After Hannah left before Livy could even move, Lyria grabbed her by the shoulder and pulled a chair for Livy to sit, then proceeded to pull another for herself.

  Lyria knew her sister best—Livy was always careless and often didn’t give much thought to consequences. She was certain Livy would have jumped straight into bed with her dirty clothes and later cried about how messy it was.

  After both sat in their chairs, they gazed at each other silently for a few moments before sighing with exhaustion. Days of travel, and they hadn’t even changed their clothes. They didn’t blame Christine for this; they were grateful she had rescued them and taken them from their detestable home.

  Their father, aunts, uncles, and the rest of the family were about to throw them into servitude under another Noble Family, all because they had failed to live up to expectations and become Mana Wielders by their eighth birthdays.

  Livy and Lyria had different mothers, though both women had been very close friends even before their marriages. For some unknown reason, everyone—including their uncles, aunts, and extended family—never appreciated their mothers and created endless trouble for them.

  Lyria even suspected their mothers’ simultaneous deaths six months prior had been orchestrated by the family, as no one investigated. Sadly, even if they had investigated, neither girl was informed, as they were just seven and a half years old at the time. Thus, they still didn’t know how their mothers had died.

  After their mothers’ deaths, no one took care of them, nor did their father ever visit. Even before their mothers’ deaths, their father had rarely visited, so that was nothing new.

  Despite so much oppression from everyone, both Lyria and Livy had somehow survived the last few months.

  Since their mothers had a very close relationship, both Livy and Lyria were also brought up very closely, with Lyria being a few days older than Livy. They played and grew up together, and so their relationship was close, perhaps even more than real siblings. They were so lovingly raised together by their mothers that they often mistook who their real mother was, thinking both women were their mothers. It was only later they could tell them apart.

  After their mothers’ deaths, all hell broke loose. Cruelty and injustice fell upon them out of nowhere, and after they failed to become Mana Wielders, the Elders of their family declared them useless, condemning them to serve as maids in another High Noble’s house.

  When Lyria and Livy were at their lowest, with nothing but humiliated tears left, Christine arrived and intervened.

  Christine first tried to take both Lyria and Livy away by mentioning that she was friends with their mothers, but the Elders stopped her, telling her, “Friends don’t interfere with their dead friends’ family business.” Hearing that, Christine grew furious, and violence broke out within the Moonveil family. All the Elders were beaten to the ground by a single red-haired woman.

  Only after the rest of the top family members, including Lyria and Livy’s hateful father, arrived did Christine stop. After some conversation among them, which Lyria and Livy didn’t understand or hear, Christine took them away with a wrathful expression.

  This also marked the end of Lyria and Livy’s relationship with the Moonveil family.

  From then on, both Lyria and Livy traveled in some weird flying object. In between, they once went into an unknown city, then promptly left the entire place mysteriously by entering some strange, large hall.

  Lyria and Livy were confused and scared, yet weirdly at peace knowing they had finally left the Moonveil family.

  They didn’t know where they were going; perhaps even Christine didn’t know.

  Christine barely spoke to them throughout the long journey, but both Lyria and Livy sensed that she wasn’t being intentionally rude to them, just that she seemed lost in her own thoughts, or perhaps more. So they followed her quietly.

  Finally, on this morning, they arrived at a village, and Christine left them at an orphanage with only two words: “Take care.”

  Lyria and Livy understood that Christine had already done them a lifesaving favor and wouldn’t just abandon them to die. But the unfamiliarity of this place and the uncertainty of their future filled them with panic.

  Both of them had already seen the cruelty a well-to-do family inflicts on their children, and now that they were in some unknown village with people who had no blood ties to them—what their fate would be, whether they would be separated and could even see each other again—all these concerns filled both Lyria and Livy with trepidation.

  Now that they had finally passed through the worst phase, both Lyria and Livy had calmed down significantly. After calming down, they were feeling so tired and worn out that they simply wished to lie down and sleep, at least for a few hours, but they also didn’t want to disregard Hannah’s good intentions, so they could only do their best to stay awake.

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  Lyria and Livy quietly gazed outside the open window.

  Eventually, Livy couldn’t take so much serenity and awkwardly muttered, “This place is surprisingly filled with good and kind people. At least we won’t be dissected and eaten alive. Ahahaha.” She laughed awkwardly.

  Lyria glanced at Livy with annoyance; she was too tired mentally to even respond to that stupid joke. But she did agree with Livy’s statement—this place was indeed far safer than she had initially thought, perhaps even better compared to the fancy, huge mansions of the Moonveil family.

  Lyria, as the cautious 'big sister,' still reminded Livy, “Liv, we’ve just arrived, don’t jump to any conclusions. For now, we should act like good children and listen to them, understand?”

  Livy pouted and muttered under her breath, “Only you, Ly, need to act. I am always a good girl.”

