Spring painted the mountains green and filled the air with the fragrance of blooming flowers.
In the blink of an eye, ten years had passed.
Over the years, the settlement of the White Tiger Clan had gradually developed into a lively town.
Wide streets stretched between rows of stalls overflowing with all kinds of goods.
Merchants called out to passing customers, bargaining voices mixed with laughter, and the steady flow of people made the whole place feel especially busy.
Then, right in the middle of all that noise, a girl in a pale yellow dress came rushing through the crowd.
Her long black hair had been tied high into a ponytail, swaying from side to side as she ran.
To move more easily, she had to lift the hem of her skirt slightly.
Her bright, pretty face still carried a touch of youthful cuteness, but right now it was covered in frustration.
Judging by the way she was running, anyone might have thought she had a pack of wild beasts chasing her instead of people.
“Excuse me! Coming through!”
Evelyn Sterling called out as she turned sideways and slipped neatly through the gap between two pedestrians.
She had barely breathed a sigh of relief when an old, breathless voice rang out from behind her.
“Quick! Don’t let her get away!”
The speaker sounded both anxious and exhausted.
Clearly, he had been chasing her for quite some time.
People along the street turned toward the commotion.
A group of broad-shouldered guards came charging after Evelyn, with an elderly white-haired man struggling along behind them.
If this had happened for the first time, perhaps the townspeople would have been surprised.
Unfortunately, they had seen the exact same scene far too many times lately.
They didn’t even need to wait for the guards to shout.
The people blocking the street simply stepped aside on their own.
Within moments, the crowded center of the road had somehow opened into a perfectly clear path.
Evelyn looked back.
She nearly laughed from sheer irritation.
Damn it!
A moment ago, she could at least use the crowd to hide.
Now even that was gone.
How considerate of everyone.
She was just about to change direction when two guards quickly circled ahead and blocked her path.
At the same time, several others closed in from the sides.
In less than a minute, she was surrounded.
Evelyn had no choice but to stop.
Her chest rose and fell slightly from all the running as her eyes swept over the painfully familiar faces in front of her.
All she wanted was to sneak out and collect a little information.
Why was that so difficult?
Wasn’t that old man supposed to be busy preparing for her father’s birthday banquet?
There were so many things waiting to be handled back at the estate.
How did he still have enough free time to drag a group of guards out every day just to catch her?
And this was already the fifth day.
Five whole days!
Not once had she managed to get out and meet the person she needed to see.
If this continued, was she ever going to get anything done?
This game of cat and mouse had gone on for five days now.
At this point, even the townspeople had learned to clear the road whenever they saw them coming.
They really weren’t leaving her any way out.
“Tch.”
Evelyn stamped one foot in frustration.
She stared at the large guards surrounding her and felt her fingers itch.
She really wanted to knock all of them down.
That would save them from chasing after her every single day.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t do that yet.
All these years, she had done her best to hide her true strength and maintain the image of someone harmless and unimpressive.
There were still things she didn’t want others to know.
Revealing too much just to deal with this little inconvenience would be a terrible trade.
Endure.
Evelyn silently reminded herself.
Even if she could endure it, however, the annoyance on her face wasn’t disappearing anytime soon.
By then, the white-haired old man had finally caught up.
He squeezed between the guards, stopped in front of Evelyn, and supported his lower back while gasping for breath.
Only after catching his breath did he speak helplessly.
“My dear young lady, please have mercy on us.”
He took another breath.
“Wouldn’t everything be easier if you simply stayed at home and studied properly with your mentors?”
Another tired sigh.
“Must you do this every single day? You may not be tired, but we certainly are.”
The old man’s expression was full of helplessness.
He was already advanced in age and had plenty of other responsibilities.
Now, on top of everything else, he had to lead a group of guards all over town chasing after Evelyn every day.
It was becoming a little much.
This young lady might not be favored in the household, but she was still Lord Sterling’s daughter.
Most noble girls stayed at home, studying etiquette, music, painting, and other respectable accomplishments with their tutors.
Evelyn?
The moment no one watched her closely enough—
Keeping her inside the estate was somehow harder than keeping watch over a monkey.
“Then have mercy on me too.”
Evelyn scrunched up her face and copied his drawn-out tone.
“Like you said, running around like this every day is tiring for me too. Since we’re all tired, why don’t you just let me go? Then everyone wins.”
She tilted her head and blinked pitifully.
With that innocent expression, she looked completely harmless.
Inside, however, she had already rolled her eyes countless times.
She still didn’t know which bastard had been secretly reporting her movements.
In the past, she could sneak out without being discovered nearly this easily.
But for the last five days, no matter what time she chose or which route she took, someone always managed to find her and drag her back.
Once or twice could be called coincidence.
Five days in a row?
Please.
If no one was reporting her, then ghosts must have learned to gossip.
She had better not find out who it was.
Otherwise, she was definitely going to settle all five days’ worth of accounts with them.
“You… you…”
The old man stared at her deliberately pitiful face, completely lost for words.
Let her go?
If he really released her today, she would only run farther tomorrow.
And when the household started asking questions, who would get blamed in the end?
Him.
The two of them stared at each other for a while.
Finally, the old man let out a heavy sigh and waved toward the guards.
“Tie her up.”
“What?!”
