The next day, Liana took the magic core and prepared to go see Headmaster Ibett.

“Your Highness Liana, everything is ready.” Loraviel checked again and again to make sure Liana hadn’t forgotten anything.

“If you’re ready, then let’s go,” Liana said, extending her hand.

“Huh? Am I going too, Your Highness?” Loraviel had thought she was going to be left here to watch the house.

“Of course. There’s no reason for you not to go,” Liana said.

“Is it because if I stayed here, you would have to tell me everything all over again when you got back, and you wanted to be lazy, so you just called me to go along?” Loraviel said.

“...You don’t need to be so smart at a time like this.” Liana was a little frustrated. The old Loraviel would not have seen through her.

“Didn’t you teach me, Your Highness? Sometimes it’s better to say things out loud,” Loraviel said.

Liana regretted it. This was a complete case of lifting a rock only to drop it on her own foot1搬起石头砸自己的脚 (bān qǐ shítou zá zìjǐ de jiǎo), action intended to harm others that ends up harming oneself..

If Loraviel wanted to say something, she would. If she didn’t want to, Liana herself wouldn’t know.

“You win.” Liana pouted, a little frustrated.

Loraviel reached out and poked the balloon Liana had puffed up. “Alright, Your Highness, don’t sulk. Let’s go. We shouldn’t keep Princess Mephilia waiting too long.”

Mephilia had some business to attend to, so they would meet at the library gate in a little while.

Loraviel and Liana sat under a small pavilion outside the library, eating the small desserts Loraviel had prepared.

“Many people are looking at you, Your Highness.”

“Let them look.” Liana had long since stopped caring about these gazes.

“It’s also normal for them to be curious about you. After all, every time you cause some big incident, you disappear for a period of time. Isn’t it the same this time? After the trial, you left with the teacher and haven’t appeared in the public eye for several days,” Loraviel said.

“That’s true.” Liana bit her straw, looking at the students around them.

Compared to before, the number of students had decreased a lot. And this was in front of the Ibett library, which could be said to be the place with the most foot traffic. Even this place was affected, let alone other places.

Sure enough, in the face of death, no matter how great the temptation, one would always feel afraid. It was normal to leave. She could only hope they wouldn’t regret it.

“May I disturb you for a moment, Your Highness Liana?” a voice came over.

Liana lifted her eyes... and saw no one.

“Your Highness, look down,” Loraviel whispered as a reminder.

“...” Liana’s gaze shifted downwards, and she finally saw the other person. “Nataya, right?”

Liana still remembered her, the princess of Minagado, a cute and beautiful little dwarf.

“It is my honor that Your Highness remembers my name.” Nataya held the hem of her skirt and curtsied slightly.

“There’s no need for so many formalities. I don’t have high requirements in this regard. Just relax and chat normally,” Liana said.

“This is a formality that cannot be omitted. And thank you, Your Highness, for being willing to give me a chance to talk.” Nataya sat down opposite Liana.

Liana’s eyes would occasionally size up Nataya.

Really, there’s not much difference from a child.

“I really didn’t expect that the elf lady who spoke to me that day was actually Your Highness.” Nataya had clearly not forgotten this. “No wonder you weren’t prejudiced against me for being a dwarf.”

“You are the one with a great deal of prejudice right now.” Liana sighed. “Not all elves look down on the dwarves. I have also met several elves... forget it, that’s probably not very convincing. After all, even if I couldn’t use magic, my status is still what it is.”

Liana had wanted to use herself as an example, but she wasn’t an ordinary person at all. What she said wouldn’t be very convincing.

“I’m sorry.” Although Liana didn’t say it out loud, Nataya roughly knew what she wanted to express.

Nataya continued, “I was just a little surprised, and also very happy, that an elf friend was willing to talk to me. I did indeed have many misunderstandings about elves before. I thought they were all as annoying as those fellows from the Darriss family. But now I’ve found that there are also many elves who are willing to talk to me.”

“Just be more careful next time,” Liana said.

“There won’t be a next time. You only say this because you are Her Highness Liana.” Nataya’s eyes twinkled as she looked at Liana, filled with adoration.

“Your Highness is really amazing. Spell creation, spell alteration, understanding the weaknesses of the demon race, and so much more.”

“...” Liana also sensed that something was a little off. This person... she couldn’t be looking at her as an idol, could she?

“Did you come to find me to say something?” Liana asked.

