[Why is Sophie Wexler everywhere? She's like a piece of dog shit you can't scrape off your shoe.]
[Did everyone just forget what she just did to Rosalind Rhodes? And now she gets to just live it up and keep a man?]
[What kind of kept man would get with a good-for-nothing like Sophie Wexler, with her F-rank spiritual power? He must be blind.]
[Maybe they're partners in crime, a match made in hell. He's just in it for the stuff she buys him. (smirk.jpg)]
Sophie Wexler stared at the trending topics, her eyes wide.
'Seriously, what the hell?'
Sophie glanced at the cold-faced man beside her. 'Seriously? *Me* keeping *this* guy?'
'He's the one who wanted to kill me. How could I be so stupid as to keep a man who wants me dead? Do I have a death wish?'
'If he sees this, it's going to be a disaster. What if he actually thinks I'm trying to be his sugar mama?'
"What are you staring at me for?"
At some point, Cillian Forrest had already put down his chopsticks. His cold eyes were fixed on her.
Startled, Sophie quickly swiped down on the virtual screen in front of her, her gaze flickering away.
"Who said I was looking at you? I was just spacing out."
"Is that so?"
Sophie shot back immediately, "Of course. It's not like there's anything special to look at on your face."
Seeing Sophie's obvious guilt masked by a pretense of calm, Cillian Forrest said nothing more. Instead, his gaze slowly fell upon the virtual screen floating in the air.
Displayed on it was the comment section of the entertainment page.
[Didn't Sophie Wexler cry poor on that show? How does she have money for vegetables now? She's a total liar.]
[Everyone knows how hard it is to cultivate vegetables these days. It's something only nobles can afford. She was kicked out of the Wexler Family, so where would a poor girl like her get the money?]
[You don't think she secretly took something when she left the Wexlers, do you?]
[So what if she's Healer-class? Her character is corrupt, she's low-class, and she's terrible at her job. She's a disgrace to all Healers.]
[Thank God the Wexlers have Rosalind Rhodes. Even though she's an adopted daughter, she's a million times better than Sophie Wexler.]
"They're all cursing you out on there." Cillian Forrest retracted his gaze, stating the fact unhurriedly.
Sophie nodded subconsciously. "Yeah."
A second later, it registered. "Huh?"
She glanced at the screen. Sure enough, she had scrolled past the comments about her keeping a man, and now all that was left were the ones tearing her apart.
'But is it really okay for you to so casually tell me that netizens are cursing me out?!'
'How can such cold words come out of a living, breathing person!'
Sophie roared internally.
"I see that," Sophie said listlessly after her internal rant. She then swiped the screen off and quietly went back to eating.
After a moment, she heard Cillian Forrest call her name. Sophie looked up at him. "What is it?"
Cillian looked at her, paused, and then said, word by word, "I didn't realize you were so poor. Don't worry, I'll pay you back as soon as possible."
'Another knife to the heart. Great. Now everyone thinks I'm broke.'
Just as she was wallowing in misery, the communicator beside her suddenly rang.
"Sophie Wexler! Look at what you've done! How dare you steal things from home to keep a man! Get your ass back here right this instant!"
Sophie held the communicator, blinking slowly a couple of times before realizing it was a call from the original Sophie's mother.
Sophie opened her mouth, "I didn't—"
On the other end of the line, the woman's tone suddenly became anxious. "Rosalind, how are you? Are you okay?"
Sophie asked instinctively, "What's wrong with Rosalind Rhodes?"
'Don't tell me the male lead didn't show up that day. According to the usual novel tropes, that shouldn't have happened.'
"What's wrong?!" The woman sneered. "You know damn well what you did! Get back here now! If anything happens to Rosalind, you can just wait for the Healer-class Protection Association to come knocking!"
After roaring out the last sentence, the call was abruptly disconnected.
Sophie blinked, snapping back to her senses and immediately springing into action.
'No, I have to go see for myself.'
'If something really happened to Rosalind Rhodes, wouldn't I just be following in the original Sophie's tragic footsteps?'
「 」
Sophie piloted her flyer, arriving at the Wexlers' residence in less than ten minutes.
Before going in, Sophie couldn't help but marvel, 'You've got to hand it to the interstellar era. The speed is just incredible.'
After a retinal scan to enter, Sophie immediately sensed that the atmosphere inside was off.
Her gaze swept across the room. The original Sophie's family was all there. Besides the Wexlers, a few other people were present as well.
Sophie looked at the man to the side. 'Is this the male lead from the book?'
'The one the original Sophie fell for at first sight and obsessively pursued.'
'Supposedly, he was in love with Rosalind Rhodes, and in a fit of impulse, the original Sophie drugged Rosalind, giving her a disastrous start right after she arrived.'
'What was his name again? Oh, right, Howard Sharp.'
'But why are there a few people here that the original Sophie's memories don't account for?'
The woman's face darkened the moment she saw Sophie. "Tell me, what else did you put in that drug? The antidote was administered that day, so why did Rosalind suddenly fall into a coma today!"
Howard Sharp also looked at Sophie with disgust. "How can you be so vicious? Did you think I'd fall for you if you drugged Rosalind? Let me tell you, that's impossible!"
Sophie quickly spoke up, afraid that if she was a second too slow, they'd mistake her for having designs on Howard Sharp.
"Hold on. Don't even. I'm not interested in you."
'She wanted to stay as far away from him as possible. Besides, he wasn't even as handsome as Cillian Forrest. She'd rather be into Cillian than him.'
Howard Sharp and the Wexlers were all stunned, likely not expecting Sophie to say something like that.
Sophie couldn't be bothered to waste words on them. The priority was to check on Rosalind Rhodes's condition. "Move. You're in my way."
She pushed them aside and walked to the bed, looking down at Rosalind Rhodes, who lay with her eyes tightly shut.
"This shouldn't be happening."
'The situation had been urgent at the time, and her mind was set on escaping, but she hadn't just done nothing.'
'Even though she guessed the male lead would show up, she had still sent a message to the Wexlers telling them Rosalind Rhodes's location. And to prevent any trouble with identifying the drug's components for an antidote, she had even left the drug the original Sophie had brought on the nightstand.'
'Logically, the original Sophie had used the same drug on both Cillian Forrest and Rosalind Rhodes. Since Cillian had no issues after the antidote was administered, Rosalind should have been fine too.'
'The drug was neutralized, so why would she fall into a coma several days later?'
Sophie stepped closer and was just about to reach out and check when she was interrupted by an unfamiliar voice.
The man glanced at Sophie and said, "It has nothing to do with her."
Surprised, Sophie looked over. It was the stranger who wasn't in the original Sophie's memories.
"My apologies. My initial assumption was wrong. It's not because of any lingering effects from the drug."
"Then why?" Sophie asked, confused.
Seeing this, the woman shot her a glare. They heard the man continue.
"Has her Spiritual Sea been very active recently?"
"Yes," the woman nodded hastily.
"Then that must be it. She's likely about to undergo a second growth after her spiritual power awakening."
"What's a second growth?" Sophie asked, puzzled.
"A second growth means that spiritual power doesn't become fixed after awakening. Instead, it can change and grow again. In some cases, if the growth is significant enough, it can even cause a leap in rank."
"Only a very small number of highly talented individuals undergo a second growth. The only person I've seen whose spiritual power changed after a second growth is the Marshal on the Capital Planet."
Sophie had been listening intently, but she suddenly caught a key word. "The Marshal?!"
'It couldn't be *that* Imperial Marshal, could it? The one who offed the original Sophie?'