As if all strength had been drained from her, she slumped limply into the chair. Aurelia, long known for her strength and authority, under the four-word motto “The big picture is what matters,” had nothing left on her face but the anxiety of a mother and the helplessness of a Dean.
Shame, humiliation, heartache…
All kinds of emotions churned violently in her chest, but in the end they all turned into a dead silence over her daughter’s ruined reputation.
In the office.
Vivian looked at one, then the other, completely unable to understand the suffocatingly heavy atmosphere between the two Deans. She had only wanted to save Prince Wendy; how had things escalated to the level of civil unrest in the human government?
The girl rubbed her hands together nervously, unsure whether she should leave or stay.
“Vivian.”
Aurelia finally broke the silence.
“Go to the Military Branch at once and inform Dean Beota that we have important matters to discuss with her.”
Vivian was stunned for a moment, but the sudden task quickly scattered the wild thoughts in her head.
Dean Beota of the Military Branch? She was a famously iron-blooded woman. For Dean Aurelia to seek her out at this critical moment, could it be…
Vivian felt as if she had touched the core of some earth-shattering secret, and her sense of mission instantly exploded.
“As for everything you saw and heard today…”
Aurelia’s gaze suddenly turned sharp as a blade, fixed dead on Vivian’s face.
“Not a single word to anyone.”
“Understand?”
“From now on, you saw nothing and heard nothing.”
A chill shot from the soles of her feet straight to the top of her head. Vivian stiffened all over under her teacher’s unprecedented Oppressive Pressure.
This was no longer a reminder, but a warning.
“Yes! Understood!”
But she completely missed the warning in those words, and instead felt this was the organization’s ultimate test for her!
With that, the girl straightened her back, bowed respectfully to the two Deans, then turned and left the office with firm, powerful strides.
The door was gently closed, and the atmosphere in the room grew heavy once more.
“Sigh…”
Aurelia walked to the desk and took out a rosewood box carved with intricate patterns from her bosom.
The lid opened, and a soft silver-white glow instantly filled the entire room.
The source of the light was a necklace lying quietly on a velvet cushion.
It shimmered with flowing colors, breathtakingly beautiful.
It was the very [Goddess Veil] that had snapped from Astreia’s neck yesterday in the Dream Demon Graveyard.
“The situation yesterday was too chaotic, so I picked it up.”
Dean Aurelia’s voice was low, tinged with exhaustion.
“Layana, look… shouldn’t we think of a way to have Astreia wear it again?”
Layana’s gaze fell blankly on the necklace.
[Goddess Veil]?
What use was there in saying this now?
Her daughter… her Laxana…
What was she going to do from now on?
“But she has already become a Witch!”
“Even if she survived, even if she truly returned to normal…”
“Whether she wears it or not no longer matters…”
“Aurelia, Shanna, she…”
“Becoming a Witch means her Destiny is doomed to sink into ever-growing Desire, step by step toward the collapse of self-destruction.”
By the end, Layana could no longer control herself; she covered her face with both hands, her shoulders shaking violently.
Just then.
“Click–“
A soft sound of the door opening suddenly rang out.
The two Deans almost simultaneously raised their heads as if shocked, their gazes shooting straight to the door!
The first thing that came into view was Wendy.
The Prince wore an immaculate Academy uniform, buttoned all the way to the top, looking utterly proper. But his slightly messy black hair, the dark circles under his eyes that he could barely hide, and those somewhat wandering peach-blossom eyes that seemed ready to lose focus at any moment all silently told of the brutal battle he had endured last night.
Immediately after, an arm reached out from behind the Prince, intimately and dominantly linking through his arm.
It was Astreia.
The Princess wore a school uniform short skirt, her collar opened just enough to reveal delicate collarbones and glimpses of snowy white. There was not a trace of fatigue on her face; instead, it was filled with a certain satisfaction and languor after a feast.
The faint smirk at the corner of her mouth was full of provocation and amusement.
And behind Astreia followed a third person.
Laxana.
She had almost entirely hidden herself in Astreia’s Shadow, following closely. She wore a wrinkled, modified short skirt, her long blonde hair messily spread over her shoulders, and a few damp strands still stuck to the base of an ear that was red enough to drip blood.
