OHNIR – Chapter 48
Chapter 48: A Lesson
Gloria’s steps were firm and fierce, her eyes dark and gloomy. The very air around her seemed to have condensed into a solid layer of frost.
The tassels on her boots scattered with each step, like shattered snowflakes, swaying gently in the breeze.
At this moment, however, the silver-haired girl's heart was not as cold as her expression suggested. It could even be described as... a complete mess.
It wasn't that she was particularly angry or sad, just that her heart was filled with a difficult-to-resolve tangle of conflict and panic.
Gloria's mother had passed away after giving birth to Wend, and her father had to shoulder all the internal and external affairs of the ducal family, so he naturally couldn't look after both siblings. Gloria had been precocious since childhood, and the late Duchess had raised her to be independent and opinionated. Therefore, when the sharp young girl realized the Duke was struggling to cope, she almost immediately made a decision for him: she would take care of her younger brother, and her father only needed to focus on his own duties.
The Duke was hesitant at first, but after seeing Gloria and the servants take meticulous care of her brother, he was completely reassured. He then used decisive measures to help the royal family discipline the nobility and secretly continued to search for traces of the Holy Force Source, throwing himself wholeheartedly into his work.
To Gloria, the boy she had raised with her own hands was the most precious gift her mother had left her—and the most important memento.
That was why she acted as the family's representative, shielding Wend from malicious gazes and sinister schemes. It was why she stubbornly shouldered Persedoro's shackle alone, carrying the public glory and hidden darkness of the Silentdis family on her own. She had willingly surrendered the esteemed position of heir, gambling her reputation and future, all to give Wend the brightest possible future.
Even... in the original world line, she would have silently swallowed the obsession buried deep in her heart for years, watching helplessly as Wend took the hand of that brown-haired, golden-eyed girl with a familiar face. She would have watched them gaze at each other, their smiles filled with the softest tenderness.
At that time, Gloria had thought she had the chance to hold the two most important jewels of her life together in her hands. She never expected that, without her realizing it, the two jewels had already been drawn to each other, gradually fitting together so perfectly they could no longer be separated.
By the time the jewels' owner realized what was happening, they had already fused into one. There was no way to separate them, short of shattering them completely.
During that time, Gloria struggled to separate them, but failed repeatedly. In the dead of night, she would often ask herself—their fusion was certainly painful, but if she were to shatter them, would that not be painful as well?
...But even if it was painful, it had to be done.
In the original world line, Gloria was bewitched by the Goddess of Deceit, who amplified her paranoid and crazed side. In the end, after personally killing her own treasures, she offered the Holy Force Source to Persedoro, single-handedly turning the Nobili continent into the goddess's playground. Humans and demons went to war again. The land, stained scarlet during the Cruel Era, was once again drenched in blood a hundred years later.
Standing beside the divine throne, she smiled as gently as ever, but her deep blue eyes were empty and cold, like the eternally frozen ice and snow of the northern lands—devoid of humanity, devoid of life.
Gloria had never been a good person; Kelusta knew this better than anyone. This misunderstanding had likely touched a raw nerve, so it couldn't be handled with cold detachment on the spot like the Kevit incident, with the hope of making amends later.
She had to find Gloria immediately, explain everything clearly, and state her firm position. Only then would she have a sliver of hope of turning things around.
However, her sprained right foot held her back. Gloria stared straight ahead and walked quickly, completely ignoring the person behind her who was constantly calling her name.
—It wasn't until her arm was grabbed with a force that couldn't be ignored that the silver-haired girl abruptly stopped. Her dark blue eyes held no warmth, only an icy gaze directed at Wend, who had stopped her.
The handsome boy sighed softly. His face, which bore a strong resemblance to Gloria's, lost its usual indifference and was filled with helplessness. "...Lux, you can be angry, but to prevent you from regretting it later, I have to ask—have you really decided to just leave her behind?"
"..."
Gloria shot him a cold look, her gaze shifting slightly to meet Kelusta's hopeful stare from not far behind Wend.
The brown-haired girl was leaning against the wall, panting slightly, with beads of sweat dotting her forehead. Her expression was a mixture of pain and exhaustion. Her ankle, wrapped in a white stocking, was visibly swollen. Her pitiful appearance was enough to make one's heart ache uncontrollably.
