"Someone’s coming! Quickly!"

Megan almost instinctively lifted her skirt, and then Shard immediately placed Mia on the table behind her. Transforming into a silver cat, he darted under her skirt.

Little Mia wanted to follow, but Miss Sylvia quickly picked up the dice, black key, perfume vial, and two rings that had fallen on the ground, drawing its attention back to the Fish Training Ring and the Ring of Immortality. When Miss Sylvia straightened up, she saw the red-haired Galina Cavendish walking in:

"Huh? Where’s Shard?"

She asked curiously:

"Weren’t the girls at the hotel saying that Shard was with you?"

She suspiciously looked at the two of them, who were frozen in expression, sized up the study that clearly had no third person, and then noticed little Mia on the table:

"You wouldn’t say that this is your cat, would you?"

They didn’t realize that an ordinary cat couldn’t possibly enter here. At this moment, Megan’s skirt moved a bit, and then the cat with its head down crept out from underneath.

The Duchess showed a peculiar expression, then suppressed her laughter as she watched Shard transform back into human form in the light:

"So you thought it was someone else coming back. How should I say this... Shard, is the scenery under a girl’s skirt nice?"

"Galina!"

Megan, her face flushed, had already forced Audrey to switch with her, while Audrey, also red-faced, voiced her discontent.

When the group left the Council and Miss Sylvia brought Miss Benanis to Shard’s room in the Green Lake Hotel, the beautiful red-haired Duchess was still laughing.

Miss Benanis was naturally curious about what she was laughing at, but neither Miss Sylvia, Audrey, nor Shard would explain it to her.

To prevent Miss Benanis from obsessing over the recent incident, as soon as the witches sat down, Shard eagerly asked:

"What exactly is the matter that makes you so anxious, that you wouldn’t say until everyone was gathered?"

"It’s not complicated, but it might affect you."

Miss Benanis said:

"His Excellency Isabella, the Speaker, is preparing to come to Green Lake City."

Time seemed to freeze for a second.

"The Grand Witch of Time? Wait... but on second thought, it’s not so surprising."

Shard was only momentarily stunned before understanding, and Audrey nodded:

"Yes, His Excellency the Speaker is concerned about my situation. Regardless of who the Chosen of Space is, the Council cannot lose the Grand Witch here. Now is also when the Council needs people, and even from a purely utilitarian perspective, not to mention our friendship, I can’t die here."

Shard was a bit restless, unsure of how strong the Thirteenth Rank Witch truly was, but he realized he wasn’t ready for a meeting.

[So when will you be ready?]

"At least not until I’ve met all the other twelve Grand Witches, then I can say to Miss Isabella: His Excellency the Speaker, you wouldn’t want... ahem."

If Iluna were here, Shard would immediately know that even in the Sixth Era without him, Megan and Audrey still managed to escape from the United as One ceremony, likely rescued by that Grand Witch of Time. However, circumstances today are quite different from the Bygone Era, not to mention unity, at least in terms of the witches’ power, the Witch Council has become very different:

"When will Mrs. Isabella arrive?"

This was what concerned Shard the most, as he held Mia, feeling a bit anxious.

Again, it was Miss Benanis who answered him:

"Initially, His Excellency said she wanted to come now to familiarize herself with the situation here, but we persuaded her otherwise."

She looked at the other three Grand Witches, and everyone’s attitude was consistent:

"We can’t say for sure what attitude the Speaker has towards you. So unless it’s necessary, it’s better for her to stay away from you. But it’s not that the Speaker isn’t coming, she said since we think we can handle things here, she’ll give us a week. If there’s no significant progress within a week, she will definitely come over."

Miss Sylvia added:

"The Speaker doesn’t plan to bring her followers, so if she flies over by herself, it won’t take much time."

Shard understood their implied message:

"We must deal with the Green Lake incident as soon as possible, and absolutely cannot let Miss Isabella meet me right now... Granny Cassandra will arrive tomorrow, and Miss Aphrola probably by the weekend..."

That night, to discuss quickly resolving the Green Lake region incident and prevent the Grand Witch of Time from truly discovering the little actions among Shard and the six witches around him, the light in Shard’s hotel room on the third floor remained on until midnight.

To have enough energy for further investigations on Friday, after midnight had passed, Shard still asked the witches to go back for rest, and plan to discuss the final proposal once Granny Cassandra and Miss Aphrola were both present.

