“You… What did you just call me? Say it again!”
If it weren’t for her aching legs, Lian would probably have leapt up from the bed and smashed her head right through the ceiling—now she finally understood why Tilly’s eyes lit up when she called her “senpai.”
Staring into Lian’s eager, desperate, pleading eyes, Milin froze for a second, then showed a sly smile.
She lowered her head, put on a pitiful look, and looked up at Lian—who sat on the bed—with eyes brimming as if about to overflow with tears—
“Lian-sis~”
“~! A-again, call me again—”
Lian felt as if she had turned into a bunch of balloons, about to float lightly into the sky.
“Crazy woman!”
“Uwah!”
Poor balloon, popped in an instant by Milin’s sharp needle.
Devastated, Lian collapsed limply onto the bed, while Milin smugly tightened the bandage around her leg and skipped over to the reclining chair on the other side.
“That just now, consider it your reward for making me tea.”
“…So, if I make it again, will you call me like that again?”
“Dream on. You think this Miss is that easy to get along with? You’re that person’s daughter, after all. Just thinking about him makes my teeth itch with hate.”
Though her face looked fierce and harsh, Milin’s tone carried not a shred of true resentment.
She still couldn’t get past this misunderstanding, but she no longer treated Lian like some unapproachable stranger— just that alone was enough to make Lian feel relieved.
“I already told you I’m not… Wait, did I actually tell you that?”
“I heard you say it to Mother when you two were talking. But I don’t believe you. And you never denied that you and that person have a deep, inseparable connection.”
“That’s…”
Coming here alone at such an hour clearly wasn’t just for tea.
As Lian was racking her brain for how to explain, Milin’s expression changed. She straightened her posture, her face growing solemn.
“I won’t ask about those things Mother questioned you about and you didn’t answer. I just have two questions—Why do you care about me so much? And why did you come to my house?”
Seeing her now, Lian knew she couldn’t brush these off. She lowered her head, thought for a moment, then answered decisively:
“Because it’s my duty… A duty I must fulfill. The reason I came here was to be with you and your mother.”
“You… d-do you even realize how corny you sound? Aren’t you embarrassed saying things like that?”
“Why should I be embarrassed? It’s the truth.”
“Ugh…”
Milin, staring at her, was stunned by the clarity and resolve in her eyes, momentarily at a loss for words.
She recalled that day on the farm—Lian’s confession, which she had written off as crazy talk.
No, wait… If her goal was both her and her mother, maybe it wasn’t a confession at all?
She possessed such strength, yet she chose to be a mere maid in Honglian Palace…
And clearly, she wasn’t even good at maid work. Even so, she clumsily tried to fit in, never uttering a single complaint.
What was it all for?
She remembered how happy Lian looked just now when she called her “sis”…
Maybe, what she yearned for was just something as simple as that.
Milin felt as if she finally understood. Why Teacher Sefi wrote her a letter of recommendation, why she had come here alone, why that person had never appeared from beginning to end—
Abandoned Mother, abandoned her… and now, even Lian-sis had been abandoned too?
She looked at Lian with a trace of sympathy. But even so, what she needed to do would not change.
“Lian. Lian Clausiul.”
“Y-yes! What are your orders, Miss?”
Milin stood up from the chair and called Lian’s full name. Lian, like a new recruit singled out by an instructor, shot straight up from the bed.
“Oww… That hurts.”
Lian hadn’t intended to use her old surname as her own now… but hearing it from Milin, she instinctively replied.
“So your last name really is the same as this Miss’s… tch. Anyway, just sit like before! Listen carefully.”
Lian straightened up, ready to receive the young lady’s sacred decree with full attention—
“Fight me. Let’s have a showdown.”
“What?”
“A showdown with this Miss. I stake my honor on this—I’m going to beat you at the Martial Tournament, for Vera and Mother’s sake.”
Bundled up in thick clothes and scarves, Milin issued her bold challenge with great vigor. Lian frantically waved her hands:
“N-no… How could I possibly fight you, Miss?”
“It’s just a spar—nothing more.”
“Even a spar isn’t acceptable! Besides, didn’t you already beat me once?”
“Don’t think I didn’t notice… You were going easy on me then. Vera said that if you got serious, I wouldn’t last a single move.”
“That’s not true…”
Lian was tired of grumbling about Vera in her heart. She resolved to herself: next time that sword-swinging girl attacks me in a dream, I’ll snatch her sword and give her a spanking with it.
“Don’t try to fool me. And don’t think you can just lose to someone else before meeting me. You know the Crown Festival is also my birthday, right? You wouldn’t want to let me down on my birthday—Lian-sis? Or… do you actually not want me to call you that?”
“Ugh~!” Stabbed right in her soft spot, Lian flinched. She realized that this time, she couldn’t muddle her way through like before.
…
……
………
“What the hell happened? How did you get so badly hurt?”
In Nolan’s suite, Vlad lay on the bed, groaning in pain. His clothes had been pulled up by his companions, revealing a gruesome bloodstain on his chest. From that stain, a red-black mist of blood kept pouring out. Royal Highness and Selene stood by his side, faces grave.
“Someone… killed my Familiar…”
He spoke as blood bubbled from his mouth—because he was missing a lung.
“Good thing you Blood Demons use organs instead of souls when making a Resurrection Contract with your Familiars. Otherwise, you’d be nothing but ashes by now.”
“Sh-shut up… you feed-guzzling pig…”
Even on the brink of death, Vlad never forgot to curse out Aoke, who taunted him so coldly.
“Stop talking. Do you really want to die? If you must, use telepathy instead. Right now, focus on regenerating your organs.”
Royal Highness placed a hand on his chest, gently channeling magic into him. With her help, Vlad’s twisted expression eased a little, and he managed to summon the strength for telepathy.
“Now tell us what happened. Aren’t Familiars supposed to regenerate infinitely?”
“They can… as long as the magic power forming the Familiar remains… that is, as long as my ‘Right Lung’ is intact. I sent my Familiar to watch the Hero’s Daughter… Today, she had an accident during her training with the Sword Saint. I saw her, wounded, sneaking out from the tower late at night… heading somewhere alone… I was just about to follow her, and then… someone…”
“So, what got crushed wasn’t your Familiar, but your actual Right Lung? From that far away?”
His connection broke, Vlad’s strength all but gone. He nodded weakly to confirm Royal Highness’s guess.
“Impossible… Who could do something like that? How could anyone in the world pull off something like this?”
Looking at Vlad, Selene felt a chill run down her spine.
If I was going to use an organ it wouldn,t be my lungs.