Chapter 5: Vicious and Selfish, This Is Lilia

Chapter 5: Chapter 5: Vicious and Selfish, This Is Lilia

[Caius was endlessly annoyed by this, yet he had nowhere to escape.]

[In your daily interactions, his attitude grew increasingly cold.]

[The Countess, however, was highly satisfied with your approach. In just a short week, she bought you plenty of things: clothes, jewelry, and an endless supply of snacks and little cakes.]

[Your treatment in the Earl Mansion was already comparable to that of a true Noble lady.]

[The day of the return journey.]

[You and Caius sat in the same carriage.]

[The Countess said that children should stay together, as it would help foster their relationship...]

Lilia knew exactly what the Countess was thinking.

She needed someone close to Caius—close enough to monitor and record every detail of his daily life.

Yet, she did not want that person to get too close—so close that Caius would develop feelings for her.

The Countess knew her son too well.

She knew that since he already harbored a strong dislike for Lilia, forcing them together would only deepen his aversion.

That was why she felt perfectly at ease letting the two of them share a carriage.

And this was exactly what Lilia had hoped for—

Now that the Countess had dropped her guard, Lilia could freely do whatever she pleased.

Like getting closer to Caius.

The carriage traveled along the rugged road as smoothly as if it were moving across flat ground.

Lilia had heard from the maids that the Beaumont family’s carriage was different from ordinary ones. It was a specially customized Magic Item. Its speed was more than ten times that of a regular carriage, and it ensured the passengers wouldn’t feel any bumps.

The Countess was in poor health and could not use a Teleportation Array, leaving her no choice but to rely on a gentler mode of travel like a carriage. Fortunately, although Ernst was far from Taronia, at their current speed, they would arrive in two days at most.

Lilia lifted the carriage curtain.

The scenery outside the window blurred backward. The speed was almost comparable to a high-speed train in the real world.

"It’s so magical," she thought. "Even though it looks just like an ordinary carriage on the outside... Is this the power of Magic?"

Caius sat as far away from her as possible. His lips were pressed into a tight, unhappy line, yet his gaze unconsciously drifted toward Lilia’s face.

The girl’s expression held undisguised novelty, as if she were looking at an intriguing new toy.

After a long while, a thought seemed to cross her mind. She dropped the curtain, reached into a hand-woven basket beside her, and pulled out a pastry. Resting it on a handkerchief, she offered it to him.

"These are pastries my mom and dad made themselves. I used to love them. Do you want a taste?"

Caius did not take it.

He stared at her outstretched hand and slowly spoke, his voice deliberately lowered into a deep register. "You didn’t say goodbye to your parents."

"But they know where I’m going," Lilia replied.

The Sifris couple had come to the Earl Mansion the very next day.

When their daughter failed to return home all night, the couple had been burning with anxiety. They stayed up the entire night, turning all of Ernst upside down, but still could not find Lilia.

It wasn’t until the following afternoon, after hearing from Mrs. Julian that Lilia had gone to find Betty, that they learned of Lady Beaumont’s existence.

By that time, Betty’s family had already received a stern warning from the Countess, ordering them to move out of Ernst immediately. Given the Countess’s personality, the culprit responsible for her son falling into the water naturally had to be severely punished.

When the Sifris couple tracked them down in the Violet District, Lilia’s mother cried and begged her to stay.

Faced with her parents’ pleas, Lilia merely tilted her head and said, "But if I stay by Lady Beaumont’s side, I can go study at the Lien Royal Magic Academy. Don’t you want me to have a better future?"

The Sifris couple was rendered speechless. The looks they gave their daughter were filled with absolute shock.

Then came this morning. Before their departure, Caius had seen the Sifris couple bringing homemade pastries in hopes of seeing their daughter off.

Upon hearing this, Lilia only nodded and signaled for a maid to bring the pastries over.

She refused to meet the couple.

She did not even spare them a single glance.

It was as if they weren’t her biological parents, but two complete strangers.

"If you’re talking about what happened this morning," Lilia began, looking at him. "They brought pastries, and I accepted them. Is there a problem with that?"

"But they are your parents, not servants delivering pastries," Caius retorted. "You’re leaving them today to go to Taronia. It’s very likely you’ll never see them again. Doesn’t that make you sad?"

"Of course I feel sad," Lilia said.

"She’s lying," Caius thought to himself as he looked at her innocent and beautiful face.

"But seeing them wouldn’t change anything," Lilia said. "I still have to get on this carriage, and I still have to go to Taronia.

"Compared to doing something so useless, isn’t it much more important to properly respond to the Countess’s morning greetings?"

Caius fell silent.

He was smart; he perfectly understood the underlying meaning in Lilia’s words.

Because the Sifris couple could no longer influence her future, bidding them farewell was useless—even if they were her biological parents, and even if they would never see each other again.

Because his mother was her key to entering the Lien Academy, responding to her greetings was far more important—even if it was just a casual remark, and even if it was a trivial thing his mother did every day.

That was her standard of judgment.

In her world, people and events were perhaps divided into only two categories:

The useful.

Or the useless.

Naive, cruel, and absolute.

At this moment, as he looked at Lilia’s expression, Caius suddenly recalled this morning again.

Back then, she had stood at the mansion’s entrance, looking up at the carriage... wearing this exact same expression.

Innocent and beautiful.

Like an Angel descending upon the Mortal World.

Yet, she was more vicious and self-centered than any Demon he knew.

"Hey."

Lilia leaned a bit closer to him.

Her familiar scent lingered at the tip of Caius’s nose.

It was as if she had no concept of modesty or boundaries, completely blind to the icy aloofness in his eyes that pushed everyone away.

She took it for granted that everyone should pamper her and yield to her.

And even like her.

Lilia shuffled over to sit beside him, leaning right in front of his face.

"So, the pastry," she prompted. "Do you want to eat it or not?"

Caius did not speak, nor did he reject her proximity.

He reached out, picked up a pastry, and slowly brought it to his mouth.

...It was very sweet.

Like a deadly poison completely coated in honey.

[You arrived in the Capital of the Lien Kingdom, Taronia, and settled into the Earl Mansion.]

[That evening, you met Count Beaumont for the first time. He had heard about your identity from the Countess and did not pay much attention to your existence.]

[You could not bring him any benefits, nor would you pose a threat to the Beaumont Family. To him, you were merely a dispensable stranger.]

[One month later.]

[The Lien Royal Magic Academy officially commenced its term.]