At the entrance of the City Lord’s Mansion, City Lord Dain was personally seeing Stella off.
“Princess, do you need me to send soldiers to escort you back to Avalon Academy?”
“No need, City Lord Dain. If soldiers escort me, it would be too conspicuous instead.”
Stella shook her head, refusing Dain.
“I’ll just find an ordinary carriage to go back. Not attracting others’ attention would actually prevent dangerous situations.”
“Alright, what you said makes sense.”
Dain’s attitude toward Stella was quite polite. For most requests, as long as they weren’t too excessive, he would try to fulfill them.
“Princess, I remember you said last time that after graduating from Avalon Academy, you would return to the imperial capital, right?”
“Yes.”
“If you return to the imperial capital, I hope you can put in a good word for me in front of His Majesty.”
“Of course, City Lord Dain. You’ve taken good care of me in Doff City. I’ll remember it.”
“Thank you so much, Princess!” Dain immediately bowed, a gleeful look appearing in his eyes, his chubby face jiggling.
“Then, I’ll be off, City Lord Dain.”
After bidding farewell to City Lord Dain, Stella got into the carriage.
Via followed closely and boarded as well.
The carriage departed from the City Lord’s Mansion, traveling smoothly through Doff City.
“Via, this should be satisfactory now, right?” Stella looked at Via.
“Hmm…”
Via opened the envelope, took out the letter, and read it carefully.
The content was pretty much as Stella had said: it was addressed to the Saint Luo Imperial Family in the imperial capital, mainly describing the suspicious conditions surrounding Via, and if something happened, the culprit would be Via.
If she had really made a move against Stella back then, she probably couldn’t stay in the human world anymore.
“Flame.”
She released a bit of mana, igniting a flame at her fingertip, burning the letter to ashes, and threw it out the window, letting the ashes scatter in the night wind of Doff City.
“Stella, your insight is really sharp. You actually deduced so much.”
There was one thing Via didn’t mention.
That she now possessed the Abyssal Force, which Stella didn’t know about.
This was way more serious than the previous matters.
As long as it had the slightest relation to the abyss, it was impossible to avoid a major investigation from the Holy Land.
Like the current Lester family, probably all members had been captured already, and soon they would undergo the Holy Land’s great purification.
“Honestly, I’m also surprised that Via is so two-faced, completely different from usual. The contrast is just too huge,” Stella sighed. “This should count as split personality, right?”
“Split personality?”
Via thought carefully; maybe to others, it really seemed that way.
Stella was the first person to know her true personality…
Oh, no, Mary and Owen had seen it, but both were already dead.
“Which one is the real Via, the usual one or the current one?” Stella looked Via up and down.
“You can consider the usual me as the pretended one.”
“So, in this world, only I know what the real Via is like?”
“Although I really don’t want to admit it, but currently, yes.”
Via was a bit helpless.
She really didn’t want to trust Stella.
But thinking about earlier in the City Lord’s Mansion, even risking suspicion from City Lord Dain, she still spoke up to help her, removing her from the underground black market’s arrest list.
This imperial princess did help her out a bit.
“There’s one thing I have to thank you for: in front of City Lord Dain, you helped me avoid some trouble.”
“Oh, you mean that, Mr. W,” Stella smiled. “I said it, I still hope to gain some of your trust, so that in the future, you’ll change your view of me.”
“But, I see City Lord Dain’s attitude toward you is quite respectful. He listens well to your requests,” Via paused. “Your situation doesn’t look that bad. I see you also have connections with the Favi family? They should be currying favor with you too, just like City Lord Dain.”
“Yes, these people curry favor with me only because of my identity as the imperial princess. It has nothing to do with me personally…”
“Otherwise, if someone else made those requests to City Lord Dain, they would have been kicked out of the mansion long ago, not listening to a single word.”
“You don’t know.”
Stella propped her cheek, looking out the window at the distant sky, as if gazing toward the imperial capital.
A helpless and downcast expression appeared on her face.
“The reason nobles have a good attitude toward me is because they think I can have direct contact with Father Emperor. Coming to Avalon Academy is only temporary; after graduation, I’ll return to the imperial capital and enter the power center of the imperial family.”
“Eh, according to what you say, could it be…” Via realized something.
“You’re right. I didn’t leave the imperial capital voluntarily to study at the cradle of human heroes, but was driven out.”
“So you deceived these people.”
“Yes, I know they want to gain something from me, choosing to show goodwill proactively. Since that’s the case, don’t blame me for using this point.”
Although Stella said this, she wasn’t happy.
“Moreover, their goodwill toward me is only limited to a reserved extent. If other hot contenders for succession pressure them, they might turn against me instead. I’m clear that these people can’t help me in the future.”
“Not to mention too far, if they know that after graduating from Avalon Academy, you won’t return to the imperial capital, their attitudes will change immediately.”
Via could roughly understand Stella’s current situation.
This was indeed just an empty title of imperial princess.
To gain others’ respectful attitude, she even needed to lie.
No wonder she used extreme methods, wanting to recruit people she could truly trust.
“How about it, Via? After knowing my situation, do you feel sympathy for me?”
“I don’t feel sympathy at all. My situation is a bit worse than yours.”
“Oh, seems like it. Playing the pity card probably doesn’t work much on you…”
“But, even if you can’t return to the empire, I think as long as you make your stance clear to other successors, resolutely give up the throne, you can still live as an idle imperial relative with the identity of imperial princess, away from struggles, leisurely spending the rest of your life, right?”
Via was a bit curious. “Then why, when you clearly have no strength to compete, do you insist on getting involved in the vortex?”
“Well…”
Stella seemed to be recalling the past, silent for a while.
“Some people have obsessions in their hearts that must be fulfilled, preferring death over compromise. I think this exists in you too, right?”