Chapter 21: Business Opportunities

Once Elenora’s emotions had settled down enough, the two of them parted ways.

“I’ll be ready to teach you about the rune knowledge,” Elenora rubbed her eyes and then lowered her head.

Lilian wasn’t sure if it was just her imagination, but Elenora kept sneaking glances at her.

“Mm, thank you, Mistress. I’ll head over to the Knight Order now,” Lilian said, preparing to take her leave.

“Goodbye, goodbye… remember to come back early…” Elenora said softly.

Lilian actually felt a little unsettled by this.

She kind of preferred the usual, “Can a useless maid like you really handle training?” type of teasing—it had more flavor to it…

Pushing open the door, Lilian greeted Irene outside before quickening her pace to leave.

The young maid poked her head inside the doorway to check on the bedroom’s situation.

Seeing Lilian’s expression was no different than usual, she worried that the young lady’s apology might have failed.

It was still possible that the young lady was secretly wiping away tears!

Luckily, there was no unusual disturbance in the room, although a faint sound of crying? Probably just her imagination!

Irene entered the bedroom and found the young lady lying on the bed.

Elenora was covering her cheeks with both hands, laughter bubbling out from behind her hands as her long legs kicked about wildly in the air.

Eventually, she started rolling around on the bed!

What was going on?

Had the young lady’s apology succeeded?

Hmph, I knew this pair of Elenora and Lilian was a perfect match!

Irene couldn’t help but smile.

As she drew closer, Elenora noticed Irene’s movements and stopped her wild antics, sitting up.

Their eyes met.

Elenora’s face flushed red, and she cleared her throat.

“Cough, cough, you didn’t see anything just now, understand?”

“Mm-hmm.” Irene nodded with a smile.

“Young lady, you succeeded?”

At Irene’s words, Elenora couldn’t help but let out a couple more “hehe” laughs.

Then she composed herself and confidently declared, “Of course! Lilian is just a little maid; how could she dare to be angry at her mistress!”

That sounded indisputable.

Irene just smiled and nodded.

“As long as you’re happy, young lady.”

It was just that no one knew who thought Lilian hated her, because for several days, she hadn’t been sleeping well.

“Oh, by the way, young lady, I saw Lilian laughing when she went out just now. She looked really happy.”

“Really?” Elenora’s eyes lit up.

“Really.”

“Hehe, Lilian, Lilian…” Elenora ignored Irene completely now.

She grabbed a pillow and buried her face in it, her legs fluttering nonstop.

“Hehe.” Soft Lilian.

“Hehe.” Sweet Lilian.

“Hehe.” I just want to hug Lilian again.

Watching Elenora completely lost in her own world, Irene couldn’t help but gape.

Is this really the young lady!?

After a while, Elenora finally stopped.

She threw the pillow aside and looked at the ceiling, a bit dazed.

Elenora really couldn’t figure out how she had made Lilian dislike her.

On the carriage.

Lilian was reflecting on everything that had happened.

She hadn’t expected to bring a sense of happiness to Elenora.

Did Elenora really want her to become family?

Sigh, whatever.

This was fine for now.

Even if Elenora truly thought of her this way, Lilian wouldn’t change her original goal—to resolve the contract issue.

After all, she couldn’t stay at the Count’s manor forever, serving as Elenora’s maid, especially since the maid’s position severely restricted her schedule.

Thinking back to how she had tentatively mentioned ending the contract and Elenora’s refusal,

Lilian knew now she had only one path—to properly repay the 300 gold coins and terminate the contract.

She also had to plan for contingencies.

Lilian hadn’t forgotten what the Second Princess said that night: “We will meet again.”

That sentence hung over her head like the Damocles Sword, ready to strike at any moment.

Lilian felt a headache coming.

She had to first improve her relationship with Elenora and try to get permission to freely enter and exit the Inner City.

Her current activity range was said to be the Inner City, but in reality, it was just the Count’s manor and the Knight Order—places she was ferried to by carriage.

Most of the Inner City was filled with nobles’ mansions; the Guild was where transactions happened, but the Guild mainly catered to nobles.

Lilian’s status wasn’t enough to enter.

Moreover, she didn’t have anything valuable to sell.

Lately, she’d been focused on training, improving her physique and strength.

Aside from the experience gained from grinding medicines, her physician skill hadn’t improved much.

The Muscle Recovery Potion could be sold, but ordinary people’s demand for it wasn’t high.

She had to find other potions that matched the market better.

Such a headache—

“Squeak—”

The carriage stopped.

It was about time to reach the Knight Order.

But today, something seemed different about the Order.

Though it was early morning, the young knights were already out training.

But their expressions looked grim.

Captain Martin seemed angry, shouting loudly, “You lot! You’re meant to be knights, not useless wastes! Get your spirits up!”

Still, more and more young knights fell behind in training.

Lilian observed and realized they were undergoing the Knight entry special training?

The training was the same as what Lilian had started with.

Right now, it was weighted running.

Thud, thud…

More and more people dropped.

“Trash! Trash! Stand up! You are knights!”

Martin shouted again.

But it was no use—the young knights were soon completely exhausted.

Martin looked disheartened.

When he saw Lilian watching, he greeted her.

“Miss Lilian, you’re here. Go to the small training ground. Saya is waiting for you.”

Lilian wasn’t in a hurry to find Saya.

She saw a business opportunity.

So she asked, “Captain Martin, are they doing entry-level training?”

“Yes. These brats are hopeless. They trained a bit yesterday afternoon and evening, and today they’re all complaining about soreness and weakness. Such freeloaders!”

Sore bodies?

That was perfect!

Muscle Recovery Potions were made exactly for this.

The demand for potions in knight training was huge.

Three hundred gold coins was nothing.

Martin kept grumbling, “If only they had half of Miss Lilian’s perseverance.”

Lilian couldn’t hide her smile anymore. She looked at the young knights lying on the ground.

“Captain Martin, I think I have something that can help them. Interested?”