Night Raid

“Hee hee hee~”

Flora covered her mouth and chuckled softly, “How interesting~ But…”

She suddenly leaned closer to Alice, her eyes gradually turning wild like a beast’s, “To become my master, you have to pay a price, you know~”

Alice subconsciously recoiled, her ear tips flushing red, “W-what price?”

“That remains to be seen…”

Flora’s finger lightly traced Alice’s chin, “I’ll tell you later~”

“No talking while eating.”

Ilya cut her bread with a precision that seemed like she was dissecting a corpse, even the breadcrumbs were terrifyingly neat.

Livia noticed that she only ate the portion of the plate closest to her, as if she had drawn an invisible barrier on the table.

The air fell into a brief silence.

“After we capture the Archduchesses!”

Alice suddenly tapped her ceramic plate with her fork, “I want the palace chambers to be covered in velvet carpets! Flora, you’re responsible for styling my hair every day!”

“What about me?”

Livia subconsciously interjected, then immediately wanted to bite her tongue.

“As for you…”

Alice playfully poked her forehead with a wicked grin, “Let Ilya warm your bed~”

—Clang!

The silver fork suddenly stabbed deep into the wooden table, only half an inch away from Alice’s finger.

Ilya calmly wiped the corner of her mouth, “Stop joking.”

“Sigh, alright, alright, why so fierce?”

Alice shrunk her neck, and Livia nodded at this moment. Compared to the ice-beauty she had just met, she still leaned more towards her best friend.

“She was just speaking out of turn. Children don’t know any better; she was just playing. Don’t worry, if you recover your memories later and want to leave, you can leave. After all, your legs are your own. But for now, I’ve helped you, haven’t I?”

Immediately.

Livia changed the subject, “Let’s go to bed early… We have to get up early tomorrow. I still have some things to do.”

“I’ll sleep on the floor.”

Ilya immediately got up.

“No!”

Livia stopped her, “Your body is so weak and cold, how can you sleep on the floor?”

“Then…”

Ilya frowned and looked at Flora.

Flora suddenly wrapped her arms around Alice’s waist from behind, chuckling mischievously, “I don’t want to sleep with an ice block~” She rested her chin on the golden girl’s shoulder, “It’ll freeze my hairpin~”

“You’re the one complaining first. I’d rather die than be with you.”

The compromise that was finally reached made Livia fidget—

She curled up at the very edge of the bed, her back almost pressed against the cold headboard.

Ilya lay flat like a coffin, her silver hair flowing with a cold sheen in the moonlight, her breathing almost imperceptible.

“Don’t move.”

She lay down with her back to Livia, her silver hair covering half the pillow.

“Of, of course…”

Livia shrunk into the corner of the bed, not daring to breathe.

She could smell the faint cold fragrance emanating from the other person, like the scent of cedarwood.

Livia buried her face in the pillow, suddenly catching a faint whiff of blood.

She stole a glance in the moonlight and saw dark red seeping from the other person’s arm—the wound from earlier seemed to have reopened.

“Need me to put some medicine on it?”

She fumbled for the potion hidden under her skirt.

“No need.”

“It might get infected…”

“I said, no need.”

The bed creaked from the adjacent room. Alice was struggling to push Flora, who was trying to burrow into her arms, away, “Hey! Don’t get so close!”

“But I’m cold~”

Flora’s sweet, melodious laughter pierced the air. It seemed more like she was teasing the other person to satisfy her own mischievous desires rather than showing affection.

“Didn’t Master say that we should take good care of our maids~”

“Who, who is your Master!”

“But I’m scared of the dark~”

“Get down, quickly!”

Moonlight streamed through the window lattices, and Livia heard Alice’s exasperated voice, her lips involuntarily curving upwards.

They were leaving for the central area tomorrow. Although the future was uncertain, at least…

She silently glanced at the three people within her line of sight.

—At least now she wasn’t alone.

The night was like a velvet cloth soaked in ink.

Livia untied her hair tie, and her pure white hair flowed like water onto her shoulders.

Alice, unable to handle the pink-haired girl who, despite meeting for the first time, was acting like a clingy puppy, was now curled up at the foot of the bed, polishing her sword.

Candlelight danced on her golden eyelashes, casting shadows on the prominent pair of breasts in front of her.

Even with a beauty by her side, she couldn’t sleep.

“Shorty, we made money. Let’s go to the blacksmith shop tomorrow to find a new spear, shall we?”

She swung her rapier, “Your broken spear probably can’t even pierce a wild rabbit—”

“Tsk, does anything from a blacksmith shop deserve to be compared to this Master? This Master is going to the royal city to have the best divine craftsman forge sharp weapons. Only then will it be worthy of this Master’s status~”

Livia maintained her reclining posture, lifting her legs high, swinging her small feet, her mind already constructing blueprints for various parts.

The little cutie she picked up had somewhat diluted her complex emotions.

She could already see a beautiful future beckoning her.

“Good night.”

Livia blew out the candle and gradually fell into a deep sleep…

—Crash!

A loud crash of a pottery jar shattering came from outside the window, followed by the heart-wrenching cries of a child.

“What the hell? Can’t a person sleep!”

Alice, who was on the side by the window, was woken up.

She abruptly pushed open the wooden window, and the night wind, carrying the smell of burning, rushed in.

The night sky in the distance was dyed blood-red by the flames. Thick smoke coiled upwards like a giant snake, staining the moon the color of rust.

“Something’s wrong!”

Alice jumped out of bed, not even having time to tie her golden pigtails, “Viya, look over there quickly!”

The street had already descended into chaos.

Goblin howls echoed one after another, interspersed with human screams.

A rocket ‘whoosh’ed into the roof of the building opposite, and flames instantly erupted.

“It’s on fire, Via, there are goblins invading downstairs!?”

“How, how is that possible…”

No, no, no, no…

—How could this be!?

Livia’s fingers trembled, unable to even tie her hair tie.

The sound of wine barrels overturning came from downstairs, and travelers’ screams pierced the night, “Help—!”

“Damn it!”

Livia grabbed her coat but suddenly realized that the silver-haired elder sister beside her and the pink-haired girl in the distance had disappeared.

“Where did they go? Alice, did you see them?”

Livia’s mind was in utter chaos at this moment. She didn’t understand how the goblins, which had only been lurking in the northern mountains, dared to invade, and how they were able to invade Elton town.

Even less clear was why these two people had disappeared at such a critical juncture.

The continuous negative emotions made her inevitably associate the two with the goblins.

“Let’s go. Anyway, they’re just trash goblins. Lao Li, we’ll take them down one by one with a sword, one by one with a spear!”

Alice drew her rapier from its golden-edged sheath, her face showing no fear but rather a look of utter confidence.

In her face, Livia saw her past self.

Arrogant, and conceited, flippant, and without reverence for the hard-won life she possessed.

“No… not allowed…!”

Her fingernails dug into her palm.

The stench of decay, mingled with the smell of fire, wafted over. Amidst the pervasive flames, a vision of her own eviscerated self flashed through her mind.

The burning sensation of phlegm choking her airway was so real it made her gag.

Livia saw a version of herself from another timeline curled up amidst a pile of corpses. Alice’s broken sword was stuck five steps away, the golden hair wrapped around its hilt being stained red by the blood pool.

As reality and illusion overlapped, Livia suddenly grabbed her wrist. The golden girl’s sword sheath struck the wooden floor with a muffled thud.

“This way, absolutely not! Listen to me, goblins are not the weaklings we imagined at all. On the contrary, they…”

Before she could finish, an arrow pierced through the window and embedded itself in the bed they had just been lying on.