“Why don’t you come live with me after a while? Or let a guard come to protect you?” Mephilia suggested.

This was indeed something to consider. She couldn’t have anything unexpected happen to her. If only Loraviel were here now.

After this period of training, she should have become an excellent assassin, and protecting her wouldn’t be a problem at all.

“Mm, let’s consider it after returning from the Elf Forest?” This time, Liana didn’t reject Mephilia’s suggestion.

Liana knew that Mephilia would definitely visit the Elf Forest in a few days, whether by her own will or the King of Lisat’s request. She would definitely have to make the trip.

“That will probably happen in the next few days, maybe even tomorrow. Minoga has already gone back to tell the king, and I guess they won’t sleep well tonight either.” Mephilia wouldn’t have slept well either, but she had resolved this issue herself.

Now Mephilia held Liana’s hand, feeling very reassured. “Don’t worry, Liana. No matter when, no matter what happens, I will be by your side.”

“I know. We will face the threat of demons together. I absolutely won’t let them invade our home.”

The task ahead was also very clear: find the holy sword, then find the one who could wield it. Only then would they have the means to fight against them.

And in Sephirena’s illusion magic, Liana had learned that the holy sword was somewhere in the Elf Forest, and Sephirena was likely the one who could use it.

She might be able to replace the original protagonist’s position and use the holy sword to resist the demon race.

Not to mention, Sephirena was originally one of the main combat forces. With the added power of the holy sword, who knows how much her abilities would increase.

“Mm, it seems the competition for the Lisat throne has to be put aside for now,” Mephilia said playfully. “When I think about them racking their brains to outmaneuver each other, trying to catch each other’s weaknesses, unable to directly target each other, only able to pull strings in the shadows, and now with something like this happening, they’ve become enemies without getting what they wanted; it just seems so ridiculous.”

Mephilia deeply hated her two brothers. For power, they had done many inhuman things, completely losing their humanity. For power, they would pay any price.

“They will pay the appropriate price, absolutely.” Liana couldn’t stand them either, after all, their methods had been used against her.

Moreover, they were now complete enemies. It was already remarkable that they didn’t fight when they met.

If they both didn’t have leverage against each other, they would have completely fallen out long ago.

“Mm.”

Liana looked at Mephilia lying beside her, finding it somewhat rare that she was only holding her hand, not being more physical with her.

Perhaps Mephilia also thought that the current topic was too serious, and it wasn’t appropriate to do those things now?

“Speaking of which, how has your magic training been going lately?” Mephilia asked. Being able to detect someone concealed, Liana’s progress must be quite evident.

“Oh, uh.” Hearing Mephilia call her name and thinking about what she had just been thinking, Liana’s face felt hot.

When did herself become like this?! Who changed her? Who touched her body?!

Oh, it was the person lying beside her.

“What’s wrong, Liana? Your face is a bit red?” Mephilia cupped Liana’s face, seeing her blushing cheeks. “Are you thinking of something strange?”

“No, no!” Liana quickly denied. If Mephilia knew what she was thinking at this moment, she would definitely take off her ring and release the seal on her dreadful finger!

“During this period of training, my mana level has indeed improved a lot, but there’s still the old problem that hasn’t been solved: my mana storage and recovery speed are still too small and slow,” Liana said.

During this time, Mephilia had helped Liana try many, many methods and had also taken quite a few medicines, but none had any effect.

Nothing had changed Liana’s situation, and Liana had fully accepted this fact. “It’s good timing that we’re going to the Elf Forest this time. I can ask Princess Avira to give me another bracelet that increases mana recovery speed. As long as I recover quickly enough, it’s as if I don’t have less.”

“You’re really optimistic.” Mephilia didn’t know how to describe this version of Liana.

“There’s no point in being otherwise.” What else could she do? If she couldn’t, she couldn’t. Liana had accepted this reality.

“Perhaps when we open our eyes tomorrow, this world will have undergone earth-shattering changes,” Mephilia said.

“How has the Luska Kingdom been recently?” Liana hadn’t forgotten that besides the demon race, there was another pair of eyes watching the Lisat Kingdom.

“They’ve been quite /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ behaved lately, not doing anything strange, nor any actions to provoke our Lisat Kingdom. But this could very well be the brief calm before the war.” Mephilia didn’t believe that the war-loving Luska Kingdom had suddenly changed its nature.

“We indeed can’t let down our guard.” Liana wasn’t too worried about the Luska Kingdom’s matters, after all, her parents had gone there for this reason.

They had gone to resolve the Luska Kingdom issue, and the result was inevitable. In the original story, the protagonist didn’t need to get heavily involved in the Luska Kingdom’s affairs for it to be resolved.

