The ceiling lights suddenly flickered on, blinding Leonora.
She immediately realized this meant the Sludge Man’s interference with the magic circuits had failed, and the hospital’s backup mana supply equipment had resumed operation.
It also meant that contact with the outside world had been fully restored.
Without a moment’s hesitation, the young lady of the Duke’s family took out a small silver whistle and blew into it with force.
The whistle did not produce the noisy sound one might expect.
But in less than ten seconds, a female guard from the Duke’s Estate smashed directly through the window and entered.
“Young Mistress, are you injured?”
The guard, sensing something was wrong, immediately stepped forward.
She pulled a bottle of blue potion from her bosom—one that emitted a holy light and was faintly surrounded by angelic feathers—and personally fed it to Leonora.
Visibly, Leonora’s pale complexion regained its rosy color, and she was able to stand and walk on her own.
Having survived the ordeal, she couldn’t help but raise an eyebrow, her tone tinged with anger.
“I’ve been missing for so long, and you didn’t notice anything unusual about this hospital at all?”
The guard bowed her head in shame.
No matter how many excuses she could find, dereliction of duty was dereliction of duty.
Seeing this, Leonora sighed helplessly.
Only she knew just how unreliable this person, who had been by her side since childhood, could be.
“So, was it the security force that stormed in and killed the Sludge Man?”
The guard shook her head.
“No. From the outside, this hospital showed no signs of abnormality whatsoever. No one even went to report it to the security force.”
Leonora frowned.
If it wasn’t the security force, then who killed that powerful monster?
The image of Shiya’s resolute retreating figure flashed in her mind, and a bad premonition instantly rose in the young lady’s heart.
She tried to use her mana to sense it, but was shocked to find that the Fire Crystal had long since lost its power and shattered.
Combined with the now-normal state of the hospital, a terrifying conjecture instantly solidified in her mind.
“Find her!” Leonora ordered anxiously.
But at that moment, the guard firmly objected.
“No, Young Mistress. Even with the Church’s medical potion as a safeguard, you must go to His Grace’s private hospital immediately to check for any hidden injuries.”
“Then I’ll go back and tell Father that you slept with his most beloved concubine,” Leonora threatened, narrowing her eyes.
The guard immediately straightened her back, speaking solemnly.
“But on second thought, Young Mistress, your every command is the one and only unshakable faith of my life.”
Leonora shot a sideways glance at this person, praised by the outside world as an ‘ice beauty’ yet so two-faced, and stepped out of the records room first.
But when she actually arrived at the equipment room and saw the girl who had stopped breathing with her own eyes, her heart still clenched violently.
“Shiya…”
Leonora couldn’t suppress her hoarse, dry voice.
She threw herself before the girl, gathering her into her arms.
Her fingertips trembled incessantly, but Leonora was still extremely careful, even treating her like a fragile treasure, using her mana bit by bit to warm her body.
The location of the equipment room was completely opposite the other exit.
This made Leonora fully realize that Shiya, this liar, had deceived her.
But she had no time or mood left to be angry with this girl.
Seeing the girl in her arms gradually regain signs of life under her steady infusion of mana,
Leonora finally pressed her lips together and smiled, a warm tear sliding from the corner of her eye.
The teardrop fell on the back of Shiya’s hand.
Her index finger twitched slightly, hooking onto Leonora’s thumb.
“Is that you, Young Mistress?”
In the extremely low temperature of the room, Leonora, already covered in a thin layer of frost, paid it no mind.
She leaned down close to Shiya’s lips.
But her tone remained cold.
“You fool. If I hadn’t come to find you, were you just going to self-righteously sacrifice yourself and die here?”
Shiya exhaled a breath of crystalline cold air.
“Young Mistress… finish it…”
Leonora’s fierce gaze shot toward the black, grotesque ice sculpture she had been ignoring until now.
The guard beside her understood.
Drawing the short hammer from her waist, she wrapped it in a purple aura and completely smashed the Sludge Man into a pile of icy shards.
Holy Water poured down along the bottle, dissolving even the last trace of filth into nothingness.
“Do you have any more healing potion?” Leonora pressed the guard.
The guard’s expression was indifferent.
“I only brought that one bottle. And aside from you, Young Mistress, the lives and deaths of others are not within my concern.”
Hearing this, Leonora finally couldn’t hold back her emotions and shouted, “But Shiya fought that monster for my sake! She’s just an ordinary person, she almost died here!”
This was the first time the guard had seen this young mistress, who usually looked down on everything, lose her composure so hysterically.
The female guard was somewhat moved.
“I understand. His Grace has a friend whose private clinic is nearby. As long as the money is right, he can snatch back half a life even from someone who’s just died.”
The guard walked to the wall, concentrated her purple aura, and with a powerful punch, blasted a large hole, saving them the trouble of navigating the hospital’s winding corridors and wasting time.
Leonora remained silent, carrying the unconscious Shiya in a princess carry as she followed behind the guard.
But just at that moment, the person Leonora least wanted to see appeared.
“Shiya, what’s wrong?”
Elena had finally arrived with the student council members in a frantic rush.
Seeing Shiya’s pale, even slightly bluish face.
Without a word, she immediately stepped forward, about to snatch Shiya from Leonora’s arms.
Leonora’s face turned cold.
She pressed Shiya closer to her chest, turned sideways to bump Elena’s arm away with her shoulder, not allowing this woman to touch even a single finger of Shiya’s.
“Get lost. I’m taking her to a nearby clinic.”
Seeing her grab at empty air, Elena frowned, her beautiful eyebrows knitting together.
Her light blue eyes fixed directly on Leonora.
“There’s no need to trouble the people of House Celestine. Just hand Shiya over to me.”
