About twenty more minutes passed, and the meeting ended.
When Natasha left, she deliberately paused in front of Kiz and stared at her expressionlessly for about three seconds.
Then she said something completely unrelated.
“Come visit the Shadow Song Tribe next time. I’ll treat you to our tribe’s specialty rock honey wine.”
“I don’t drink.”
Kiz sounded disappointed.
“You can bring her along.”
Natasha tilted her chin toward Elia, who was standing at the door.
Hearing that, Kiz glanced back, then turned to Natasha with a smile.
“That works. Elia can really hold her liquor, you know~”
The corner of Natasha’s mouth curved up slightly before she turned and left with her Shadow Song Warriors.
When Elia walked in, Fiona was just brushing past her, moving at least twice as fast as usual. She clearly didn’t want to stay in that room a second longer.
At that moment, Elia felt she should sympathize with this Glow leader.
But she realized she was actually smiling.
‘No, no! This isn’t good…’
She quickly wiped the smile off her face.
While organizing the documents on the table, Kiz asked softly, “How long were you peeking through the door just now?”
“Since the part where you said, ‘Tell me in no more than five words’~ Was that something you came up with on the spot, or had you prepared it in advance?”
“On the spot. I just didn’t want to hear her beating around the bush anymore, so I cut her off.”
After finishing organizing the documents, Kiz looked up at her.
“So, have you finished breakfast?”
“Finished. Not a single Purple Berry left… Where’s Lillian Lasombra?”
“Still in the garden. She said the sunlight is nice today, so she wants to sun her Moonlight Stone a little longer… Heh, only she would talk about sunning a Moonlight Stone in broad daylight.”
After finishing her complaints, Kiz packed up the documents and stood up.
But then her steps suddenly wobbled.
Seeing this, Elia quickly reached out to support her arm, her brows furrowing.
“You didn’t eat breakfast?”
“…I got up late and didn’t have time…”
Elia took a deep breath and, without another word, pulled a candy out of her pocket.
It was the same kind of honey candy Laura had given Lillian Lasombra earlier. Elia had taken a few extra and kept them with her for emergencies.
She unwrapped the candy and popped it straight into Kiz’s mouth.
Caught off guard, Kiz mumbled something that sounded vaguely like a protest, but her cheek puffed out around the candy.
In short, this Little Princess instantly transformed from a cold-faced meeting killer back into a soft little pufferfish.
‘She’s really so soft and cute~’
“You look so impressive when you scold people in meetings. How come you can’t even take care of your own breakfast?”
Elia patted her forehead with some exasperation.
“Because someone insisted on dragging me into a chat until midnight last night. I asked how your preparations were going, and you went off about the Trial Ground, then moved on to your past, and somehow ended up talking about that game I don’t understand at all… I listened to you for a full two hours!”
As Kiz spoke, she crushed the candy with her teeth and swallowed it.
“And you were so engrossed that I didn’t have the heart to interrupt you… You’re the one who kept me from getting enough sleep, and now you’re blaming me!”
Elia thought back to their conversation last night and realized that she really had launched into a long, detailed explanation of the plot of Blood Princess Alliance, her favorite game from her past life.
She had described the game’s worldbuilding, character backgrounds, main enemies, side quest Easter eggs, and everything else in detail. She had even introduced the limited-edition loli Vampire skin that had been given away during an event.
Moreover, she had grown more and more excited as she spoke, completely failing to notice that Kiz’s eyelids were already beginning to droop.
“…Did I really talk for that long?”
“What do you think? You even told me how many color schemes the skirt of that… what was it called… skin has!”
“That’s the best Vampire skin in gaming history!”
“I want candy! Give me another one! Consider it compensation for emotional damage!”
Kiz held out her hand, palm up, and made her demand with complete confidence.
Elia obediently pulled out another candy and placed it in her palm.
At that moment, Laura had somehow appeared beside them.
