Chapter 150

She clung tightly to Sheffy’s waist. That sudden turn of her body only shifted their positions, from being pressed one above the other to lying side by side face-to-face—it didn’t manage to separate them.

Now that they were facing each other, Sheffy finally saw that Livra was indeed crying so much that her tears streamed down like pear blossoms in the rain.

And what Livra saw—was Princess Sheffy’s expression suddenly turning into one of grave pain!

“What’s wrong with you…?”

“Hiss… my waist… my waist!! You stupid thing, do you know you’re repaying kindness with vengeance?! Let go, quickly!”

“O-okay!”

You foolish princess, do you even know what my waist went through last night? And you still squeeze it that hard!

Of course, Sheffy could have just healed herself with magic, but wasn’t there this stubborn streak in her heart?

That saying “saving face only to suffer in silence” never went out of fashion.

Although Livra agreed readily, when she finally loosened her grip, it was after quite a long hesitation, as if she were afraid that if she let go too quickly, something would slip away again.

Sheffy took the chance to hold her aching waist and sit up—only to see the giant fish in the lake bubbling up to the surface, arriving at once to mock her.

Fish couldn’t laugh, but Sheffy felt they were laughing.

Fine, tonight’s dinner would be grilled fish.

Though Livra didn’t know what mistake she had made… she still followed her up, guilt in her heart.

This time, instead of sitting on the edge of the big rock, she deliberately scooted closer toward Sheffy.

Their shoulders didn’t touch, but the distance was no longer as far as it had been just now.

Livra ignored her tear-streaked face.

It was only now, belatedly, that she realized… she had really lost control earlier.

Throwing herself into Miss Shaya’s arms without a word… of course she must have thought it strange, so she threw her off, didn’t she?

That was only natural. To Livra, it was something precious beyond measure. But to Miss Shaya… it was probably just a trivial matter.

Hmm…?

Wait a moment…

Miss Shaya’s reply just now—could it be that she remembered that matter too?

For her, “such an insignificant thing”… yet she still remembered?

Livra had no time to think further.

A small hand lifted up a light, snow-white handkerchief.

It filled Livra’s vision.

“Miss Shaya…?”

“Wipe your tears. Why cry like this? If there’s something to say, then say it slowly. It’s not like I don’t remember.”

Sheffy handed over the handkerchief, her eyes still looking straight ahead.

Although Sheffy now wore the appearance of the Demon Clan Princess, Livra knew that whenever Miss Shaya spoke without looking at someone… it meant she was showing care—only she felt a little embarrassed.

Livra carefully took the handkerchief from her hand, but in the end, she couldn’t bring herself to use it to wipe her tears.

She clenched it tightly in her palm and instead rubbed her tears away with her sleeve.

“Uu… Miss Shaya is really Miss Shaya… just now, you…”

“No need to thank me. I just picked up that handkerchief casually anyway.”

“You were embarrassed just now, weren’t you!”

“I say, can you stop always repaying kindness with vengeance…?!”

“Ouch…!”

A light karate chop tapped against Livra’s forehead.

It stung, but she didn’t dodge. Instead, she opened her eyes wide, still smiling foolishly. Somehow, that look was rather comforting to see.

Sheffy sat on the large rock, her feet dangling without reaching the ground.

So she deliberately avoided looking at how easily Livra’s feet could touch it.

“You said just now, you were looking for me before? Don’t tell me you climbed over the palace walls every day just to look for me.”

“Of course not…! Uhm… though I did have a bit of that thought in me. But I knew ‘that person’ was a Demon Clan girl, so no matter how far I walked through human streets, it would be impossible to meet her. Still… miracles do happen…”

She didn’t need to finish her words.

After all, even Sheffy found it rather amusing.

Imagine it: a princess of the kingdom, stepping through her nation’s streets, searching high and low for the shadow of that Demon Clan girl from her childhood. She didn’t know who the girl truly was, nor what she looked like. Even if they brushed shoulders, she might not have recognized her.

No… not even brushing shoulders would have been possible. In the lands of humans, how could a demon wander the streets?

From the very beginning, it had seemed destined to be an encounter with no chance of happening again.

And yet, who could have guessed?

That Third Princess, who insisted on coming outside the palace every day, never met Sheffy.

—But she did meet Shaya.

The day she crashed into the strawberry doughnut stall, when the two locked eyes, the miracle had already taken shape.

Sheffy had never deliberately sought her out, yet fate seemed to possess a kind of mystery—hard to grasp, yet endlessly thought-provoking.

The lake’s voice echoed in their ears.