Gloria pursed her lips and mercilessly shook off Wend's hand. Her exquisite face was expressionless as she walked over steadily, like an emotionless doll, and grabbed Kelusta's wrist to pull her up.
"Senior...?!"
Amidst the brown-haired girl's cry of surprise, Gloria effortlessly swept her up into her arms, as if she were holding nothing more than a large feather. She avoided Kelusta's gaze, instead jutting her chin decisively toward Wend, who was watching helplessly from a short distance away. "To the medical room," she said steadily.
Wend sighed, subtly retracting the foot he had moved forward to help. He obediently turned and walked quickly in the direction of the medical room.
Gloria was indeed iron-hearted. Even though Kelusta clung to her neck, whispering sweet nothings the entire way—nearly to the point of tearfully reciting a self-criticism essay—the silver-haired girl maintained a stony expression, staring straight ahead and refusing to say a single word to the girl in her arms.
Worried that being too annoying would only make Gloria angrier, Kelusta aggrievedly shut her mouth and leaned against her arm, wailing tearfully to the System in her mind. "Old Sys! This is too hard! I can't complete the mission, and my relationship is about to go down the drain. I might as well just pack it up and die—"
"Alright, alright, temporary host," the System said, also having a headache over the situation. But seeing that Kelusta was having a breakdown, it couldn't very well join her in wailing. It forced a calm demeanor and perfunctorily soothed her, "At least Gloria is still willing to carry you and didn't just throw you into the swan lake. It's not that bad... Don't forget, we haven't used our self-injury ploy yet. There's still a chance to turn things around."
Kelusta grieved for a moment. Her expression was listless, but her tone was murderous. "It's all that damn Moonlight Vine's fault!"
"Yes, yes, it's all its fault," the System repeated mechanically, as if placating a child.
"And it's Wend's fault!"
"Yes, yes, it's the tool man's fault."
"And it's your fault!"
"Yes, ye—" The System caught itself mid-agreement, realizing the blame was being shifted its way. It quickly corrected itself. "Wait, how is it my fault now?"
Kelusta sobbed, "It's your fault for not upgrading your monitoring system! It's one thing that you couldn't see the Moonlight Vine, but you couldn't even detect two living people who had been standing outside the door for who knows how long!"
"..." The System fell silent. It decided to be considerate of its temporary host, who was on the verge of a breakup and starting to spout nonsense. It didn't bother to refute her with the fact that "activating the monitoring system inside the school building would just mean being flooded with beeping alerts all afternoon, since there were always students lingering after class."
And so, on the way to the medical room, Kelusta dared not speak, Gloria would not speak, and Wend did not know if he should speak. The three of them were immersed in a tense, silent atmosphere as they arrived before Madam Lechena.
"My Goddess of Light!"
A cry of alarm rang out. At this hour, the only person still in the medical room was the one in charge, Madam Lechena.
This medic, accustomed to seeing patients, saw Kelusta being carried in by Gloria herself and assumed something terrible had happened. She immediately jumped up from her seat, rushed over to the duke's daughter, and asked nervously, "What happened? How badly is Miss Breviou injured? —Lady Gloria, put her down quickly. Be gentle, move slowly, we mustn't cause any secondary injuries!"
Gloria, who had been about to put her down, paused. As if restraining herself, she slowly and stiffly placed Kelusta on the bed Madam Lechena had indicated.
Kelusta: "..."
She had distinctly felt... that the silver-haired girl had originally intended to just toss her onto the bed but had abandoned the rough plan because of Madam Lechena's warning.
Thank you, Madam, thank you! May the Goddess Clara bless you!
However, as she stared eagerly at the grave-faced Madam Lechena, she waited until the woman had examined her from head to toe without finding any injuries before saying tentatively, "...Madam, um, I sprained my ankle."
"..." Madam Lechena looked up, bewildered. "Huh?"
She was carried in looking like she was on her deathbed, but it was just a sprained ankle?
That's it?
Wend turned away, speechless and embarrassed. Gloria, beside them, let out a soft scoff. Kelusta, blushing furiously, pointed to her ankle, so ashamed she wished she could dig a hole and crawl into it right then and there.
Fortunately, Madam Lechena was a school doctor who had seen it all. After a brief moment of stunned silence, she said nothing more and immediately went to examine Kelusta's ankle.
