Dekalorin had gone downstairs to cook. Indeed, she had slipped down to the kitchen while Saint Eustacia was in the study.
Dekalorin’s steps were not fast, but she tried her best to look normal. The two of them reached the kitchen this way. When Saint Eustacia saw the lunch that had already been prepared, she could not help scolding her again.
“Teacher! How could you cook?!”
“If I don’t cook, then who will? You? Forget it, Saint Eustacia. The things you make could probably rival the food from the Demon Realm. Among the four of us here, right now, only I have any real cooking ability.”
As she spoke, she was about to place a plate of lunch on the dining table when Saint Eustacia took it from her.
“All right, you sit down and rest. I’ll handle it.” Saint Eustacia watched as Dekalorin finally sat down obediently. She felt both helpless and angry. While carrying the dishes to the table, she added, “We could have just hired a cook.”
“No, I still prefer doing it myself.”
Soon the table was filled with a lunch that was not particularly lavish, but compared to the meals Seraphina had made the past few days, it was already quite good.
During the meal, however, Seraphina felt extremely uneasy. She could not join the others’ conversation at all.
After Movira had explained the entire crisis from the night before, Seraphina’s attention had completely shifted to that sudden, unexpected sensation at the end. She had not really heard anything they were saying.
She did not understand why she had taken those actions on her own… It felt as if she had become a different person!
And Movira’s sly move just now had thrown her mind into chaos once more. Isn’t showing affection between sisters a perfectly normal thing?
The reason Movira had given sounded far too weak and flimsy. If it really was as she said, why did Seraphina feel so restless? Why couldn’t she even look the other woman in the eye?
Scenes from those certain books had mixed in as well, leaving her even more confused and bewildered.
In the end she ate very little. She set down her utensils in a hurry.
“I’m full. I’ll head back first.”
Seeing Seraphina’s unnatural behavior, Dekalorin shot Movira a meaningful glance, signaling her to follow.
“I’ll step out for a moment.” She said a simple sentence to the two sitting across from her, then went to the bedroom door.
Inside the room, Seraphina stood by the window with her back to the doorway, gazing at the manor’s courtyard outside.
The window in front of her was cracked open. The cold wind howled in, stabbing at her burning cheeks like countless needles. It was as if she could freeze those memories this way and sort out the tangle in her heart.
Footsteps sounded behind her—very light. She did not hear them. Her mind was too chaotic right now.
Bang. Movira closed the window tightly. In the next second, a pair of arms reached around from her side, carrying a firm strength.
The biting wind stopped abruptly. The room fell into a sudden, unexpected silence, broken only by Seraphina’s slightly rapid breathing.
Then a warm presence enveloped her, chasing away the chill that had clung to her body. Movira’s breath was very close.
“You’re being too reckless!” A voice carrying reproach, yet far more worry, sounded by her ear. Seraphina felt a warm hand grasp her ice-cold forearm.
The touch made her whole body tremble, yanking her out of her dazed state and back to reality.
She turned around in a daze and met Movira’s eyes. The concern in them was like a warm current that instantly shattered her fragile defenses.
Grievance, confusion, and the shame of being caught in such a sorry state all surged up at once. Her nose stung and her eyes quickly turned red again.
“I… I just felt so confused. I wanted to calm down a little…”
Her voice trembled, like a child who had done something wrong and felt deeply wronged.
Seeing this, Movira sighed. The sound seemed to carry many complicated emotions.
She no longer scolded her—or rather, reproach had never been the main point in her earlier words. It was the sight of Seraphina tormenting her own body that had brought confusion and heartache.
Then she wrapped Seraphina’s still-cold hands in both of hers, steadily transferring her body heat. “Using a method like this to calm yourself is the worst possible choice! Is there anything you can’t tell me? Can’t we discuss it together?”
She took Seraphina’s hand and guided her away from the window to sit on the soft edge of the bed. Movira herself pulled over a chair and sat facing her.
Movira continued holding Seraphina’s hand. Her gaze was calm and focused as she looked at her, as if some kind of magic had been cast, forcing Seraphina to confront it directly.
“Tell me, what exactly happened? You looked so uncomfortable during lunch earlier.” Movira asked gently. “Is it… because of what happened last night?”
The question hit exactly on what Seraphina had been thinking. It was like a key that unlocked the box in her heart, the one stuffed full of confusion and fear that she had been avoiding all along.
Seraphina choked up and poured out all her troubles in a jumbled rush. “I seem to… have become curious! I can’t stop thinking about the scenes in those books, because… because that kind of thing appears in them so often… Am I… really improper?”
As she spoke, her gaze involuntarily drifted to the three books on the small table. The moment her eyes touched them, she quickly looked away again.
“And I don’t even understand who I am anymore. When those images appear before me, I don’t know whether I’m seeing them through ‘whose’ eyes—the old me or the current me. What exactly do I like? Men or women? Everything is a complete mess!”
She cried out her deepest fear once more. It was a total loss of self-identity, and everything stemmed from that action last night that had gone beyond her usual understanding…
Seraphina gripped Movira’s hand tightly, as if it were the only lifeline she could reach. Tears blurred her vision and her body trembled slightly from the agitation and sobs.
This scene was something Movira had already anticipated. Yet she was not particularly worried. To be precise, she felt a little pleased. After all their time together, this outburst from Seraphina was much lighter than she had expected…
Movira listened the entire time without interrupting, letting the other woman vent. She simply wiped away the surging tears again and again with gentle strokes.
Only when Seraphina’s intense emotions had calmed a little and all that remained were suppressed sobs did she speak softly.
“So that’s what it was all about…”
She knew they could no longer run from it. They had to face this issue head-on! Otherwise, she would never be able to become what Dekalorin had described…