Anis looked at the note in her hand and bit her lip.
After confirming the contents, she threw it onto the ground. A small flame flickered, turning it to ash.
‘They don’t know about Xiaomi’s situation. I need to remind them.’
After thinking of a countermeasure, Anis wrote down a note.
The next morning, led by the guards, she went to the dining hall for breakfast.
Everything was the same as usual. Duke Frenst still sat in his main seat, focused on enjoying the delicacies on his plate.
As she sat down, a stream of magic, invisible to the naked eye, flowed from the now-invisible magic chain on her wrist toward the old geezer.
Sherry sat opposite her. After a brief exchange of glances, the two continued eating with their heads down.
Anis picked up her knife and fork, cutting the fried egg on her plate while observing the eating pace of the other two, ensuring she was the fastest.
When Sherry had half a piece of bread left, Anis had already cleared her plate.
Then she looked up at Sibel, who was standing behind Sherry. “Sibel, can I have some extra food?”
“What do you need?”
Sibel quickly walked toward Anis. Just as she was a few steps away, Duke Frenst spoke from the head of the table.
“Have another servant come for extra helpings. Sibel, as Sherry’s personal maid, you are not allowed to leave her side by even half a step.”
“Yes.”
Sibel naturally had no right to refuse. She looked at Anis with a slightly complicated expression.
But Anis only raised an eyebrow, her gaze locked on the pocket of the maid’s uniform.
Indeed, as Sibel had approached, Anis had used the wand hidden in her sleeve to flick a note into it.
After that, it was a long wait.
—
Anis returned to her bedroom, preparing to continue her potion research.
She looked around and let out a long sigh.
There was no crucible, no measuring cup, and no grinding stone — nothing at all.
The alchemy tools that used to sit in the corner had been taken away at some point.
‘That old geezer…’ Anis thought resentfully. ‘He probably knows about the Second Princess.’
However, this could not stop her progress. What they had stripped away were merely tools, not her knowledge.
She sat on the edge of the bed, placed her hands on her knees, and closed her eyes. She let her body sink, her consciousness feeling as if it were being gently pushed into a familiar territory.
It wasn’t a dream, but her way of thinking.
In that space, the world was composed of her thoughts. Knowledge wasn’t a flowing light but was instead disassembled into individual tracks available for observation.
She began to recall from the most basic Stability Potion.
An ordinary Magic Stability Potion essentially worked through neutralization and diversion, slowing the magic’s flow rate to return it to a safe threshold.
That logic was useless for the Second Princess.
Her problem wasn’t that the flow was “too fast,” but rather a “traffic jam.”
In her mind, Anis reconstructed the scene from the previous diagnosis. The Princess’s magic circuits were like a perfect puzzle that had been shattered.
Some parts were abnormally intact, while others were as messy as a tangled ball of yarn.
Magic was forced to crash back and forth within them, causing secondary damage to the magic circuits.
There were two things she could do. One was to smooth out the magic circuits, allowing the blocked lane to flow again.
This path was difficult and would cause significant harm to the Princess.
Alternatively, she could destroy the blocked areas and rebuild them.
In this case, there was only one solution — use a Magic Stability Potion with a purity of 100% to dissolve the clogged magic circuits and reconnect them.
‘In the end, I still have to face this problem directly.’
Anis continued her deep thinking, beginning to conceive every possible method to increase purity.
The derivation process lasted for a long time, even causing her to lose track of time.
All she knew was that when she opened her eyes again, her shoulders and back were already somewhat stiff.
The room remained empty.
But in her mind, a complete theoretical formula now existed.
She leaned against the back of her chair and slowly exhaled.
In that moment, Anis suddenly realized something.
She didn’t need an alchemy lab, and she didn’t need anyone’s permission.
What she was truly good at had never been the physical operation, but the understanding.
She repeatedly simulated that theoretical concept in her mind.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
Each time, the logic became tighter and the details more perfect.
Until it was no longer a hypothesis, but a theory that could be verified.
She opened her eyes, her gaze falling on the center of the room.
It was empty.
But she knew that if she had tools, she could start the first trial production right now.
The thought made her heart tighten slightly.
It wasn’t out of longing, but because she was ready.
She slowly stood up and walked to the window.
The insulated window only allowed a faint light to seep through, hiding the world outside.
She didn’t care.
Even with nothing, she could still move forward.
This time, she wasn’t waiting; she was accumulating.
She was preparing for the moment she could thoroughly break free from her cage.
Anis didn’t know how today was any different from usual.
Through the flow of magic, she could vaguely hear people talking in the courtyard.
It seemed Duke Frenst had invited someone over to discuss something about flowers.
‘Did that old geezer take all the credit Sherry and I earned for himself?’
Such a possibility flashed through her mind. Based on the characterization of that guy in the book, it was exactly something he would do.
‘Dammit…’
She paced the room irritably. Currently, she could do nothing and could only place her hope in Sibel.
Hopefully, after Sibel received the note, she would act according to its contents.
Although it would expose certain things, it no longer mattered to her.
*Scritch, scratch — *
The sound of claws scratching the door came from inside the wardrobe.
Anis’s heart skipped a beat, and she quickly ran to the wardrobe.
“Xiaomi!”
She whispered excitedly. Just as she was about to pick up the cat, a voice sounded from outside.
“Miss Anis, I heard a strange noise from the room. Please allow us to enter and check.”
The guard’s voice sounded outside the door. Anis thought, ‘This is bad,’ and quickly gave Xiaomi a look.
The kitten understood immediately, jumping back into the teleportation circle and vanishing.
‘Alright, next is dealing with you…’
Even after sending Xiaomi away, she couldn’t let these people search her room as they pleased. Otherwise, where would her dignity be?
She took off her robe and changed into a thin nightgown.
“The noise was because I was changing my clothes. Are you sure you want to come in?”
Anis gripped her wand and aimed it at the empty keyhole.
“…”
The other side fell into silence. Seeing this, Anis pressed her advantage. “Listen well. If you dare peek through the keyhole, I’ll blow you away with magic.”
“Forgive us…”
The voice outside clearly faltered. They were just guards earning a fixed salary; why risk their lives?
The crisis was resolved — for now.
Anis intentionally pulled open the wardrobe loudly, while tossing the quilt onto the bed to make plenty of noise.
As for Xiaomi?
She was right there, hidden under the covers.