"Lilith…"
Lady Annie reached out to stroke her daughter's tear-streaked face, but a warm, soft palm caught her fingertips.
She slowly opened her eyes. It was Li Fei, propping her cheek on one hand and watching her with a smile in her eyes.
"Sorry to disappoint, but the one who slept with you isn't Lilith."
Li Fei grinned mischievously.
"I… had a dream."
Lady Annie explained, a little flustered. Last night she'd dreamed of Lilith crying and apologizing to her over and over.
Li Fei said nothing. She only traced the contours of Lady Annie's face with her fingertip, eyes curved in a smile.
"Ah!"
Lady Annie suddenly realized something was off about the light. She glanced at the clock in a hurry and gasped. "I'll go make your breakfast…"
"Go back to sleep. I'm heading straight to class in a bit."
Li Fei pressed her down and spoke softly.
"Mm…"
Lady Annie felt a little out of sorts.
Usually she was the one who got up first, washed up, made breakfast, and kissed her sleeping beauty awake… but for some reason she'd slept especially deeply last night, and woken far later than usual.
Still, she didn't think much of it. Maybe she was just tired?
Lady Annie understood well enough that a brief separation beats a honeymoon.
The time for making breakfast had already passed, but she didn't keep lounging in bed. She sat right up. Aside from a little soreness in her body, she felt wonderfully energetic, without the weariness she'd expected.
"You look radiant."
Li Fei giggled and added meaningfully, "I'd guess Teacher Annie will have sweet dreams from now on, too."
Just as life school spells could be used to harm, even Death school spells, famed for ill omens, fear and misfortune, could be beneficial when used well.
[Sleep], for example, could cure insomnia with ease and without any of the side effects of medicine. Even an ordinary person who got it cast on them would enjoy far better sleep.
If it had a downside, it was probably that the person lying next to you stayed completely oblivious while you did this and that with another girl. Hehe.
"I haven't brushed my teeth yet."
Lady Annie gently pushed away Li Fei's face as it leaned in. After getting up and washing, she returned to the bedside and, out of habit, took two vials of potion from the nightstand drawer.
One removed bruising from physical trauma. The other kept her belly from swelling.
"Um…"
Li Fei rested her chin on Annie's shoulder. "Teacher Annie, you don't have to drink those."
The first step is always the hardest. Having gotten her first daughter, and with a second and a third possibly on the way, Li Fei had found that being a mother wasn't so hard to accept after all. It was just kind of annoying.
What mostly did it was the Morality Value that had hit a new low last night, plunging to -43. It made her think that widowed-style parenting wasn't so bad, really… Passing her ever-growing enterprise down to her own daughters, to work for her, seemed like it would produce more [Loyalty] than painstakingly cultivating subordinates.
Besides, if some girl she had no plans to spend her life with set her sights on Li Fei's DNA, Li Fei might not be keen. But if Lady Annie wanted it, then fine, she'd give it.
A flutter of first-love sweetness spread through the heart of the older, married woman and mother of one.
With her heart pounding, she didn't put the vials down right away. Instead she cupped Li Fei's cheeks with trembling hands and asked in earnest:
"Are you really ready for this?"
—I've already got one, anyway.
Li Fei broke into a smile. "Mm… though I probably won't have much time to be with her the first few years."
"I'll take good care of you both."
At that gentle, firm promise, a smile bloomed across Lady Annie's face.
She offered Li Fei a taste of her toothpaste, then tenderly helped her little girlfriend dress, combed her long hair, and smoothed every wrinkle in her clothes. Finally she saw her off to school.
When her lover's retreating figure vanished from sight, the mature woman hummed a soft tune and began tidying the rooms with practiced ease.
Battle Through the Azure Sky was selling like mad, and Lady Annie could now easily afford to support her daughter at school, never mind hire two maids.
But unlike Li Fei, who loathed every kind of housework except cooking on the odd occasion, Lady Annie found calm and relaxation in setting rumpled furniture in perfect order and wiping dust off windowsills.
Kitchen, living room, bedroom… Last of all, Lady Annie stood lightly on the bed and wiped away water stains that had somehow gotten onto the frame of their wedding photo.
The face of the silver-haired bride in the glass could still stir ripples in Lady Annie's heart, but only that.
"Strange…"
Lady Annie noticed there seemed to be a lot more water on the frame than usual.
But soon she flushed and blamed it all on "a brief separation beats a honeymoon."
