Anis changed into her pajamas and quietly cast a sound-isolation and locking spell on the door. She climbed into bed, pretending to take a morning nap.
In reality, she couldn’t wait to be reunited with the little kitten she missed so much.
“Xiao Mi?”
Hidden under the covers, Anis whispered softly toward the pair of feline eyes gleaming in the darkness.
*Meow~*
Xiao Mi seemed cautious, letting out only a tiny, delicate cry.
“Did Sherry and the others send you?”
“Wu-ing.”
As Xiao Mi made this cat-like sound, she deliberately constricted her throat and lowered her voice.
Then, she pressed her soft little head against Anis’s forehead, and a young girl’s voice was transmitted into the depths of Anis’s mind through their shared consciousness.
‘Master~’
Anis could even see an image in her mind — a petite girl with cat ears and a soft voice, sitting in a W-pose, beckoning to her.
Who could possibly resist that?
Anis instinctively hugged the cat in her arms a little tighter. The little cat-girl licked Anis’s smooth cheek a few times with her raspy tongue before she finally spoke. “I already know about Master’s current situation. Don’t worry about Xiao Mi. I’ll take good care of myself.”
“How are you handling your food?”
“Someone comes to deliver food every day, but she — she — “
“Hmm? Is it something difficult to talk about?”
“Meow.”
Xiao Mi shook her head. “It’s not that. It’s just that the person who brings me food is the same person in black who attacked me before.”
Hearing this, Anis felt a slight pang in her heart. “She didn’t make things difficult for you, did she?”
“No.”
Strange. Who exactly was that person in black?
“Let’s not talk about that for now. Master, I’m here to help you establish a communication channel with the outside world,” Xiao Mi said to Anis. “Sherry set up a teleportation circle in our alchemy workshop that leads directly to her bedroom. I just need to run back and forth a few times a day to deliver the letters.”
“I understand. Thank you.”
Anis kissed the cat’s forehead.
***
On the other side, Sherry held a letter as she stepped onto the stairs to the third floor once again.
Inside was a simplified notice:
**[Target object has displayed extra-theoretical stability under controlled conditions; a reassessment of its management level is required.]**
Sherry stared at that line for a long time. She understood every individual word, but when put together, they made no sense.
What did “extra-theoretical” mean?
Anis had always been under that old man’s supervision. What outrageous move could she have possibly made?
Or rather…
Had their secret communication via the kitten been discovered?
‘No, the mana chains in my past life weren’t this powerful. What else is that old man hiding that I don’t know about?’
Though she didn’t fully understand what the old man had written, Sherry could still extract some information from it.
Anis was no longer just “under control”; she was becoming “unpredictable.”
She immediately realized what kind of reaction this would trigger. It wouldn’t lead to a loosening of restrictions, but to further control and tightening.
Sherry arrived at the study door again and knocked three times.
“Come in, daughter.”
The head of the Furenst family’s answer told her that this time, he wasn’t speaking as the Acting Head, but in the capacity of a family member.
The light in the study was brighter than usual. Baron Furenst stood by the desk, holding a written report.
“Did you see it?” he asked.
Sherry nodded. “But I need you to explain it in detail, Father.”
“According to the report sent back by the guards, there was unusual activity in Anis’s room this morning. When the guards wanted to go in and confirm, she refused them under the pretext of changing clothes.”
“However, the guards still obtained some information. The strange noise in Anis’s room came from inside the wardrobe — specifically, the sound of a feline scratching at wooden boards.”
“I did a simple scan with my mana and discovered an unusual flow of magic in her room. I suspect it’s a teleportation circle.”
Sherry’s heart skipped a beat.
“I need you to go investigate and confirm what is in her wardrobe.”
“Understood.”
Sherry’s reply was very respectful.
“Alright, back to business. I have decided to raise Anis’s danger level,” the Duke said calmly. “And I will terminate all her current possibilities for research.”
“You know she doesn’t have the conditions for research right now anyway.”
Sherry forced herself to remain calm. Had the potion theory research Anis was conducting been discovered?
That’s impossible!
“She has plenty of time right now,” the Duke corrected. “And time, in itself, is a resource.”
Sherry was silent for a moment. “What do you intend to do?”
“Confiscate all books and any possible research facilities in her room.”
“I am entrusting this task to you.”
The conversation ended. As Sherry walked down the stairs, her heart was thumping wildly.
Something was wrong.
Something was definitely wrong.
Sherry had a premonition that everything Anis did was right under that old man’s nose, and not a single move had been missed.
‘But how? Could it really be because of those mana chains?’
Sherry pursed her lips and arrived at the first floor of the mansion. After nodding to the two guards, she knocked on the door.
“Anis?”
There was no response.
Sherry tried to push the door open a crack, but the moment her hand touched the lock, a sense of resistance born from magic made her fingertips tremble.
It was locked?
Sherry’s first thought was of one possibility — the cat, Xiao Mi, was inside!
She quickly adjusted her expression, doing her best not to let her emotions show on her face.
The guard looked at her with confusion. “What’s wrong, Lady Sherry?”
“It’s nothing. I was just thinking.”
This kind of lock couldn’t stop the current Sherry at all. A trace of mana gathered at her fingertips, and the magical lock dissolved instantly.
“Excuse me…”
Sherry quietly slipped into the room and immediately saw Anis sleeping with the covers over her head.
There was an even rise and fall next to her pillow; that had to be the cat.
Before waking her, she had another important task.
Sherry walked softly to Anis’s wardrobe and pulled the door open to observe carefully.
Aside from a few of Anis’s magic robes, there was nothing inside.
‘I didn’t expect anything to be on the surface anyway.’
Sherry crooked her finger, continuing her deep investigation.
Sure enough, there was a teleportation circle at the bottom of the wardrobe.
After a careful inspection, she shook her head with a bitter smile. ‘Honestly, for a defense warlock to make something so crude… no wonder that old man found it.’
With a tap of her small hand, Sherry injected ice mana, reinforcing the highly unsafe teleportation circle.
Next was…
Sherry quietly walked to the side of Anis’s bed and pulled back the quilt covering her head.
Looking at her stunning sleeping face, Sherry silently swallowed.
‘No, not now. You can’t have those kinds of thoughts.’
Pulling her stray thoughts back, she lifted Anis’s slender arms from under the covers.
Invisible mana chains bound her wrists. Sherry felt the flow of magic within them, and her eyes widened in disbelief.
‘There’s actually an eavesdropping mechanism?’
In her previous life, she was absolutely certain the old man didn’t know this kind of magic. So this was…?
Sherry raised her hand, wanting to destroy the damn chains, but her hand stayed in the air and did not fall.
She still couldn’t afford to alert the enemy.
She needed a legitimate reason.
“Sigh…” Sherry let out a long breath, tucked Anis back in, and gently patted her shoulder.
“Anis, wake up.”
“Mm…”
Anis hummed twice before reacting. She quickly threw off the quilt, holding the wand she had hidden under her pillow!
“Oh, it’s you.”
After confirming it was Sherry, she retracted her wand and pulled the sleeping cat into her arms. “How did you get in?”
“That’s not important. I have something to tell you.”
Sherry sat on the edge of Anis’s bed and whispered in her ear, “The old man might already know what you’re doing. He sent me here to monitor you.”