Early morning, hazy, radiant light spilled across the young girl’s face.
Shiya rubbed her sleepy eyes, looking at Elena with a hint of resentment.
Last night, ever since this imperial princess placed her hand on Shiya’s waist, her heart had been racing.
She only managed to fall asleep in the small hours of the morning.
But at a glance, Shiya saw only two proud, soft mounds.
Or more accurately, her face was buried deep within them.
Her face began to burn.
She knew her sleeping posture wasn’t good, but she hadn’t thought it could be this excessive.
Just as Shiya tried to shrink back, pretending nothing had happened, she looked up and met Elena’s light blue eyes.
The imperial princess yawned, clearly also just waking up, not yet having realized that someone had been taking liberties with her all this time.
She wanted to stroke Shiya’s disheveled snow-white hair, but her hand stopped halfway in the air and was withdrawn.
It was in this morning atmosphere, where the girls were both flustered and uncertain, that a series of untimely, urgent knocks sounded on the Student Council President’s office door.
It seemed many people had already gathered outside.
“Princess Elena, something terrible has happened at the Flower God Festival site!”
“President, that idiot Razel brought the family members who were causing trouble over here!”
Elena’s heart instantly leapt into her throat.
This year’s Flower God Festival was organized by her Student Council.
If anything went wrong and her father, the Emperor, held them accountable, no one could bear the consequences.
For a moment, she couldn’t worry about anything else.
She threw back the curtain, got out of bed, threw on her coat, and called out:
“Come in.”
The Student Council members pushed the door open and swarmed in all at once.
But just as Elena was about to ask in detail what had happened, she suddenly noticed everyone’s gazes were fixed intently on the space behind her.
The princess’s heart gave a jolt.
She had actually forgotten to pull the curtain closed behind her.
There, behind her, bathed in the dappled sunlight from the window, the girl kneeling on the bed had a strap that had slipped down, revealing a stretch of snow-white, translucent shoulder.
Noticing the many peering, probing stares, Shiya froze for a moment, blinked her moist, lively golden eyes, and then, as if waking from a dream, began frantically tidying her disheveled hair and her messy, crumpled dress.
Her earlobes were flushed scarlet, almost as if they would bleed.
She was about to reach back and pull the curtain closed first, but when she looked up, she met a pair of pale red eyes staring fixedly at her.
It was Leonora.
She had been caught sleeping with the princess… No, no, why was she having such a strange thought?
Elena saw the varied, meaningful expressions on everyone’s faces and understood exactly what they were all thinking.
Even the princess herself felt awkward.
She cleared her throat softly, preparing to explain.
But time for that was already gone.
A powerful, middle-aged woman’s voice exploded from downstairs:
“Damn it all! You Student Council people actually took my husband to a brothel, and he hasn’t come home all night!”
Immediately after, heavy, rapid footsteps came directly to the door of the President’s office.
A cursing, straw-hat-wearing middle-aged woman barged in, her rough, calloused hand pointing accusingly.
“Ah, finally found you, you little vixen!”
But when the middle-aged woman, well-versed in the art of starting arguments by slapping labels on people, truly saw that she was pointing at the current imperial princess, her finger trembled.
She immediately changed direction and pointed at Shiya.
No, that girl was still on the princess’s bed.
She’d long heard these big shots played wild games, and today she was seeing it firsthand.
She hurriedly shifted her accusatory finger again, pointing it in the air at Leonora.
That wasn’t right either.
This gorgeously dressed young lady seemed even more resentful than she was.
Her gaze, sharp as a knife, hadn’t left the girl on the bed, making her look more like the one here to catch a cheating spouse.
The middle-aged woman swallowed her saliva, suddenly confused.
There were only three women present.
How did this seem even more explosive than the usual gossip at the village ends?
In the end, it was Elena who rubbed her temples with a headache and addressed the Student Council member who had entered with the middle-aged woman, the one hanging his head in a guilty manner.
“Explain, Razel. You’re in charge of the Flower God Festival site. What exactly happened?”
Razel wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
“Princess, it’s this lady’s husband here. He’s been missing all night. If she hadn’t come here making a scene, I wouldn’t have known about it either.”
Leonora also grew serious, raising an eyebrow and tapping Elena’s desk unceremoniously with her staff.
“If he’s missing, go file a report with the garrison. What are you doing at the Student Council?”
But then, Karlen, who had been watching Elena and Shiya thoughtfully, stepped forward.
“That won’t do, Leonora. If this blows up and the Flower God Festival is forced to shut down, when His Majesty the Emperor holds us accountable, everyone will be punished.”
Finally, as President, Elena made the decisive call.
“Don’t alert anyone, not even the village chief of Flower God Village. For now, all Student Council members spread out. Start searching from the initial missing person’s location.”
Then she added, “Shiya, it’s too dangerous there. You’re an ordinary person, so stay at the Student Council.”
“I won’t go either. I happen to have a lot of clutter to clean up in my magic training room.”
