Blood surged through her veins, and a faint humming seemed to ring in her ears.
Aisha gazed at the Third Princess, feeling her hands and feet grow cold, even her vision beginning to blur.
“Yo-Your Highness… I…”
Aisha stammered, seeming to want to explain something.
But under the extreme tension, her voice whirled in her throat, and she could not utter a single word.
She could only watch the other person—slowly and leisurely open that slip of paper filled with warnings.
This brief moment… in Aisha’s perception, felt as though a century had passed.
“…Aisha?”
The note was shredded by Fina and scattered before her eyes.
“Do you think… I am hurting Luwei?”
Fina wore her signature smile, her voice so faint that one could not tell if she were angry or happy.
She leaned down, carefully scrutinizing Aisha’s expression—a smile uglier than tears.
“Why would you think that?”
“How could you think that…?”
Seeing the other girl sway, Fina reached out and gripped Aisha’s shoulders.
“I am clearly protecting her…”
Aisha’s face grew increasingly pale…
“Why are you making that face?”
Seeing this, Fina tilted her head, looking quite confused, “…Do you not trust me?”
A strange silence ensued… like the quiet before a storm.
Aisha’s heart rose into her throat…
But to her surprise—
There was no punishment,
No blame…
Fina applied a little force with her hands, helping her up from the cold blue stone floor.
Then, she stared at her with a rather strange expression.
Aisha knew that look…
It was that of… a naughty child…
Wanting to share with her—some kind of rare toy.
“Nee, Aisha…”
“Why don’t you see for yourself?”
Hearing this, Aisha blankly looked in the direction of Fina’s finger…
The next instant, her pupils contracted violently.
That was—
Luwei…
Your Highness…?
At this very moment, she was kneeling on the bed, staring blankly out the window, her mind completely not on the two of them.
Tears fell silently from the corners of her eyes, soaking her collar, yet she seemed completely unaware.
She was so beautiful and wretched, so worthy of pity…
“What did you do to Her Highness Luwei…?”
Aisha found… that she could finally speak a full sentence.
Perhaps only standing up for someone else could give her some insignificant courage?
Or perhaps it was realizing the truth—no matter what she did, things could not get any worse than they were now.
But what Aisha did not expect was…
“I merely delivered a message.”
There was absolutely no annoyance on Fina’s face as if her scheme had been exposed.
She lowered her eyes, appearing to grieve for Luwei…
In a daze, Luwei felt someone pushing her.
So she unwillingly opened her eyes…
[Duke Roy is dead.]
She saw Fina lowering her eyes, as if grieving for Luwei…
“What… did you say…?”
Looking out the window, Luwei did not see the next day’s sun.
Instead… the sun of the House Carys had set.
Fina did not make a sound, but sat on the edge of the bed, quietly waiting for Luwei to process these emotions.
Until a faint, barely audible sob sounded, as if having anticipated this long ago, Fina gently pulled Luwei into her arms.
“My father… how… did he die?”
Perhaps it was because she had just woken up, or perhaps she had caught a chill last night…
Luwei found that her voice carried a nasal tone when she spoke.
“In recent days, the Seventh Army dealt a crushing defeat to the Orc Tribe, with news of victory arriving in succession.”
“Until yesterday, the remnants of the Orc Tribe fled.”
“Duke Roy led the elites of the Seventh Army into the heart of the Orc Tribe… only to encounter the Demon Race there.”
“Caught in a joint siege by the Orcs and the Demon Race, not a single person in the pursuit unit survived, and only one secret report reached the royal capital.”
Fina reached out, displaying the “secret report” she spoke of.
Complex, intricate magic patterns swirled around it, and the escaping mana fluctuations actually caused the space to slightly distort… everything signified the extreme importance of this report.
“The Orc Tribe colluding with the Demon Race is highly significant intelligence; I will report it to the Supreme Federation tomorrow.”
“By then, the Elf Race, Dragon Race, Sea Race, and even… the Vampire race. All the other races will unite to crusade against the Orc Tribe…”
“I am sorry for the accident that befell your father…”
“He was an unquestionable hero…”
Fina said a lot, but Luwei heard very little…
She only understood the cause and effect—
Because of the appearance of the “Life Potion,”
the plot where “Duke Roy loses the war and Linbei City falls” in the original story did not happen.
Instead, the balance of the war tilted toward humanity.
Duke Roy crushed the Orc Tribe…
“So…”
“The plot, was corrected…?”
Luwei murmured,
A strong sense of palpitations followed; she knew she had been arranged by fate once again.
In the original plot, Duke Roy only suffered a defeat and retreated; it never reached the point of death.
But now…
The Demon Race—
The plot line diverged, and a variable appeared that had never existed in the original work.
The Demon Race killed Duke Roy…
In other words, her own actions in defiance of the plot led to Duke Roy’s death…
Thinking of this, Luwei suddenly felt a tightness in her chest.
She felt her consciousness drifting, and a thick, unreal feeling surfaced in her heart.
She had a premonition that these were the instinctive emotions of this body…
And these emotions were undoubtedly directed at—
The father who doted on her, cared for her, and was even a bit cute…
People often say that when the emotions in one’s heart reach a certain level, one becomes rational.
But Luwei at this moment did not think so…
She didn’t even recognize this so-called father; he was just an NPC in a game, someone who just provided her with some slight help…
That’s right, she had always been rational.
Until, Luwei pressed her palm against her heart…
Feeling the increasingly intense beating of her heart—
She suddenly had a slight sense of being “alive.”
“Luwei…”
A soft call came to her ears, pulling her consciousness back from the clouds.
“I am here…”
A warm hand covered the back of Luwei’s hand, feeling the heartbeat with her at that moment.
Immediately after, Luwei felt a gentle force on her shoulders.
As the other party pulled her in, her head was buried in a warm embrace.
“You can cry; there are no outsiders here…”
…Cry?
But Luwei didn’t feel she would be saddened by such a thing.
But…
Fina’s embrace was soft; it should be fine to lean on her for a while, right?
An unsettling scent… like… the fresh fragrance of citrus.
It suited Fina’s appearance well…
***
The sobbing gradually subsided, and only the two of them’s heartbeats remained in the room.
Until—
A rustling sound came from the doorway, breaking the current tranquility.
“Don’t worry, I will only be gone for a little while…”
Fina gently pushed the girl in her arms away,
looking at her expression, Fina was suddenly a bit dazed—
The little face was filled with confusion, long eyelashes fluttering like butterfly wings, with a few crystal tears hanging from them.
And the clothes on her own chest were already soaked in a large patch… clearly the girl’s handiwork.
“Now… only I can protect a crybaby like you…”
Fina poked the tip of Luwei’s nose, her voice filled with pity.
“Don’t worry… even if the whole world rejects you…”
“I never will…”