It could be said that the existence of the Luska Kingdom was solely to keep her parents away from her, giving others an opportunity to take advantage.

Damn author.

“Those in high positions really have a lot to consider,” Liana couldn’t help but sigh. “Forget about the King of Lisat; if I were the Duchess of Venus, looking at all these upcoming issues would give me a terrible headache.”

“Duchess of Venus...” Mephilia turned to her side. “You’ve seen how Erinna is, right?”

“Yes, I’m a bit worried.”

“I always thought you would tell Erinna about this.” Mephilia was somewhat surprised that Liana had concealed it even from Erinna.

“Ahem... it’s a test for her.” Liana said somewhat embarrassedly. In reality, she had missed the opportunity; by the time she wanted to tell her, there was no chance.

“That’s not good, is it?”

“Fine, actually I missed the chance. By the time I wanted to tell her, there was no opportunity anymore.” Liana came clean. Tests were the worst.

“I thought so. You trust Erinna so much, and you’ve done so many things to pave the way for her. How could you still be testing her at this point?” Mephilia understood Liana very well, and she also knew clearly that Liana hated the word “test” the most.

“What should I do, Mephilia? Help me think of a solution. If I tell Erinna I’m fine now, will she be very angry?” Liana cast a pleading look at Mephilia.

“Just be honest with Erinna. She really likes you, but she’ll definitely be angry. However, if you continue to say nothing and keep concealing it, it will only get worse,” Mephilia had naturally observed that Erinna’s current state wasn’t good.

Although everything was proceeding in an orderly manner, it felt like Erinna was suppressing something. If not resolved, it might lead to very serious consequences, and the only person who could resolve this was Liana. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

Of course, when Mephilia said “like” here, she meant the affection between sisters; a sister’s admiration for her older sister.

But the reality might be different, especially since they weren’t actually blood sisters. They had no blood relation at all; she was just a little girl adopted by Duke Venus, with no connection to the Venus family whatsoever.

“I know...” It wasn’t that Liana didn’t have a chance. If she had the opportunity, wouldn’t she say something?

“Mephilia, why don’t you help me invite Erinna? Ask her to come here, so I won’t be exposed,” Liana said.

Mephilia thought about it; it did seem like a solution. “All right. I’ll probably have to return to the royal family tomorrow anyway. Having Erinna by your side will also ensure your safety.”

“Good.” Liana nodded.

However, Liana had no idea what would happen after she met with Erinna.

Of course, Liana also didn’t know what was about to happen right now.

“Have we finished saying everything that we needed to discuss?” Mephilia suddenly asked.

“Hm?” Liana wasn’t clear about what Mephilia meant.

But her body knew.

Mephilia directly straddled Liana. “Let me guess, what were you thinking earlier, Liana?”

Mephilia was referring to when Liana suddenly blushed recently, but Liana couldn’t possibly admit or say it.

“What?” Liana chose to play dumb.

“Let me guess. Because I wasn’t being physical with you, you found it strange. Then when I suddenly asked you some questions, you came back to your senses and realized what you were thinking was somewhat too embarrassing, so you blushed, right?” Mephilia’s hands pressed on Liana’s shoulders, making her look directly into her eyes.

“N-no, what are you saying, Mephilia?!” Liana’s gaze darted away.

Why was Mephilia guessing so accurately?

Mephilia wasn’t actually that impressive; she just wanted to find an excuse to touch Liana. After all, they only met about once a month, so she was definitely longing for her.

“Liana, you’re too easy to read.” Mephilia stuck out her tongue and licked Liana’s neck. “Are you anticipating it? Liana, you’ve become so lustful. You were actually thinking about these things while we were discussing serious matters.”

“Don’t make things up! I wasn’t thinking anything; I was just considering what to do in the future!” Liana quickly refuted.

“In the future, I’ll figure it out. I absolutely won’t let the damn demonkind invade our home. So now, it’s your turn to think of something,” Mephilia pinched the sides of Liana’s mouth with her hand.

Then she opened her mouth, extended her tongue, and sweet nectar dripped from the tip of her tongue into Liana’s mouth.

“Do you want to?” Mephilia gave the choice to Liana.

Isn’t this bullying? Could she possibly refuse Mephilia?

But wouldn’t this make her look like a very lustful person? Thinking about this aspect even while discussing serious matters.

“Hmm? What’s wrong, Liana? Why aren’t you saying anything?” Mephilia changed her position, getting up from Liana’s body, her knee landing between Liana’s legs, then pushing upward.

“Mm...” Liana turned her face away and nodded.

“You’re so cute, Liana. It really makes me want to bully you.” Mephilia opened her mouth and bit Liana’s earlobe, which had turned red and hot from embarrassment.

Mephilia took off her ring, unsealing the dreadful finger...