After a moment of silence, Yilu still hadn’t received a reply from Lyr, which made her wonder if the guy had fallen asleep.
Yilu turned sideways and cautiously reached out to poke Lyr in the back.
This time, there was a reaction almost immediately. She felt his back shift.
“Are you really asleep?” Yilu asked.
“No.”
On the other side, Lyr let out a deep sigh.
He had been about to fall asleep, but Yilu’s words woke him up completely.
“Then let me ask you a question too.” Lyr kept his back to her. “Is getting power really that important to you?”
He knew Yilu was obsessed with this, even willing to go to any lengths. He hadn’t expected it to have reached this point.
“It’s important!” Yilu’s answer was firm. “I told you, as long as I can get stronger, I’ll do anything. Then no one will be able to talk back to me.”
“Fighting violence with violence, huh.” Lyr gave a bitter smile. “Is there really nothing else you consider important?”
“…”
Lyr knew Yilu wouldn’t be able to react right away.
When a person sees only one path, they naturally become stubborn.
Whether due to external circumstances or their own reasons, they start to believe there’s no other way.
That was exactly Yilu’s situation right now.
If she had another option to choose, she probably wouldn’t think like this.
Yilu opened her mouth to say something, but found she couldn’t answer.
When she was little, her brother told her not to obsess over whether she could become strong or not, but to focus on other things.
She always thought those words were meant to brush her off.
To be honest, even her brother believed she could never become powerful, so he used that euphemism.
But after all this time, she had increasingly realized that without power enough to overwhelm others, everything was nothing but empty talk—pale and weak.
“Then let me change the question. Now you know you carry the bloodline of a Witch. If you really obtain a Witch’s power and become a true Witch, what do you think you’ll be like?”
“I’ll shut those people up. I won’t even need anyone’s help. I’ll find my brother on my own and clear the name of the Starting Bud Family.”
If she had power like that of the one from before, Yilu felt she could do anything.
By then, naturally, no one would look down on her.
“That’s fine.” Lyr said flatly.
In a way, Yilu’s thoughts were pretty simple. But the simpler they were, the harder it was to tell what was her own idea and what was an intrusive impurity.
“Those were all about other people. You still haven’t answered my question.”
“What do you mean?”
“What about yourself?” Lyr paused. “From what I know now, Witches don’t just have power—they also have a Curse. Can you withstand that Curse on your own?”
Enduring it for a day or two was barely tolerable, but if it went on forever, it would twist anyone.
Lyr had always felt Yilu’s nature wasn’t bad enough to go that far.
But she seemed determined to head in that direction.
That was why, when he heard Yilu wanted to gain power and become a full Witch, he made such an ambiguous expression.
He couldn’t stop her, but he couldn’t let her go ahead either.
Yilu completely turned around, though she kept a bit of distance, looking at his back.
“Don’t I have you?”
Both times, it was because of Lyr that she managed to shake off the Curse and even talk to him normally now.
But she had already been trying to control that situation.
Tonight was proof.
“Hey, say something.” Seeing Lyr go silent again, Yilu poked him harder. “And you saw—I wasn’t as flustered today as I was yesterday.”
Being poked like that, even someone as calm as Lyr started to get irritated.
Yilu’s thinking was too naive. At the very least, the two Witches he had encountered were far from normal.
One sought release, while the other slaughtered indiscriminately—both had bowed to the Curse.
The intensity of the Curse probably wasn’t limited to what he and Yilu had faced.
Even with the Thunder Elf’s Blessing, thinking back still made his heart race.
“I’ve killed a Witch.” Lyr finally said it out loud. “Even so, do you still want to become one?”
“Huh?” Yilu’s eyes widened.
Yilu had heard something about that from the person she encountered earlier.
She hadn’t taken it to heart then, but now putting it together, she understood.
“So if I really do become a Witch, would you kill me too?” Yilu said.
She knew what Lyr was trying to say.
It was just that if she really turned out that way, even if Lyr didn’t do it, someone else would.
“I don’t know. I didn’t know that person’s situation back then.”
Remembering it made Lyr restless.
According to what that one had said, the one he killed was probably the least twisted among the Witches.
And because he killed her, he got tangled up in all this.
Suddenly, Lyr felt the cold on his back disappear, replaced by a slowly spreading warmth.
He turned his head slightly and vaguely saw Yilu moving closer, half her head pressed against his back.
“So many people hate me, but if I were to be killed by you… that doesn’t seem like such a bad thing.” Yilu’s cheeks were buried under the blanket, but her voice was clear.
“How can you think that way?” Lyr was surprised.
In the end, Yilu still hadn’t given up on gaining power. She even had thoughts of dying.
Just how stubborn was this girl? No matter what he said, she wouldn’t listen.
“Actually, I’m curious. You take such good care of me. Sometimes I wonder how I should see our relationship.”
Lyr tilted his head. “Besides you being Berspin’s sister, it’s only natural for a teacher to look out for his student.”
“No.” Yilu immediately denied that automatic assumption.
Just as Lyr felt Yilu was acting strangely and was about to ask further, a force pushed against his back, and he was sent tumbling off the bed.
Once again, he crashed down wrapped in his blanket.
“What are you doing now?! If you keep this up, I’ll really get mad!” Lyr said as he climbed up.
There had to be a limit to fooling around.
But Yilu stood on the other side, clutching a pillow, and gave a small huff. “Right now, we have a debtor-creditor relationship. You still haven’t returned my Magic Core. Don’t you dare forget that.”
She stuck her tongue out at him and made a face.
“Idiot.”
With that, she turned and ran out of Lyr’s room.