Evelyn’s eyes widened.
She had expected another lecture.
At worst, she thought they would escort her back.
Since when did they start bringing rope?
“You’re serious?”
She instinctively tried to step backward.
The guards on both sides immediately moved forward and blocked her retreat.
Evelyn almost reacted on instinct.
Almost.
Halfway through the movement, she forcibly stopped herself.
No.
She couldn’t reveal too much.
Grinding her teeth, she could only watch as several guards brought out thick hemp rope and began binding her arms to her body.
The guards themselves looked equally helpless.
Considering who she was, they moved with extreme care.
They were afraid of hurting her.
But they also couldn’t tie her too loosely.
Otherwise, the moment they looked away, she would probably escape again.
Before long, Evelyn had been securely tied up like a dumpling.
She lowered her head and stared at the rope wrapped around her.
Her expression darkened little by little.
She was a noble young lady.
And now her own guards had tied her up in the middle of the street.
With half the town watching.
Wonderful.
Absolutely wonderful.
Before she could complain, one of the guards bent down and carefully lifted her over his shoulder.
Her view flipped instantly.
The street, stalls, and crowd disappeared from sight.
All she could see now was blue sky and drifting white clouds.
Evelyn froze for half a second.
Then she started struggling.
“Put me down! I can walk!”
The rope was already uncomfortable enough.
Being carried with someone’s shoulder pressing into her stomach made it worse.
She moved her bound arms and tried shifting her body.
It did absolutely nothing except make the guard carrying her sway slightly.
“Young Lady, please stop moving.”
One of the guards spoke, sounding thoroughly exhausted.
“If you fall, it won’t be something to joke about.”
Evelyn ground her teeth.
You bastard.
Was he actually threatening her now?
For one brief moment, she really wanted to teach these people a lesson.
But remembering the harmless image she had maintained all these years, she forced herself to swallow the anger again.
Fine.
Tonight, she would show them exactly what it meant to have no peace.
Evelyn stopped struggling.
Instead, she stared up at the clear sky and let out a long sigh.
Come to think of it— she had already been in this world for fifteen years.
She had spent enough time in remote places.
She knew every familiar mountain path well enough to walk them with her eyes closed.
Now that she was older, it was about time she went out and saw what the rest of this world actually looked like.
Surely fate hadn’t sent her all the way into another world just so she could spend her entire life knowing nothing beyond this small piece of White Tiger territory.
That would be such a waste.
But judging by the current situation, forget traveling.
She couldn’t even leave the estate to meet one person without being chased through town by a small army.
The thought made her even more depressed.
She decided to close her eyes and rest.
There was no point wasting energy being angry when she couldn’t escape for the moment.
But before her eyes had fully closed— her body suddenly became weightless.
The shoulder pressing painfully into her stomach disappeared.
Someone had taken her directly from the guard.
A heartbeat later, Evelyn found herself held in a broad pair of arms.
Her entire body immediately tensed.
The laziness in her eyes vanished at once.
She looked up sharply.
From this angle, the first thing she saw was a clearly defined jawline.
She was just about to look higher when something hanging beside the person’s face caught her attention.
A white feather.
A feather?
Evelyn frowned slightly.
For some reason, the sight of it felt strangely familiar.
She seemed to remember…
seeing a boy wearing a white feather a very long time ago.
She had been five then.
Three boys had been chased into the mountains by a group of men and somehow dragged her into the whole mess along with them.
Later, the little fire fox had taken a hidden weapon meant for her and collapsed right in front of her.
At the thought of Huo’er, Evelyn’s expression paused.
Ten years had passed since that day.
She still hadn’t forgotten it.
And strangely enough, that incident had also been the beginning of a completely different kind of trouble.
Afterward, her uncle had apparently been shaken by what happened and suddenly started finding mentor after mentor for her.
Academic subjects.
Combat.
Military strategy.
Tactics.
Music.
Painting.
Etiquette.
Embroidery.
If he could think of it, he found someone to teach it.
One day, an elderly scholar would arrive.
The next, a completely different teacher would take his place.
Men.
Women.
Old.
Young.
Every single one of them arrived looking confident and serious about teaching her.
And eventually, most of them ended up wondering who exactly was supposed to be teaching whom.
Evelyn couldn’t help giving a quiet snort in her heart.
Who did they think she was?
She had been a top student from the twenty-first century.
Even before formally inheriting her family’s occult traditions in her previous life, she had already studied plenty of other things.
Her memory had always been exceptionally strong, nearly photographic, so she learned most things far faster than ordinary people.
And occultism hadn’t been the only thing she knew.
She had also managed businesses of her own in her previous life.
There had always been plenty to study and plenty of things she needed to handle.
So if someone wanted to become her mentor, shouldn’t they at least first figure out what she already knew?
They couldn’t keep repeating things she had learned long ago and still expect her to sit there obediently pretending every lesson was a revelation.
She had wasted more than enough time on that over the past ten years.
Still— now clearly wasn’t the time to think about any of that.
Evelyn quickly pulled her thoughts back and focused on the person holding her.
The white feather swayed gently beside his face.
She stared at it for a moment.
Then, just as she was about to lift her head and finally see who had suddenly carried her away— a startled shout exploded nearby.
“The Young Lady’s been kidnapped!”