Chapter 49: Drug

Illucy’s fingertips scratched vainly at the empty air, her body tilting more and more forward.

Her nightgown fluttered loudly in the night breeze, and her golden hair traced a chaotic arc in the darkness.

“Ah!”

A sharp, brief scream pierced the night.

Illucy’s knees struck the bottom of the railing, and she tumbled over.

In the moment of the fall, she instinctively curled her body, hugging her arms tightly like a wounded little animal.

“Bang!”

A dull thud startled the insects hiding in the grass. Illucy fell sideways onto the lawn, her left leg twisted at an unnatural angle.

The searing pain blackened her vision, but the corners of her mouth still held that strange curve.

Warm liquid seeped from her nostrils and mouth. She tried to move her fingers but found that her right arm was completely powerless.

Broken ribs stabbed into her lungs; each breath carried the metallic, bloody taste of blood.

“Sa-Saintess…” she called weakly, her voice drowned in the night wind.

The upstairs window still glowed with warm light, faint laughter drifting down.

Illucy painfully lifted her intact left arm and clawed weakly toward the source of light before finally dropping it into the pool of blood beneath her.

Her vision began to blur, but her ears sharpened, catching the sound of a door opening.

Someone had finally noticed something was wrong!

Before she completely slipped into darkness, she was satisfied to hear Liang Lai’s heart-wrenching cry:

“Illucy!”

The Saintess had finally come.

Illucy fainted with relief.

When she woke again, Liang Lai was sitting by her bedside, worry etched on her face as she wrung a wet towel to wipe the sweat from Illucy’s brow.

“Ma, Ma—Mom…”

Illucy’s voice was hoarse. She tried to grasp Liang Lai’s hand, but even the slightest movement tore at her wounds, sending sharp pain through her face.

“Aiya, don’t move around so much. We just finished bandaging you. If you keep moving, you’ll tear your wounds open again.”

Liang Lai pressed down on Illucy’s shoulder.

“Mom, I’ve caused you trouble again. I’m sorry…”

Illucy sobbed softly, truly remorseful.

Liang Lai sighed and gently ruffled her hair.

“I’m not mad at you… It’s just that you’re way too careless. Look at you—falling once a month, no place on your body left uninjured. This fall must’ve hurt so much… You have to be more careful, okay?”

There was genuine pain in her eyes. “And when you get hurt, as your Guardian, it hurts me too, you know?”

Although she had taken Illucy in as a foundling, Liang Lai had truly cared for her. Seeing Illucy so badly injured tore her heart apart.

Even with miraculous medicines in this world, falling like that must have been agonizing for such a small, frail child who clearly wasn’t resilient to injury…

“Mm, I’m sorry, Mom. I’ve caused you trouble again.”

Illucy’s mouth twitched when she heard “it hurts me too,” but she quickly composed herself.

She really wanted to laugh out loud, but that would give her away.

“It’s okay. You’re not causing me trouble; you’re just making things harder for yourself.”

Liang Lai put on a stern face, deciding to give her a serious lecture.

“Don’t be so careless anymore. If you keep being careless… I’ll have to spank you!”

Not knowing what else to threaten, she resorted to the classic threat of a spanking.

What she didn’t realize was that Illucy actually felt a faint sense of anticipation at the thought of being able to get close to the Saintess.

She wasn’t exactly a masochist, nor did she really want a spanking, but just the idea of resting her head on the Saintess’s lap was enough to make her giggle quietly.

“Okay, I understand…”

But on the surface, she still behaved obediently.

In this room, they played out the scene of “a loving mother and dutiful daughter.”

In another room, Dolosa, Asterys, and Delucia were caught in a low-pressure atmosphere.

“So she’s definitely faking it.”

Dolosa slammed her hand on the table in frustration, not making too much noise, but it was the only way she could vent her dissatisfaction.

Asterys nodded.

“That’s right. I suspected something from the moment she got injured on the first day, but I never imagined she could be that cruel to herself. This time, she didn’t just fall down the stairs; she fell all the way from the second floor.”

When Asterys and Delucia saw Illucy lying on the ground, coughing up blood, they were a little stunned.

They had seen others get hurt before, but deliberately injuring oneself this badly was a first.

“She’s way too harsh on herself, but it’s fine… we’ve already seen through her little tricks.”

Delucia echoed.

“But what can we do?” Dolosa poured cold water on them.

“Even if we see through it, so what? Do we have to hurt our own bodies like she does? I can’t do that. I need to keep myself healthy. If I get injured and lose time in bed, it’ll affect my studies.”

That would dash Liang Lai’s hopes.

Dolosa silently clenched her fists.

Asterys raised an eyebrow.

“Who says there’s no way? We can get close to Mom too~”

As she spoke, Dolosa’s attention immediately snapped to her.

Delucia smirked, watching her sister with a half-smile.

Thanks to their close bond, she already knew what Asterys was thinking.

“What do you mean?” Dolosa asked suspiciously, casting a doubtful look at the twins.

She truly didn’t believe these two had any good ideas they would share.

Asterys twirled a strand of her hair with her index finger.

Delucia spoke for her sister.

“Meaning, what if we get close to Mom without her knowing?”

Huh?

Dolosa was stunned.

“How is that even considered getting close?” Delucia added.

Uh…

Dolosa stared blankly at the twins.

She herself had entertained that thought; otherwise, why would she have looked up which kinds of harmless, undetectable, colorless, and odorless ** drugs there were?

“Hehe~”

Asterys suddenly laughed.

Dolosa looked at her, puzzled.

“When we went to tell you about Illucy just now, we saw everything~”

Delucia laughed too, her smile venomous.

“You were in the Library looking up drugs that can make people sleep… Who do you plan to use them on? You don’t really think we don’t know, do you?”

In an instant, the air in the room froze.

Dolosa said nothing, her face turning the deep purple of congealed liver.

She never expected that her supposedly secret actions would be uncovered by these twins.