  Lyria, who managed to hear Livy’s mumbling, was furious.

  Her eyelid started twitching uncontrollably.

  She wished to jump up and fight Livy for looking down at her, but she was too tired; also, Livy was quite agile and no less capable than her. So she gave up and decided to act as if she hadn’t heard anything. Next time, she would definitely teach Livy a harsh lesson by beating her down.

  Lyria continued to sternly remind her, “Liv, don’t create trouble or inconvenience for them. Act properly, or else they might separate us, then we’ll never be able to see each other for years, or perhaps ever!”

  Lyria knew she was being pessimistic, but she had learned how to make Livy take her words seriously: by presenting the worst possible outcome!

  As expected, Livy’s face turned pale, and she began nodding. “I-I will be a good girl! I will make sure they don’t marry us into different houses!”

  Lyria slipped out of her chair.

  'She is hopeless!'

  -

  After closing the door, Eric threw away his clothes and wore more comfortable ones, just his inner vest and Bermuda shorts—his favorite. He always preferred light upper clothing, even in his past life.

  After that, he lay down on his bed and grabbed the pocket watch to observe it closely. It was heavy and a bit too large for his current palm.

  He planned to check it one final time before shoving it inside his wardrobe’s hidden locker for years to come.

  He opened the watch with a click, then promptly closed it with another satisfying click.

  He couldn’t help it! Anyone would do something similar, at least when alone in their room. It was just so comforting, listening to that clicking sound. Perfect!

  After satisfying his inner demons by opening and closing the pocket watch a few times, Eric closely observed its inner design.

  Setting aside all the intricate, otherworldly beauty of the design, he focused more on the clock’s background—a darkish blue with specks of starlight, almost like a fragment of the universe.

  After observing for a while, Eric was shocked. He thought it was just a painting, but it was actually moving, almost like clouds drifting across the sky.

  Upon closer inspection of the clock, Eric also realized there was protection from fingerprints, dust, and scratches, as nothing was sticking to it. He was very impressed.

  He was very curious about what the watch was truly capable of, but that was his future self’s job. For now, he was satisfied.

  Eric packed the pocket watch and hid it deep within his wardrobe, where no one would think to look. After that, he lay down on his bed and waited, not in the mood to train.

  Time flew by, and soon it was breakfast time.

  Eric made his way toward the canteen downstairs. He didn’t see either of the sisters; perhaps they were already asleep.

  After Eric was done with his breakfast, Hannah arrived, and together they walked toward the town’s public library through muddy streets.

  Hannah stayed quiet, exhausted from running around, while Eric appreciated the silence. They reached the library without many words.

  This town’s library was a three-story-tall wooden-and-stone mixed building. There was a big signboard outside written in the Celestia language: Ringwood Town Library.

  Ringwood Town Library was a very prestigious and quiet place, with only the wealthy people of the town having access to it, so it was mostly empty, as very few adults had the time to explore excess knowledge beyond their survival needs.

  Eric and Hannah walked straight in; the two guards outside didn’t bother stopping either of them.

  After entering, Eric glanced around, and as expected, there was no one around.

  Hannah coughed and decided to explain how lucky Eric was.

  "Eric, not everyone gets the right to borrow books from the library. It's very costly to register here—probably only the nobles and wealthy in town could afford it. You should be grateful to House Mother for paying such a hefty price for you to even register at school, which you almost never attend! How can she let you do whatever you want?! I want to beat you up..."

  Though Hannah said so, she wasn’t confident in beating Eric, as his training was no joke, even for an adult like her.

  Eric ignored Hannah and started browsing for any interesting books to read.

  Hannah glared at Eric and eventually sighed. She decided to first get her permit.

  "Eric, I will go and register. Take your time selecting one book. You can only borrow a single book at a time from the library." She then walked further inside, toward the counter.

  Eric glanced around and was disappointed. There were only children's storybooks, and not a single adult book! Ahem, maybe the good stuff would be on the first and second floors. For today, he would only get one from the ground floor; he wasn’t in any hurry either.

  After searching for a while, Eric picked up one titled 'Interesting Places to Visit in Silvia Kingdom'. As the title suggested, it was a book related to the kingdom’s tourism. It seemed a lot more interesting than schoolbooks, so he was all for it.

  Eric then walked toward the counter where Hannah was already waiting. There was also an old, grumpy-looking man sitting behind the desk.

  The old man had white hair, a thick mustache and beard, well-combed hair, and clean, tidy clothes clinging to his body. He was also wearing glasses.

  After Librarian Paul noticed Eric, he frowned. He was deeply displeased at seeing a child holding a library book. What if he dropped it? The book would be damaged!

  That kid's life wasn't enough to replace the precious books within this holy library!

  Eric noticed the old man's nasty expression, so he gave a bright smile. He believed with his handsome smile the old man would also calm down, just like Lyria and Livy.

  And as he expected, the old man got even more furious.