"Miss Hesha's skin is soft as cotton, and her eyes are brighter than the stars. If you could marry her, your daughter would become the pearl of the Medis family."
The killing intent had vanished like smoke, and the middle-aged mage's speech had regained the refinement and romantic lilt proper to a noble.
—He's already picked out a marriage target? So discarding Kenneth was on your list of options all along, was it...
Li Fei's lips curved. She glanced, almost idly, at the human-shaped outline Kenneth had left behind when he evaporated. "I have no plans to marry yet, but I can make time to be a tutor. I might also solve a few business problems for you, though that would cost extra."
"What a pity."
The mage sighed softly as he redrafted the spell contract with his quill.
Absorbing excellent bloodlines had always been the evergreen secret of the nobility. And by experience, women were less likely than men to pull up their skirts and deny everything afterward. If they could marry Li Fei to a few of the family's young ladies, or even have her sire a daughter, they were confident they could bind her to the Medis line of battle for good. Wouldn't that be worth more than ten living Kenneths?
Take the Countess and her daughter. The family might speak of them without mercy, but the two really had saved Medis.
The mage handed over the contract. While Li Fei read it clause by clause, he refused to give up, going back over everything he knew about the woman in front of him in search of an opening.
As Li Fei had risen like a comet, her feud with Kenneth had drawn more and more attention. Everything Kenneth knew about her had been reported to the family and debated again and again.
A moment later, inspiration struck, and the mage whispered like a demon:
"Kenneth's mother currently runs the family. Did you know that, besides her matchless mature allure, her skin is more delicate than a young girl's, like the down on a peach? Many are courting her passionately. Even maidens in their prime are captivated by her charm."
"No exaggeration, if you could win that lady's heart, you'd gain more than a beautiful wife. The Medis family itself would become your betrothal gift, enough to spare a young person several hundred years of struggle. If you don't mind her marital history, then I think..."
Li Fei's eyelids fluttered.
She had to admit it: he'd hit her sweet spot.
Married woman, widow, husband and son both dead, the enemy's mother...
Luckily she quickly saw the cannonball hidden in the sugar coating, and smiled.
"I just killed her son."
"For the sake of the family's interests, she'll agree," the mage said unhurriedly.
"So who actually holds the family, her or you so-called elders?"
Li Fei spread her hands, then signed the contract.
She glanced once more at the outline, then rose and walked toward the trembling reporters.
Five reporters had come along. Two belonged to Kenneth's family, and the other three were relatively "neutral."
"Have your statements been written? If you have any questions, ask me."
Li Fei's voice was warm and pleasant.
"You... you killed someone in Loxibrook!"
Miss Top Courtesan's kind expression finally gave the youngest-looking of the neutral reporters the courage to speak up and accuse her.
"First of all, this isn't inside the city."
Li Fei earnestly corrected his mistake. "Second, it wasn't murder. It was a defensive counterattack."
As she spoke, she picked up her half-drunk coffee and added a few drops of pink potion.
"See? Kenneth tried to use a lowlife trick on me. I had no choice but to fight back to protect my chastity, and everyone present can testify for me."
"That's right," the middle-aged mage chimed in. "With a black sheep like this in the family, we will show no leniency! We'll strike Kenneth from the family registry. Fortunately Miss Li Fei saw through his scheme and didn't take it out on the rest of us for no reason, so the alliance could be concluded smoothly."
"My teachers taught me from childhood to be tolerant, after all."
Li Fei was the soul of understanding. "For the sake of the Medis family's reputation, handle the matter of Kenneth internally. There's no need for it to appear in the papers."
The two Medis reporters naturally chorused their agreement, but the other three just stared at each other.
The young reporter was the most stunned. He gaped for a long moment before he stammered, "You... how can you... how can you twist black and white like this?"
"Isn't it always like this?" Li Fei said with a smile.
The young reporter fell silent again.
He had once been a devoted fan of Miss Philanthropist. On the night Li Fei announced the birth of the Sparkfire Charity Organization, a photo of her bowing with a donation box to a poor half-beast father and son had been taken. It still hung on his bedroom wall.
And now he was seeing his idol in person. The lady had cut her hair short, but her face still wore a gentle, elegant smile with a hint of bewitching allure, and she was ten thousand times prettier than in the photo.
Yet an unseen malevolence was clearly radiating from this woman of peerless beauty. It turned into a cold hand that wrung the air dry and made it hard to breathe.
Fortunately, not every member of the press bowed to power.
Under that invisible pressure, the young reporter remembered why he had chosen this profession and even put thoughts of life and death out of his mind.
He straightened his back, his voice dry but firm. "I will... report what happened here truthfully, so the people know the truth."
"It seems you'll make an outstanding reporter."
Li Fei looked mildly surprised, then applauded softly in admiration of his unbending will.
At a moment like this, silencing witnesses was of course the quickest and easiest option.
But Li Fei's wings were fully grown now, and she took better care of her feathers. Unless she had no choice, she didn't want to kill reporters, even outside the city. In Loxibrook, one played by Loxibrook's rules. Killing a personal enemy or wiping out the Moonlight Wolves were harmless trifles, but slaughtering innocents would lower Lady Kalida's regard, and that of the entire city hall, and it would eventually come back to bite her.
