Chapter 78 - 5: The Most Noble Little Princess

Chapter 78: Chapter 5: The Most Noble Little Princess

"Who are you?"

Lilia asked, her voice cold.

She had sensed someone nearby just a moment ago, but when she stopped to check carefully, she couldn’t detect any fluctuations in Magic Power.

Lilia never ignored her intuition, so she had pretended to leave, only to hide some distance away.

As she expected, she had indeed caught a peeper.

Things were different now. The pitiful princess probably had countless enemies in the Royal Court, so Lilia was wary of every stranger.

Hearing her voice, the man turned around slowly.

Beneath his platinum-blonde hair was a handsome, aloof face.

He had a pair of light gray eyes, fair skin, and pale lips. Coupled with his pure white mage robes, his figure looked almost transparent, as if he might dissolve into the daylight at any moment.

The moment she saw his face clearly, Lilia froze.

’Is that...?’

’Victor?’

Lilia wasn’t surprised that he was here, but...his age seemed all wrong, no matter how she looked at him.

In the last playthrough, she hadn’t asked Victor for his exact birth year, but he should have been around her age, with a gap of one or two years at most.

But now, from the contours of his face, she could tell he was at least five years older than her, maybe even more.

’Is there something wrong with the character of "Victor," or...was I born later in this playthrough than the last one?’

It wasn’t a difficult question to answer, so Lilia temporarily pushed it to the back of her mind.

Seeing the girl return, Victor showed no embarrassment at being caught. Instead, he apologized in a calm tone, "I meant no offense. I was just passing by and didn’t reveal myself because I was afraid of disturbing you."

Lilia blinked.

Compared to the past, he was calmer and colder.

His tone was calm and polite, but anyone could hear the coldness in it that kept others at a distance.

It was the kind of haughty aloofness that disdained contact with mere mortals.

Noticing this, Lilia didn’t say a word, simply walking toward him step by step.

The girl’s steps were light, like a little kitten plotting some mischief.

Victor’s brow furrowed almost imperceptibly.

He didn’t like people getting too close. If anyone else had approached him like this, he would have already taken a step back to create distance and gently dissuaded them from coming any closer.

But at this moment, looking at the girl’s delicate, spirited, and cunning face, his feet seemed inexplicably nailed to the ground, not moving an inch.

Lilia finally stopped within half a meter of him.

Because of the height difference, the girl had to tilt her head up to see his face clearly. The hazy sunlight pierced through the overcast sky, making her dark eyes sparkle.

"What...is your name?"

Her voice carried a sense of entitlement, even a faint, high-and-mighty tone of command.

It was as if she expected everyone to do everything in their power to satisfy her every request.

Victor lowered his gaze, his eyelashes hiding most of his pupils, making his light-colored eyes seem as indifferent as glass.

"...Victor."

he replied. "Victor Rockwell."

"And your name is...?"

Before he could finish, the sound of hurried footsteps came from the distance.

Victor saw the girl instantly become vigilant, as if her fur was about to stand on end.

She listened intently for a moment and realized the footsteps were getting closer, seemingly heading in their direction.

In that moment, she didn’t even have time to answer Victor’s question. She was about to turn and run but suddenly thought of something.

She placed her index finger on her lips and let out a soft "Shhh." "Don’t tell anyone you saw me here."

As soon as the words left her mouth, she darted away with extreme agility, like a little fawn sensing an approaching hunter.

Victor watched her retreating back in silence.

About ten seconds later, a maid in uniform appeared from the end of the path.

She was walking briskly, her face a mask of suppressed frustration, likely having been assigned some complicated task.

Seeing Victor, she strode forward. "Hey, you, handsome young man!"

"Have you seen a little girl, about fifteen or sixteen years old? About this tall, black hair, black eyes, and...well, she’s sort of cute."

Victor hadn’t intended to answer, but the maid’s description reminded him of the beautiful girl from moments ago, and of her gesture asking him to keep her secret before she left.

"...Sorry, I haven’t."

he asked, his expression unchanging. "Who is she?"

"Her?" the maid said with a strange, sarcastic tone. "She’s our Royal Court’s most, most esteemed Little Princess."

"Honestly... where did she run off to now? All she knows how to do is cause trouble for everyone."

The maid muttered a complaint under her breath and, ignoring Victor, continued on her search for the runaway girl.

「Once she was far away.」

Victor’s gaze lowered as he fell into deep thought.

’So... she’s a Princess.’

He had seen it clearly before: the girl could cast Magic without chanting a Spell. For someone her age, achieving such proficiency was truly remarkable.

It meant that she had either started practicing from a young age or possessed extremely high talent.

’If the student the King wants me to teach is at this level... then staying here for a year or so wouldn’t be a waste of time.’

Besides, he wanted to thoroughly research those ancient texts about Demons, and that wasn’t something that could be accomplished overnight.

He convinced himself with two flawless reasons, as if that could conceal the disquieting familiarity and the faint, ineffable flutter he felt in his heart upon seeing the girl’s delicate face.

It was as if...

As if, after years of endless rain, the sky had finally cleared. The clouds had scattered, revealing the bright, warm daylight.

...

Having made his decision, Victor returned to the reception hall and agreed to the King’s earlier proposal.

The King was naturally overjoyed.

To facilitate the lessons, the King had a clean palace specially prepared for Victor to live in.

For some inexplicable reason, Victor did not refuse.

The first lesson was scheduled for the following morning.

According to the King, all the Princes and Princesses of the palace would be in attendance. He urged Victor not to worry about his own feelings or reputation, but to train them with the strictest methods possible.

「Meanwhile.」

Lilia, of course, had no idea what kind of agreement her good-for-nothing King of a father had reached with Victor.

Carrying two large fish, she searched around and finally found the girl who had tried to steal her lunch at noon, huddled in a corner by the wall.

Perhaps due to chronic malnutrition, she looked even younger than Lilia. She was wearing a filthy maid’s uniform and was curled up at the base of the wall, gnawing on blades of grass.

Lilia: "..."

She walked closer.

The girl’s awareness was poor; Lilia was almost right beside her before she abruptly looked up.

Seeing the familiar face, the girl instantly recalled how she had nearly been beaten at noon.

She instinctively started to run but was stopped by Lilia’s voice.

Lilia crouched down about two meters away from her.

It was a non-threatening posture. "Don’t be afraid. No one will hurt you here."