At the far end of the second-floor hallway of Boss Cat Restaurant, the air was dead silent.
It was so quiet that one could almost hear the racing of heartbeats.
The two great demons standing outside the doorway could not help marveling in awe.
The New King and the former princess were truly bold—and truly knew how to play. To keep going right in front of an audience, and even seem to enjoy themselves more for it...
Wait, why were there only two great demons?
Antanas and Sinora exchanged a glance, then glanced around.
When had Pranay slipped all the way down to the top of the stairs?
Pranay wore a faint smile as he raised a hand to Antanas and his sister, tapping his watch to signal that it was time for him to go open the restaurant for the day's business.
"...Seriously, how does your brother manage to chicken out so gracefully every single time?" Antanas could not resist whispering to Sinora.
Sinora shook her head.
Right now, she was biting her thumb, so consumed by envy that she felt her teeth might shatter.
Admittedly, if she had been standing in Talia's shoes in that room, she would have wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Yet just daydreaming about an impossibly handsome young man whispering those lines to her made her face flush crimson and her heart pound out of control.
No, she would probably pass out on the spot.
While Antanas and Sinora whispered back and forth, time inside Talia's room still felt sluggish and frozen, trapped in the mutual torment and agonizing ordeal Lanqi and Talia were putting each other through.
"..."
Talia buried her face in her hands. As her mind slowly cleared, her thoughts kept revolving around how utterly absurd her behavior had just been.
If even Lanqi had suffered total social death, she felt ready to flee this world altogether.
Why did things always devolve into this whenever she was around him?
Worst of all, her door was broken. She could not even shut it to be left alone.
"Uh..."
Hyperion glanced back and forth. The mood was entirely off.
She had arrived a step late this time—or perhaps at the absolute right moment.
Both Lanqi and Talia needed to cool down.
Or rather, having just snapped out of their hysterical trance, they were now tasting the lingering aftermath in cold sobriety. The more keenly they felt each other's presence, the more irreversible their deeds seemed.
Hyperion edged forward surreptitiously, reaching out to catch Lanqi by the wrist and easing him back toward herself inch by inch.
She kept pulling until they had quietly drifted much closer to the doorway.
"Lanqi and I have business to take care of—we're heading back to the academy!"
Once certain she had a firm grip on him, Hyperion shouted the excuse and dragged Lanqi away at a sprint.
Antanas looked from the room to the two figures disappearing down the hall.
Sure enough, her instincts had not betrayed her.
There was definitely something going on between Talia and Lanqi—and between Hyperion and Lanqi!
On the surface, Talia and Hyperion seemed to get along fine, but the closer they became, the more twisted things would get once their feelings finally erupted!
And when Ephatia witnessed all of this, her expression would truly be a sight to behold!
Antanas clenched her fist, praying silently that the New King would hurry up and bring Second Princess Ephatia back. As cruel as Lady Ephatia was to her enemies, she was quite pure-minded toward her own people and held immense admiration for her elder sister. She had certainly never encountered anything so scandalous before.
After a long pause.
"I'm going to help my brother," Sinora said with a light cough, snapping Antanas out of her daze.
"Oh, right."
Antanas nodded.
Realizing they had lingered outside Talia's door for far too long, she gave Talia a hurried nod and turned to leave.
And so...
Gradually, Talia was left alone in the empty room.
Like a punctured balloon, she put away the fruit knife, retrieved the book from the floor, and trudged listlessly over to the armchair, collapsing into it.
Staring at the ceiling, she covered her face again, wriggling and squirming back and forth until she looked almost like a contorting caterpillar.
"You're so adorable today, Tata... So adorable I want to eat you up instead of breakfast."
"What I meant was... the sight of you eating is just as intoxicating. Before my memories fade, I want to stay by your side forever, like a lucid dream."
Those lines clung to her like a curse, refusing to leave her mind and echoing relentlessly in her ears.
Who in their right mind would say something like that?!
How could Lanqi utter those words with a straight face?!
Worst of all, she was the one who had forced him to recite them.
And she had actually answered every single line.
"Aaaahhh!"
Talia let out a muffled shriek under her breath.
She felt that if she stayed near Lanqi any longer, she would go completely insane. She might as well have blown them both up earlier!
Only after the clock on the wall had ticked through several turns did Talia finally return to her usual self, lying expressionless on the chair.
"If only you had made me angry the first time we met... We could have ended this once and for all."
Helplessly, she picked up a magazine from the study desk beside her.
She seemed to be concentrating, yet it felt more like she was using the pages to hide her still-chaotic heart.