The Lady kept her eyes fixed dead on her toes, not daring to meet anyone’s gaze in the office, as if she would flee this place completely the moment she got the chance.
These three people, in such a bizarre combination, stood before the two Deans.
A drained “victim,” a fully satisfied “perpetrator,” and a “co-conspirator” dying of shame and rage.
Layana looked at her daughter like that and felt a rush of blood surge straight to her head, her vision darkening again and again, nearly fainting on the spot.
Aurelia instinctively tightened her grip on the rosewood box in her hand.
The air in the office instantly froze.
After a moment, it was ultimately Laxana who broke the dead silence.
“M-Mother… and… Dean Aurelia…”
She shuffled out from behind Astreia, took a small step forward, and lowered her head even more.
“About yesterday… I’m sorry…”
“Sorry?”
Layana suddenly stood up from her chair, so violently that she even knocked over the chair behind her!
“Bang!”
The loud crash of the chair hitting the ground made Laxana tremble violently all over.
“Laxana Klein!”
Layana’s voice was no longer the authority of a Dean, but the scream of a mother!
“Lift your head!”
“Look at me!”
Laxana’s body trembled even harder, but she still did not dare raise her head.
Layana rushed a few steps to her daughter, raised her hand as if to slap her hard, but midway it simply would not fall.
Her hand was trembling, and her lips were trembling too.
“You still have the nerve to say sorry?!”
“Look at you now, so shameless! Look at you! Huh?!”
“How am I supposed to explain this to the Academy?! How am I supposed to explain it to your Father?!”
“I…”
Laxana’s tears instantly burst, mixed with shame and fear, rolling down her cheeks.
“Explain?”
A lazy voice, nine parts mocking, cut in from the side.
Astreia released Wendy’s arm, took two steps forward, and regarded the nearly crazed Layana with calm amusement.
“Dean Layana, have you got something wrong?”
“Your daughter was almost Beguiled into Descent by the Demon Race yesterday. Wendy and I ‘Purified’ her all night.”
“It’s one thing for you not to thank us, but now you’re here yelling.”
The Witch’s lips curled into a malicious arc.
“What, in your eyes, is your daughter’s life worth less than that ridiculous reputation?”
“You!”
Layana trembled with rage, pointing at Astreia, unable to say a word for a long time.
“As for him…”
Astreia turned back, extended a slender finger, and lightly hooked Wendy’s chin, as gently as teasing her own Pet.
“He is merely ‘medicine.'”
“Highly effective medicine.”
“Boom!”
The word “medicine” exploded completely in Layana’s mind.
The Dean suddenly turned her head, staring dead at the Prince who had not said a word since entering and whose eyes kept wandering.
“Th-That… Dean… it’s not what you think…”
Wendy stiffened all over under that almost murderous gaze, instinctively took half a step back, and squeezed out a smile uglier than crying.
“Actually, it is exactly what you think.”
Astreia interrupted him, laughing so hard she shook like flowers.
“Dean Layana, you don’t need to look at my Prince like that.”
“After all, the one who enjoyed last night the most was your daughter.”
“She even begged us to play a little longer.”
Hearing this, Laxana finally broke down and let out hysterical screams.
“I didn’t! I’m not!!”
“Oh? Is that so?”
Astreia raised an eyebrow, slowly walked to the desk, picked up the cup of Black Tea that Layana had just brewed that morning and had not yet had time to drink, and took a light sip.
“Then who are you throwing a tantrum at with that look right now?”
“Are you angry at me, or angry at Wendy, for not satisfying you?”
“Sigh…”
Wendy, who had been silent all along, held his forehead and let out a sigh of utter lifelessness.
Now he could not clear himself even if he jumped into the Yellow River.
He now just wanted to find a crack in the ground and crawl into it, or simply drop dead on the spot.
Just at this tension-filled, explosive moment.
“Princess Astreia.”
Aurelia slowly walked among them and gently placed the rosewood box on the table.
“Since you have recovered, and are in such good spirits…”
She opened the lid, revealing the shimmering [Goddess Veil] inside.
“Then surely you won’t mind wearing this again?”
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