In Lilica’s despairing gaze, Tina delivered more than ten books for humanities freshmen to her young miss’s sickbed.
None of these books were less than two inches thick, and Tina did not dare to stack these expensive books directly on the ground, so she had to drag a high-backed chair to the head of the bed and pile the books on top of it.
These books were almost taller than Cynthia, who was sitting on an identical chair.
Lilica felt an unprecedented wave of dizziness, and she felt like she was truly about to faint this time.
Cynthia looked at that pile of books and also felt a severe headache. She had heard others mention that the coursework for the humanities department was heavy, but she had never expected it to reach this extent. Thinking about how Lilica had already been absent for over a week and had no idea how much content she had fallen behind on, she couldn’t help rubbing her temples.
After hesitating for a long time, she decided to pick the thinnest and most basic book from the stack: “The Inheritance and Evolution of the Kogoles Nobility System”.
In Cynthia’s view, this book was very suitable for Lilica at her current stage.
The Doyle family was, after all, an old-fashioned noble house with deep foundations. Although Lilica had not formally studied this before, through subtle influence and daily exposure, she shouldn’t be completely unable to understand the content, which would help Lilica reduce her fear of learning new knowledge.
Thus, under Lilica’s terrified gaze, she spread the book open on Lilica’s lap and began her explanation.
“In the old system, the kingdom’s framework was jointly controlled by the royal family and the nobility,” Cynthia read aloud, pointing to the text on the page. “The royal family controlled the nobility, while the nobility controlled the land and the people. This tiered system could reduce the cost and energy required for the royal family to manage land and people, but it was far too closed-off and backward.”
From the moment Cynthia uttered the very first word, Lilica’s eyes had already glazed over.
“The meaning of this passage is that the nobles manage the affairs of their territories, and then the royal family manages the affairs of the nobility,” Cynthia explained. “Because managing affairs requires a massive consumption of time and energy, the royal family had no way to manage everything personally, so they delegated this portion of power to the nobility, leaving the royal family to deal solely with the nobles.”
“The term closed-off and backward mentioned here refers to how the nobles deliberately maintained the status quo of their territories without change in order to preserve their rule. The old nobility not only failed to accept new things and new technologies, but instead utterly rejected the risks that might be hidden behind them.”
Lilica’s eyelids grew increasingly heavy. She couldn’t understand Cynthia’s explanations at all, so she could only make perfunctory sounds of agreement and occasionally repeat a few keywords, such as power, rule, and failed to accept.
Meanwhile, Cynthia’s mind was entirely consumed by how to explain things to Lilica in a more accessible and easy-to-understand manner, and she completely failed to notice that Lilica was dangerously close to falling asleep right on the spot.
“Faced with this situation, the great John Donnett the Fifth, commonly known as John V, brought about a change. He began elevating the rights of the people.”
Lilica struggled between sleep and wakefulness: “The people’s rights.”
“The surname system originated in the early days of the kingdom’s establishment,” Cynthia pointed to the text on the book and explained. “In the very beginning, only those who obtained peerage titles were allowed to have surnames. Later on, John V extended this grace to the common people, issuing a decree that as long as one owned their own land, they could acquire a surname after five generations.”
“Mh, John V, has a surname.”
Only then did Cynthia realize something was amiss: “Lilica?”
Lilica answered with her eyes closed: “Mhm, I am listening, John V.”
Tutor Cynthia: “O”
She had only ever seen unambitious young noble scions doze off during lectures in class, and she had never imagined that such a legendary figure would appear right by her side.
Tina, standing nearby, smiled: “I am truly sorry, Lady Cynthia, for troubling you.”
Cynthia asked helplessly: “Your young miss, sigh, was she like this before?”
“Because of her illness, the young miss’s energy has always been rather poor,” Tina replied cautiously. “Recently, she probably hasn’t been very accustomed to the academy’s environment, so every single night, she hasn’t been sleeping very well.”
After all, the academy was packed with people everywhere during the day, and since she didn’t want to go out wearing that exaggerated disguise, she could only go out to blow off steam at night. Once she started running wild, she wouldn’t stop until the middle of the night, so it would be a miracle if she had any energy during the day.
Especially since she had witnessed Cynthia losing her composure after drinking yesterday. While she felt her illusions shattered on one hand, on the other hand, she felt that Sister Cynthia was so amusing even when losing her composure, and she had tossed and turned with excited anxiety until almost dawn before finally falling asleep.
Cynthia sighed, trying to think of some way to perk Lilica up a bit, but the moment she turned her head, she saw Lilica’s head drop backward, and she had completely fallen asleep.
Cynthia: “O”
Tina maintained her steadfast smile: “The young miss has already invited a healer to examine her. Hopefully, this time it will be effective.”
“Forget it, let her sleep,” Cynthia closed Lilica’s textbook. “Go fetch a blanket.”
Tina: “O” Better not. I think our young miss is already plenty warm wearing all this. In fact, I honestly suspect she just fainted from heat stroke.
