The cold wind of Sarkax Royal Capital still howled fiercely, carrying fine snow into her face.
Sefina stood at the station exit, took a deep breath of the cold, unfamiliar air, and tried to let the lingering heat on her cheeks dissipate as quickly as possible. However, she quickly arranged her next move.
“Flovi, take the three of them to the temporary lodging we agreed on earlier. Feliel should have already given you the address.”
Sefina turned to the white-haired maid standing quietly at attention nearby, her voice returning to its usual calm.
Flovi’s golden eyes calmly swept over the three girls, and she nodded lightly.
“Understood, Master.”
Mia blinked her blue eyes and asked curiously:
“Teacher Sefina, aren’t you coming with us?”
“I have some things to take care of.”
Sefina explained briefly, her wine-red gaze lingering on the three little ones for a moment, her tone softening slightly.
“You three go with Flovi first and rest a bit. You must be tired from riding in Oselenka’s carriage all day. Remember, don’t run around in the capital. Here… it’s not like Oselenka.”
A hint of worry edged her words. Sarkax was a place where she had spent quite some time, and also where she had become a wanted criminal, with dangers lurking beneath the surface.
Ellaria nodded gently, a flicker of understanding in her emerald eyes.
“We understand. Teacher, please be careful.”
Kefi also nodded silently, her pale blue eyes looking somewhat deep in the cold wind.
Once everything was arranged, Sefina watched Flovi disappear around the street corner with the three girls before turning and heading in a different direction.
She needed to go find Versie.
This time, bringing her students to Sarkax, she needed a safe, hidden, and spacious enough residence where her students could temporarily settle without drawing the Church’s attention.
And for this kind of thing, in the western continent, there was no one more suitable than Versie.
As a duke’s daughter, she had enough connections and resources in Sarkax. More importantly, she was one of the few people Sefina could fully trust.
Sefina’s plan was to go near the Duke’s residence, deliver a letter to a specific location using a previously agreed-upon secret method, and then arrange to meet tomorrow for a detailed discussion.
As she mentally organized the contents of the letter she was about to write, Sefina walked through the bustling streets of the capital.
After the snow, Sarkax felt especially desolate. Most of the shops on the streets were closed, with only a few pedestrians hurrying by, their white breath quickly dissipating in the cold wind.
She turned into a relatively quiet alley that provided a quicker route to the Noble District where the Duke’s residence was located.
The buildings on both sides of the alley rose high, casting deep shadows. Snow piled up at the corners, barely cleared by anyone.
Sefina was deep in thought about how to explain to Versie why she had brought her students to the western continent and how to ask for her help without revealing too many details—
“Mm!”
Her forehead suddenly bumped into a soft obstacle.
Neither of them was walking fast, so it was just a gentle touch, but the sensation was unmistakably clear.
Sefina instinctively stepped back half a step and quickly apologized:
“Sorry, I… I was just lost in thought and wasn’t watching where I was going.”
As she spoke, she looked up, and then froze completely.
Standing in front of her was a young girl dressed in an exquisite winter dress.
Her ice-blue hair was partially tied up elegantly at the back, with the rest falling softly over her shoulders, the ends gently fluttering in the cold wind.
Her equally ice-blue eyes now held a hint of well-measured surprise, which quickly melted into a warm smile.
It was Versie.
Sefina’s mind went blank for a few seconds.
She had just been thinking about how to contact this person, and the next moment she ran into her in person at a street corner?
That was way too coincidental…
A gentle smile still lingered on Versie’s face. She tilted her head slightly and spoke in a sweet, pleasant voice:
“Isn’t this Teacher Sefina? What a coincidence! What brings you to the western continent? Are you here on vacation?”
Sefina: “…”
She almost forgot—she and this duke’s daughter were still playing that “mutually unaware” game.
In Oselenka, Versie was a student auditing her class, occasionally visiting her office under the pretext of “asking for advice.”
And Sefina maintained contact with Versie under the alias “Holmes.”
Versie pretended not to know Sefina was Holmes, and Sefina pretended not to know Versie had long seen through everything.
Both knew full well each other’s other identity, yet both tacitly maintained the surface pretense of ignorance.
This childish game had gone on for so long that Sefina sometimes almost forgot they really should have come clean long ago.
‘I wonder if Versie has noticed that I already know she knows my identity.’
Sefina sighed inwardly.
‘Well, since we happened to meet anyway, I’ll settle things today. Save myself another trip to send a letter. This game of playing pretend might as well end here.’
Sefina steadied herself, her wine-red eyes meeting Versie’s directly, and spoke in her usual cool, detached voice:
“Alright, Versie. Stop pretending you don’t know anything.”
The alley was quiet, with only the occasional sound of the cold wind blowing.
Sefina’s words echoed clearly between them.
The gentle smile on Versie’s face didn’t change at all, and a look of proper surprise and confusion even appeared in her ice-blue eyes.
She widened her eyes slightly and spoke with a fitting tone of doubt:
“Know what? Teacher Sefina, what are you talking about? I don’t quite understand…”
Sefina nearly had a vein pop on her forehead.
‘Huh? Doesn’t know? How could she not know!’
Sefina cut straight to the point, her voice carrying nine-tenths irritation:
“Don’t tell me you still don’t know that I’m Holmes!”
Versie put on a very “surprised” expression, her face genuinely full of astonishment.
She even lightly covered her mouth, her ice-blue eyes wide, and said in a tone laced with “shock”:
“How is that possible? Teacher Sefina, what are you saying! Did you just arrive in the western continent and get your mind muddled by the cold wind?”
“You’re the one whose mind is muddled!”
Sefina finally couldn’t hold back, the veins on her forehead bulging as she shot back.
Her wine-red eyes glared at Versie. The face that always maintained a cool expression now was written with the frustration of “I’ve had enough of this game.”
The next second—
“Pfft—”
Versie finally couldn’t suppress her laughter and began to laugh out loud.
That smile was no longer the gentle, reserved one from before, but carried a mischievous delight of having succeeded, her ice-blue eyes curving into crescents.
Laughing, she held onto Sefina’s shoulder as if she couldn’t stand straight:
“Teacher… Teacher’s slightly angry look like this is really—”