“…” Lilica shrank back slightly, feeling that Antcana was about to manufacture a patient with her own hands in the name of treatment. “I’m really not sick, I swear.”
“Ever since I met Cynthia, I’ve known she had a weak-bodied sister with no real blood relation in the countryside.” Antcana stared at her intently. “And now you’re telling me you aren’t sick?”
“This is a misunderstanding.” Lilica leaned back further, maintaining a posture where she could spring up from the sofa at any moment. “Sister Cynthia wasn’t lying to you; my health really was very poor when I was little.”
Cynthia was completely oblivious to the situation Lilica was facing. After leaving the dormitory, she stood by the academy path, feeling dazed for a moment.
Her plans had been disrupted twice today, and neither going to the library to study nor teaching Lilica how to read had been accomplished. For her, this was truly rather unexpected, to the point where she didn’t even know what to do with herself anymore.
Should she go home? Or restart her plan to go to the library?
If she went home, besides Ella, no one else would be there.
It felt somewhat painful to admit, but whenever she went home expecting to grow closer to her parents, they always had various matters and excuses to keep them busy outside.
Originally, she had thought they were genuinely busy, right up until she found out that they didn’t just have her as their only child.
Because she really didn’t want to go home and face the empty mansion, after pondering in place for about three minutes, Cynthia finally decided to go to the library to relax.
She wouldn’t study today; she would just find a leisure book to pass the time until night fell completely before heading home. She would treat it as enjoying life.
It was already past the time when students would crowd together to do homework, and far more people were leaving the library than entering. Cynthia even spotted Saintess Betty among them.
Clearly, this four-story treasure trove of knowledge served merely as an aid for coping with homework to the majority of students.
Walking against the flow of the crowd, Cynthia approached the service desk and said to the person inside, “I’d like to borrow a book related to kingdom history. May I ask…”
The librarian inside the service desk raised his head, revealing a face that bore a faint resemblance to Cynthia’s. He smiled and said, “History books are on the third floor. No access permission is required, you can go straight up.”
This person looked very young and quite handsome, with a pair of blue eyes. His attire was quite plain, but by ordinary commoner standards, it was the kind of respectable decency that was very hard to come by.
Cynthia looked at him, remained silent for a moment, and then asked, “Are you new here? I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before. What is your name?”
“My name is Pacino,” the librarian smiled shyly. “I just arrived here last week.”
“No wonder I haven’t seen you.” Cynthia looked at him with somewhat complex emotions and couldn’t help asking, “How old are you this year? I mean, you look very young.”
Pacino smiled shyly: “I am already sixteen years old, miss.”
“You really are young,” Cynthia concealed her emotions, returning the smile. “Thank you for showing me the way. See you next time.”
Pacino flashed a brilliant smile: “See you next time.”
Cynthia turned and headed upstairs, ending their brief conversation.
She used to feel absolute adoration and zero doubt toward her father, her mind entirely set on growing into a qualified heir to the family business and keeping the Cotton family glory alive.
Therefore, when she first learned that her father had an illegitimate son, she hadn’t cared all that much.
She consoled herself by thinking: Which noble family doesn’t have a few illegitimate children? This is completely normal.
Until that illegitimate son appeared before Cynthia in an official capacity.
At that time, he had introduced himself like this:
“Hello, Lady Cynthia.”
“I am Count Pacino Cotton.”
“What on earth were you and Carlo thinking?” Antcana sat on the sofa, furious, looking ready to pick up her healing staff and do something drastic. “Does doing this benefit anyone at all? Faking an illness? In my opinion, the two of you are the ones who are sick in the head!”
Lilica had already changed back into her normal attire, the garb of the swordsman Kelly. Sitting across from Antcana, she whispered in self-defense, “We didn’t expect things to reach this point either.”
“Then what do you plan to do now?” Antcana asked. “Are you going to openly operate under Kelly’s identity while Lilica stays recuperating in the dorm indefinitely?”
“If possible, of course I’d hope for that.” Lilica looked at Antcana with a pitiful expression as she spoke. “Though I’ll need your help with this, Ant.”
“Don’t pull that crap with me. Do you take me for a soft-hearted pushover like Cynthia?” Antcana nearly brandished her healing staff to smash it down. “I am not going to help you lie. Not exposing you right now is already doing you a favor; you two are actually deceiving Cynthia!”
Lilica pursed her lips, leaned back, and stopped pretending to look pitiful. “You said it yourself, you’re not allowed to expose me.”
Antcana: “…” As expected, people who are exceptionally close to Carlo are utterly infuriating.
She stood up abruptly. “I couldn’t care less whether you live or die! I’m leaving. There are still wounded people waiting for me in the training ground.”
“I’ll go with you,” Lilica stood up as well, retrieving the greatsword she had hidden away in the room’s cabinet earlier. “I’ll walk you out.”
