Chapter 37: Something is wrong with that child

After getting her “household registration” sorted, Iluci settled in peacefully just like that.

At first, Duoluosa kept insisting the girl’s mousy demeanor was all an act.

But after about two weeks, she was still the same—timid as a mouse, never grabbing for anything, never butting in when the others clustered around Liang Lai for a chat.

It didn’t look feigned anymore… that utter cowardice.

“So, you think she’s really just wired that way?” Duoluosa muttered under her breath.

She stood upstairs, peering down at Iluci practicing her crystallization abilities alone below.

“You’re not still convinced her scaredy-cat routine is fake, are you?”

A voice piped up from behind, startling Duoluosa; she whipped around to find Asteris and Delucia, hand in hand like inseparable twins.

“You two really are like stubborn plasters.”

Duoluosa never bothered masking her disdain for the pair; she snorted and turned back, resuming her vigil over Iluci downstairs.

Asteris and Delucia sidled up beside her, leaning on the railing with cheeky grins.

“What’s with the creepy smiling?” Duoluosa squirmed under their stares.

“I just think you don’t need to watch her so close—she’s no match for you or us.” Asteris offered the tip in good faith.

But Duoluosa wasn’t buying; she snorted again and shoved off from the railing.

“Asteris, you’d best buckle down on your practice instead of fretting over who I’m eyeing. Assessment’s in two weeks—don’t embarrass Liang Lai come the day.”

With that parting shot, Duoluosa vanished down the hall.

Asteris threw up her hands to Delucia.

“This one’s hopeless~ Treating Mom like her personal property~”

Delucia nodded. “Mm-hmm~ She’ll never snag real happiness this way~”

Asteris slung an arm around her sister’s shoulders.

“And we’ve already cracked the code to bliss… It’s letting Mom save us forever! Then melting into her as one… Yeah, just like that…”

Downstairs, Iluci remained oblivious to it all, laser-focused on her drills—yearning for Liang Lai to swing by with some praise or fuss.

Liang Lai did her level best to treat them all equal.

But with four kids, slips happened; the scales tipped now and then without meaning to.

With Duoluosa and Asteris facing assessments, Liang Lai poured extra effort into them over the final half-month crunch.

Plus, she still hadn’t unlocked the essence of the original owner’s first two crystallization arts—every cast left her drained, soul-weary.

So chunks of time went to her own training, leaving scant room for Iluci or Delucia.

Delucia took it in stride; in her mind, she and Asteris were one and the same—two halves of a whole, always tethered.

Wherever Asteris went, Delucia tagged; Liang Lai’s focus on one meant the other too.

But Iluci couldn’t shrug it off.

She was that hypersensitive sort, attuned to Liang Lai’s every twitch and turn.

She’d clocked it sharp: lately, more eyes on Duoluosa and Asteris.

“M-Mom… my…”

She called out soft as a whisper, but her voice was too faint; Liang Lai bustled past in a hurry, bound for the practice room to check on Duoluosa and Asteris’s progress.

She missed the plea entirely—missed Iluci too, slumped on the sofa with knees hugged tight, mood soured.

Watching Liang Lai’s retreating back, Iluci’s eyes dulled.

She cocked her head, mulling it over—then padded after the saintess on silent feet.

She saw Liang Lai enter the practice room, easing the door shut but not quite latching it—a perfect chink for eavesdropping.

Iluci nudged it wider a hair, peering in sly as a ghost.

“How’s the practice going, you two~?” Liang Lai asked with warm concern.

Duoluosa always vied to go first, while Asteris played it cooler; she waited till Duoluosa wrapped her report before sharing hers.

Liang Lai ruffled their heads with doting affection.

“Wow~ You two are amazing! You’ll ace the assessment for sure—shining brightest on stage~”

The praise was corny, pure kid-patsy stuff, but Duoluosa and Asteris lapped it up, beaming.

Once they’d debriefed, Liang Lai had them demo while she drew Delucia aside.

What Duoluosa and Asteris were learning now was basic standard crystallization—not like Liang Lai’s variant.

Put simply, hers tied into emotional resonance: on hit, it could unleash stored mood-memories, or trigger “emotional overlay”—temporarily imprinting the caster’s feeling patterns.

The church forbade “emotional” arts or personal sentiments for everyone else, so they’d never master Liang Lai’s “mutant” strain.

And she had to keep her resonance gift under wraps.

Duoluosa and Asteris were drilling entry-level standard: flash-crystallizing touched objects into crystal lattices.

“Show me what you’ve got.”

At Liang Lai’s cue, Duoluosa lunged forward a step, fingertip grazing the central stone pillar with boyish rashness—yet control bloomed the instant contact hit.

The drab gray surface bloomed under invisible strokes, a ripple of glassy sheen unfurling.

Crystallization snaked along the pillar’s natural veins, rough rock morphing to flawless crystal, primal striations sealed in fluid elegance within.

Asteris moved with quieter poise, drifting to the wooden post opposite; her palm hovered, lashes dipping as wood fibers crackled faint.

The grain didn’t fade in the shift—instead, it swelled into ornate dendritic veins, bark paling to translucence until the whole became an amber sculpture.

Sunlight pierced the crystal log, splashing rainbow flecks across the floor.

“Impressive!”

Liang Lai shot them a thumbs-up.

Outside the door.

“So, Mom only zeroes in on the kids who need it most… Just ’cause they’ve got assessments, she tilts toward them more…” Iluci murmured to herself.

She backed away a few steps, to the stair’s edge—gaze gone shadowy on the endless drop.

“Like when I first met Mom—all those wounds head to toe, so she fussed extra, even slept beside me…”