After a moment's thought, she shoved Romance of the Holy War beneath the bottom of a tall stack of books, making sure the cover would no longer catch her eye.
Not long after she settled down, a knocking came from the entrance.
Since the door had been knocked off its frame, the knuckles fell directly upon the doorframe itself.
Talia looked over.
It was Antanas, who had broken the door earlier, now carrying a toolbox to make repairs.
"I'm here to fix the door. Sorry about that!"
With practiced ease, Antanas produced a set of stainless steel bearing hinges and matching hardened screws.
"Thanks for the trouble."
Sitting in her armchair, Talia watched Antanas with mixed feelings.
She had never imagined that when she finally reunited with Antanas, the great demon would end up repairing her door.
Seeing Antanas working deftly around the frame, Talia set aside her magazine and walked over to the entrance.
"Let me help."
She crouched down and spoke to Antanas.
"You're the princess. How could I let you do this sort of thing?" Antanas asked, looking up at her in surprise.
"I stopped being one a long time ago."
Talia shook her head with a resigned smile and picked up a screwdriver.
"...You really have changed a lot," Antanas remarked after staring at her blankly for a long while.
Back then, Talia had looked down upon almost all living beings with cool indifference. Now, she seemed remarkably like an ordinary human civilian.
Most importantly, the aloof distance she once maintained appeared to have vanished.
"By the way, Talia, what exactly is the deal between you and Lanqi?"
Antanas was endlessly curious about how Talia and the New King viewed each other, and what kind of story had unfolded between them.
Whenever she asked the New King, he merely smiled without a word, giving her no chance to gossip.
She had no idea whether Talia would answer, but she simply could not hold back her curiosity.
"We're... friends, I suppose," Talia replied, a trace of hesitation in her voice.
In the beginning, their connection had been purely transactional.
Later on, until he paid off his debt, she had needed to keep him safe and ensure he repaid what he owed.
Now, setting aside the many pleasant conveniences Lanqi brought into her life, she simply felt that being around him was not bad.
"Don't you feel he's someone special?" Antanas pressed gently.
"..."
Talia remembered Boss Cat asking a similar question.
After a long silence, during which she tightened two screws, she finally answered,
"To be honest, I don't really understand."
Even after living in the Hutton Kingdom for so long, Talia still could not wrap her head around the matter she had discussed with Boss Cat.
She knew that the "special" Antanas referred to was not meant literally, but rather in the human sense of love and partnership.
She had wanted an answer back then and had consulted Boss Cat.
The answer she received was: That person can always make you happy; you gradually become dependent on them without realizing it; you begin to care about and wonder what they are thinking; and your otherwise calm heart easily surges with emotion because of them.
Talia had wrestled with that for ages, because every single point Boss Cat made seemed to fit.
Back then, Lanqi had provided her with plenty of things she wanted, and she was stuck with him because of his debt. She constantly wanted to figure out what cursed thoughts were running through his head, and his polite yet subtly mocking words and expressions often infuriated her.
It was spot-on in every detail, yet she still could not grasp it at all.
And yet now...
For some reason...
Things felt a little different.
"How am I supposed to face him after this...?" Talia's words were tinged with bewilderment.
She was supposed to thank him, but after landing in yet another murky mess with him, she had no idea what expression she should wear.
"What the two of you were doing earlier was pretty outrageous, to be fair," Antanas said, nodding bluntly.
Boss Lan's Poet of Great Love was truly terrifying. Under normal circumstances, she might have no effect at all, but when someone was experiencing an extreme surge of emotion, she could reduce them straight to a state of drunken delirium.
In battle, once an opponent entered the Poet of Great Love's kill range, even Bishop of Extinction Askesan had lost his sanity.
Earlier, it had not just been Talia losing her mind; even Lanqi himself had not been entirely normal.
"..."
Talia instantly averted her gaze.
Evidently, from an outside perspective, what had happened between her and Lanqi that morning was beyond bizarre.
"Still, there's no helping it. Until time smooths over the awkwardness, just keep interacting as you usually do. If you feel uncomfortable, try to avoid each other for a bit," Antanas sighed.
Sometimes, when something deeply awkward happened between two people, the harder they tried to explain it away or force themselves to act normal, the wider the rift became. In such moments, the best solution was simply to give each other a little space.
"Look on the bright side—nothing could possibly be more awkward than that. It's not like the two of you are going to be stuck doing hard time together at Boss Cat Restaurant every single day," Antanas added, lifting the door to align it with the hinges.
"True."
Talia nodded.
Time would heal all of it.
Having friends around really did make a difference. Her mood lightened considerably in an instant—and she even felt a little hungry.
Chapter 522