It was lucky she was using a thick damp cloth. Otherwise this bashful wife might have grown even more puzzled: why was the water still warm after half the night?
With the house in order, she heated the milk to just the right temperature and fried a few sunny-side-up eggs. Amid the sizzle of oil, a steaming breakfast came off the stove.
The eggs she usually made were probably 99% identical to Ram's version, crisp whites and half-set yolks, the kind that best suited Li Fei's taste. Today Li Fei wouldn't be eating at home, so she fried them a little harder. That was the way Lilith liked them.
Only when everything was ready did Lady Annie tiptoe to her daughter's bedroom to wake Lilith, who'd taken the day off from class.
"Breakfast is ready."
A smile played at the corner of Lady Annie's mouth. "I know it's hard out there, but you shouldn't get into the habit of sleeping in."
Lilith opened her eyes. Daze and exhaustion clouded those sapphire pupils, and when she saw her mother, a flicker of fear passed through them.
"Are you sick?"
Noticing her daughter's poor complexion, Lady Annie's eyes filled with worry at once.
For a Transcendent, the need for sleep should only shrink over time. Her daughter had been asleep that long since last night, so why did she still look so tired?
She leaned down anxiously and pressed her forehead to Lilith's. Only when she felt no abnormal heat did she breathe a sigh of relief.
"I'm fine. I've just been run ragged these past few days…"
Lilith looked away and answered in a small voice.
The familiar answer drew a helpless laugh from Lady Annie.
She stroked her daughter's forehead and said softly, "You're getting more and more like Li Fei… Seeing how close you two are puts my mind at ease."
Lilith's eyelids fluttered. Panic and guilt churned in her chest.
She stammered, "W-we're not that close or anything… We're just classmates."
Lady Annie didn't notice her daughter's guilty conscience. She called gently, "Sleeping too long isn't good for you either. My little Lilith is a fine priest now, so you must understand this better than I do."
—I only slept for half an hour.
Lilith bit her lip and sat up in bed, then twisted aside to dodge her mother's hand. "I can manage on my own. You go eat first."
"All right."
Lady Annie left her daughter's bedroom, smiling.
"What on earth have I done…"
Now that reason had retaken the high ground, Lilith felt utterly lost.
She covered her burning face and pulled herself together quickly before hurrying out to the living room.
As a Transcendent who could step into the mid-Sequences at any time, she naturally didn't need to waste time on washing up. Even after waking, her mouth was fragrant, though the tastes of seawater and green tea still lingered.
Her mother had already made her oatmeal. The fried eggs gave off a rich aroma, and she'd even thoughtfully sprinkled on a little fine salt.
A simple, warm breakfast, brimming with a mother's love, yet it tasted wrong in her mouth. The bitterness of regret and self-reproach spread across her lips and teeth, drowning out the food's own flavor.
Lilith chewed in big mouthfuls, her face blank, as if tearing at her own soul, now filthy and selfish.
After she'd wolfed everything down, she walked into the washroom and stared silently at the girl in the mirror, whose eyes were dark and deep.
An ugly piece of trash.
Lilith felt so disgusted with herself that she bent over and dry-heaved.
A warm palm pressed against her back. When Lilith lifted her head again, her mother's face, full of worry, had appeared in the mirror.
In the spotless glass, mother and daughter still looked so close and intimate. They shared the same hair color and eye color, and skin as pure and flawless as milk. Even the lines of their collarbones and shoulders were the same, soft, delicate and light. One simply looked mature and gentle, the other innocent and artless. The soft lamplight spread over their two radiant, flower-like faces, a scene pleasing to the eye.
But in Lilith's eyes, a winding, twisted, hideous crack was clearly spreading across the mirror, splitting apart the mother and daughter who should have been of one heart, and raising a thick, wretched barrier between them.
"Did you get hurt out there?"
"No, I'm just a little tired."
"…"
Lady Annie fell silent.
Her daughter was a Transcendent, a standout Silver Brooch Student at the Magic Academy. If she were merely tired, how could she be throwing up?
Could it be…
Lady Annie was startled by the thought that surfaced from nowhere.
But in the next instant, she dismissed the fanciful notion.
As the saying goes, no one knows a daughter like her mother, and she knew Lilith's character all too well.
Lady Annie knew her daughter was a kind, honest, good child, just a little awkward, someone who blushed and tangled her words whenever the talk turned to matters of the heart…
How could such a sweet, simple girl get pregnant without saying a word?
In truth, Lady Annie felt both glad and worried about this side of Lilith.
