After the scramble over Ling ended, the victor, Alicia, sat on the rooftop, sipping sunlight like warm honey as she savored the simple bliss of spoon-feeding the little one.

“Ah~ mm.” The sound fluttered like a moth over a lantern flame.

Watching Ling take bite after bite, like a sparrow pecking grain, happiness flooded Alicia’s face like spring thaw, and her hands stilled without her noticing.

“Big Sis Alicia?” The soft call tapped the surface of her daydream like a pebble on a pond.

The question tugged Alicia back to earth like a bell rope. “Mm? Ah! Sorry, I spaced out and forgot to feed you. Here, aah—”

The spoon sailed again like a small boat, and Ling opened her tiny mouth, took it in one bite, tasted the sweetness blooming like plum blossoms, and hummed a tune like a brook.

I wished this warm moment would burn like a lantern that never gutters.

— Lunch ended —

After lunch, Alicia and Ling drifted back to class, chalk dust hanging like morning mist, the teacher already at the podium, ready to begin.

Alicia took a seat in the back, intending to pat the desk beside her, but Ling slipped into her arms like a kitten and settled on her lap.

Her little legs kicked like dragonfly wings, and Alicia stared, a bit spellbound, as if watching a firefly glow.

Contentment rose like steam from a teacup. Well, this works too.

During the lesson, Alicia watched Ling’s sleeping face the whole time, her gold hair swaying like sunlit wheat with each nodding bob, the corner of her lips lifting like a crescent moon, as if dreaming.

“You in the back, the one sleeping, and you spacing out—stand and answer this!” The teacher’s voice cracked like a gavel in a quiet hall.

The stern call shattered Alicia’s lovely fantasy like thin ice. She blinked awake and patted Ling’s soft cheek like down.

Ling blinked drowsily, her milky voice spilling out like warm milk. “Big Sis Alicia~ is it time to eat?”

Laughter chimed through the room like wind bells, and even the teacher’s face rippled with a smile.

“Alright, I’ll let it slide this time. Don’t do it again.” His words dropped like a feather but landed like a rule.

Relief slipped from Alicia like setting down a stone by the road.

Still lost about what had happened, Ling breathed into Alicia’s ear like a moth’s wing. “Big Sis Alicia, so what happened?”

Alicia gave an awkward smile that cracked like thin porcelain. Better not let this little one worry.

“Mm, don’t mind it. It’s fine.” The reassurance floated like a leaf and drifted past.

No answer came, so Ling turned away, arms folded like a tiny guard, cheeks puffed like steamed buns you could poke a fingertip into and watch it sink.

Alicia took it all in. The puffed-up look was cute like a pufferfish, but a girl shouldn’t stew in anger like a pot left to boil.

She rubbed Ling’s golden little head, fingers raking like warm wind through wheat, and Ling’s face flipped to bliss as fast as a summer squall clearing to blue.

Even Alicia had to wonder if Ling’s secret switch sat on her head, a hidden latch that, with a press, opened a new route.

Riiiing—

The class finally ended, like a rope let go, though two people hadn’t studied at all. Ling needed none, and Alicia had spent the hour treasure-hunting for that switch in a fog, with no luck.

During the break, Rafi stormed into Alicia’s classroom like a gust, yet this time her steps flowed like silk as she reached Ling and lifted her delicate hand.

“Miss Ling, I’m hosting a banquet tonight at the Khalifa Hotel. Would you honor me with your presence?” Her words gleamed like lacquer.

Before Ling could nod at this harem-recruitment arc, Alicia slapped Rafi’s hand away like a falling leaf, and her eyes went cold as winter water.

“Don’t come near Ling. You lost the match and still show up shamelessly. Where’s your pride as a princess? This isn’t your home. Stop dragging people to those messy banquets.”

Rafi’s anger flared like a struck match, and she fired back like an arrow. “Shut up, you unwanted tomboy. What kind of young woman trains with a sword? Don’t interrupt my date with Miss Ling!”

Watching her harem catch fire—at least that’s how Ling saw it—the harem’s rightful lord couldn’t just sit on the throne and watch.

She gently refused Rafi’s invite like closing a fan and then soothed Alicia like smoothing wrinkled silk.

Rejected, Rafi slammed the door like thunder and swept out without a single cloud trailing her hem.

— Rafi’s POV —

“So the soft approach failed too?” The black-robed figure’s voice seeped out like oil smoke.

Rafi looked at him with stormcloud eyes and a scowl like a cut.

“Yeah! That jerk messed it up. I could’ve been with Ling forever.”

“Calm down. Of all the plans we debated, our two best methods have failed. It’s time to use the last one.” His words fell like iron beads.

Rafi didn’t brighten; her laugh was a cold blade. “Really? That few plans? Two tries and we’re at the trump card?”

“No helping it. The opponent is her, after all.” The admission drifted like ash.

“Whatever. Do it. I must have Ling. I trust you people from the third layer of the Underworld to get it done.” Her resolve sat like a mountain.

The black robe nodded, voice carefully low, like a servant bowing to a gong. “Yes. We can begin within a month.”

Impatient, Rafi waved him away like smoke. “Then prepare fast. Fail, and don’t come back.”

— Switch back —

After Rafi had been gone a while like a storm moving off, Alicia finally turned to Ling.

“Ling, remember this. Stay away from that kind of woman. She’s a bad one.” The warning rang like a bell on a gate.

Ling met Alicia’s flustered face with a soft chuckle that brushed by like a breeze. A woman like Rafi was obvious harem material; why fear? She was an invincible peak, and ant schemes are dust.

Could ants overturn a dragon? If they could, the Dragonfolk would already be ash. Besides, she was stronger than any dragon, a mountain over the sea.

“I know you won’t listen,” Alicia said, worry beating like a caged bird, “but I have to say it. She may not harm your body, but she could use filthier means, like hurting you in the mind.”

“Mm-hmm~” Ling didn’t bother to explain that her soul was an iron bell in a storm, and mind strikes were raindrops. They wouldn’t understand, and more words would be river water on stone.

And it wasn’t just fear or no fear. Her name and crown didn’t allow fear, or else this invincible blade would weep on the spot like a sword crying in its sheath.