Lili’s words left Allie blinking in confusion, her mind montarily blank. Her expression quickly paled as she asked in alarm, “Sothing happened to Alicia!?”
“She absorbed too much Earth Energy and suffered backlash. She’s gravely injured now… and showing signs of petrification!” Lili explained truthfully, her tone laced with unease and panic.
“So serious!?” Allie gasped.
“Yeah.” Lili nodded, her small, tightly clenched hands trembling slightly. The image of Alicia lying pale and motionless on the ground flashed through her mind, and the panic in her chest surged all over again. It was an unbearable feeling.
“To actually get hurt by Earth Energy… I swear, I could slap her!” Allie said irritably. She knew better than anyone that Alicia’s physique was perfectly attuned to both Earth and Wood Energy. Normally, absorbing Earth Energy should have only benefited her, not hard her.
But just like water—drink too much, and it could kill you.
“Big Sis was too impatient…” Lili lowered her head and bit her lip softly.
If Alicia had just taken her ti and absorbed it slowly, this wouldn’t have happened. But she’d rushed things.
“Allie, please, use your almighty black magic to think of sothing!” Lili raised her head, her eyes filled with urgency. In her mind, Allie—the black mage who could manipulate all nine elental attributes—had to have a way. That was why she had rushed back to Jade City in the middle of the night.
However…
“What do you take my black magic for? It’s a power ant for destruction!” Allie rolled her eyes. Though she could control Earth Energy, that didn’t an she could heal injuries caused by it. Unless…
A thought suddenly crossed her mind, and a certain person ca to mind.
“Then what should we do!?” Lili asked anxiously. Allie was her last hope. Such injuries weren’t sothing a priest or doctor could treat. Alicia’s very foundation had been damaged.
“Relax,” Allie said, patting her shoulder. “With Princess around, it’ll be fine.”
“Princess?” Lili repeated, puzzled.
Allie retracted her hand and smiled. “What do you think of my condition right now?”
Lili blinked, still confused, but she took a closer look at her. Then her eyes widened as her pupils shrank in shock. “Allie… you look so much prettier! And your complexion.. wait, your power has returned!?”
Her mind filled with question marks, the shock inside her felt like a magnitude-twelve earthquake.
Allie shook her head. “Not fully yet, but I’ll be completely recovered in just a few days.”
“……” Lili stood there, dumbfounded, her face frozen in astonishnt. She, Allie, and Alicia had grown up together. Naturally, they knew each other’s conditions well. “You’re serious?” she finally managed to say after a long pause.
Allie’s power had not been suppressed by a curse but crippled by severe internal injuries. Anyone else whose body was that damaged would have died hundreds of tis over.
‘Allie’s power recovering… doesn’t that an…’ Lili couldn’t help but draw a sharp breath. “Wait—! You an…”
“That’s right. Princess healed ,” Allie replied calmly, her smile fading into a faint seriousness.
“I never knew she could practice healing!” Lili exclaid, feeling as if she was only now realizing how little she truly knew about Yae-hi.
“I only found out recently too.” Allie shrugged. “She’s a girl with more secrets than you’d think.”
“There’s no ti to waste. I’ll go find her right away—” Lili turned to leave, but then froze mid-step, realizing she didn’t even know where Princess was. She turned back and asked, “Did she tell you where she went?”
“……” Allie fell silent. She didn’t know either. Ever since Yae-hi had been declared wanted across the nation, Hidden Kill hadn’t sent Lili any new intelligence.
The two stared at each other in silence. The laboratory felt oppressively still.
“Oh, right, she also told that if I saw you, I should tell you to go find her,” Allie suddenly said.
“Find her? But where am I supposed to look?” Lili asked blankly, completely at a loss.
“I don’t know. But you’re close to her, aren’t you? You should have so idea where she’d go.”
Allie’s words struck Lili like a bolt of lightning. “I think… I know where she might be!” There was only one place that held mories shared by both of them. Lili decided to take a chance and go there.
“If you find Princess, tell her not to co back to Jade City for now, it’s too dangerous here.” Allie said to Lili, who was already preparing to leave.
“I will.” Lili paused briefly before taking off in haste.
***
Under the sa sky, in Aoma Village, Yae-hi was busy at work. Well, calling it “busy” might not be entirely accurate. She was sitting by the water basin in the church warehouse, her bare feet soaking lazily in the pool.1
As she soaked, she infused her own life energy into the water. Watching this, Layna’s eye twitched uncontrollably. If Yae-hi weren’t such a beautiful girl, she would have already stord over and given her a good beating.2
Angelica, however, didn’t seem to mind. ‘Princess slls so sweet everywhere anyway, so it’s fine.’
Next door, Aurora was engraving magic sigils onto empty bottles with full focus. Bottles inscribed with those sigils could store Yae-hi’s life energy for a long ti. That way, they could deliver the “potions” to faraway places and help ease local outbreaks.
On the assembly line, workers diligently filled each bottle with freshly blessed water, expressions devout and full of faith. If they ever discovered that the so-called “holy water” was, in fact, Yae-hi’s foot bath… one could only imagine their reaction.
“I’m so bored,” Yae-hi murmured, her tone listless as she almost dozed off above the pool. Tasks that required her to simply release life energy like this were dreadfully monotonous.
“I need sothing to entertain myself…” she muttered, suddenly rembering the little lewd novel stored inside her ring.
The last ti she’d read it with Irene—Alicia’s latest work—they’d only gotten halfway through. She couldn’t help but feel a little curious about what ca next.
Just as Yae-hi reached for the book, a notification chid from her mailbox. She tapped the screen, revealing a new ssage. It was from her little sister.
**Mylene:** Sis, the Grandmaster Rankings have been updated!
**Attachnt:**
GrandmasterRankings.JPG
***
Attached was a screenshot. Yae-hi tapped it, and the image automatically enlarged. Scrolling down from the top, her gaze stopped at the tenth spot.
**10th Place on the Grandmaster Rankings:** Princess (Yae-hi)
“Why is ‘Yae-hi’ in parentheses? Just how obsessed are you people with the title Princess!?” she groaned, pressing a hand against her forehead. So much for revealing her real na in public, it had been completely aningless.
Still, she couldn’t really bla whoever compiled the list. After all, “Princess” had beco such a famous title. If they had listed Princess after Yae-hi, who would even recognize it?
It was just like a celebrity stage na, once it beca a brand, changing it would only cause confusion.
“Whatever. Doesn’t matter,” Yae-hi muttered, lowering her hand and deciding not to dwell on such trivial nonsense.
**Knock, knock, knock!**
Just then, soone knocked on the door from outside. “Lord Angel, soone just returned from patrol! They spotted suspicious figures approaching nearby!” The voice belonged to Micha.
Yae-hi had given strict orders before: if any suspicious individuals appeared in the vicinity, they were to be reported imdiately.
“Could it be… Apostles?” she said seriously, lifting her slender legs from the pool, droplets of water glimring as they trailed down her skin.
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