The helpless eldest prince could only tell Ashwin to go after her first. He himself stayed behind to continue drinking tea with little Lodi. Although he did not particularly like this black-haired sister, he was not yet at the point of letting others bully her however they pleased, especially since the girl had saved his life before. Looking at the new dress on his sister, the man unexpectedly felt a trace of satisfaction as an older brother.
Yet these were all things the little princess did not know. Just as the girl was hesitating over whether she should take the initiative to leave, she heard the man beside her suddenly speak.
"Are you wearing a new dress?"
The little princess froze at the question. So, was her brother concerned about her? In her heart, she still held on to the last bit of expectation for her family.
Yet when she told her brother that the dress had been custom made by Lowina, the eldest prince suddenly seemed like a different person. The man slammed his hand heavily on the table. The little princess was so frightened that she immediately began trembling. She subconsciously called out, "Brother," only to be mercilessly interrupted.
"I believe I told you before not to call me that. You'd better remember it clearly. Don't think I stopped Lily because I was helping you. You're not worthy of that."
The man's face was full of arrogance and disgust, and the little princess cried out in pain. She finally voiced the question that had long been buried in her heart. She too was a sister. Why could he not give her even just a tiny bit of love? But before she could finish speaking, the eldest prince cut her off stiffly.
"If I had to choose between the two of you, I would choose Lily without hesitation."
With that, the man turned and left without looking back, leaving the little princess behind him in floods of tears. Yet the eldest prince did not know that he had left his spellbook there, and very soon he would regret everything he had done before.
The girl prepared to leave in loneliness. But the moment she lifted her foot, she kicked the spellbook her brother had dropped. Driven by curiosity, the little princess picked up the book. But she had not expected that she could actually understand the spells written in it. They were all in a language she had never seen before. At that thought, the girl's eyes instantly lit up.
She had long heard that learning magic required extremely high talent. Someone like her who could directly decipher spells was even rarer than one in ten thousand. If she could learn the magic in the book, would her brother look at her a little more? Would that mean she had the value of being loved? The little princess thought humbly. Then a special line of text suddenly appeared before her eyes.
The magic of seeking fate. It seemed that even her brother had failed to understand this part. Curious, the girl read the spell aloud, but she had not expected the magic to actually take effect. A flash of white light appeared. The next second, she was teleported into an unfamiliar room. The pitch-black surroundings sent a chill down one's spine.
But just then, heavy footsteps suddenly sounded behind the little princess. She turned around in terror. She saw a black-haired boy in shackles looking down at her.
"If you go back right now, I may consider not killing you."
There was no expression on the boy's face, but the little princess instinctively felt that this person was very frightening. She just had not expected the magic to fail at such a critical moment. No matter how many times she recited the spell from the book, the surroundings did not change in the slightest. At this, the little princess fell into complete despair. She trembled all over as she waited for death.
But unexpectedly, the boy only gently touched the lily-of-the-valley hairpin by her ear. His attitude was so gentle that it was as if everything just now had never happened.
Later, little Lodi learned that this boy's name was Riven. He was not some imprisoned prisoner. On the contrary, he was the master of this castle. It was just that for some unknown reason, he had no choice but to wear handcuffs, and he was not as frightening as he looked. One could even say that he had a very good temper.
He would prepare sumptuous meals for the little princess and would care about the tiny wounds on her hands. Every time the girl learned a new spell, she would show it to Riven at once, and the boy would patiently watch, then gently praise her for improving. These were all forms of care that little Lodi had never felt from her family.
She had long since regarded Riven as her own brother. If she could, the little princess truly wanted to live here forever. But she had a reason she absolutely had to go back, because Lowina was still waiting for her in the palace. So the girl began studying magic even harder. She just had not expected that the little spell she had newly learned would almost cause a disaster.
In order to return to her brother's side, the little princess worked until she was almost fainting. She practiced the teleportation spell over and over again, and her body ached faintly from overusing her magic. But even so, she still could not find a way to go back. Seeing the girl's face grow paler day by day, Riven, who had originally not intended to interfere, finally could not bear to watch any longer.
He required the little princess to use magic only fifty times a day. And for the next lesson, she had to wait until her body recovered. The little princess protested in a huff, but Riven directly ignored her dissatisfaction. With one raise of his hand, the boy placed the spellbook on the highest shelf. But he never could have imagined that in order to go home, the little princess would not even care about her own life.
That very night, the girl secretly climbed onto the ladder beside the bookshelf. The spellbook was placed very high, and even standing on tiptoe, the little princess was still far from reaching it. But she wanted to go home so badly. So the girl climbed up another rung despite the danger.
Just when she thought she was about to get the book, her body suddenly lost its balance. There was only a loud crash. The little princess fell heavily from the bookshelf. This time, her plan to steal the book had failed, and it also woke Riven next door. The girl waited aggrievedly for the boy's punishment, but unexpectedly, the first thing he cared about was her injury.
Riven gently lifted her bangs. The instant the gauze touched the wound, the little princess let out a soft whimper of pain, and her pretty little face scrunched up into a ball. Seeing this scene, the boy's heart felt as if it had been fiercely stabbed. He made his movements even gentler, yet he could not help blaming himself inside.
If he had not hidden the book away, this child would not have been hurt at all. But on the matter of limiting her practice, he still would not compromise, because the backlash caused by exhausting one's magic power was irreversible. When severe, it could even endanger one's life. During these days, Riven had long since regarded little Lodi as his own younger sister.