In truth, the charity fund did shelter plenty of filth, that much was true, but it had also done a great deal of real work. Whether it was giving milk to children, donating schools, serving charity lunches or providing hospice care, it had brought people real warmth and earned Miss Top Courtesan her reputation. Even the embezzlement was kept to a reasonable proportion. As Li Fei's need for gold coins shrank, perhaps the Sparkfire Charity Organization would one day turn into a purely charitable organization.
To settle things peacefully, Miss Philanthropist took out the letter Yusura had just handed her.
Kenneth had planted informants beside Li Fei, and Li Fei naturally had her own sources of intelligence. When this party left the city, the sprites handing out public-welfare pamphlets in every street and alley had memorized each face and bought information from the Thieves' Guild. Yusura had fetched it personally for Li Fei.
Li Fei tore open the letter, skimmed it in one pass, then greeted the young reporter politely.
"Mr. Garcia, of Loxibrook Today, correct?"
Before he could answer, she greeted the other four reporters one by one.
"Mr. Adrian, of the Life Times."
"Ms. Josephine, of Transcendent Weekly."
"Mr. Manley, of the Bill Observer."
"Ah, and Mr. Zhuravlev, of Enlightenment. I like it very much and read every issue."
As she spoke, she took a goldsmith's voucher from her spatial ring and handed it to the young reporter.
Garcia was dazed, and refused on reflex. "I will never be bought by you..."
"You've misunderstood. This is for your new wife."
Li Fei smiled, and her gentle tone carried an irresistible pull. "I have to say, she's a stunner. She's lovelier than the flowers in that shop on Oak Street. I think she'd be better off opening a flower shop of her own than working as a clerk. I'll drop by to support the business."
"Oh, right, she became pregnant not long ago, didn't she? Congratulations! But as her husband, you'll need to look after them both with extra care, so mother and child stay safe."
Amid those gentle blessings, Li Fei tucked the voucher into the breast pocket of the young reporter's collar and moved on to the next one.
"Mr. Adrian, don't you think your daughter needs a prettier necklace for the New Year party at Merritt Academy of Finance? And of course, by tomorrow at the latest, she'll receive a job offer from the Sparkfire Charity Fund."
"Ms. Josephine, I think this potion will help your mother's health. The Sparkfire Charity Organization will arrange for an excellent priest to visit and examine her as soon as possible. 29 Lambton Avenue, correct?"
"..."
Li Fei gave every reporter a gift they couldn't refuse, including the two who already belonged to the Medis family.
"You're a born noble, Miss Li Fei," the middle-aged mage said, applauding softly.
Just then, Yusura came walking toward the ruined hall with eight spell contracts. Once signed, they bound the signer to secrecy about today's events, with severe penalties for breaking it. A Transcendent item capable of destroying a spell contract was, moreover, a treasure to mid-Sequence Transcendents.
The five reporters, the two guards and the middle-aged mage all signed.
"Now it's time to celebrate."
Miss Top Courtesan smiled sweetly and picked up the champagne Kenneth had brought earlier.
Pop!
The champagne cork landed squarely in the human-shaped outline Kenneth had left behind. Look closely and you could see charred skin and bone fragments, which together with the snapped, bent staff formed lines that resembled a smiling face, eerie and twisted.
Li Fei took one last look down at the still-scorching remains and bid Kenneth farewell forever.
If that fellow still had consciousness, and heard that his proud family had not only abandoned him but meant to offer his own mother to the enemy who killed him, would he turn into a vengeful ghost?
The corpse could never give an answer.
Beside her, the middle-aged mage, champagne in hand, walked over to Grace, who had stayed silent throughout, and said meaningfully, "Unexpected as it was, you made a wise choice."
Clearly he understood that the informant Kenneth had been so smugly proud of had turned coat at some point.
Grace gazed at the bewitching abyss and said quietly, "I made a mistake that can never be undone."
"But I don't regret it."
With that, she drank her champagne and left early.
"Eh? We haven't taken the group photo yet."
Li Fei watched Grace's retreating back with a small pang of regret.
Kenneth had had no helpers, and he'd been convinced Li Fei could not possibly kill him in an instant. So even on the brink of death, he'd clung to a flicker of hope. He had not dared, or not wanted, to believe that the informant he'd planted had become a shape of his enemy. He had taken it as Li Fei getting cocky and acting rashly, with Grace knowing nothing. Perhaps only at the moment the flames consumed him did he finally cease his self-Deception and accept the fact of the Betrayal, his face twisting into the expression of pain and rage Li Fei had wanted to see?
Pity she'd never get to enjoy it.
"May the friendship between the Medis family and yourself never fade, like the Rainbow Altar."
The middle-aged mage held out his glass to Li Fei.
Li Fei smiled radiantly and lightly clinked her glass against his. "To our friendship. Cheers."
Click.
The scene of enemies turned friends raising a toast was frozen forever in a spell photograph.
And the charred remains at their feet would never be known to the world.
…
After class, the stepdaughter rushed to Grace's home.
