Chapter 27: I’m a Girl, Why Would I Like a Man?

The maid pulled open the curtains, and Viluoya was startled awake by the golden beam of light slanting through the stained glass.

“Miss, it’s ten in the morning. You should get up now.”

The maid Liya’s voice was as calm as ever.

“Lord Cromwell is waiting for you in the living room.”

Viluoya let out an ambiguous, muffled sound through her nose, turned over, and buried her face in the soft pillow.

She, Lin Mu, or rather the current Viluoya Cromwell, had been in this world for three years.

Three years ago, after the accident the system called a “Crash,” she lost consciousness amidst violent turbulence and a feeling of weightlessness.

When she woke up again, she was already lying in this gorgeous bed, so large it could fit six of her.

The system told her that because the teleportation channel had been struck by an unknown high-energy body, they had been brought to this world.

The system itself was severely damaged in the accident. After issuing the mission at the very beginning and explaining the situation, it had been silent until now, leaving her to survive alone.

[Catch the phantom thief known as ‘Nightingale’ and make her unable to get out of bed.]

Viluoya was a bit scared at the time. She wanted the system to stay with her a bit longer to help her adapt to the new world before going into maintenance, but after seeing the mission, she suddenly felt that it was indeed badly broken.

‘Make the phantom thief unable to get out of bed?’

‘Then can I just break her bones?’

“Miss?”

Liya, seeing no movement, stepped closer.

“I know.”

Viluoya finally sat up in bed, and a cascade of brilliant golden hair spilled down like a waterfall, covering her small face.

She yawned, rubbed her sleepy eyes, and stretched.

As her arms extended, her palm accidentally touched the brass carved bedpost at the head of the bed.

With a soft creak—

The post, thicker than her wrist, bent inward at a visible angle from her unconscious touch.

Viluoya: “…”

Liya: “…”

Anna stepped forward silently, glanced at the bent bedpost, then looked at her young lady’s doll-like, harmless face.

Then she reached out, trying to bend the post back.

Her face flushed red as she exerted all her strength, but the brass post didn’t budge.

“Miss…”

Liya gave up and looked at Viluoya with a helpless plea in her tone.

“Oh.”

Viluoya shifted her body, extended her slender fingers, pinched the bent copper post, and gently bent it back.

Creak—

With a teeth-grinding sound, the post was easily straightened, bent back even a little more than before.

Liya sighed, stepped forward to inspect it, then directed Viluoya to adjust it a few more times until it finally looked restored.

“Miss, when you wake up next time, please make sure to stay away from the bedposts,” Liya reminded.

“Mm.”

Viluoya nodded, instantly forgetting the words Liya had said countless times.

She threw off the covers and stepped barefoot onto the cold wooden floor.

Even after being in this world for three years, she still couldn’t fully control the unreasonable brute strength in this body.

Back then, the system had said it might be a side effect of the “Crash”—the energy impact causing some kind of beneficial mutation when her soul fused with her body.

She thought she was just “a little stronger than an average girl,” but the people around her apparently didn’t see it that way.

Liya skillfully dressed her in the complicated inner layers, then the corset that could squeeze the breath out of a person.

“Sigh.”

Viluoya was forced to straighten her back.

She really hated this thing.

Finally, Liya put on a light blue lace dress, its skirt layered and dotted with tiny crystal ornaments, full of the character of this City of Steam and Jewels.

“The master seems very anxious today,” Liya said in a low voice while tying the ribbon at the back of her skirt. “It seems to be about your marriage.”

Viluoya paused.

She remembered. This city had a ridiculous Marriage Act.

All citizens, regardless of gender, must register for marriage by the age of twenty, or face a hefty fine and forced pairing.

And she, Viluoya Cromwell, was less than two months away from her twentieth birthday.

“I understand.”

She walked to the mirror. The girl in the reflection had golden hair, blue eyes, and fair skin, like a delicate doll in a shop window. No one would ever imagine that beneath this shell, she could lift a steam horse with one hand.

After washing up with Liya’s help, she pushed open the bedroom door and headed down to the living room.

In the living room, her father, Arthur Cromwell, the biggest jeweler in the Golden City, was pacing anxiously.