Leonora stepped forward and, in front of everyone, lifted Shiya off the princess’s bed.
“Perfect. I’ll have a certain disobedient, runaway girl help me clean up.”
Shiya shrank her neck in, feeling that if she spent the day alone with the young lady today, something very bad would happen.
So she made a small, quiet suggestion.
“Elena, I want to go help too.”
Elena glanced at Leonora, who was still holding tightly onto Shiya, and her eyes darkened slightly.
“Alright, Shiya. Since you have the heart for it, stay by my side. As for you, Leonora, as Vice President, you will remain stationed at the Student Council.”
To surpass any previous Imperial Capital Flower God Festival, the Student Council had practically rented out an entire commercial street and a plaza as the festival grounds.
Shiya gently brushed her hand over a stall made from a single piece of wood, then stomped on the soft, muddy ground beneath her feet.
She was a bit puzzled.
As the most commercially developed area of the Imperial Capital, it shouldn’t look like this—undeveloped, without even cobblestone paths laid down.
As if understanding her thoughts, Elena smiled and explained, “This was personally designed by that lady’s husband, the chief engineer. As for why, you’ll understand later.”
The princess was being coy.
“After our play is over this time, perhaps we can come here for a stroll and experience it firsthand.”
She seemed to take it for granted that Shiya would perform in the play, or perhaps she deliberately ignored that point and was directly painting a rosy picture for the girl before her.
Shiya brushed aside the hair the wind had tousled, pursed her lips, feeling uncomfortable with the princess’s directness.
Right now, she should be acting in character, actively clinging to her, but no matter what, she couldn’t bring herself to do it.
Just then, two Student Council members found Elena.
“President, there’s a situation over there! We found a stone statue in the altar that had moved strangely and disappeared.”
Elena immediately switched into work mode and nodded.
“Lead the way.”
Shiya was about to follow when one of the Student Council members, with a fake smile, stopped her.
“Miss Shiya, you should stay here. If monsters appear, we won’t have extra hands to protect you.”
Shiya had no choice.
She could only follow the original plan and begin searching all the nearby stalls alone.
But just as she was rummaging through the fifth empty stall, a strangely familiar sound—the rustle of leather boots on muddy ground—instantly made her heart skip a beat.
This little rabbit with snow-white fur tensed her body, wanting to act nonchalant and start walking toward where the people were.
Unfortunately, covering one’s ears to steal a bell never works.
An ice-cold hand pinched the nape of her neck.
“Young Lady, weren’t you stationed at the Student Council?”
Shiya felt awkward.
She placed her palms on the back of Leonora’s hand, wanting to play pitiful and beg for mercy first.
“If I said I was forced to work overtime by a heartless Student Council President until late last night and had no choice but to stay over, would you believe me?”
As soon as she finished speaking, she heard the habitual derisive snort underlying Leonora’s cool voice from behind.
“The princess’s little bit of Student Council authority isn’t enough to give me orders.”
But at that point, the young lady stopped, as if she didn’t know how to respond to Shiya’s latter half, her plea for mercy.
Shiya suddenly felt the fingers pinching the nape of her neck loosen.
Then, with a thump, her upper body fell onto the wooden board of the stall.
The opportunity was fleeting.
Without thinking, she pushed herself up, about to run outside.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Leonora’s icy voice rang out.
“To report to President Elena that you’re skipping work!”
Truthfully, Shiya didn’t understand why she was running either.
But being caught by the young lady in the morning after sharing a bed with Elena made her feel guilty, wanting to escape.
But the frail girl was easily dragged back by the young lady and pressed back onto the stall’s wooden board.
Seeing Shiya about to struggle like last time at the hospital, pushing against her own modest chest, Leonora was prepared this time.
She directly seized Shiya’s wrists.
Shiya still wanted to kick her legs in resistance.
Leonora bent her long, straight calf, her knee pressing directly against Shiya’s lower abdomen.
But perhaps the young lady from the ducal family didn’t do this sort of thing often.
Unnoticed, her knee slid down from the lower abdomen.
Shiya let out a soft whimper, instinctively tensing her body.
Leonora suddenly felt her knee enveloped by a very warm, very comfortable sensation.
The girl beneath her also seemed to go completely limp, looking at her with aggrieved-filled, misty golden eyes.
But even now, having inadvertently pressed against the girl’s weak point and thoroughly seized the initiative as the one on top, the young lady momentarily didn’t know what to say.
Threaten her?
Or pressure her with her status?
Why?
And on what grounds?
They were as close as sisters, sleeping in the same bed.
What right did she have to be angry?
For a moment, Leonora’s heart was in turmoil, but she found an angle.
She leaned down, getting extremely close to Shiya, but her tone was cold as ice, carrying an undeniable pressure.
“Shiya, as your creditor, I told you to find an opportunity to sabotage the relationship between Elena and Mr. Karlen. But so far, you haven’t made a single move.”