Her Imperial Highness the Princess spoke politely, but her actions were anything but.
One hand clamped onto Shiya’s wrist, the other tried to pry open Leonora’s arm.
“On what grounds?”
Leonora refused to yield an inch, her pale red eyes glancing arrogantly at this Imperial Princess.
“It was me who saved her when she was about to be killed by the monster. Where were you then? And now, how can you have the shamelessness to come back for her?”
Elena was left speechless by the retort, but in the end, she hardened her attitude to assert her claim.
“Shiya’s parents once said they entrusted Shiya to my care. Shiya has always called me ‘Elena Sister.’ Leonora, you’re the one who barged in halfway, the one who doesn’t know her place.”
The surrounding student council members watched, dumbfounded.
One was the Princess, like a flower on a high peak, of noble bloodline, admired yet not dared to approach too closely.
The other was the young lady of the Duke’s family, like a scorching sun, radiant enough, and able to unhesitatingly blind the eyes of anyone who dared to gaze upon her.
These two favored daughters of heaven were now, like two young women from the marketplace, arguing, accusing each other, fighting over a girl here.
Who would believe it if you told them?
Interestingly, during the stalemate between the two, nearly one-third of the student council members silently moved to stand behind Leonora.
Forming a subtle standoff with the student council members who remained firmly behind Elena.
In the end, it was Elena who regained some composure.
She took a deep breath and looked at Karlen beside her.
“Mr. Karlen, didn’t you have the security force come over ahead of time?”
Leonora keenly caught the something off, a flash of thought in her eyes, followed by a disdainful snort.
Karlen also put on a feigned confusion expression, but his hands dagger behind his back., giving a slight curl appeared at the corner of his lips.
Soon, the sound of leather boots stomping on the ground approached from afar.
Three security force soldiers arrived at the scene.
The leader planted a thick tower shield on the ground with a thud, kicking up a cloud of dust.
“Who reported that a monster appeared here?”
Karlen immediately stepped forward resentfully to stand before the soldiers.
“Why are you so late? A close friend of Her Imperial Highness the Princess nearly lost her life.”
The security force captain’s voice was neither humble nor arrogant, his reply by the book.
“Many civilians have been protesting in the Imperial Capital recently. We just managed to scrape together”
The response was proper, leaving no room for fault, yet it carried a sense of stiffness and rigidity.
Elena waved her hand.
Her light blue eyes gained a bit more confidence of assured victory as she glanced at Leonora, whose presence had already weakened by three parts.
“Let’s set that aside for now. Soldiers, escort me and my friend to the best hospital in the center of the Imperial Capital.”
Leonora bit her lip, watching as Elena approached step by step with the three soldiers.
She could only retreat continuously.
It wasn’t that she feared the strength of the three security force soldiers.
A female student council member behind her leaned close to her ear.
“Vice President Leonora, their security force is, after all, an official force with imperial backing.”
This advice directly made Leonora lose heart.
She could only watch helplessly as the princess snatched Shiya from her arms.
Her hands hung limply.
There was nothing she could do now.
Karlen also stepped forward at the right moment, his tone gentle.
“Don’t worry, Miss Leonora. I also know a little about medicine. I’ll help take care of Miss Shiya together.”
But as soon as his words fell, as if hearing some discordant sound, Shiya’s body trembled slightly, curling up.
She unconsciously reached out toward Leonora, but her palm hovered in mid-air, unable to touch the young lady’s clothes no matter what.
“Young Mistress, don’t leave me alone…”
Hearing this, Elena’s face instantly turned ugly.
She held tightly Shiya in her arms, even though she knew she couldn’t break free.
Leonora, whose mood had been extremely poor just moments ago, suddenly raised the corner of her mouth, looking at Elena with the bearing of a victor.
No one knew where she produced a feather fan from.
With a snap, she opened it,mimicking the posture of those noble young ladie’s and, covering the lower half of her face.
“Hehe, since Her Imperial Highness the Princess insists on forcibly taking her, then there’s nothing to be done.
After all, we noble-born youths with proper etiquette and upbringing would never do something as rude and over bearingas snatching someone on the street, isn’t that right?”
Elena didn’t say a word, not even bothering to look at this self-satisfied young lady.
She turned and left, carrying Shiya horizontally in her arms.
From behind came Leonora’s instructions to her subordinates. She didn’t deliberately lower her voice her voice.
“You few, hurry and protect Shiya. After all, our Imperial Princess might abandon her again at any time, ultimately leaving her to her death like today.”
Elena slowly let out a breath of turbid air.
Dark undercurrents seemed to swirl in her light blue eyes.
Leonora was right.
Today was also her dereliction of duty that caused Shiya to be so seriously injured.
If this young lady hadn’t been so aggressive and overbearing,, perhaps she would have properly thanked her for saving Shiya.
Karlen quickened his pace,stepped in front of her, his tone sincere.
“Elena, Miss Shiya ending up like this is all my responsibility. If you don’t mind, I know some medicine. I can take a look at her for you.”
Elena instinctively wanted to agree, but remembering Shiya’s resistant posture just now, she shook her head instead.
The princess’s tone was gentle.
“It’s not your fault, Mr. Karlen. You probably didn’t anticipate such a situation either. Shiya… just let me take her to the hospital alone for treatment.”
Watching the princess depart, Karlen thoughtfully rubbed his chin.
It seemed his timing still wasn’t right, failing to make Elena completely despise Shiya.
Should he add some heavier fuel to the fire,make their relationship apart?
Why not take advantage of an opportunity like tomorrow to propose to Elena.
Surely Miss Shiya, with her long-standing jealousy, nature, would completely lose control, right?