In the end, under Cynthia’s insistence, Tina still retrieved a very thin blanket and draped it over Lilica’s stomach.
Cynthia was actually quite dissatisfied with this thin blanket, but since she didn’t plan on letting Lilica sleep forever, she didn’t say anything further.
She pushed Lilica’s textbook aside, took out her own carried-along magic theory book, and began to read.
As it turned out, probably because it was too hot, Lilica didn’t sleep for long before she woke up with a start, breathing heavily. Fine beads of perspiration had already seeped across her forehead.
“What is wrong?” Cynthia put down the book in her hand and reached out to touch Lilica’s forehead. “Are you feeling unwell? Or did you have a nightmare?”
“No.” Lilica wasn’t fully awake yet, so she answered obediently: “I am just a bit warm.”
Tina, standing nearby, suddenly let out a loud cough.
“A bit feverish,” Lilica hurriedly corrected herself. “Maybe I caught a chill last night.”
“Was it because it was too late when we came back from that incident with Mita, so you caught the wind?” Cynthia felt a slight touch of guilt. “Has Antcana come to check on you?”
“No.” How could Lilica ever dare to let the youngest official member in the history of the Royal Healing Corps come examine her?
“Tina, go invite Antcana over,” Cynthia instructed. “At this hour, she should still be at the training grounds snatching up wounded patients from her students.”
Tina looked at Lilica for confirmation using her eyes.
After struggling for about half a minute, Lilica finally gave a painful nod under Cynthia’s puzzled gaze.
Thus, Tina departed with a heart full of tragic solemnity.
Hearing that there was a ready-made patient over here, Antcana immediately abandoned her scramble at the training grounds and followed Tina back, amidst the envious gazes of the healing department students.
The speed of her arrival left Lilica with zero time to think of a self-preservation strategy.
The moment Antcana entered the door, she looked at Lilica with the gaze of someone eyeing a gold mine: “Ah, right, you have such a massive, difficult-and-complicated medical case sitting right here, why on earth was I busting my back trying to fight over those ordinary trauma patients.”
Cynthia gave a dry cough: “Antcana, you.”
“You can cough a few more times. If you ruin your vocal cords, I can just treat you right after.” Antcana completely ignored Cynthia’s subtle warning. She plopped herself right down beside the sickbed, her eyes glowing as she patted Lilica’s arm: “Lilica, come on, tell Sister Antcana where you feel uncomfortable.”
Lilica looked at Antcana, then looked at Cynthia, attempting to seek help with her gaze.
However, Cynthia was clearly powerless to assist.
Lilica turned around, attempting to escape from the other side of the bed, but Antcana grabbed her arm with unbelievable, agile speed.
“Running away? Such a big person and still scared of healers?” Antcana pressed her back down onto the bed and casually commented: “Your arm is quite solid too, rather different from other patients.”
“It, it might be because today’s clothes are a bit stiffer!” Lilica hurriedly pulled her arm back and then, as if she had exhausted the accumulated wisdom of the first twenty years of her life, asked the healer: “Do you need Sister Cynthia to step outside first? The healers I saw previously would always ask everyone else and Tina to leave, and only stay with my mother.”
When a patient speaks thus, it is obvious that there are parts of the illness unsuitable for others to hear.
Cynthia caught the hint immediately. Without waiting for Antcana to reply, she took the initiative to stand up: “I suddenly remembered I have some matters to attend to, so I will head back first today. Hopefully, when we meet tomorrow, I will be able to hear good news.”
Antcana was full of confident assurance: “Leave it to me, rest assured.”
Cynthia was escorted out the door by Tina. Just as Lilica had said, once this female official stepped outside, she waited quietly by the door without the slightest intention of going back in.
It seemed Lilica’s condition was indeed rather complex.
Inside the room, the moment the door clicked shut, Antcana impatiently began her treatment.
Without waiting for Lilica to say another word, she raised her hand and cast a detection spell.
A warm white light enveloped the patient, and then rapidly dissipated without lingering for even a single second.
Antcana: “O”
Lilica: “O”
The scene momentarily lapsed into an awkward silence.
“I think there must be something wrong with this spell.” Antcana had never encountered such a situation before. Facing a patient who had been bedridden for over a decade, her detection spell had actually failed. Wearing a slightly more serious expression, she raised her healing staff once again: “No matter, I know fifteen or sixteen types of detection spells. I’ll definitely figure out what your illness is.”
Lilica stayed frozen in place without moving, unable to decide whether it was out of toughness or sheer terror.
Antcana’s healing staff waved, and the second and third spells quickly landed as well, but the result remained the exact same, as nothing could be detected at all.
Before Antcana could grit her teeth and cast a fourth detection spell, Lilica finally squeezed out a sentence with extreme difficulty: “Perhaps, I mean, perhaps I don’t have an illness at all?”
Antcana: “O”
Lilica squeezed out another forced, courageous smile.
“Look at this child, she is talking nonsense from the sickness.” Antcana weighed her healing staff with a blank expression. “How could you possibly not be sick? You’ve clearly been sick for over ten years.”