Chapter 49: drug

Iluci’s fingertips clawed futile at the air, her body’s weight tipping ever forward.

Her nightgown whipped sharp in the night breeze, golden hair slashing wild arcs through the dark.

“Aah!”

A sharp yelp sliced the night.

Iluci’s knee cracked the railing’s base; her whole frame flipped out.

In the drop’s instant, she curled instinctive—like a wounded critter, arms clamped tight to her chest.

“Thud!”

The dull thump startled bugs from the grass; Iluci sprawled side-on the lawn, left leg wrenched unnatural.

Agony blacked her vision, but her lips clung to that eerie curve.

Warm fluid trickled from nose and mouth; she tested her fingers—right arm deadweight.

Snapped ribs speared lung; each breath coughed blood-froth sweet.

“Sa-Saintess…” she wheezed thread-thin, voice lost to wind.

Upstairs windows glowed warm; laughter drifted faint.

Iluci strained her good left arm toward the light—fingers groping air—till it flopped limp in the pooling blood.

Her sight blurred, but ears sharpened keen to the door’s creak.

Someone’d spotted it!

Before black claimed her, she savored Liang Lai’s gut-wrench scream:

“Iluci!”

The saintess had come.

Iluci blacked out content.

When Iluci stirred next, Liang Lai sat bedside, worry-etched, wringing a damp cloth to dab her sweat.

“M-Mom… my…”

Iluci’s throat rasped; she reached for Liang Lai’s hand—but a twitch yanked wounds open, teeth-gritting pain.

“Oh dear, no moving—barely bandaged you up; now it’s tearing again.”

Liang Lai pinned Iluci’s shoulders gentle.

“M-Mom, I… troubled you again, sorry…”

Iluci sniffled soft, contrition pure as driven snow.

Liang Lai sighed, stroking her head light.

“No blame meant… Just, you’re too careless. Look at you—tumble once a month, no patch of skin left unscarred. How much that hurts each time… No more sloppiness, promise?”

Heartache brimmed her eyes. “And you hurt? As your guardian, that guts me too, y’know?”

Picked-up or not, Liang Lai poured real heart in; seeing Iluci mauled this bad wrenched her soul.

Sure, this world had wonder-drugs… but the fall? Agony city—tiny kid, all bones, no buffer…

“Mm, sorry Mom—I troubled you again.”

Iluci’s lips twitched at the “that guts me too”—but she schooled it swift.

God, she ached to cackle wild—but that’d blow her cover.

“It’s no trouble—you’re digging your own pit.”

Liang Lai figured a stern talking-to due; face set grave, she went stern-bark: “No more carelessness—or next time… I’ll spank you!”

Clueless on threats, so butt-whoop it was.

She’d no clue: Iluci, at the intimate contact tease, secretly thrilled.

Not masochist, no—not craving the smack… but sprawled over saintess thighs? …Hee hee~

“Mm, got it…”

Surface sweet as pie.

In the room, they played “devoted mom, dutiful daughter”—while next door, Duoluosa, Asteris, and Delucia stewed in gloom.

“So yeah—that one’s faking it full-stop.”

Duoluosa thwacked the table light—no big noise, but vent for her ire.

Asteris nodded. “Yup—sus’d her day-one tumble, but didn’t peg her for this self-savage. Last was stair-roll; now balcony dive.”

Back then, Asteris and Delucia’d frozen slack seeing Iluci splat below, hacking blood.

Seen hurts before, sure—but deliberate self-maul this vicious? First.

“Yeah, brutal to herself—but no sweat… We clocked her little game.” Delucia chimed.

“But what’s the fix?” Duoluosa doused cold. “We twigged it—so? Mimic her, hack ourselves up? Nah—I need my bod prime; bed-bound too long tanks my study grind.”

That’d dash Liang Lai’s hopes.

Duoluosa’s fists balled silent.

Asteris arched a brow. “Who said no fix? We can cozy Mom too~”

At that, Duoluosa’s focus snapped to her.

Delucia, though? Half-smirked at her sis—mind-link meant she knew Asteris’s scheme cold.

“What’s that mean?” Duoluosa pressed, suspicion spearing the twins.

She flat-out didn’t buy: these two sharing a brainstorm? With her?

Asteris twirled a finger in her hair; Delucia spoke for her: “What if we cozy up… without Mom knowing?”

Eh?

Duoluosa blanked.

“Doesn’t that count cozy?” Delucia tacked on.

Er…

Duoluosa gawped at the twin pair.

She’d toyed the same—why else scout no-harm, no-trace, scentless sleep-drugs?

“Hee hee~”

Asteris giggled sudden.

Duoluosa blinked, lost.

“When we swung by to spill on Iluci… caught it all~” Delucia grinned too, serpent-sly. “You in the library, digging sleep-drugs… Who for? Think we don’t know?”

Instant, the room’s air iced solid.

Duoluosa clammed mute, face purpling liverish—she’d never dreamed her “stealth” op’d unravel to these twins.