"Hmm, it's a bad sprain."
The experienced medic only needed one look to say with certainty, "And because you engaged in strenuous activity after spraining it, it's become a bit more serious... But relax, dear, it's not a major injury. I'll prescribe a new medicine in a moment. The swelling will go down in a few days—just remember to take it with the Potion Potency Amplifier I gave you before."
Hearing the words 'Potion Potency Amplifier,' the cold-faced Gloria froze for a moment. She lowered her eyes slightly and, when no one was looking, let out a deep sigh.
"Yes, Madam, I'll remember," Kelusta said obediently, secretly pouting. She felt like she had drunk more medicine in the past few weeks than in the previous ten-plus years combined.
Since it wasn't a major issue, there was no need to linger and embarrass themselves in the medical room. After bidding farewell to Madam Lechena, Gloria once again coldly refused Wend's offer to help. She discreetly rubbed her slightly sore arms and lifted Kelusta into her arms again.
"Senior..." The brown-haired girl, nestled obediently in her arms like a little squirrel, called out cautiously and timidly, "Are you maybe a tiny, tiny bit less angry now?"
Gloria glanced at her. Her heart softened a little, and she finally deigned to grant her a reply. "No."
"..." Kelusta was not discouraged. "The fact that you're willing to talk to me means you're not that angry, right? What happened just now really wasn't intentional on my or Mr. Wend's part. You must have guessed that it was someone deliberately setting me up again—"
"Don't speak recklessly." Seeing her getting more agitated and starting to lose her filter, Gloria frowned and cut her off. "Regardless of whether someone set you up... do you dare tell me that everything that just happened was something I saw in a dream?" she said calmly.
Pouting uncontrollably, Kelusta said aggrievedly, "I wouldn't dare."
"Then that settles it," Gloria said. "Last time, and now this time. Even if you fell into someone's trap, she still managed to show me a scene that was more than enough to infuriate me. —From that perspective, her success was, to a certain extent, inseparable from your perfect cooperation, was it not?"
Kelusta didn't dare say another word. She frantically grabbed Gloria's petal-shaped collar, her eyes filled with fear and denial. She stared straight at her, her gaze possessing a natural magic that almost made the ever-decisive duke's daughter relent and say, "It's okay, just be careful next time."
But Gloria was not one to be easily swayed by tenderness and let Kelusta off the hook. She blinked, her cool expression returning. She stopped walking and lowered her head toward the girl in her arms until they were close enough to share a breath. Then, she softly parted her lips. "...In any case, I believe you still deserve a little lesson, my dear."
They had now reached the base of the first-year tower. Before Kelusta could react, Gloria—after delivering her verdict that while the crime wasn't punishable by death, some form of punishment was unavoidable—gently set her on the ground. She even thoughtfully held Kelusta's shoulder to help the half-crippled girl steady herself before pulling away.
She turned to Wend, who had been following silently the whole time, and said in a flat tone, "You are not to help her, not to speak to her, and not to have any physical contact with her whatsoever. If I find out you've so much as touched her, Wend, you can expect to be dealt with."
With that, Gloria turned and walked away. Her flowing hair and skirt created a beautiful arc in the air, but she showed no hint of reluctance, so heartless she didn't even glance back.
She left behind a silent Wend and a despairing Kelusta, who could only stare at each other in speechless misery.
After three seconds of eye contact, Wend averted his gaze as if he had seen nothing. Strictly obeying his sister's warning, he too mercilessly left Kelusta behind and started up the long, high, winding staircase alone.
Kelusta: "..."
Although Gloria had calculated that this short distance wouldn't cause any further damage to her ankle, Kelusta was still angry! She was not happy!
She exhaled fiercely and raged at the System, "So she hates me now, huh? Doesn't love me anymore? The feelings have faded? She's disgusted with me? I've fallen out of favor? Is she telling me to pack my bags and get lost?!"
System: "..."
She shot a resentful glare at the retreating back of her comrade, Wend. Physically disabled but mentally determined, she leaned against the wall and began hopping on one foot toward the staircase.
"I'm so furious!" she fumed. "And in a little while, I still have to send a message to that bastard, reminding him not to forget to clean up the potion—seriously, if I can't win back Gloria's favor this time, I might as well just drag the whole world down into ruin with me! This is such a mess!"
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