“Huff—Huff—”
Livia took several deep breaths before she gradually calmed herself.
“Just say what you have to say, Farella. Don’t beat around the bush with me,” Livia said coldly.
Since this visitor clearly didn’t come with good intentions, she saw no need to be pleasant either.
“At the Witch Academy, you were always so impatient. Nearly a year after graduation, you’re still the same,” Farella shrugged slightly.
“Here, someone asked me to give this to you.”
As she spoke, Farella handed a large basket to Livia.
“This is…”
Livia’s pupils contracted as she saw the wallet placed in the most conspicuous spot inside the basket.
It was unmistakably Mr. Lynn’s!
“Where is he now?”
Seeing Livia’s anxious expression, Farella almost imperceptibly furrowed her brow, but the next instant, she put on her usual carefree, indifferent face.
“I hadn’t noticed before… You actually care about him this much.”
“Fa! Re! La!”
Noting just how anxious Livia really was, a mischievous, devilish smile finally curled up on the girl’s lips.
“Alright, alright, he went out of the city with a girl…”
Before Farella finished speaking, Livia had already vanished before her eyes.
“……….”
Watching Livia’s receding figure, a hint of unwillingness and loneliness flashed almost imperceptibly in Farella’s eyes.
Could it be… Livia has really fallen for Lynn?
But why?
In all the previous cycles, she was always indifferent to him…
…
Outside Atz Royal City sprawled a vast stretch of untouched, primeval forest.
Even the nobles within the royal city only knew as much about the forest as the single road that cut through it, leading straight to the Central Royal City.
In other words, the forest outside the city was secluded and hidden enough.
It was the perfect place for Lynn to set up a magic array.
“Ugh~ Really now, I haven’t even woken up properly…”
Sophie followed behind Lynn, constantly rubbing her drowsy eyes.
After parting ways with Livia, Lynn had prepared all the materials needed to draw the magic array.
But it was obviously unrealistic for him to draw such a massive and complex array by himself.
So, he’d swung by the manor and pulled Sophie—who was supposed to be resting in bed—up and out.
‘Resting in bed’, but in fact, after drinking Lynn’s potion, she was pretty much fully recovered.
No wonder she was so full of energy now.
If Lynn hadn’t warned her ahead of time not to have any indecent thoughts about Livia, with her personality, she’d have already tried to pin Livia down somehow.
Sigh, such a scoundrel.
“Here, catch.”
Lynn tossed a reference diagram to Sophie.
Just looking at the intricate patterns on the paper, Sophie couldn’t help but feel a headache coming on.
But on closer inspection, the design of Lynn’s magic array… seemed unlike any she’d ever seen.
If anything, it was complex.
Extremely complex.
“You designed this?”
Sophie shook the reference diagram in her hand.
“Of course.”
Lynn responded casually.
Sophie frowned.
A magic array this complex, how could it possibly come from the hand of a mere First-Rank Magus?
Her master had told her before: under the same rank, the more complicated a magic array, the longer it takes to activate, the more destructive it is, and the harder it is to draw.
Though Lynn wasn’t drawing any high-rank array, how could a First-Rank Magus be so skilled at drawing magic arrays?
Sophie glanced at Lynn, who was focused on drawing the array on the ground, and cold sweat beaded on her forehead.
Could this guy… actually be some thousand-year-old monster in disguise?
“By the way,” Sophie suddenly remembered something and asked, “how do you plan to stall him?”
“The time needed to activate this array doesn’t look short to me.”
Hearing this, Lynn shot Sophie a meaningful glance, the smile on his lips making her even more confused.
Sophie shivered involuntarily.
Maybe it was just her imagination, but she always felt that whenever she was around Lynn, an invisible pressure loomed over her.
That kind of fake smile with real menace… might even surpass her master’s.
Sophie swallowed with some difficulty.
This made her slightly reevaluate the seemingly frail young man before her.
Sophie just had a feeling, whatever the future might bring, at least right now…
She probably shouldn’t provoke him.
Thinking this, Sophie wisely fell silent, rolled up her sleeves, and got to work.
Just as the two of them were working in high spirits, not far away, in the bushes, Livia struggled mightily before finally poking her head out of the thicket that was much taller than she was.
Her pretty face was flushed, and her head was spinning a bit.
She’d already been so angered, her whole body was practically overheating.
“That damned vixen…”
“She actually—actually lured Mr. Lynn out into the wild right under my nose…”
Livia nearly ground her molars to pieces.
So there was no ‘feeling’ in the room, and they just had to run outside to commune with nature?
How could she be so shameless!
Watching the two of them chat and laugh, snuggled up close, Livia couldn’t help herself.
With just a slight squeeze of her palm, the surging magic pouring from her body corroded a hole right through the big tree beside her.
With a crash, the tree toppled over.
“Who’s there?”
Startled, Sophie turned to look behind, only to see, through the cloud of dust, a small figure standing there.
It was Livia.
Her cute little face was beet red, and her ample chest was heaving.
Seeing Livia like this, Sophie’s heart skipped a beat.
From her experience, there was only one explanation for this situation.
That was—Livia had been secretly following her, and now that she’d been discovered, she was so shy she couldn’t stand it.
She must like me, right?
Sophie’s heart pounded.
As she thought, her intuition hadn’t been wrong—Livia was a girl who got embarrassed easily.
Thinking this, Sophie’s playboy heart began to flutter.
Lynn’s earlier warning was promptly forgotten.
That’s right, I love you too.
But what Sophie didn’t know was that at this moment, Livia had already cursed all eighteen generations of her ancestors in her mind.
She decided to take the most primal and practical approach a witch could take to get back at Sophie.
“I curse you to have bad luck, curse you to have bad luck, curse you to have bad luck, curse you to have bad luck…”
Livia chanted over and over in her heart.
She didn’t even notice Sophie running toward her in tears.
Then—
“Uwah—”
Livia was suddenly pulled into a tight embrace by Sophie.
Feeling Sophie’s soft, abundant chest pressed firmly against her own, Livia trembled with rage, blushing even harder.
Damn it, you’re killing me and breaking my heart?
Livia finally couldn’t take it anymore.
“Detestable vixen…”
“Get—”
“Away from me!!!!!!”
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