Antcana glared at her speechlessly.
Lilica spoke the honest truth: “Alright, I haven’t moved around in a while, and the fight with Mita yesterday felt a bit restrictive.”
Although Antcana was ten thousand times unwilling, Lilica still accompanied her to the training ground, where she proceeded to beat the living daylights out of the swordsmen present under her new identity as a swordsmanship teaching assistant.
Antcana, functioning as the healing department’s teaching assistant, squatted nearby and practically picked up a windfall of wounded patients. In a vastly improved mood, her tone toward Lilica wasn’t nearly as harsh anymore, and, admittedly, it still couldn’t be considered gentle.
The two enjoyed a brief moment of peace. Once Lilica had satisfyingly put away her greatsword and Antcana realized there were no more injured people left for her to treat, her previous terrible attitude returned.
Knowing she was in the wrong, Lilica could only strap her great sword to her back and leave the training ground by herself.
By this time, the sky was gradually growing dark. The sunset, draped in golden-orange radiance, lingered at the edge of the horizon, dyeing the sky in a dreamy gradient. A few clouds and early-rising stars dotted the expanse, making for a truly breathtaking view.
Lilica strolled through the academy, catching the evening breeze as she walked along the path she hadn’t taken with Cynthia earlier.
Looking around as she walked, she was plotting how to beat up Mita next time when she turned her head and spotted a familiar figure sitting on a bench by the roadside.
This person was wearing her school uniform, her long golden hair draped smoothly behind her. Even though there was no one around, she instinctively sat completely straight, making her look both stubborn and desolate.
“Cynthia?” Lilica asked in surprise. “At this hour, you haven’t gone back yet?”
Holding an unopened book, Cynthia turned around. Looking somewhat surprised herself, she nevertheless smiled and said, “Kelly, good afternoon.”
Lilica walked up to the bench and asked, “May I sit here?”
“Of course.” Cynthia gestured with an inviting hand.
Lilica unbuckled the greatsword from her back, laid it aside, and sat down next to Cynthia, repeating, “I thought you would have already gone back by this time.”
“Under normal circumstances, roughly yes.” Cynthia smiled. “Though today I suddenly discovered that the academy’s evening is quite beautiful.”
“It really is pretty, I like it too.” Lilica agreed wholeheartedly, then pointed to the unopened book in Cynthia’s hand. “Though you don’t seem like you’re just admiring the scenery. Mind telling me about it? I promise I won’t tell anyone.”
“This sort of thing doesn’t really seem worth keeping secret, considering it’s quite common among nobility.” Cynthia twitched the corner of her mouth. “Kelly, do you have any younger brothers or sisters?”
Lilica nodded. “I have a younger brother.”
“Have you met? I mean, are you close?”
“We grew up together since we were kids.” Lilica noticed Cynthia’s slip of the tongue, but she didn’t press the issue. “He was very well-behaved and obedient at first, but he’s gotten a bit mischievous in recent years.”
Cynthia looked somewhat envious. “People from the Doyle family seem to value family a lot.”
“Perhaps.” Not wanting to dwell on her brother Ivor lest she give herself away, Lilica asked instead, “Cynthia, do you want a younger brother?”
Cynthia frowned slightly. “To be honest, I’ve never considered it.”
Half of Cynthia Selaratino Cotton’s life had been predetermined the moment she learned how to read, serving to inherit the family estate, while the other half was set in stone the moment she entered the academy, aiming to become Mita’s royal consort.
“Then you can consider it right now.” Without picking up on Cynthia’s emotional shift, Lilica carelessly offered advice based on her own consistent principles of action. “When I first started practicing swordsmanship, my parents were dead set against it too, thinking it wasn’t something I should be considering.”
Cynthia raised her head and looked into her eyes.
“But I thought to myself, I might die any day now, so why torture myself over whether I should or shouldn’t consider those things?” Lilica flashed a rather proud smile. “So, I just told them, I’m not considering it, I just like this.”
“But shouldn’t you still listen to your parents?” Cynthia couldn’t help asking. “And aren’t you also carrying family responsibilities?”
“But aside from responsibility, I am still myself.” Lilica said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “Aside from bearing the name Doyle, I am also Li, I am also Kelly.”
“Being yourself, is that it?” Cynthia had never thought about such a thing. “Is that really allowed?”
“Of course, it is,” Lilica said. “Cynthia, you look far too perfect and much too composed, but I feel like none of that resembles the real you.”
“However, after you got drunk the other day and kept talking away on your own, I felt you were exceptionally genuine.”
Feeling slightly embarrassed, she reached out to rub her cheek. “I really liked how you were back then.”
Looking at the youth before her, Cynthia felt something breaking through the earth within her heart.