The next day, Liyami arrived at the mansion’s main gate with her packed luggage, meeting up with Lavinia and the others.
Present were not only Lavinia’s group but also Laine, Xiaolan, and Laura. It seemed Lavinia had invited them all on the vacation as well.
That was just as well. Although the three of them were officially servants hired by Kolin, Liyami and the others never really thought of them that way. Rather than leaving them behind at the mansion on standby, inviting them as friends on the vacation was much better. Lavinia had thought quite thoroughly.
Looking at the barely concealed excitement on the faces of Laura and the others, Liyami couldn’t help but think this. She turned her gaze towards Lavinia’s group; they seemed ready to go.
“Don’t tell me I’m the last one to arrive?”
Liyami carried her luggage over to Lavinia, looking left and right, realizing she was indeed the last one here.
“Indeed. I didn’t expect you to be the slowest one. That’s a surprise.”
Lavinia teased Liyami a little. Just as Liyami was about to retort, several carriages drove up near them.
“Oh, looks like the carriages are here. Let’s get on board first before discussing anything else.”
With that, Lavinia picked up her luggage and boarded the nearest carriage. Seeing this, Liyami had no choice but to drop the matter and follow her on.
Lavinia’s plan was to take the carriage to Kit City’s Public Large Teleportation Array, then use the Teleportation Circle to travel to Sunlight Island in the southern part of the kingdom—the destination for their vacation.
Once everyone was aboard, the carriages soon set off. At this moment, Liyami seemed to remember something and asked Lavinia again.
“Still no way to contact Hifny?”
“No way,” Lavinia shook her head helplessly. “It seems we’ll have to leave her behind this time. We’ll just have to invite her along next time there’s a chance.”
Hearing this, Liyami had no solution either and could only sigh at Hifny’s truly unfortunate luck.
With that topic concluded, the carriage interior fell into a quiet atmosphere once more. Although the carriage wasn’t slow, there was still some time before they reached their destination. Staying completely silent like this felt a bit strange.
Laura and the others were in another carriage. This carriage only had the four of them—Liyami, Lavinia, Eleanor, and Kolin—so conversation topics were limited to matters concerning just the four of them.
But Liyami still didn’t speak. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to talk, but she didn’t know what to say.
Liyami glanced at Kolin sitting by the window. Since yesterday’s incident, he hadn’t spoken much. While he didn’t seem to actively reject them, there was a definite sense of distance he’d placed between himself and them.
Liyami felt this distance could easily be closed, but she wouldn’t do it now. Because the others might not agree.
Lavinia and Eleanor were the same; after yesterday’s events, they had both become somewhat silent. Lavinia was okay. As the initiator of this vacation and someone with a normally lively and cheerful personality, she hadn’t changed much overall, just speaking a little less.
But Eleanor was a different story. No, saying ‘different’ wasn’t quite right. It was more like she had reverted to her former self.
Liyami remembered that although Eleanor had been very clingy towards Kolin recently, aggressively pursuing him and even threatening Liyami not to get in her way, she wasn’t like that before. Eleanor used to be a relatively quiet person who spoke very little. If she weren’t also an important member of their party, Liyami could easily forget her presence.
And now, Eleanor’s silent demeanor seemed more like she had changed back, yet it was also different. Liyami could clearly sense the aura of dejection emanating from Eleanor sitting beside her. This was different from the Eleanor of the past.
‘It seems yesterday’s incident really was a huge blow to Eleanor,’ Liyami couldn’t help but think.
However, Liyami didn’t dislike this. On the contrary, she preferred Eleanor to stay like this. That way, Liyami would have one less rival. Of course, Liyami also knew this was just her own wishful thinking.
Eleanor wouldn’t give up so easily. She was Kolin’s childhood friend and had even said she and Kolin had a promise. Although Liyami didn’t know the content of that promise, judging by Eleanor’s previous behavior, it was probably a very important one.
Therefore, even though Eleanor currently appeared somewhat dejected, Liyami knew it was only temporary. Probably once they reached Sunlight Island, Eleanor would recover.
Although the atmosphere in the carriage was eerily calm, it didn’t prevent them from quickly reaching their destination.
Even though few words were spoken in the carriage, Liyami wasn’t worried about any problems during the upcoming vacation. After all, this wasn’t a vacation for just the four of them.
Getting off the carriage, Liyami and the others showed little reaction, but Laura, like a child seeing the world for the first time, looked around with shining eyes. Given her background, that description was actually quite accurate for Laura.
What surprised Liyami, however, was that besides Laura, there was another person making the same movements: the equally curious and excited Xiaolan.
Unlike the calm Laine, Xiaolan also seemed to be visiting such a place for the first time, acting very excited.
Liyami was a bit surprised, but it was within her expectations. After all, this kind of Teleportation Circle had only been installed in various major cities in recent years. Someone of Xiaolan’s social standing would indeed find it hard to see one.
Liyami stopped looking at Xiaolan and turned to prepare to enter the reserved Teleportation Circle with Lavinia and the others.
It had to be said, magical technology was becoming more and more advanced these days. A large-scale Teleportation Circle capable of sending people vast distances would have been very difficult to achieve twenty years ago. Now, basically any moderately large and advanced city was equipped with similar Teleportation Circles.
After passing the guards’ inspection, Liyami and the others stepped into the Teleportation Circle as scheduled. Unlike the Teleportation Circle Hifny used, this public one could transport more people, but because of that, it couldn’t achieve instantaneous teleportation. It required a certain charging and waiting time before it could officially activate.
Additionally, various parameters needed to be adjusted and set, and various checks had to be performed in advance. Only after all these were done would the charging start, making the Magic Circle begin operation. But to actually begin the teleportation, the Magic Circle needed to reach its optimal operational moment. Therefore, after all these procedures, it took Liyami and the others over half an hour to finally be teleported away from the circle.
With a flash of blinding white light, Liyami slowly opened her eyes.
A brilliant sunlight shone down on her. A few white seabirds flew over Lavinia’s head. The sound of waves surrounded everyone. The scent of summer washed over them, making Liyami momentarily unable to process such a drastic change in environment.
Liyami and the others had successfully arrived at their vacation destination—Sunlight Island!