Chapter 15: Brave Laura

Hearing the approaching footsteps, Laura turned her neck coated in heavy makeup.

The corner of her eye caught sight of Loren, as well as the pastry box in his hands bearing the Mozart family crest.

A wildly smug look immediately flashed through the heavily lined eyes.

“Hmph, I knew you’d come crawling back to please me and beg for forgiveness.”

Laura crossed her arms and arrogantly raised her chin.

She knew there was no way this pathetic simp who had chased after her for months would suddenly change overnight.

Although she never cared about Loren in the slightest, after losing his backing, her quality of life had plummeted miserably.

“At least you know your place. Put the pastries over there on the stone table. Once this young lady finishes being busy, I might generously honor you by taking a bite.”

“Miss Laura, your self-awareness really is astonishingly poor.”

Loren strode forward expressionlessly.

Coldly examining the gaudy woman before him, his voice was calm as stagnant water.

“I truly didn’t expect that after only half a month, you’d already be released from the Inquisition.”

“What? Didn’t get enough prison food, so now you’ve come here to act insane again?”

Loren honestly wasn’t surprised Laura had been released.

After all, even becoming a cultist required talent these days.

With a brain like hers, she barely qualified.

Still, simply colluding with cultists and helping evil was more than enough reason for her to spend a few days locked up.

Seeing the once pitiful simp actually daring to speak to her with this kind of attitude, Laura instantly exploded with rage.

Her heavily painted features twisted together from humiliation and fury.

Loren completely ignored the clown throwing a tantrum.

He directly walked past Laura and gently extended his broad hand toward the commoner girl being harassed.

“Are you alright?”

The girl slowly raised her head.

The instant their gazes met—

Loren’s breathing stopped.

It was a face so breathtakingly beautiful that even words failed him.

She stood calmly opposite Laura, quietly positioned beside the white jade railing of the corridor with a posture as upright as a lone pine tree standing amidst winter snow.

Her platinum hair was pure and flawless like fresh snowfall, only barely reaching past her pointed spirit-filled ears.

Her skin resembled exquisitely carved jade, pale enough to shame frost and snow alike.

Most striking of all were those golden eyes—

Eyes as cold as deep-sea crystal, yet within their deepest depths burned overwhelming pressure.

Beneath her simple yet elegant dress, her long legs were tightly wrapped in matte black stockings.

Cold sweat instantly burst from Loren’s back, soaking straight through his shirt.

The pastry box in his hands nearly slipped and smashed against the white jade floor.

F*ck!!!

What kind of explosive hell-level surprise is this?!

How the hell do I keep running into this female lead everywhere?!

The death flag over my head is shining bright enough to serve as an anti-air spotlight!!

Seeing Loren completely ignore her while instead showing concern for a lowly commoner nearly drove Laura insane.

“Loren! You really are only fit to end up with trashy commoners like this!”

One of the tall reserve knights beside her stepped forward with the grating clatter of metal armor decorations.

Pretending to act gentlemanly, he shielded Laura behind him and sneered down arrogantly.

“Young Master Loren, we stand with Miss Laura.”

“So you actually have interest in this poor girl whose only redeeming feature is her appearance? How desperate can you get?”

Loren stood frozen stiff in place.

Listening to these two standard cannon-fodder villain speeches, his legs turned weak while his stomach cramped violently.

No…

Brother…

If you want to die, I don’t want to die with you!!

Do you even know who she is?!

This is the kind of monster who could bury every single one of you alive and plant you like potatoes!!

Laura also deliberately leaned softly into the knight’s embrace.

“Sir Ari, please don’t be angry. Young Master Loren is only acting like this because he can’t have me… sigh…”

Loren swallowed with great difficulty.

His Adam’s apple rolled violently as he screamed internally:

Big sister! Please stop talking already!

My emotional intelligence sucked even in my previous life!

There’s absolutely no way I can recover from this hell-mode opening!

