instant, the entire manor was covered in frost—
“Fine! This old servant will tell you exactly what happened to Miss Ai’er! But you must retract your mana!”
The blizzard gradually stopped, but the extreme cold remained.
Elena’s vacant eyes stared at Sebas, staring at the old man’s opening mouth—
“Miss Ai’er… was taken away by Marquis Sirius’s men.”
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