Her shy, bashful manner was adorable and easy on a mother's nerves, but it also made it easy to miss out on a good match.
And Lilith's romantic history, still a blank page, only deepened Lady Annie's worry. She was clearly the cutest daughter in the world, so why couldn't she find a girlfriend?
By contrast, Li Fei, about the same age, was already getting ready to be a mother.
She had to tell her to be more proactive and more honest about love…
As these thoughts churned, Lady Annie badly wanted to have a heart-to-heart with her daughter. But Lilith bolted back to her room like a startled rabbit:
"I'm going out in a bit, so I'd better pack my things."
—Her daughter had something on her mind.
Lady Annie sensed it keenly. In the end she only rubbed her temples in distress and sighed.
"I really am an inadequate mother."
In fact, ever since she'd watched her daughter grow into a graceful, radiant young woman, Lady Annie had wanted to talk with her about love, but she'd never found the chance.
If she hinted at it indirectly, Lilith would surely dodge out of embarrassment with some excuse. If she pressed for answers, she feared provoking a rebellious streak, and it would only backfire…
Over time, she herself, as a mother, had slipped into plugging her ears to steal the bell and buried the matter in her heart.
But now, knowing her daughter was troubled and being powerless to help, Lady Annie keenly realized she couldn't keep burying her head in the sand. Otherwise her daughter might, out of awkwardness and shyness, make the wrong choice and never find a girlfriend.
But how should she bring it up?
After agonizing for a long while, Lady Annie suddenly thought of Li Fei.
It seemed she'd have to trouble her lover once more… Someone her own age would probably find it easier to open up to, right?
…
The Lucky Fountain's water was as clear and cold as ever, with a faint sweet aftertaste, as though some beautiful girl had rinsed her snow-tender, translucent feet in it again and again to make the water so palatable.
The special admission student ignored the [Use Prohibited] sign beside the fountain. She bent down, scooped up water in her hands, drank several big gulps, then filled her waterskin.
Her fellow inmate beside her wore an odd expression, as if she wanted to say something but held back.
"Aren't you going to drink some?"
Li Fei washed her face again and offered warmly.
"No, no. If it's good, drink up."
Irena gave an awkward laugh, her waterfall of gray hair glossy in the sunlight.
"Dear sister, Senior Annesia is a friend of yours, right? Why not invite her out for a meal sometime?"
Li Fei suddenly suggested.
"No time, sorry."
Irena's smile stayed bright, but she rejected Li Fei's suggestion without a moment's hesitation.
At the exchange tournament a while back, the big, white-haired beauty had taken Irena's advice and used the "blow on the neck" tactic. She'd ended up losing her first kiss and having her throat sealed by a foot-long tongue. Irena still carried a grudge about it, as if the tall witch's hat on her head had turned green.
"But I want to talk business with her."
Li Fei pressed her palms together in a plea.
"Business?"
Irena immediately pictured Annesia's dazed, innocent white-haired face and her soft, gentle voice, and her gaze grew more wary.
"Senior Annesia has the Chaos Casting feat, right? It gives her a chance of doubling the number of spells she casts, even multiplying them several times over."
Li Fei laid out her plan to get rich point by point. "I hear that feat isn't as reliable as the [Multicast] technique, since whether multiples trigger is pure luck… but it seems to work on items too?"
"And I just happen to have the [Stone-to-Gold] gloves, which can be recharged with Mana Crystals…"
"If Senior Annesia used the [Stone-to-Gold] gloves and the doubling effect triggered… wouldn't we have an endless supply of gold? Buying out the Magic Academy would be just a matter of time, and then I'll make you vice dean…"
"You're right!"
Miss Gemini's eyes suddenly lit up with longing for money.
She rubbed her hands together, her smile sweet and dazzling. "So how much of a brokerage fee do I get?"
"None."
Li Fei's warm, polite smile and crisp refusal were exactly what Irena had shown a moment ago.
After all, she could easily have talked to Senior Annesia herself. She'd gone to her dear sister purely to get a look at her jealous face. Hehe.
"Fine…"
Irena's eyes dimmed. Dejected, she ended up agreeing to Li Fei's request anyway.
"Dear sister."
Li Fei was deeply moved. She stepped up and linked arms with her, the very picture of sisterly affection.
"Let's go to the Dean's office. Mom's been waiting for you for ages."
A moment later, the dear little sister, all smiles, arrived at the long-unvisited Dean's office with her listless dear big sister at her side.
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