Miss Benanis was the first to give Shard a kiss on the cheek, then with Miss Sylvia opened a portal to go back. The rain outside had stopped, and Shard escorted Miss Galina and Megan downstairs, watching the two witches leave by carriage before preparing to rest with little Mia who couldn’t keep her eyes open:

"Let’s go home and sleep."

Dorothy was likely still diligently writing, and since she was currently in a special physiological phase, Shard expected he couldn’t get her to open the door. In that case, it was better to return home.

However, before Shard reached the hotel stairway, the carriage that had just left returned.

The car door opened, Miss Galina waved to Shard and then winked. Understanding her intention, Shard thus abandoned the idea of going back home, and together with his cat boarded the carriage heading to Rose Manor.

(Little Mia running...)

"So, this is the reason you appeared here so early in the morning?"

On Friday morning in the Rose Manor dining room, when Lecia and Angelina walked in, they saw Shard sitting to the left of Miss Galina.

Lecia naturally sat next to Shard, so Angelina had to sit across from Shard.

Mia, who was licking sheep’s milk on the table, didn’t mind who sat down, while Tifa smiled and arranged for the servants to serve breakfast to the two princesses.

The drizzling rain of a week finally stopped this Friday. Because of the rainwater, when the sky cleared, the city didn’t exhibit its usual grey haze. Bright sunlight now shone into the room through the east-side windows of the dining room.

This not only made the breakfast-enjoying cat’s fur shimmer on its back, but also made Galina Cavendish’s complexion look even better.

Angelina pursed her lips, trying not to imagine what happened last night. Lecia, glancing at Miss Galina’s complexion and mental state, knew what happened last night:

"Shard has so many things to do every day, will you not let him rest even at night?"

As soon as she spoke, Shard, chewing bread, coughed. Angelina stole a glance at her sister, and the Duchess took her resentment as praise:

"Little Lecia, since I came to Green Lake City, the times Shard stayed overnight with me are less than three. Even one of those times was with you."

She was speaking to Lecia but actually looking at Shard:

"Do you know how difficult it is to make Shard give up going home to rest? Oh, Lecia, sometimes you should have some compassion... Besides, I found Shard in high spirits last night."

"Angelina is still here, don’t talk about these things."

Lecia said sternly, leisurely cutting the sausage on her plate with her knife and fork.

Smelling the food, little Mia looked back at the food in her dish but did not take the sausage slices Lecia handed him; instead, she clawed at Shard’s hand. Lecia then smiled and used a fork to place a small piece of sausage into Shard’s dish, and only then did Shard feed it to the cat.

"Angelina is already seventeen, do you really think she doesn’t understand anything?"

The Duchess was still talking, and little Princess, drawn into this conversation, had already blushed.

"See, she indeed understands everything. Those books you took away from her, they’re not just for propping up tables."

Miss Galina casually commented, and since Angelina was mentioned, she asked further:

"Angelina, has the sound in your ears become clearer recently?"

"It only clearly appeared once, afterwards it appeared fuzzily in dreams."

Angelina replied, and Lecia cautiously offered advice:

"Based on past experience, your complete awakening will likely happen within these one or two weeks. If you encounter extreme emotional fluctuations or special mental stimulation in this period, it might even happen sooner."

According to the plan agreed upon, once Angelina awakens, she would first enroll at Zaras Literary Academy and, through the awakening ceremony there, become a Circle Sorcerer. But Miss Galina would also simultaneously grant her part of the witch’s power. Whether she will become a witch apprentice thereafter depends on Angelina’s core spirit rune and the talent she exhibits.

Angelina’s talent is quite amazing, especially her Sixth Sense talent, which Shard, Lecia, and Miss Galina all acknowledge. According to Angelina’s wish, she is definitely set to become a witch apprentice, but which witch would appreciate her still remains to be seen. Miss Galina can teach her, but in recent years, she’s temporarily uninterested in investing effort to nurture anyone other than Tifa and Iluna.

Angelina listened to her sister and aunt’s discussion, then quietly looked over at Shard, who was feeding the cat opposite. Last night, she awoke from a dream, and somehow, instead of letting the maid handle it, she herself went downstairs to the kitchen to fetch hot tea. And as she passed the manor’s main bedroom, although that bedroom should be completely soundproof, she just happened to hear strange sounds.

No one knew how long she stood outside the door, but Angelina knew clearly that when the feeling of shameful stimulation, joyful hatred, and exhilarating twisted emotions intertwined together, "she" was only one step away from her.