President Sylvester Joilu, a mysterious old man.
It was said that his strength had already reached the formidable level of a Magebane.
At this stage, not only was the speed of advanced magic release incredibly fast, but its power was also overwhelming.
At the same time, learning other magic also became much easier to master.
Because by the time one reached this level, their Spirit Force was already vast and terrifying.
However, in appearance, this old man looked no different from an ordinary elderly person.
He even seemed a bit more frail.
If not for those eyes gleaming with sharp light, no one would ever think of him as the Headmaster of the Academy in the current Empire.
His clothes were also plain, making anyone’s first impression that he was just a regular old man.
“Willis!”
Seeing her come in, the old man immediately rushed over excitedly.
“Uh, Headmaster? Why are you here?”
Willis asked.
Unexpectedly, the other party grabbed her hand and tried to pull her down into a bow.
“What are you doing!?”
Willis was angry.
But the other person was clearly even angrier.
“Don’t move! Bow down!”
At that moment, a powerful and overwhelming Spirit Force pressed down like thick fog.
This old man, who seemed ready for the grave, made Willis feel helpless and caught between life and death by Spirit Force alone.
Her body bent involuntarily.
Even with his cane, the old man wasn’t as tall as her when standing.
So when he reached toward her face, Willis’s eyes turned cold, and the Real Eye instantly shattered his Spirit Force suppression.
“Yo?”
The old man was surprised for a moment.
Seeing Willis step back, he immediately applied even more overwhelming Spirit Force.
[Warning, the current target’s Spirit Force is too strong. Forcibly activating the Real Eye to break through will cause irreversible damage to the eye and the Real Eye. Continue?]
Willis froze at the prompt.
Under the suffocating pressure of Spirit Force like a raging ocean, Willis couldn’t move at all.
If she didn’t use the Real Eye…
In the next second, Sylvester used his cane to lift the red hair on the back of her neck.
He hadn’t touched her face as expected, nor did his hand even come close to her skin.
Except for the sleeve grabbed by those withered hands, causing a slight pain on her arm, there was no physical contact.
Even so, his behavior was still highly disrespectful and could be punished.
But at this moment, his attitude carried an even more important purpose beyond their differences in status.
Using the cane to lift Willis’s red hair, the old man stared at the back of her neck for a few seconds.
Then he released Willis.
By now, the girl was completely furious.
“Though you are the Headmaster of the Royal Academy, do you know how severely your behavior just now could be punished?”
With a voice cold as a blade, Willis stared tightly at him after regaining her freedom.
The old man also returned to his kindly, cheerful smile.
“This old man didn’t even touch you—at most, I grabbed your sleeve.”
Sylvester seemed to know Willis had a cleanliness obsession and disliked being touched by men, so he restrained himself.
“Suppressing me with Spirit Force doesn’t count? That’s an assassination attempt! Or I could charge you with the crime of harassment!”
Faced with Willis’s fury, Sylvester shook his head with a smile.
His next words, however, instantly wiped away Willis’s anger.
Then left her dumbfounded.
“Aiya, my granddaughter has grown up to the point she doesn’t even recognize her own grandfather anymore.”
Upon hearing this, Willis was instantly stunned.
Wang Defa!?
Are my ears malfunctioning?
Am I hallucinating?
Grandfather!?
Since when did I gain a grandfather?
Wang Defa!?
Looking at the old man making himself at home—sitting at the head seat, sipping tea with utter comfort…
Willis’s head was spinning.
“Grandfather? What the heck? Do you know that impersonating the grandfather of an Imperial Princess could get your whole family executed?”
A few minutes later, Willis managed to calm down, then stared intently at Sylvester, who was drinking tea.
Suddenly, she thought of her late biological mother.
Luliana Joilu.
Joilu…
“Eh… (Oo⊙)…”
Willis’s mouth opened in disbelief.
“Looks like you’ve finally realized.”
Sylvester smiled.
“That’s right. Your mother, Luliana Joilu, is my daughter. The year you were born, she passed away.”
“Unfortunately, as you lived in the Royal Palace as an Imperial Princess from a young age, the times we met were extremely few.”
“The current Emperor deliberately erased your mother’s presence, so my contact with you wasn’t close either.”
Moreover, Sylvester himself wasn’t fond of moving around.
Until today, for Willis’s sake, he finally revealed this secret.
No wonder, during that inauguration speech, he kept helping her and warning her not to go to the Academy.
Willis thought.
He even said that in the Academy, if she ever had trouble, she could come to him.
So…
He was actually her grandfather!
“Then why didn’t you say so earlier?”
Willis asked.
“You were living well, and I was living well, so there was no need to say or get closer.”
“I only intended to secretly help you if you were truly in danger.”
Sylvester said.
“After all, I’ve never interacted with you as a grandfather all these years. If I suddenly showed up, with your fiery temper, you’d either not recognize me or cause a scene…”
“So I thought it better not to tell you.”
At this, Willis rubbed her forehead.
“When did I have a fiery temper?”
“And if that’s what you intended, then where were you during the previous assassination attempts on me?”
Having the Headmaster of the Royal Academy as her grandfather was definitely a great backing for the original Willis.
Back then, she could bully others in the Academy with someone supporting her.
But this old man clearly wouldn’t approve.
However, as people age, they have their concerns, which Willis could understand.
“You didn’t see me, so how do you know I wasn’t there?”
The old man looked away awkwardly, unsure if he had been secretly present.
Willis understood too. This old guy had just bragged.
Maybe he watched over her at the Academy, but outside, with his old body, he probably couldn’t manage it.
And now, being questioned by her, he was embarrassed.
“But you’ve really changed a lot lately. More composed, restrained, calm, more like an Imperial Princess should be.”
Sylvester seemed genuinely pleased for her.
Willis, on the other hand, was filled with dark lines.
“So, why did you travel so far to reveal your identity to me?”
“With your intelligence, you should be able to guess, right?”
He replied.
“You’re my grandfather, and when you heard the shocking news about the true or false Imperial Princess in Ushi City, you had to come see for yourself if your granddaughter was real?”
“Exactly!”
The old man nodded.
He asked again,
“Do you know about the plum blossom-shaped birthmark on the back of your neck?”
“So that’s what you were checking.”
Willis breathed a sigh of relief.
She had thought the old man might have some perverse hobby for young girls, but it seemed she had overthought it.
Indeed, according to the original Willis’s memories, the birthmark on the back of her neck was there since birth.
Except for close family and confidants, no one could have known.
Sylvester had used it to confirm whether the current Willis was real.
But even so, this old man was still unsatisfied.
He asked,
“Willis, what on earth is going on!?”
Willis opened her mouth to answer, then suddenly asked,
“I can tell you, but how do you prove you’re really my grandfather!?”
“You… I…”
Now it was Sylvester’s turn to be dumbfounded.