After saying that, Riven prepared to turn off the light and leave. But before he could turn around, his younger sister gently tugged at his sleeve. The little princess pitifully raised her little face, and only after quite a while did she stammer out a plea.
"Could you stay with me a little longer?"
Before Riven could answer, the girl had already started crying first. She solemnly declared that she absolutely would not be a bother. Even one minute would be fine. She was afraid of the dark if she slept alone. After saying this, the little princess realized that she had said the wrong thing. After making so many excessive requests, she would probably be hated, right? She hurriedly apologized to her brother.
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been willful. Please don't leave me behind."
By the end of it, the little princess herself no longer even knew what she was saying. She was only afraid that Riven would leave as heartlessly as the crown prince had. Just as the girl was letting her thoughts run wild, the young man had already sat back down by the bed, and he spoke in a muffled voice.
"Even staying with you until you fall asleep is fine. But who on earth told you that needing someone to stay with you means you're throwing a tantrum?"
Riven's voice was thick with barely restrained anger. But the girl was not afraid at all. She even felt that the way Riven looked when he was angry was very similar to Lowina. That was the kind of emotion only family members who truly cared about her would reveal. At that thought, the little princess suddenly relaxed. So she gently shook her head. No one had ever told her that. But only loved children have the right to be willful, and the unloved one, once she cries or makes a fuss, will lose everything.
After saying that, the girl bitterly touched her black hair. From the moment she was born, she was destined not to be the favorite child. She also wanted to have a harbor where she could take shelter from the storm. The girl helplessly tugged at her black hair. Even her blood-related family could not tolerate her, let alone Riven, whom she had only known for a few days. Maybe she really was, just as the prophecy said, born with misfortune. Otherwise, why was it always her who was abandoned every time?
At last, the little princess spoke the deepest secret hidden in her heart. But the boy's eyes gradually turned red. The wounds of their childhood were unexpectedly so similar. Both of them were left covered in scars by the family they loved most. That was why he had been so stubborn and unwilling to let the little princess leave.
It was Riven who had secretly taken his sister's hairpin. And it was also he who had forcibly endured the backlash and interrupted the girl's magic. The boy had tried every possible way just to keep his sister by his side. But now it seemed that the little princess was determined to go back. So, was he going to be abandoned once again?
At this moment, Riven could no longer care about maintaining his cold and aloof appearance. He almost pleaded as he asked his sister whether she could stay a few more days. But the little princess could only shake her head helplessly. She told Riven that if she stayed like this any longer, she was afraid Lowina would do something foolish. And she also wanted to make one final effort. Although she had already warned herself again and again not to harbor any illusions about her family anymore, the family affection she had longed for over more than ten years was not something she could simply let go of just because she said so.
After hearing his sister's words, Riven could only let out a helpless sigh. Sure enough, he still had absolutely no way to deal with the little princess. The boy gently lifted his sister's little hand. He stuffed the lily-of-the-valley hairpin, which symbolized happiness, back into the girl's hand.
"Not everyone in this world will love you, so there is no need for you to love everyone either. Look, haven't the people who truly love you already appeared?"
The tenderness in the boy's eyes was almost overflowing. He softly said he was sorry. He should not have selfishly trapped the girl by his side. But before he could finish speaking, the little princess suddenly threw herself into his arms. The kind-hearted girl did not suspect in the slightest that it was her brother who had taken her hairpin. Listening to her say thank you over and over again, Riven only felt that his own despicableness had nowhere to hide.
At that moment, he became even more determined to send his sister home. So after the little princess fell asleep, Riven quietly placed the magic book back onto the bookshelf. He deliberately put the book on the lower shelf, but in his heart he still could not help praying that the girl would discover it a little later. Unfortunately, the boy's wish was destined to fail. The moment the little princess woke up, she saw the magic book on the shelf.
He had steeled his heart and hurt the younger sister he loved most. So heaven had also taken back his right to be her brother.
At this very moment, the eldest prince was searching for the little princess like a madman. The knights he sent out were replaced batch after batch. But all they brought back was bad news. It was as if his little sister had vanished from the face of the earth. There was not even the slightest trace left behind. The man irritably slammed the documents hard onto the desk. He had long since grown sick of hearing the words, "We've already done everything we could. We've already done everything we could."
The moment he thought that his sister might be out there starving and freezing, the eldest prince's heart clenched sharply. In a rage, he rebuked the knights for their incompetence. But as he cursed them, he painfully grabbed and tugged at his own hair. In the final analysis, all the fault lay with him. It was because he had utterly failed as her brother.
Now every single corner of the palace had already been searched through by him once. The only hope could now be placed on the second prince, whose magic was outstanding. Although the relationship between the brothers was not harmonious, for the sake of finding his sister, the eldest prince still gritted his teeth and summoned his younger brother. At this moment, he looked exactly like a gambler willing to pay any price. As long as he could find his sister, he was willing to give anything.
Meanwhile, the little princess had just recovered from the magical backlash. She weakly moved her stiff body. Her big eyes, filled with anticipation, anxiously searched for that gentle boy. Unfortunately, Riven seemed to have already left. A trace of disappointment flashed through the girl's eyes.
However, at that moment, she noticed something. Could it be that brother had deliberately placed this here? At that thought, the little princess laboriously rose onto her tiptoes. Unfortunately, the book was still placed too high. No matter how hard the girl tried, she simply could not reach it. After trying several times in a row, the little princess sat back down on the bed in frustration. Her little face, soft and puffy like a milk bun, was puffed up with anger as she muttered in dissatisfaction. Brother couldn't have done it on purpose, could he?
Yet at just that moment, a sudden flash of inspiration struck her little head. During this period, she had also learned quite a few practical everyday spells. Now, they just happened to come in handy.