In the quiet room, beneath the soft glow of a magical lamp, Leflina knelt on the floor, looking fragile and pitiful.
A metal rod rolled across the floor with a clatter and came to a stop beside Hel.
She glanced at the rod on the ground, then at Leflina not far away, and couldn't help letting out a quiet sigh.
"Are you okay, senior?"
Hel walked over and gently helped Leflina up from the floor.
"I–I'm fine," Leflina said hurriedly.
"I think I stood up too suddenly. I'm still a bit dizzy."
"All right."
Hel supported Leflina over to the window seat. Then she casually picked up the blanket from the floor and walked over to Hiness.
Just as Hel was about to take the donut from Hiness's hand and place it on the coffee table, Hiness instinctively tightened her grip. She rolled over, hugged the donut to her chest, and ended up covered in chocolate and crumbs.
Seeing this, Hel shook her head helplessly. She simply draped the blanket over Hiness and left her alone.
Not long after, Hel returned carrying two cups of black tea and some pastries. She set the tray on the small table by the window seat and sat down across from Leflina.
"Did you have a nightmare, senior?"
"Huh?"
Leflina was momentarily stunned by the question, but she soon nodded and said apologetically,
"Sorry… I disturbed you."
"It's fine."
The two fell into silence. After a long while, Leflina finally murmured, as if talking to herself,
"Why… me?"
"What?"
Hel hadn't quite caught it, but Leflina skipped past the topic. Forcing herself to look more spirited, she gave Hel a strained smile.
"Did junior Lyco's trip home to inherit her family property go smoothly this time?"
"Uh…"
Hel was caught completely off guard. She hadn't cared about that matter at all.
Back when she left Savant to wander elsewhere, she had used "going home to inherit the Caramel family estate" as an excuse. But once she left, she promptly forgot all about it.
So Hel could only answer hesitantly,
"Well… it went okay, I guess. I inherited some assets, but not the title."
Feeling that her explanation was full of holes, Hel racked her brain and hastily came up with a justification.
"You know, the Caramel family had already grown powerful enough to threaten the Dizet royal family. And Caramel City is right next to the Dizet capital, so there was no way the royal family would allow anyone to inherit everything the Caramel family held there."
"Oh—sorry, I didn't know about that. I thought the royal family of the Dessert Kingdom would act strictly according to the law."
Leflina hadn't expected to hit on Hel's sore spot again. From her perspective, Hel's entire family had perished, and as the sole survivor she'd had her inheritance seized by outsiders—an undeniably tragic fate.
What Leflina didn't know was that all of this was something Hel had just made up on the spot.
"It's nothing," Hel said with a smile. "I still received a huge inheritance. Enough for me to lie flat and live comfortably for the rest of my life."
She didn't want Leflina worrying over a lie she herself had invented.
"By the way," Hel quickly changed the subject, "while I was away from Savant City, did Professor Adrian from the Alchemy Institute say anything?"
Unexpectedly, Leflina's expression turned a little strange.
"When we passed by the formation construction camp outside the city some time ago, we saw that old professor.But when he mentioned you, he was extremely…"
She trailed off, struggling to find the right word.
After hesitating for quite a while, she said uncertainly,
"Extremely reverent? I'm sorry, I'm not sure if that's the right word. He looked exactly the same as Miss Tina does when she sees a pile of gold coins."
"Like a hoarding hamster," Hel thought, suppressing a laugh.
She already knew about Tina's recent situation. Ever since Hel had given her a massive investment, Tina had been like a mouse let loose in a granary, completely dazzled by money.
She had immediately awakened her miserly instincts. Whether it was helping Hel acquire properties or building facilities outside the city, she treated every gold coin as if it could be split into two. Even though the money was technically public funds entrusted to her by Hel, she still spent it more carefully than her own—proof that Hel's choice had gained her a surprisingly reliable business partner.
"She's just been scared of being poor for too long," Hel said with a smile, helping Tina salvage a bit of her image. Then she answered Leflina's earlier question.
"Those alchemy professors were probably attracted by the techniques I showed last time. After all, Savant's alchemy isn't particularly famous on the Southern Continent. True alchemical scholars and mages are gathered in the Magic Empire. I only demonstrated a bit of alchemy I happened to obtain from there."
Hel spoke with complete seriousness as she spun her nonsense. Back then, in order to gain enough authority to study the structure of the formation John had set up, she had deliberately shown off her skills.
Even though she'd only displayed a tenth of her true level, what a top-tier alchemist could demonstrate was still more than enough to astonish those so-called professors.
In alchemy, personal strength and magical control mattered as well. To reach the level of a true master alchemist, one needed at least king-tier power and mastery over a top-level spell—neither of which those professors, who topped out at fifth tier, could ever hope to achieve.
"Is that so?" Leflina asked.
She wasn't versed in alchemy, so she naturally didn't understand this field. She had no idea that, based on what Hel had shown, those professors had already started treating her as the future of the Alchemy Institute, desperately trying to recruit her.
Hel had found it troublesome and refused outright.
"Junior Lyco is really amazing…" Leflina murmured softly.
After that, neither of them spoke again. Hel quietly sipped her tea, while Leflina stared blankly at the moonlight reflected in her cup. Silence filled the room.