One week later, at the opening ceremony of the Gauss Royal Academy, Cynthia, dressed in her school uniform, helped Lilica, who was wearing bulky, heavy outer clothing and a large hat that covered half her head, to sit down. “How are you feeling?”
Lilica replied with a slightly raspy voice, “I am already much better than before.”
Cynthia said with a hint of apology, “I did not expect that no attendants are allowed in any of the public areas. You will probably have a hard time with your classes from now on.”
Lilica shook her head and said nothing.
Beside her, a girl wearing a white robe looked at them with curiosity: “Is this the Lilica you told me about before?”
“Yes,” Cynthia introduced to Lilica, “this is Antikana, a healer who has come to the academy for advanced studies. She is my good friend. If you encounter any trouble later, you can ask her for help.”
“You must not feel embarrassed at all,” Antikana said with a bright, sunny smile. “I am a very skilled healer, you know. I will also contact the various professors later to figure something out for your health.”
Lilica had hardships she could not voice, so she could only nod, striving to project an image of someone shy and quiet.
Their surroundings were filled with seated classmates. Originally, everyone was chatting amongst themselves while waiting for the ceremony to begin, but as Cynthia and the others talked, they suddenly noticed a commotion stirring among the people nearby.
Antikana stood up uninhibitedly to peer into the distance, then said to Cynthia with a touch of excitement, “His Highness Mita and the Saintess have arrived!”
Cynthia instinctively tightened her grip on her staff. Her lips parted slightly, and before her mind even fully registered it, she had already chanted half a spell.
Lilica did not understand what was wrong with her, but she still pressed her hand down on Cynthia’s staff: “Big Sister Cynthia?”
Cynthia snapped back to her senses and lowered her staff. “It is nothing. Wait for me here for a moment; I need to go say hello to His Highness.”
Lilica watched in bewilderment as Cynthia stood up and marched head-on toward the group that had just walked in. Her posture did not look like she was going to greet someone at all; it looked much more like she was going to pick a fight.
Antikana sat firmly in her seat, curling her lip in disdain as she watched. “It must be so exhausting having a fiancé like that.”
Lilica turned her head to look at Antikana. “Fiancé?”
Cynthia had no idea that Antikana was wildly badmouthing Mita to Lilica. She walked right up to the group and blocked their path.
Mita, Betty, and Carlo made up a familiarly repulsive trio.
She bowed slightly to Mita, who was walking in the lead: “Your Highness, good day.”
Mita merely nodded indifferently.
Suppressing the urge to cast a spell in public, Cynthia nodded toward Betty, who was walking right beside Mita: “Lady Saintess, it has been a long time. I trust you have been well lately?”
Betty hid behind Carlo and answered timidly, “Thank you, I am doing well.”
Carlo: “…”
Enduring the terrifying glares of both his good friend and his cousin, Carlo forced a smile. “The weather is quite nice today, haha.”
Wearing a forced smile, Cynthia turned back to Mita: “So Carlo and the Saintess are such good friends. Seeing that the Saintess has found a good friend puts my mind at ease. The ceremony is about to begin, so please allow me to take my leave first.”
With that, she did not wait for Mita to reply. She gripped her staff tightly and turned on her heel to leave.
Carlo’s forced laugh froze stiffly on his face. No, Cynthia, you cannot do this to me!
When Cynthia returned to her seat, Antikana was deep in the middle of recounting Mita’s glorious history: “And then he told Fiona that she was so gorgeous that if he were not already engaged, he would probably be kissing his shins right now.”
Lilica’s facial expressions had completely broken past all control. She muttered under her breath, “Good heavens, why has nobody beaten him to death yet?!”
“Because he is a prince!” Antikana curled her lip. “Otherwise, how do you think he could be stupid enough to last this long?”
Cynthia slowed her pace, intending to let Antikana curse him a bit more.
True to form, Antikana did not pause for even a second: “Fiona was completely infatuated with him, and it drove him wild with pleasure! Every single day he felt that every girl in the entire world ought to love him. Before the Saintess descended, he spent all day telling people that he was worried his charm was too great, which might cause the Saintess and Cynthia to fall out and ultimately ruin the bigger picture. Oh, my goodness, is it really okay to leave the future of the nation in the hands of someone like that?”
“Wait? Are they bullying Cynthia?” Lilica’s focus was somewhat different from Antikana’s. “He clearly knows that Cynthia will be furious, right?!”
“He knows it, that is the problem!” Antikana sneered. “Yet Cynthia has always been hopelessly infatuated with him, making all sorts of excuses for him.”
Hearing this, Cynthia felt deeply mortified, so she gave a light cough and hurried over to sit beside them. “Alright, Anti, Lilica is still young; do not say such things to her.”
Antikana nudged Lilica. See? She is still defending him, right?
A sour feeling churned in Lilica’s heart as she thought, Even trash like that is worthy?
Fortunately, the opening ceremony started right then and there. The headmaster of the Royal Academy, who was also the king’s younger brother, Prince Eisen, delivered the opening speech as customary, and then introduced the new student who had just entered the magic department: the Saintess, Betty Clark.
An immediate wave of cheers erupted throughout the auditorium.
