“Your hand… it’s really cold.”
Tia murmured, her fingertips sliding gently along the contour of the other’s hand as if confirming something.
Soon, her eyes grew misty, and she spoke like she was in a daze.
“Just like the touch of the arrow shaft last night… but a little different… this cold… makes me feel safe.”
She raised her blurred blue eyes and looked at Mephia’s face, which was inches away, asking like a confused child, “It’s strange, isn’t it?”
Mephia did not pull her hand back.
She simply watched Tia quietly, observing those eyes shimmering with mist from the alcohol and her emotions.
A certain unexplainable thought seemed hidden within her plain expression.
Time seemed to freeze at this moment.
Then, Tia’s fingertips quietly slid across the back of Mephia’s fair hand, reaching toward that Silver-white Ring.
But at that moment, Mephia moved.
Instead of pulling her hand away, she decisively turned her hand over and gripped Tia’s restless wrist.
Aside from that, she made no further move.
The candlelight flickered.
After hesitating for a moment, Tia quietly moved closer to her, and then, emboldened by the alcohol, she rested her head on Mephia’s shoulder.
Her voice grew even softer, carrying the charming quality of intoxication.
“You… smell so good. It’s not a common scent, but… a scent with many stories… Your past must not have been easy, either.”
Her other hand also rose unconsciously, as if wanting to touch Mephia’s cheek.
However, before she could get close, her body became unstable as she leaned forward, and she fell into Mephia’s embrace.
By now, her cheeks were completely flushed.
Perhaps because they were too close, Mephia stood up, intending to leave.
But in the next second, Tia grabbed her arm and pleaded, “Don’t go… don’t leave me alone tonight. I’m… I’m scared…”
The faint tremor in that voice made it hard to tell if it was real or feigned.
At this moment, Tia did not seem like the much-admired Daughter of a Count, but rather a little girl who had been abandoned for many years, in desperate need of love and care.
Mephia looked down at her profile, and for the first time, a ripple appeared on her plain face.
Lying in her arms, one of Tia’s hands quietly swept across Mephia’s slender waist and slid toward her wrist, aiming clearly for that ring.
However, at that very instant, Mephia moved.
She hadn’t noticed Tia’s little trick.
Instead, she directly wrapped an arm around Tia’s waist and, before the girl could react, she picked her up and threw her onto the double bed that wasn’t very spacious.
“Ah!”
Tia let out a short cry of surprise.
She felt the world spin around her as the mattress sank slightly under her weight, making a muffled sound.
She was dizzy, her long blue hair spreading out over the dark sheets.
Before she could push herself up, a shadow loomed over her.
Mephia pressed one knee against the edge of the bed and leaned in close, her arms propped on either side of Tia’s body, completely confining her to the small space beneath her.
The dark coat had slipped to the floor due to the movement, and the neckline of her simple white dress was slightly open, revealing the clear lines of her collarbones.
Her silver-white hair fell like a waterfall.
From such a short distance, her golden eyes reflected Tia’s panicked and slightly bewildered face.
“Don’t you know…”
Mephia spoke, her voice kept very low.
Her cold breath brushed against the tip of Tia’s nose, yet it also felt somewhat provocative.
“Is it very dangerous to get drunk recklessly, especially leaning on someone else when you are?”
She paused there, and then spat out the next words almost one by one.
“Particularly in front of me.”
Tia’s brain seemed to have turned into mush from this sudden turn of events and the oppressive proximity.
Her small mouth hung slightly open as she asked dazedly, “…What?”
Her wrist was still held by Mephia, pinned against the pillow, unable to move.
Mephia freed one hand and casually brushed against the buttons of the girl’s dress.
With just a light touch, the girl’s dress seemed to lose its ability to cover her body, becoming loose and sloppy.
“Don’t you know how many people are secretly eyeing your body and the surname behind you? If you weren’t the Daughter of a Count, you would have been devoured in this city until not even your bones remained.”
The girl’s perfection made her the prey of countless people.
If not for her father, who was a Count, she would likely be in some noble’s dark basement right now, becoming a toy for them to play with at will.
Mephia narrowed her eyes slightly, her gaze becoming even more piercing.
“And you, in your current state—drunk late at night, taking the initiative to run into an Inquisitor’s private room, disheveled, and speaking ambiguously—if word got out, even the title of the Daughter of a Count wouldn’t be enough to protect your reputation and… safety.”
She leaned even lower until their noses almost touched.
Her voice dropped to a whisper that only they could hear, yet it carried a heavy threat.
“Also, did you know? If your reputation reaches the Imperial Capital… the big shots there won’t be as concerned with surface-level rules as the local nobles are, nor will they fear a mere Count.”
“The status of the Daughter of a Count is worthless in their eyes. If they want to have you, they have plenty of means. And after they get you, you can only spend the miserable remainder of your life in a dark, damp basement.”
Tia was trapped beneath her, enduring this gaze that mixed warning, worry, and an inexplicable anger.
Reason seemed to begin reoccupying her brain, while the intoxication was somewhat scared away.
After a brief silence, her long eyelashes trembled.
She raised her still-moist eyes and looked directly into the ice-lake-like eyes above her.
Her voice was very soft, yet it carried an almost childish trust as she gently breathed out those words.
“But… but I trust you.”
After saying this, as if she had exhausted the last of her sober strength, the suppressed drunkenness surged back even more violently.
The focus in the girl’s eyes completely dissolved, and her heavy eyelids slowly closed.
In the next second, she fell into a deep sleep.
Mephia remained silent, not speaking for a long time.
—
The next day, Tia woke up in bed.
Before her consciousness was fully awake, she felt her entire body aching as if she had been cramped.
The most uncomfortable part was the dizziness and swelling in her eyes, making her feel exceptionally miserable.
After dazing on the bed for a while, she couldn’t help but recall what happened last night.
At that time, she had deliberately drunk some wine and found a way to take the initiative to get close to Mephia, just to touch that damned Storage Ring and feel the Magic Seal on it.
She just hadn’t succeeded, and Mephia had thrown her onto the bed, and then…
‘Then… then, I really got drunk and blacked out!’
She had no idea what happened after that!
She only knew that when she woke up, the place she was lying was… Mephia’s bed, and…
Lifting the covers, Tia took a look at the clothes she was wearing.
“Aaaah — !”
‘How — how am I wearing Mephia’s nightgown?!’