Sheffy dangled her legs, her hands propping up her chin, and for no reason at all, she too felt a touch of sentiment.

“Now that you’ve found me, what then? I never intended to keep listening to your thanks. Back then, saving your life was just me acting on my own will. I understand your gratitude, but you’d best not keep chasing me with it. Once is enough. Say it too many times, and it will only weigh me down. I don’t like things being so stifling.”

“Mhm! I understand! From now on, I won’t say thank you anymore!”

“Hm?”

Well, that was refreshingly straightforward.

Sheffy had thought Livra would be like some of those Demon Clan soldiers she had saved on the battlefield—endlessly repeating words of gratitude. As if saving their lives, whether by chance or intent, meant she had to bear an unending weight of goodwill, shackled with infinite expectations.

Sometimes, it wasn’t only malice that felt heavy…

Too much kindness, without end, could also become the straw that broke the camel’s back.

The emotions a person could bear were limited from the very start, unrelated to good or evil.

So Livra speaking this decisively—was good.

“Because with Miss Shaya, I don’t feel gratitude at all… so I won’t say those things to you.”

“Oh-ho, worthy of being so ungrateful. You never thanked me at all, huh? Just kidding~”

“No, no! It’s because compared to gratitude, I feel that the words Miss Shaya said to me back then became the driving force that let me live on. That’s not something a mere ‘thank you’ could ever sum up, you know?”

So heavy!

Sheffy stared, dumbfounded.

Look at Livra, smiling so brightly while saying something like “I am alive because of her words”—that kind of nonsense was unbearably heavy!

But it was simply the truth.

Livra scratched the back of her head with a foolish smile.

Now, there was no trace of the girl she used to be—the one everyone called the “Ice Princess.”

Others might not know, but Livra herself did.

Back then, she had nearly reached her breaking point.

She couldn’t smile, so children her age shunned her. Behind her back, they whispered she was a freak. But because she was a princess, they could only treat her with distant formality.

She couldn’t cry, so her elders feared her, saying she was a strange child who would amount to nothing.

No one expected anything from her.

And she expected nothing from herself.

So the only companion she had left was the birds.

Only when talking to the birds could she avoid being mocked.

That should have been fine.

But when her closest friend—that bird named White Feather—was killed before her eyes…

Livra truly felt she had nothing left.

When she lost everything, a new life was born.

A pair of black wings appeared in the sky, carving an eternal mark into her pale mind.

—Live for yourself.

—Punish evil, uphold justice.

—Protect those who are important to you.

—Stop crying, learn to smile.

That time, she cried her heart out, and those tears washed away Livra’s pale past.

From that day onward, her life was no longer filled only with birdsong and flowers—it also gained her own joys and sorrows.

No matter what others said, from then on, she was simply herself: Livra, a girl who loved to smile and could be a little silly.

And all of this was thanks to the person before her.

More than gratitude—it was reliance, it was a pillar.

A lesson for life.

“Ehehe… before meeting Miss Shaya, I really didn’t understand anything at all. Oh, right… Miss Shaya, I want to give you this!”

Her words paused slightly.

Brilliance flickered in Livra’s beautiful eyes, as if carrying endless treasured memories.

She carefully fished out a small, delicate item from her pocket.

Sheffy fixed her gaze on it.

—It was a bracelet woven from a bird’s white feather and vine.

Finely crafted, with a strong sense of design.

“Did you have a palace seamstress or a maid make this?”

“No! I made it myself!”

“I… is that so…”

Sheffy lowered her head to look at the bracelet resting quietly in her hand, and for some reason, she felt oddly healed by it.

White Feather… perhaps for Livra, it carried a meaning uniquely her own.

“Then I’ll accept it. It really does look rather nice…?”

Sheffy slipped the bracelet onto her wrist, raising her left hand high so it caught the sunlight, like a bird clad in white feathers spreading its wings to fly.

Livra watched, and though Sheffy didn’t show much satisfaction, at least she didn’t dislike the gift. That alone made Livra’s mood soar.

What she didn’t say was that, in order to make this bracelet, she had gone out of her way to ask advice from her personal maid, Sister Anna, and even enlisted the help of many birds. She herself had wandered through the forest searching for the most suitable white feathers, then spent several days and nights pondering what kind of weave would be most fitting.

She didn’t even know why she had worked so hard on a single bracelet.

But whenever she thought about who she was giving it to, she felt she could still push herself a little harder.

All of this, Livra would never say aloud.

Because now she understood—Miss Shaya didn’t like feeling pressured.

“It’s really just something I wove on a whim, didn’t take much time, not precious at all. It’s wonderful that Miss Shaya is willing to accept it.”

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