If you want to die, don’t drag me to hell with you!!

Just as Loren desperately scrambled to organize his words—

Lucia moved.

Her beautiful face remained perfectly calm.

Elegantly and leisurely brushing her skirt, her golden eyes shifted slightly.

Every movement she made felt natural like a breeze skimming across a lake, yet carried pressure impossible to ignore.

“Miss Laura.”

Lucia’s voice sounded as beautiful as orchids blooming within an empty valley.

Yet with the most innocent tone imaginable, she sliced directly into Laura’s deepest wound.

“I was merely asking whether you happened to have a sister or distant relative with the same name.”

“There’s no need to become this angry, is there?”

She tilted her head slightly.

The corners of her lips curved upward.

“Ah, could it be that because you’re an illegitimate daughter, you don’t even know your own family genealogy?”

Illegitimate daughter!

Those three words exploded like a mana crystal bomb, perfectly detonating Laura’s fatal weakness.

“Shut up!!”

Laura screamed hysterically like a feral cat whose tail had been stomped on.

“You filthy short commoner! Aren’t you just trying to use the palace to climb up the social ladder with nobles?!”

“Oh, you’re also on Serah Academy’s examination list!”

“I’m telling you right now—Serah Academy is not a place lowly women like you deserve to enter!!”

Loren stood beside them trembling in fear, not daring to even breathe loudly.

This woman was insane.

How could she possibly be this brave?

This former imperial princess of the Karia Empire was infamous for being ruthless and decisive!

Even though the empire had fallen and she now publicly appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary commoner, she still absolutely wasn’t someone these cannon-fodder villains could provoke.

Are you seriously not afraid she’ll casually bury you in the dirt like a potato later?!

At that moment—

“Since when were flies allowed to buzz noisily at guests inside the royal palace?”

Cold.

Noble.

Filled with the untouchable dignity of someone standing above all others.

With only a single sentence, the surrounding air temperature instantly soared.

Like a giant hammer crashing down, it silenced Laura and the reserve knights who had been laughing alongside her.

Everyone stiffly turned their heads.

At the end of the corridor—

Alice Akashia slowly approached in graceful steps, wearing round-toed little leather shoes.

Her cherry-pink hair swayed gently in the morning breeze like blooming spring sakura flowers.

Within those pale cherry-colored eyes existed pressure capable of looking down upon all living things.

Beneath her white-and-red feathered robes, her slender legs wrapped tightly in pure white thigh-high stockings produced crisp elegant footsteps as she walked.

Around her, the air visibly distorted from overwhelming heat.

Golden-red fire mana streams wildly danced around her body and hair without even needing conscious control.

Alice made no motion to attack whatsoever.

Yet with every step she took closer, the terrifying pressure of a pureblood phoenix descended like a tangible force.

“Ugh…”

Laura and the reserve knights couldn’t even scream.

The overwhelming mana pressure instantly crushed their legs, forcing them to collapse heavily onto the white jade floor.

The thick makeup on their faces mixed together with cold sweat pouring out instantly, leaving them utterly pathetic.

Under that overwhelming pressure from a superior being, they couldn’t even lift their heads.

“To think you dared act this arrogantly inside the royal palace.”

Alice looked down coldly upon the insects beneath her feet.

“Those reserve knights need not return tomorrow.”

“As for you, Laura Katherine…”

Alice snorted coldly.

“From this day forward, you are forbidden from stepping foot inside the palace again.”

“Get out.”

After dealing with the annoying trash, Alice strode directly toward Loren.

She fiercely glared at the still dumbfounded Loren.

Then, domineeringly reaching out, she grabbed the wrist holding the pastry box and forcefully pulled him forward.

“Why are you still standing there?”

“Don’t tell me you still have feelings left for that Laura woman?”

After angrily saying those words, Alice gave Loren no time whatsoever to react.

Grabbing him tightly, she marched straight toward the depths of the corridor.