The luxurious formal suit he wore was wrinkled, and his carefully trimmed mustache was slightly askew.

Seeing Viluoya come downstairs, he immediately rushed over.

“My precious daughter, you’re finally up!”

“Good morning, Father.”

Viluoya lifted her skirt and gave a curtsey.

Yes, it was a reflex ingrained in this body.

“Good? Not good at all!”

Arthur waved his arm, pointing at a newspaper stamped with the city’s crest on the table.

“Look, you’re in the papers again! The genius detective of the Golden City, Miss Viluoya, yesterday demolished the steam clock tower on the west side of the square while chasing a thief!”

“Father, that wasn’t a demolition.”

Viluoya corrected him, her tone serious.

“I merely removed a necessary load-bearing pillar to prevent the thief from escaping from the top of the tower. Besides, the clock tower’s structure was unstable to begin with. It was an accident.”

“You call that ‘removed’? The newspaper says you tossed that pillar into the moat like a toothpick!”

Arthur’s voice shot up.

Viluoya thought about the scene.

“Well, pretty much,” she honestly nodded.

Ah, so it wasn’t the reporter exaggerating.

Arthur clutched his chest, looking like he was about to have a heart attack.

“Detective, detective! Again with your damn detective dream!”

He rubbed his forehead and sat down on the sofa.

“Viluoya, listen to me. I don’t care what you want to be, but first and foremost you are a daughter of the Cromwell family. Look at the calendar. Two months, just two months until you turn twenty!”

Arthur pointed at the giant astronomical clock on the wall, made of countless gears and crystals.

“If you don’t get married by then, you’ll be fined. Though we’re not short on pocket change.”

“But the city system will force-match you to who knows what kind of husband. It could be a drunk who’s fixed sewers for thirty years, or a fanatical mechanical modifier.”

Viluoya listened quietly, her jade-green eyes showing no emotion.

Seeing his daughter so nonchalant made Arthur even angrier.

Suddenly, he thought of something. His expression grew serious, and he lowered his voice, leaning in close to Viluoya.

“Viluoya, I have to warn you.”

He looked solemn.

“Your brother, Albert, he likes men. Our family already has one of those. So you must not follow his example!”

Viluoya blinked, looking at her worried father with some confusion.

She thought about the logic of his words.

Her brother was a man, and he liked men.

She was a girl…

So she asked in a matter-of-fact tone, her face innocent:

“Father, I am a girl. Why would I follow my brother and like men?”

Arthur froze.

He looked into his daughter’s clear, jade-green eyes, which were filled with genuine confusion about this question.

A few seconds later, his tense face instantly relaxed, breaking into a relieved smile.

“Right! Well said! Hahahaha!”

He slapped his thigh, looking gratified.

“My daughter is normal, she doesn’t like men! Great! Great!”

Viluoya: “…”

Liya: “?”

Liya looked at the excited master, silently swallowed the words that were on the tip of her tongue.

‘As long as the master is happy, you two have fun, haha.’

“Alright, my little treasure.”

Arthur calmed down from his ecstasy. He stood up and straightened a wrinkle in Viluoya’s skirt.

“Just to be safe, I’ve asked the most renowned Madame Hongxian in the city to arrange a blind date for you at the White Night Hall.”

“According to Madame Hongxian, the other party comes from a respectable family with a clean background. Go now, and have a nice chat.”

Arthur patted his daughter’s shoulder affectionately, then pushed her out of the room with a face full of relief.

“Go on, my good daughter!”

Viluoya stumbled forward from the push. She steadied herself, turned back to glance at her father still immersed in the joy of “my daughter is normal,” and silently sighed.

She turned, lifted her skirt, and let Liya help her into the carriage waiting outside.

In the living room, Arthur Cromwell stood alone, a silly grin still on his face.

He picked up the coffee cup on the table, took a contented sip, and muttered to himself.

“My daughter is a girl, she doesn’t like men. Ah, my daughter is still the one who worries me less…?”

He savored the sentence, and his smile slowly froze.

The coffee cup in his hand stopped in midair.

Wait.

My daughter is a girl.

If she doesn’t like men…

Then…

Crack.

The priceless bone china cup slipped from his hand and shattered on the expensive carpet.

“Screwed!”