The living room was empty. An earth elemental construction crew was repairing the hall, and working very efficiently.
What happened?
Lilith walked suspiciously to Grace's room and pushed the door open.
"Huh?"
She froze on the spot. The visually devastating scene dimmed her water-blue eyes.
First, her stepmother had inexplicably turned into a short-haired girl.
Second, she was studying the booklets sent by [Twin Special Admission Students Power Plant] with Grace, and putting them into practice.
Third, the collar Li Fei had worn around her neck when she left had been joined to the metal chain Grace kept, turning the collar from a decorative item into a functional one.
Worth mentioning: a complete booklet with a storyline naturally can't do without its losing dog.
So the question is: in a doujin booklet built around the two characters Li Fei x Grace, who would make the best losing dog?
The answer can't be spelled out, lest a certain golden-haired twintailed girl be embarrassed.
But either way, the scenes in the booklet now matched reality to a startling degree. Two special admission students were in the room, and the extra one stood at the door...
"Looks like we can unlock a new scene."
Li Fei swayed her damp tail and swept the booklets from [Twin Special Admission Students Power Plant], [Commemorative Booklet of the Genius Freshman and the Priestess Senior], and even the [Lilith x Grace] support club under the bed. She kept only the one from [Three Mage-Girls Cuddle Research Institute]. It had come with a bizarre Crab Leg Organization mixed in, and she had no idea why that Crab Leg Organization had also sent Li Fei a birthday present, but that no longer mattered.
The Three Mage-Girls squad had rarely gathered in one room like this, with nobody to disturb them. Naturally they should take the chance to deepen their bonds.
Li Fei extended her tail, shut the door softly, and led her puppet-like stepdaughter into the room.
Grace set down the fine steel cable in her hands and gazed silently at Lilith.
After a dozen or so seconds, she quietly shifted over to make room for Lilith.
Those eyes, clear as a blue sky and a little lonely, plainly said:
"If it's Lilith, it's fine."
All along, Miss Poker Face had been able to accept sharing with those close to her, or those she approved of, and if a girl was unfamiliar, she would quietly keep her distance.
And now, after Ling'er and Lady Zhihua, Lilith had become the third chosen child.
Of course, the understanding Miss Top Courtesan knew that Lady Annie, Nicole and a few sprites were also on the list, while Irena and Teacher Melodia were on the watch list. As for Lady Annie, hiss...
"I, I'm going back."
Lilith shuddered as if waking from a dream. Her moon-pale cheeks flushed scalding hot, and even her twintails stiffened.
True, beside her sleeping mother she had wept and repented, soaking the wedding photo of her two mothers. But when it came down to it, that had been a relay race, and the audience could never cheer. Even when her stepmother's teasing occasionally brought the two relay runners into close contact, that was nothing to make Lilith flee in panic.
But if her mother was awake...
Lilith only wanted to run, but a tail wrapped around her wrist. Her stepmother's pitiful gaze made escape all the more impossible.
Without her noticing, the tea fragrance in the room had grown richer. It crept into their nostrils, swept through their minds, and melted away something called reason.
Amid pounding heartbeats, the black metal block in the mark on the back of Grace's hand sprouted countless tendrils, brandishing like flying snakes. The Forbidden Flower blooming in Lilith's heart filled her chest with its sweet scent and made her sapphire eyes hazy.
Lilith and Grace trembled together, then turned their eyes to each other in the same moment.
Neither spoke, but each felt a faint yet unbreakable bond between them, like nuns devoted to the same evil god, lambs lost in the same mist, mother bodies gestating the same abyss... And the source of it all was right beside them, giving off an allure that cut to the marrow of the soul.
The clay figurine, the mirror fairy, the True Qi diagram and the tattoo resonated at that moment too, driving the mother body's cultivation base to surge.
"What are you two spacing out for?" Li Fei tilted her head in confusion.
"Nothing..."
Lilith murmured, gazing deeply at her stepmother.
She understood that she could not leave.
So the blushing blonde senior bent down gently and took off her short boots. Her slender feet, wrapped in thin white stockings, gave off a warm dampness from their soft soles, leaving two rows of faint kisses on the carpet as she stepped toward the two juniors.
Only, she moved without a sound, as if afraid of startling someone, or perhaps simply plugging her ears to steal a bell, thinking this would hide her from her own shame.
She failed.
Under that calm blue-green gaze, burning shame crashed over her like a tidal wave, and even the rich tea fragrance could not mask it.
In the end, the stepdaughter secretly cast a Sleep spell on Grace.
Grace: ...
No gear boosts, a scattered mind, a concealed casting technique and a fast casting technique stacked together. The result was inevitably a heavily reduced spell effect.
But for the sake of their comradeship fighting side by side as classmates, Miss Poker Face saved the blonde senior's face, closed her eyes and pretended to sleep.
Lilith, too, tiptoed and fidgeted her way into the Emperor's New Clothes.
A few minutes later, amid Lilith's gasps, Li Fei saw for the first time the smile on Grace's face after a successful prank. It was still plain next to an ordinary person's, but it was like sunlight reflected off a glacier, with a crystalline, translucent quality.
The purity of their comradely friendship had also risen greatly.
____
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