“Not really. I just saw you sitting here, Your Highness, and thought I’d come over to have a look. I didn’t expect you to actually be willing to talk to me.” Nataya’s small face was a little flushed, showing she was genuinely happy.

“Your Highness is indeed just like Lord Ryan! A very cool person!”

Ryan...

Dad, what do you have to do with this?

Besides, few people would directly call her father by his first name. They basically all called him Duke Venus.

“What about my father?” Liana asked. “Do you have news of him?”

“Ah, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! I don’t have any news of Lord Ryan. I’m very sorry for getting your hopes up!” Nataya apologized repeatedly.

Liana waved her hand. That was to be expected. She herself wasn’t qualified to know about this. How could Nataya possibly know?

“It’s nothing. Please continue. What about my father?”

“This was something that happened many years ago, when I was a child. At that time, you hadn’t been born yet, Your Highness, and the Lisat Kingdom didn’t even exist,” Nataya said.

Cough cough cough!!!

Liana choked on her tea.

Loraviel very skillfully took out a napkin from her pocket and helped Liana wipe her clothes. Her movements were very fluid, this wasn’t the first time she had done this.

“Huh?” Liana looked at Nataya, very confused. I hadn’t been born yet? The Lisat Kingdom didn’t exist?

That was at least thirty or forty years ago.

And she hadn’t heard this from someone else, it had happened when she was /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ a child. Even the version of Nataya with the extra-large cup didn’t look like she was in her twenties or thirties.

Nataya thought of a question. “Your Highness Liana, how old do you think I am?”

Nine years old.

Liana was about to say it subconsciously, but the other party was a dwarf. You couldn’t determine their age by their appearance. Besides, she had also seen the extra-large cupped Nataya.

“Early twenties?”

“I am already thirty-six years old, Your Highness,” Nataya said.

“Huh?”

“Huh?”

Liana turned her head to look at Loraviel beside her. She had also made a sound of shock. It seemed she wasn’t the only one who thought so.

“It’s because I’m a dwarf. Our lifespan is much longer than that of ordinary humans. Coupled with my petite body, it’s normal to have such doubts.” Nataya also expressed her understanding.

“Mm.”

Mm, my fart!

You can’t tell at all, okay? Even the extra-large cup Nataya, at most, she looked twenty. How could anyone tell she’s forty?!

“And then there’s the matter of our dwarf race and Lord Ryan. Your Highness should know that before the Lisat Kingdom, it was the Darriss Kingdom, right?” Nataya asked.

Liana nodded. She could roughly guess some things.

“At that time, people who couldn’t use magic had no rights at all. They could only do the lowest-level jobs, and it was common not to get paid.”

“But can’t you use magic? It’s just that you don’t use it often and aren’t very good at it. It’s not that you can’t use it,” Liana asked.

It wasn’t as if there hadn’t been very powerful mages among the dwarves. They were just more skilled in close combat and forging weapons. It didn’t mean they were brutes who couldn’t use magic.

“Yes. If it were just that, then our race would not have been affected at all. But we also don’t know where we offended the Darriss family. They hated dwarves very much. Dwarves who could use magic were equated with people who couldn’t. And dwarves who couldn’t use magic could be directly sentenced to death.

“Under these circumstances, our dwarf race could only run. We could only rely on our craftsmanship to forge some small tools to sell to cover our daily expenses.

“But unfortunately, because everyone knew the status of the dwarves in the Darriss Kingdom, there were also many people who would directly snatch our tools from us.

“We could only rely on disguises or extremely low prices to be able to sell them. Until Lord Ryan appeared. He was willing to help us without asking for anything in return.

“He helped us sell our tools, was willing to protect us, and willing to give us shelter. He is the savior of our dwarfkind. Otherwise, we probably wouldn’t have been able to last until the appearance of the Lisat Kingdom and would have been wiped out by the Darriss Kingdom.”

Nataya said these words almost through gritted teeth.

“But it’s much better now. Your Highness is indeed Lord Ryan’s daughter. I knew it. How could his daughter be the kind of bastard from the rumors.” Nataya’s tone changed, and her gaze on Liana was once again filled with adoration.

“No wonder there are so many useful assassination tools at home. They were all made by you dwarves, right?” Liana asked.

“That’s right, that’s right! Maybe some of them are my work! Speaking of which! Does Your Highness need me to custom-make a set of equipment for you?” Nataya looked at Liana with anticipation.