"Do you like it, sister?"
This question caught Livia off guard. After a mont, the woman's pink lips parted.
"Like what?"
She didn't quite understand Amalia's aning. Seeing this, Amalia continued.
"Do you like wearing the necklace?"
"..."
"Yes."
Livia replied softly, her fingers sliding along the girl's neck to her cheeks, gently pinching the soft flesh on both sides.
"But if Amalia isn't used to wearing it, you can take it off. I like you no matter what."
"Tomorrow, I'll asure your body size and get you a few more beautiful outfits. If you want to wear it then, you don't have to let it touch your skin; just place the jade on your inner clothing."
Looking at the woman's golden hair shining under the light, Amalia's eyelashes fluttered slightly, and she spoke softly.
"If sister is willing..."
"We can asure now. I have the tools here."
During the last palace clothing fitting, a tailor had co to asure Amalia's body. All the necessary tools were readily available, stored in the utility room.
Livia nodded without hesitation. "Then let's do it now. We can have soone custom-make them tomorrow."
Twenty minutes later, Livia had asured Amalia's height, leg length, bust, waist, and shoulder width, finally determining the girl's exact body asurents.
Without a doubt, Amalia had the typical body of a young girl, just over five feet tall, with legs that, though not long, were perfectly proportioned. Her youthful features fit the logic of her body perfectly, not detracting from her overall beauty in the slightest.
Without the filter of her future tyranny, Amalia was simply a cold, beautiful little princess.
Watching Livia record the asurents on paper, Amalia's gaze flickered uncertainly. Her hand clutched the gemstone on her chest, and after a while, she spoke leisurely.
"Sister..."
Hearing this, Livia turned her head, silently waiting for Amalia to continue. But after half a minute, the latter still hadn't spoken.
"Amalia?"
Livia asked, puzzled, but Amalia seed to have just snapped back to reality. Noticing the bust asurent marked on the paper, she casually brought up a topic.
"Do you think bigger is better, or smaller?"
What she really wanted to ask was, "Have you reconciled with your sister recently?"
But for so reason, Amalia couldn't bring herself to say it, as if the words weighed a thousand pounds.
Once spoken, certain things could never return to how they were before.
"Bigger... smaller?"
Although Astrid didn't deliberately think in that direction, at this mont, what Amalia could ask was probably not far from what she was thinking.
"Mhm." Amalia nodded absentmindedly, continuing the conversation.
"Books say most people like bigger ones."
Which book taught that?
Livia fell silent for a mont, unsure how to explain this to Amalia.
Amalia was only fourteen, just at the age where she should be learning about such things.
But living in the castle, her avenues of knowledge were limited, making it easy for her to develop misguided ideas.
She had been so focused on having Amalia study humanities, history, economics, and politics that she hadn't thought to find a few books on adolescent physical and ntal health for her. Perhaps the royal library didn't have any, so she would have to teach her personally.
"Don't believe those nonsense books..." Livia's tone carried a rare seriousness.
"Both big and small are beautiful, as long as they fit your body."
Hearing the change in Livia's tone for the first ti, Amalia composed herself and looked up at the other.
"Then what do you think of now...?"
Livia replied without hesitation: "You're fine."
A young girl should be just like that, pure and clean.
With that, Livia spoke earnestly: "Amalia, you don't need to worry about this too much yet..."
After spending a full half-hour explaining the basics of human biology to Amalia, barely correcting her slightly skewed thoughts, Livia drank a vial of transformation potion and returned to the neighboring room to attend today's tasks.
"By the way, Amalia, didn't you say you wanted to learn magic?"
Livia took out a summary of magical knowledge from her bag and handed Amalia a thin booklet.
"You can start by reading the summary to understand the flow of spiritual energy and the key points of ditation. This booklet is a collection of notes from a friend of mine who studied magic. Reading it together will help you grasp things faster."
Amalia took the book and the booklet, glanced at the cover of the forr, and then turned her attention to the latter.
Compared to the book, the thin booklet seed much cheaper. Not only was the parchnt used for recording it dull and mottled, wrinkled and creased, but it didn't even have a proper cover, resembling sothing picked up from a street stall.
Opening the first page, she saw a line of elegant handwriting with the owner's na.
Lyra Beckett, this must be the friend Livia ntioned.
Glancing at the golden-haired woman beside her, who was intently holding a quill and writing, Amalia's eyes flashed with a complex expression, which she quickly concealed.
Before eting Livia, her intention had been to question her about her hair. But after eting Livia, she found herself unable to bring it up.
Perhaps Livia had her own reasons, or maybe she had deliberately hidden part of the truth to avoid making Amalia dislike her.
Livia hadn't lied to her; she was indeed a mber of the royal family, but for so reason, her golden hair had turned white.
For the royal family, that golden hair like wheat was a symbol of their status as nobility, a testant to their noble lineage and the glory in their blood. It made sense that Livia usually didn't want to reveal it.
It had to be this way... Livia's kindness toward her didn't seem fake at all...
Having found so explanation, Amalia cald her mind, forcing herself to focus and read the book in front of her.
If it really was magic, perhaps in the future, she could see through Livia's disguise through her own efforts.
Looking at the annotations in the booklet written by soone nad Lyra, Amalia steadied her mind, which had been in turmoil all day, and silently absorbed the knowledge between the lines.
Lyra had written in great detail, including various ditation techniques and tips for cultivating spiritual energy.
Combined with the summary of magical knowledge, Amalia quickly grasped the principles of ditation.
Livia, anwhile, was writing the third chapter of "The Overbearing Prince" beside her, fully focused.
When she finished the chapter, she glanced at the ti and, seeing that it wasn't yet ti for the next potion, decided to leave her bag behind and head to the bathroom.
Feeling the movent, Amalia stopped ditating and turned her head, seeing Livia preparing to leave at the door. She softly asked, "Sister, what's wrong?"
Livia replied gently, "I got ink on my hand. I'm going to wash it off."
As soon as she finished speaking, the sound of boots hitting the tiles echoed in the hallway. Amalia withdrew her gaze, but her peripheral vision caught sight of Livia's bag on the desk.
The white bag seed to possess so kind of magic, drawing Amalia's gaze to it.
Inside this bag... was the dicine Livia drank every night...
The summary of magical knowledge she had just read ntioned that mages at the level of a Magnus could cast spells without chanting.
Mages below that level, however, had to chant fixed universal incantations to transform spiritual energy into magical power and precisely control elental particles.
From the fact that Livia always chanted incantations when casting spells, it was likely that her abilities hadn't yet reached the level of a Magnus. As for the magic that disguised her hair color, she hadn't used any incantations, at least, Amalia had never heard her chant.
Either the spell lasted a long ti, or Livia wasn't achieving the effect through spells but through so kind of potion.
That deep green potion.
During her ti with Livia yesterday, Amalia had seen her drink the potion roughly every two hours. If it was truly a potion that had to be taken regularly to avoid major disruptions to her life, did that an Livia never slept?
Sitting in her seat, hearing the sound of the bathroom door closing in the hallway, Amalia's eyes flickered, her blue gaze fixed on the bag.
If... Livia was really using these potions to maintain her disguise...
Then if she did sothing small, wouldn't Livia be exposed very quickly?
Her heart pounded in her chest, and Amalia felt her entire body grow hot. A sense of tension, as if she were on the verge of uncovering the truth, spread through her mind.
Should she really do this...?
After a mont of contemplation, she heard a faint sound from the bathroom.
The sound of a water crystal activating, Livia was washing her hands.
The sound of dripping water echoed through a long, narrow corridor, separated by a single door.
Ti wasn't abundant, but it was just enough.
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