“But your current state…” Sophia put away her sword, looking at Selene’s lowered eyes and flushed cheeks. Worried, she reached out, wanting to brush away a few sweaty strands of hair from her forehead.
“Are you really okay?”
“It’s fine, I can do it, trust me.” Selene narrowly avoided Sophia’s hand and retreated a few steps to prevent herself from falling back into that state.
Selene looked down at the patterns on the bed, not daring to look Sophia in the eye.
“Go unwrap the ‘candy’ already,” Selene’s voice trembled slightly as she tried to change the subject. “I went through a lot of trouble to get it.”
“Alright…” Sophia retreated to the door, her hand on the knob, but she still looked back worriedly. “Are you… really okay now?”
“Mhm, mhm, mhm.” Selene nodded like a chick pecking at grain, urging her, “Go, quickly.”
At this point, a hint of disappointment flickered in Sophia’s eyes, but she finally closed the door gently.
The door hinges let out a creak, isolating the inside and outside into two different worlds.
Selene was left alone in the empty room. Without Sophia’s presence to provoke her, that bone-searing heat finally receded like a tide.
Selene quickly cycled through several familiar figures in her mind and found that only when she imagined Sophia’s pretty face did that familiar heat quietly creep back up. For others, whether male or female, she felt no wave of emotion at all.
This discovery allowed her tense nerves to finally relax a bit.
At least… at least the out-of-control scene from earlier wouldn’t repeat itself. She wouldn’t be forced to “seduce” others against her will to relieve this damned craving.
“That decree of Sophia’s… I should delay her for a while.” Selene couldn’t help but click her tongue. “That girl is getting bolder and bolder; she actually dared to start trying to overstep her bounds with me.”
“Whatever, I’ll collect it back from Sophia with interest once I get through this curse.”
The discomfort in her body had mostly subsided. Selene quickly changed into a clean dress from the inside out and sat upright again, regaining some of her usual poise and aloofness.
“Someone from the Empire… who could it be? Why are they here?” She listened to the faint clamor coming from outside, her fingertips tapping lightly on the armrest. “I’ll see what this is about.”
“Selene is so strange today…” Sophia muttered to herself after closing the door.
In her view, Selene usually teased her in certain ways, but today she was avoiding her as if she were the plague.
Could she have really scared her?
“Is it really okay for her to receive guests from the Empire in that state?”
Not happy!
This thought weighed on Sophia’s heart, causing her to walk distractedly. She didn’t notice the round pebble under her feet.
The moment her toe stepped on it, even someone as agile as Sophia stumbled unexpectedly before steadying herself.
“Bad luck, how annoying…” The nameless fire in her heart seemed to find an outlet, and she kicked the pebble hard.
The stone soared over the high wall, falling in a graceful arc.
“Ouch! Who’s ambushing me?” A pained cry came from outside the wall, followed by a female voice filled with anger and grievance. “You rat who attacked me, get out here!”
Cecilia, forced to wait outside, clenched her staff until her knuckles turned white, using every last bit of patience to suppress her volcanic irritation.
Cecilia’s patience had already run dry. She was desperate to get a pass from the noble here and even find information about “Sister Selene.”
But the guards at the gate kept blocking her entrance, repeatedly emphasizing that she needed to wait for an audience with the noble.
To avoid extra trouble on her journey to find Sister Selene, she had to temporarily restrain her temper and wait for the so-called “noble” to see her.
“Bastards, let me in! Don’t you see this Imperial Crest?” She gritted her teeth. “How dare a mere Kingdom noble treat me with such neglect?”
Suffering from this unprovoked disaster, Cecilia once again pulled out her crest symbolizing the Blood Lion Empire to show the guards.
Cecilia swore that if they continued to leave her out here, she would charge in and shove the head of that noble named Charles into the dirt to make him sign her pass.
The escalating argument outside reached Sophia’s ears clearly.
The other party’s contempt for the “Kingdom noble”—meaning Selene—instantly caused the guilt she felt from accidentally hitting someone to vanish without a trace.
Cecilia’s rage and arrogance happened to run right into Sophia’s bad mood.
Sophia had never been in love, had never had a lover, and hadn’t even imagined being in a relationship, but that didn’t stop a common human emotion from sprouting in her heart.
Sophia was possessive, though her possessiveness had previously been mostly directed at shiny gold coins.
Perhaps she wasn’t willing to admit it yet, but Selene had indeed been placed into the category of someone she wanted all to herself.
Just as her gold coins were not to be touched by others, Selene, her unique “friend,” was the same.
Selene’s rare, bashful state was a view that belonged only to her. How could she let an outsider see it?
This was the privilege of being Selene’s “friend.”
Especially since their “friendship” had just undergone a subtle “heating up,” and now someone was tactlessly coming to disturb them!
Sophia already had an innate dislike for these so-called people from the Empire.
Now, she hated this arrogant brat even more.
As Selene’s closest “friend,” Sophia felt she had a responsibility to give this ignorant visitor a memorable “welcome gift” to knock her down a peg.
Following the source of the voice, Sophia walked over, her blade wreathed in frost.
“What little brat is here making a scene?” Sophia used her mana to amplify her voice, condensing it into an oppressive form that bore down on the figure at the gate.
An expert!
Cecilia’s pupils shrank, instantly sensing the oncoming mana pressure.
She reacted quickly, casting aside her laziness. Cecilia coated herself in a thin layer of mana to negate the mana mixed into Sophia’s voice.
It’s only polite to return a favor.
Cecilia snorted, paying her back in kind. She mimicked Sophia’s method, mocking her in an even more violent manner.
Her counterattack targeted not just Sophia, but all the guards at the gate as well.
“Ha, what a loyal watchdog! Does wagging your tail and begging for food from your master feel that good?” She looked at the guards stumbling from the sound waves, a cocky smile curling on her lips. “Little mouse hiding in the shadows throwing stones, you finally decided to crawl out into the light?”
The guards saw Sophia approaching from the depths of the courtyard and felt as if they were seeing a savior, instinctively parting to make a path.
In truth, they considered Charles their master, but Charles hadn’t been here for years, and since Butler Eric had left, Selene was naturally the one in charge.
As the “favorite” by Selene’s side, Sophia was naturally seen as Selene’s spokesperson.
None of them could defeat Cecilia at the gate, and they were worrying about how to handle this tough nut.
Since someone was willing to take this hot potato, they were more than happy to let her.
“Sharp-tongued little girl…”
Like a final boss, Sophia emerged from the crowd, clutching a longsword chilling with frost.
A beautiful girl with brilliant blonde hair like sunlight, wearing a slightly ornate scarlet magic gown and holding a metallic staff, appeared before Sophia.
Sophia and Cecilia’s eyes met, and in the next instant, they both froze.
“Cecilia?”
“Senior Sophia…?”
Their voices of disbelief escaped their lips almost at the same time.
“What are you doing here?”