“Please give me a little more time! Aurora has already agreed to come with me, right, Aurora?”
She looked at Aurora, her eyes filled with urgency and fear, as if waiting for her to confirm what she had just said.
But how could someone agree to something like this so easily…
“I’m sorry… I never intended to go with you.”
Aurora withdrew her hand from Leonoa’s grip and gently pushed her away.
“How could you… You have to come with me, you must come with me, Aurora!”
Her voice grew hysterical once again.
Her eyes were filled with terror, as if she had just heard something that could shatter her entire world.
Before she could completely break down, Albert interrupted her sharply.
“That’s enough, Leonoa Edron! The dragon carriage is about to arrive; you have to leave now!”
He strode forward, grabbed Leonoa’s wrist, and headed toward the window.
“Wait, I can’t leave! I can’t abandon Aurora here, I can’t live without Aurora!! Let go of me!!!”
She was angry, anxious, and terrified all at once.
A silver dagger suddenly appeared in her hand again, and she gripped it tightly, stabbing fiercely at Albert’s hand holding her.
Albert hadn’t expected her to do such a thing. When a piercing pain shot through his hand, he immediately shook it free.
Leonoa stared at Aurora in disbelief, shocked that she would do something like this.
“Aurora, if you don’t want to leave, then I’ll stay here with you.”
“No, I have a better idea! Let’s die together, shall we? Let’s die together!”
“If we’re dead, we don’t have to fear anything. If we’re dead, we don’t have to care about anything!”
“Promise me, okay? Let’s die together!”
She shouted loudly, the dagger in her hand thrusting toward Aurora.
Aurora was too close, with nowhere to dodge.
She closed her eyes in fear, bracing for the pain that should have come from her chest.
But the pain never came. Instead, she caught a faint scent of cherry blossoms near her nose…
“Annoying pest… annoying pest!!”
Leonoa’s hysterical voice rang out. Aurora opened her eyes and her pupils suddenly shrank sharply.
The dagger had plunged into Zoya’s chest. Pink blood flowed from the wound, dripping continuously from the blade’s tip…
“Zoya!”
Aurora rushed forward, pushing Leonoa aside and clutching Zoya as she frantically examined her wound.
She didn’t know where an elf’s heart was located, nor was she even sure if elves had hearts in the same way.
But seeing Zoya’s face growing pale, she knew the injury had to be severe.
Pressing hard on the wound that kept bleeding, tears of panic began to well up in her eyes.
Meanwhile, Albert had forcibly restrained Leonoa and sealed her inside a small spatial magic circle he had pre-inscribed on a cloth, to prevent her from doing anything else reckless.
Watching Aurora weep uncontrollably, Albert stepped forward, intending to use magic to heal the girl.
But his steps suddenly faltered when he noticed the golden light gradually radiating from Aurora’s hands…
That golden magic was unlike the glow from Loralbell or Leonoa.
The golden magic radiating from Aurora carried not a trace of the goddess’s aura, but a rich, pure power—more sacred and more beautiful than anything bestowed by the goddess herself…
“I’ll help her heal,” Albert said, crouching down to examine the girl’s wound.
He gently moved Aurora’s hand away from the injury, only to find the chest already restored as if it had never been wounded.
If not for the pink blood still lingering at the wound’s edge, he might have thought the girl had never been hurt.
He looked at Aurora in astonishment, silently asking how she had done it.
Could it be healing magic? Setting aside how difficult it was for Aurora, who struggled even with basic magic, to perfectly master healing magic and restore the wound as if new—if she did possess that ability, it certainly wouldn’t glow with golden light.
Albert had never seen any healing magic emit such a golden radiance.
In fact, aside from magic wielded by the clergy, no other magic could manifest such a golden glow.
Looking at Aurora’s flawless, tender skin, the girl herself seemed dazed for a moment. She glanced at Albert as if seeking answers from her.
In Aurora’s eyes, a golden clock slowly rotated—a magical array that looked unlike any magic Albert had ever seen.
If one had to describe it, it resembled a familiar type of magic: a familiar yet distinct summoning contract.
But that was impossible.
The legendary summoning contract magic was granted by the goddess herself to all beings.
It was unlike any other magic array, distinguished by its unique structure—the red chains were the defining feature of that array.
Yet the magical array in Aurora’s eyes bore a striking resemblance, with the golden clock seemingly composed of countless tiny magic arrays.
It was a magic array no human or creature could possibly carve.
“Your eyes…”
Suddenly recalling something, Albert looked again at the girl’s wound.
Could it be that she had reversed time to heal the injury?
If so, perhaps Avira might also possess this ability…
“Director Albert?”
His distracted thoughts were pulled back as he glanced at the clock—it was nearly six o’clock.
Too much time had already been wasted.
“I have to go…”
He stood up and rolled up the cloth sealing Leonoa.
“I’m sorry your friend was hurt…”
“Once everything settles down, I will explain everything to you, so please don’t tell anyone we were here tonight, okay?”
Aurora wanted to keep this matter under wraps.
She knew if her sister found out, she’d be furious—but more than that, she wanted to understand the ‘danger’ Leonoa had mentioned earlier.
Yet after hurting Zoya, letting her leave like this would surely leave her feeling bitter.
Suddenly, her eyes brightened as if she had just thought of something.
“I have a request, as compensation for injuring her.”
“A request… say it quickly.”
Albert glanced at the clock anxiously.
“I’m going back to school this morning, and I want to bring her with me.”
“You mean this little girl?”
“Yes.”
Aurora nodded in response.
“What is she to you?”
Albert already suspected this girl was no ordinary human—humans couldn’t bleed pink blood, nor have eyes like cherry blossoms.
“She’s my familiar.”
“Familiar… Ah, I see, a Queen’s breed.”
“I promise you, but you have to make sure not to tell anyone about tonight, especially your sister, understand?”
Emphasizing her sister made it clear she was quite afraid of her.
“Yes, I promise.”
After receiving her reply, Albert jumped onto the windowsill, glanced once more at Aurora, then mounted his broom and flew away.