“Ugh... I’m wiped. Alicia, big sis, could you rub that sore spot on my shoulder?”

Lian sprawled across Alicia’s lap like a wilted flower after rain, life gone from her eyes. For the first time, she learned how draining it was to sit through a tide of reports, waves slapping her patience thin. Listening was fine—until every speaker asked her for a reward, like sparrows pecking for crumbs.

Some wanted things—fine. Others asked for creepy “souvenirs” or begged for Lady Ling’s personal scolding; that chilled her like a draft through paper walls. After granting a few middling wishes, Lian “cruelly” announced she’d approve no more, her words a cold blade cutting the line. Heads drooped like reeds; the reports that followed had no wind, and Lian’s spirit sagged in turn, a lantern dimming.

Alicia kneaded Lian’s shoulders, laughter chiming like silver bells. “Who told you to start giving out rewards? Now they’re all waiting for a treat.”

“So it’s my fault, huh?” Lian’s glare flashed like a cat bristling—“nod and I blow up”—leaving Alicia torn between a smile and a sigh.

“Alright, alright. Lian’s not wrong. Rest for now.” Alicia’s voice smoothed like warm tea. “We still have to find that singer called Hatsune. The others don’t have the reach.”

At the name, Lian’s smile turned blade-sharp, a crescent moon with hidden edge. Hatsune, huh? If she’s like the Hatsune from that other world, this could be fun...

Alicia kept smoothing Lian’s hair, soft as silk in a breeze, missing the little schemer’s fox-curved grin; if she’d seen it, she might’ve revised her view of this “sweet” child—though a devious little thing can be cute, like a black cat in sunlight.

—

In the car, Lian discovered riding could be joy, like floating down a lazy river, mainly because Alicia wasn’t driving. Alicia, instead, urged the driver to push the tempo—“Faster, don’t stop!”—like snapping a whip at the wind.

Minutes later, the car eased to a halt before a tower needling the sky, glass catching clouds like scales. Alicia hopped out, scolding the “slow” drive, words firing like sparks; Lian could only give a helpless smile, a palm raised to calm the breeze.

“Enough, Alicia. Quit grumbling; my ears are wilting like leaves. Let’s handle business.”

“Fine, fine. Let’s go.” Lian took her small hand; together they stepped into the elevator, a steel river rising toward the heavens.

Ding— The elevator stopped at the 450th floor. Staring at the blur of buttons, Lian felt an itch to press them all at once, like scattering stars across a night sky.

“You must be Princess Alicia and Miss Lian, right?”

A sweet, clear voice tugged Lian back from her daydream like a silk thread. Alicia offered a flawless noble curtsey, grace poured like water, then gathered Lian into her arms and sat on the sofa across from Hatsune.

“Miss Hatsune, we sincerely invite you to our academy festival,” Alicia said, words laid out like jade.

Hatsune didn’t answer. Her eyes followed the closing elevator doors—click—and the car sank, taking men in black with it like shadows dropping down a well.

Alicia’s patience thinned like ice in spring; she had forced herself to study noble etiquette for half a day—stuff she swore she’d never touch—just for this moment. She drew breath to speak.

In a blink, Hatsune shifted from dignified poise to a lazy lounge, draping herself like a cat on a sun-warmed sill. “Ah—dead tired. Keeping etiquette for those guys is exhausting!”

Alicia froze, mind a clean pond with a stone thrown in. “Uh… Miss Hatsune—”

“No need for ‘Miss.’ Just call me Hatsune.” Her smile lifted like a fan. “I’ll call you Alicia. I know you—the princess of the Moser Empire.”

“Okay, but—Hatsune, are you always like this?”

“Not really. Those people need me ‘like this’ in public.” Her tone twirled like a ribbon. “I’m just the songstress princess of the Otaku Empire—why learn all that stiff hassle? You think so too, right?”

Hearing her own heart echoed, Alicia’s anger blew away like dawn mist; she watched Hatsune as if a kindred had stepped out of a poem. “So you think the same! Whenever Father wants me at a banquet, I always refuse. If not for Lian today, I wouldn’t be here, wouldn’t have learned any of that rigid etiquette. If I’d known you felt this way, I’d have skipped it!”

“Oh! A kindred soul!” Hatsune clapped softly, joy fluttering like sparrows. “Alicia, from now on you’re my dear friend!”

Watching them bond like long-lost sisters meeting under cherry shade, Lian felt if she didn’t cut in now, she’d be stuck listening forever, like a boat pinned by an endless song. “Alright, calm down, Alicia and Hatsune. Save it for later, okay?”

At Lian’s voice, Alicia returned to herself, lips smoothing like satin. Hatsune, instead, turned a starved gaze on Lian, eyes bright as a lake. “Um, Alicia… could I—could I hold Lian for a bit?”

Alicia blinked; in her mind, a giant choice window popped up like a game HUD. Option 1: Say yes—Hatsune’s favor up, Lian’s down. Option 2: Say no—Hatsune’s favor down, Lian’s up. With a towering fifty-two IQ—higher than a certain chairman—she picked Option 3.

Alicia set Lian between them like placing a small bird on a shared perch. Hatsune got the message, and, like Alicia, she fussed over Lian’s tiny frame—poking her cheeks, smoothing her hair, straightening her collar—gentle tides against a fragile spring sparrow.

Surrounded, Lian could only laugh-cry, eyes shimmering like rain. One was practically family; the other, a brand-new bestie—ten minutes old and already engraved on the heart. Resist? No. Why resist gentle attention that felt like sunlight through leaves?

She gazed at the cloudbanks outside the window, fleece drifting like slow sheep. One thought tugged at her sleeve: I… think I forgot something important…