“I didn’t expect you to be here.”
Flora was staring blankly at the books when a familiar voice suddenly rang in her ear.
Flora’s fingertips paused for a moment, and she looked up. She saw a silvery-white figure; it was Xueli.
Xueli stood before the bookshelf on the other side, holding a thick book of her own.
She hadn’t come very close, nor did she intentionally keep her distance; her position was just right. It didn’t seem too intrusive, yet it wasn’t an obvious attempt to avoid her either.
Her gaze swept over the book spread out on Flora’s table before returning to her face. Her expression was calm. There was no contempt, but no warmth either. It was simply… unexpected.
“This doesn’t seem like the kind of place you’d frequent,” Xueli added, her tone still composed.
Flora blinked and instinctively pressed down on the page. “Why?”
“The atmosphere,” Xueli said bluntly. “The impression you gave before was that you’d be the type to get impatient with these books.”
The statement wasn’t sharp, but it didn’t hide her initial judgment.
Flora didn’t argue; after all, she really hadn’t planned on coming to this place much before. She looked down at the page, then up at Xueli.
“It isn’t exactly easy now, either,” she said truthfully. “It’s just slightly better than daydreaming.”
Xueli raised an eyebrow slightly. Only then did she notice the category label on the spine.
“Bloodline…” she read. “Royal Family related.”
“Mhm,” Flora responded.
“The direction of your search is very clear,” Xueli said. “And you’re here to find something, not just to browse.”
Xueli’s assessment was accurate, and Flora didn’t deny it.
“Since I’m here, I have to figure out some basic things,” she said in a steady voice. “Otherwise, I won’t even be able to begin to understand.”
Xueli was silent for a moment. She took a few steps closer and sat down at the long table opposite Flora, placing her book on the surface.
The cover was somewhat worn and the corners were frayed; clearly, it wasn’t the first time it had been taken out.
She flipped through her book, read a few pages, and then spoke faintly, “You might not be familiar with this system. But to me, it’s very familiar.”
Flora was slightly startled.
“The way the Blood Clan’s Royal Family functions isn’t fundamentally different from the Demon Race’s,” Xueli said. “Bloodline, authority, stability, and succession order… only the terminology is different.”
She looked up at Flora. “So, I don’t look at these out of curiosity. I read them out of habit.”
Those words caused Flora’s heart to skip a beat. She suddenly realized that Xueli wasn’t looking at her as a bystander, but measuring her against the standards of a peer.
“Then, after reading them, what do you think?” Flora asked.
“Complete,” Xueli answered quickly. “Rigorous, cold, and leaving little room for error.”
“That doesn’t sound like a compliment.”
“Indeed, it’s not exactly good for the individual,” Xueli admitted frankly. “But for a race, it’s a necessary condition for maintaining order for hundreds of years.”
She paused. “The Blood Clan is the same.”
Flora continued to look down and flip through the book. “Is that why you were surprised to see me reading these?” she suddenly asked softly.
Xueli glanced at her. “Yes. I originally thought you would be more resistant to this kind of thing.”
Flora didn’t respond directly. She simply closed the book and gently placed it back on the table.
Xueli’s gaze lingered on her face for a moment. Then, she suddenly said, “In my memory, you were very nervous when you were in the drawing room.”
Flora was taken aback and turned her head away.
“Your movements, posture, and reaction rhythm were all a bit stiff; none of it was good enough,” Xueli added.
“But after observing you, I realized it’s not that you don’t care. Because someone who doesn’t care wouldn’t behave like that—neither reaching perfection nor doing nothing at all.”
“You’re simply not experienced enough yet.”
Flora snapped her head back around, her eyes instinctively widening.
‘I care a lot, but I’m just unfamiliar?’ She hadn’t expected Xueli to think that way.
“And now, while you’re sitting here, you’re very quiet,” Xueli continued. “Not just an outward quiet, but an aura.”
Flora lowered her head slightly and didn’t speak immediately.
“I’m not saying you’ve already adapted,” Xueli said, as if anticipating her reaction. “I just feel that you haven’t been completely rejected by this position.”
It was a unique assessment, one that Flora had never even considered. She raised her eyes. “So you think… I’m not entirely unsuitable?”
Xueli was silent for a few seconds. She closed her book, leaned back against the chair, and let her gaze fall on the towering bookshelves in the distance.
“Yes, but I won’t say you’re a qualified Demon Princess,” she said truthfully. “You’re still far from that.”
Flora couldn’t help but let out a helpless smile. “I don’t feel like one, either.”
“But at least you haven’t hesitated or stagnated in the wrong place,” Xueli looked at her. “You aren’t the type to stand here while your heart is completely elsewhere; I can tell that your heart is in it.”
This time, Flora didn’t look away. She simply sat there quietly, feeling the weight of those words in her heart.
Xueli stood up and put the book back on the shelf. “By my standards,” she added, “that’s already a merit.”
She turned to leave. After walking a few steps, she paused. “If you come here again,” she said without turning around, “you can sit a bit closer.”
The sound of footsteps gradually faded. The library returned to silence.
Flora sat there alone. She looked at the book on the table, then at the spot where Xueli had just been sitting.
That feeling of being quietly acknowledged caused a certain place that had always been tense to loosen just a little.
She also stood up and stretched.