The Elf Princess held her personal teacup, looked at Kiz, then at Elia, and offered a remarkably concise summary.
“You two are really fun… One of you can make Fiona question her entire life with a single sentence in a meeting, and the other can make the Holy Grail Order question their entire existence. But in private, one forgets to eat breakfast, while the other talks about completely incomprehensible things for three hours. Is this what they call gap moe?”
“If you don’t speak, no one will think you’re mute.”
Kiz glared at her.
However, since she still had candy in her mouth, the power of her glare was greatly diminished.
Although her glaring skills had never been particularly impressive to begin with.
The three of them then walked together toward the dining hall.
After all, Kiz needed a second breakfast, and Elia decided to eat another meal with her.
Laura claimed she was only there to watch the fun.
On the way, they passed through the sky corridor connecting the main hall to the guest rooms, where they happened to witness a rather delicate scene.
Vian was standing at the far end of the corridor, trying to reach a book on the top shelf by standing on her tiptoes.
The book was about as thick as her arm and was wedged tightly between two larger tomes, with only its spine visible.
Prince Jimixi stood on her tiptoes and reached for quite a while, but her fingertips always fell just a little short of the spine.
In short, the scene was adorable no matter how you looked at it.
‘So, why not use magic?!’
Elia complained internally.
“Need help?”
The kind Little Saintess asked from behind her.
“No! I-I can do it!”
Vian took a deep breath, then jumped up, managing to touch the spine with her fingertips.
But the book only slid out a little and remained stuck.
After landing, she jumped again and touched the book once more.
However, the book still only slid out slightly and refused to fall.
On her third attempt, she jumped with extra force.
This time, she finally knocked the book free, but she herself tumbled backward from using too much force.
Just as she was about to fall to the floor, a fair hand caught her back and steadied her.
The newcomer held a cup of black tea in her left hand without spilling a drop, while her right hand supported Vian’s back.
Lisa had appeared at some point.
After steadying Vian, Lisa bent down to pick up the thick book from the floor, blew the dust off its cover, and handed it to her.
“Every time you can’t reach something high, you end up falling. Why don’t you let someone help you? And why don’t you use magic?”
“Because I want to challenge myself! And I thought I could definitely succeed this time… Darn it… I was just a tiny bit short! I’ll definitely do it next time!”
Vian spoke unwillingly.
“Hmph! One day, I’ll grow taller!”
Lisa stared at her for a while, then reached out and gently patted the top of her head.
“You’re already over 1,000 years old. It’s impossible for you to grow taller.”
“You still have to have dreams. What if? What if?”
Lisa picked up her black tea and took a small sip.
“I’ve been hearing that line for almost 300 years…”
After being patted on the head, Vian’s entire expression lit up. She hugged the book and followed closely behind Lisa.
The two of them passed through the corridor one after the other.
From behind Lisa, Vian chirped excitedly, “The ancient Blood Clan magic recorded in this book seems like it can add some lightning attribute effects to my flames! Help me think it over!”
“Last time you added a lightning attribute, you blew your own hair up with electricity.”
Elia and Kiz stood at the other end of the corridor, watching the two of them walk away.
Laura held the rim of her cup up to cover half her face and asked in a low voice, “What exactly is the relationship between those two?”
“A very good relationship. Back when we were in the Blood Clan, Vian would find all sorts of excuses to run over to Lisa every day. One day, she’d say she wanted to ask about shadow magic. The next, she’d claim she’d discovered a new dish and wanted Lisa to taste it. The day after that, she’d say her chair was broken and she wanted to borrow Lisa’s… Her chair could break nineteen times a year.”
Kiz paused before continuing.
“But Vian isn’t like that around anyone else. Normally, she’s fierce and crazy, and on the battlefield, she can burn down hundreds of armies all by herself… But in front of Lisa, she turns into a cute little redhead.”
“This is probably what they mean by one thing conquering another.”
Laura took a sip of tea and said.
Premium Chapter
Login to buy access to this Chapter.