Knowing what he was going to say next, Cynthia gripped her staff with crushing force, gritting her teeth in secret.
“At the same time, Lady Saintess will also become the Head Student of the magic department, leading her fellow students in their studies.”
People sitting all across the auditorium could not help casting glances toward Cynthia, and the cheering died down. Being the Head Student was a special establishment of the Royal Academy; only the most outstanding student in each department could qualify for the evaluation. Ever since Cynthia enrolled, the position of Head Student in the magic department had always been held by her.
If anyone else had snatched this position, murmurs of discussion would probably have broken out everywhere by now, but since it was Betty, the Saintess chosen by the gods…
Cynthia felt those gazes burning into her like raging fire. She wanted to do what she used to do, which was to stand up right now and prove with her actual strength that she was the one truly qualified to be Head Student. Yet in her past life, not only had she failed to defeat Betty, she had only ended up dragging her reputation through the dirt even more.
“Why is it her?” suddenly, a voice rang out. “Just because she is the Saintess?”
Cynthia turned her head in astonishment to see Lilica holding her head high and asking loudly, “I recall there are rules for evaluating the Head Student, right? Can titles just be appointed by whim now?”
She involuntarily relaxed her grip on the staff.
Perhaps because no one expected that the person raising an objection right now would not be Cynthia, but someone else entirely, for a moment no one reacted, allowing Lilica to continue speaking.
“If a title is bestowed without going through any evaluation process, that is just behind-the-scenes manipulation. That is utterly disgraceful.”
“Stop right there!” On the other side of the auditorium, Mita stood up abruptly from beside the Saintess, his voice roaring with anger, “You are blaspheming the gods!”
“You are the ones blaspheming the gods!” Antikana also could not hold back from standing up, refusing to back down an inch. “If Lady Saintess truly possesses the strength, why not fairly undergo the evaluation process according to the rules? What you are doing is bringing shame upon both the Saintess and the gods!”
Everyone knew that Antikana and Cynthia were close friends, so for her to speak out like this was undoubtedly equivalent to declaring Cynthia’s stance.
Mita immediately glared daggers at his fiancée: “Cynthia Seratino Coton! Is this how you treat the royal family and the Saintess?”
“My foot! Mita Silhaste, if you have the guts, come argue with me.”
Cynthia pressed down on Antikana, who was about to keep talking, gently patted her arm to signal her to calm down first, and then stood up with complete composure. “Your Royal Highness the Prince, Your Royal Highness the Archduke, and Lady Saintess, please allow me to interrupt for a moment.”
Archduke Eisen nodded, his expression giving away nothing of his thoughts.
“As a noble of the kingdom, I naturally submit to the arrangements of the royal family and obey the will of the gods,” Cynthia said without servility or arrogance. “However, my heart inevitably harbors doubts, just like any other student.”
“If you demand that I put away my doubts and follow orders right now, I will naturally obey. If that is what you wish, please let any one of you give the order.”
The scene fell utterly silent.
Mita froze there, taking quite a while to find his tongue: “Cynthia, is this your attitude?”
Cynthia did not bother arguing for herself, merely nodding. “Since that is the case, Your Highness’s meaning is already clear to me.”
With that, she sat back down, completely ignoring the reactions of everyone else around her.
Watching Mita get thwarted, Lilica could not help laughing out loud.
Mita’s face flushed crimson, and seeing that he was about to lose his temper, Antikana stepped in a fraction of a second faster: “What you are doing is nothing less than blaspheming the gods and insulting the dignity of the Saintess! As a member of the Royal Healer Corps, I formally lodge a protest against this!”
Once Antikana invoked the Royal Healer Corps, even Archduke Eisen up on the grand platform could no longer pretend not to hear. “Alright, children. Since you harbor doubts about this, I propose right here that the Saintess, Betty Clark, be made one of the candidate nominees for Head Student of the magic department, to compete fairly with the other students.”
Someone in the audience immediately took the lead in starting a round of applause.
After the ceremony concluded, Lilica excused herself on the pretext of feeling dizzy and stated she needed to return to the dormitory first.
Although Cynthia was somewhat worried, she still had a pile of matters to handle, so she grabbed Carlo, who had not yet managed to slip away, and told him to escort her back.
However, the moment the escorted Lilica turned a corner, all trace of frailty vanished completely. She wiped the lead powder off her face and slung her arm around Carlo’s shoulder: “Brother, did you bring me my sword?”
“I brought it. First let go of me, you are wearing so many layers, I am roasting just standing next to you.”
“Good enough.” Lilica casually stripped off her thick outer coat and large hat, then asked, “Where is your prince right now?”
“You sound just like Cynthia when you talk like that,” Carlo muttered, dodging out from under her grip as he asked with suspicion, “What are you up to?”
“Nothing much,” Lilica replied vaguely. “I am just asking. Since he is your good buddy, I want to show a little extra care for him.”
Carlo half-believed her. “He seemed to be heading toward the magic laboratory.”
Lilica nodded. With one hand carrying her clothes and hat and the other hooking back around Carlo’s neck, she said, “Let us go then. Time to retrieve my sword.”