Chapter 2

Lillia's POV

The shelter owner follows my finger and nearly drops to his knees.

"Miss Lillia, you can't be serious! That guy fell out of a spatial rift a week ago — no ID, no origin, and he is seriously dangerous. It took over a dozen mana chains just to keep him down. Won't listen to anyone, bites whoever gets near him, and we still can't even figure out what he is…"

"Doesn't matter." I can't take my eyes off the man in the cage. "Whatever he is, I have a feeling we'll get along just fine."

Dangerous? So what. Won't follow orders? Who cares. As long as he looks like that, I've got all the patience and resources I need.

My mom frowns, clearly not impressed.

"Lillia, his mana output is barely a flicker. He probably won't last a few more days. If you want the cold, brooding type, I'll go up to the Far North and bring you back a pureblooded Snow Wolf King."

"Mom, come on." I tug at her sleeve. "If he dies, I'll just dissolve the contract. I want him."

She never can hold out when I do this. A long sigh. "Fine. Get the chains off him and have him sent to Guild headquarters."

The owner looks like he can finally breathe again. He scrambles to send a handful of senior mages over to handle the transfer.

By the time I get back to my private estate with my new companion, the sky is already dark.

I tell the butler to have him moved to the guest room. I'm barely through the front gate when a mana clash erupts from somewhere in the courtyard.

"Brom, you idiot! Ivy wanted to look at the mana rose, not have you rip out the whole flower bed and scare her half to death!" Vex's voice cuts through the night.

"Oh, shut up! The rose had thorns — I was trying to keep her from getting pricked! And you're the one who ran so fast you kicked up a gust and got her dress all dirty!" Brom fires right back.

I stand at the gate and watch them. These two used to drop everything for me. Now they're tearing each other apart in my own courtyard over some girl they barely even know.

More comments pop up.

[Here it comes! In the original story, Lillia loses it when she sees this — charges in and starts a whole scene, ends up knocking Ivy over, and gets chewed out by both of them!]

[Lillia, don't even look at them. Walk straight past. Pretend they don't exist.]

I don't even blink. I walk straight through the middle of their brawl and head for my private greenhouse.

"Master?" Vex catches me out of the corner of his eye and freezes, something guilty flickering across his face.

Brom goes still too, scratching the back of his head.

I don't say a word to either of them. I push open the greenhouse door and go in.

The greenhouse is full of rare magical plants I've spent a fortune collecting from every corner of the world. The most valuable one is a Moonlight Herb, glowing a soft, deep blue in the dim light.

My mana core has been broken since birth — no spells, no magic, nothing. The Moonlight Herb is the one material that could fix that, the key to rebuilding my core from the ground up. I've been tending it for three years. Tonight was supposed to be the night it finally bloomed.

I step toward the plant stand and stop cold.

The Moonlight Herb is ripped out by the roots, tossed on the ground, its blue petals crushed to nothing. Completely destroyed.

Ivy is standing right next to the stand, holding a pair of magic garden shears, looking up at me with the most innocent expression I've ever seen.

"Lillia, you're back…" Her voice wobbles like she's on the verge of tears. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to… I just thought the plant looked lonely, so I tried to loosen the soil a little, and it was so fragile — it just snapped…"

[She did that on purpose! She knows exactly what that herb means to Lillia!]

[She's just jealous of everything Lillia has!]

[Hit her! Don't hold back!]

I look down at three years of my life lying in pieces on the ground, and something hot and furious surges up through my chest.

Fragile. The Moonlight Herb's root system is harder than steel — you'd need serious high-level mana to pull it out at all. And she's standing here telling me it just snapped from a little gardening?

"Please don't be mad," Ivy says, still backing up. "I know it was valuable — I'll work hard and save up and pay you back, I promise…" She's looking at me like I'm the villain here.

I take a breath. Walk up to her. Look at that pitiful little face.

And without a second of hesitation, I slap her across it as hard as I can.

Ivy hits the ground. Half her face swells on impact, blood trailing from the corner of her mouth. She stares up at me with her hand pressed to her cheek, like she genuinely can't believe I just did that.

I look down at her. "Pay me back? You could sell yourself and still not cover a single petal."

"Ivy!"

The greenhouse door slams open and Vex and Brom come charging in.

Brom gets to her first, throwing himself in front of her and spinning to glare at me.

"That was way out of line! She already said sorry — why did you have to hit her that hard? It's just a plant. I'll go dig you up a hundred of them tomorrow. You don't just hit people!"

Vex plants himself in front of me, a low growl rising in his throat, fangs catching the moonlight as he stares me down.