Noticing that Celitia's footsteps had suddenly stopped, Sophia turned around in surprise:

"What's wrong, Lily?"

The elf who had been concentrating on trimming branches and leaves heard the voice, straightened up from the flower bushes, wiped the fine sweat from her forehead, and turned to smile at the two of them.

"Good morning, Master, Your Highness Sophia."

Looking at Kassy's distinctive features, Sophia frowned:

"An elf? When did the academy actually hire an elf maid?"

Kassy was indifferent to Sophia, her gaze falling only on Celitia.

And those misty purple eyes stared at her intently, full of heavy gloom.

"What are you doing here?" Celitia asked in a heavy tone.

Many things had happened in the past month, and Celitia had basically forgotten about Kassy.

She had thought she was still in prison eating jail food, at least for three months, but unexpectedly she was seeing her again so soon.

What a persistent ghost.

Wanting to gain some favor in front of Celitia to avoid being ruthlessly driven away again, Kassy answered gently:

"A kind-hearted countess redeemed me. To repay her, I'm temporarily working under that count. The dean said there was a shortage of hands here, so he borrowed me to take care of the flowers, grass, and trees in this area."

Celitia's gaze swept past the long pruning shears in Kassy's hands and fell on the shrub behind her.

The shrub had originally been trimmed into a beautiful round shape, but after Kassy's meddling, it was missing a chunk here and had an extra cluster there, looking even worse than if it had been gnawed by dogs.

Kassy was still the same—careless and clumsy. Never mind serving people; she couldn't even properly tend to flowers and plants.

Having her take care of them... the flowers, grass, and trees would really suffer.

The conversation between the two was very strange, leaving Sophia quite confused.

After staring at Kassy and looking her up and down for a long time, Sophia finally understood where that sense of familiarity came from:

"Is that you? That elf thief who almost strangled Lily to death?? Who authorized your release?!"

After throwing Kassy into prison, due to having many other matters at the time, Sophia had completely forgotten about her existence and never went to interrogate Kassy.

But just because Sophia forgot didn't mean she had permitted Kassy's release from prison.

"You're really bold enough to dare appear before us! I'll have someone arrest you and throw you back in right now!!"

"Your Highness Sophia, please wait!"

Before Sophia could act, Kassy hurriedly called out.

"The person who redeemed me was Countess Meilenn. According to legal regulations, she has the right to pay bail and take me out of prison."

At this point, Kassy's expression showed deep grievance.

"Besides, I'm not a thief. That day was just a little misunderstanding with Master. I scratched Master, which was my fault, but Master also punched me. Shouldn't that make us even?"

While admitting her fault, Kassy didn't forget to make excuses for herself, her expression becoming increasingly pitiful.

Sophia said angrily: "What misunderstanding? That day I clearly saw you choking Lily's neck—"

At this point, she suddenly realized, "Wait, what did you call her?"

Before Kassy could answer, Celitia had already spoken in a heavy tone:

"I've said many times that I'm not your master. Please don't randomly claim relationships."

"I've also said that whether you acknowledge it or not doesn't matter."

Kassy didn't care about Celitia's rejection at all. "What matters is that I consider you my master. That's enough."

Sophia's eyes widened, looking at this one, then at that one, completely unable to figure out the situation.

"I think there's something wrong with your brain." Celitia was too lazy to argue with Kassy and said coldly, "You can go wherever you want, just don't hover around in front of me."

"This garden doesn't need you to tend it either. Get out of here, immediately."

Being so ruthlessly driven away by Celitia, crystalline tears immediately welled up in the elf's emerald eyes.

"Right now, I just want to work hard and repay the kindness of the countess who redeemed me from prison."

Kassy's voice was slightly choked with emotion. "I also want to stay by Master's side, always watching over Master, taking care of Master... Is even such a simple wish not allowed?"

"What exactly is going on here?"

Sophia looked at Celitia in confusion, only to see the girl lower her eyes, seemingly unwilling to look at Kassy even once more.

Meanwhile, the elf was pleading humbly, her eyes misty with tears, full of entreaty.

Could there really be some misunderstanding?

Sophia had to soften her tone and tried to mediate between the two:

"Since Lily has already said it's not needed and told you to leave, don't continue pestering her, or it will only become very ugly. As for your work, I'll have Colton arrange something else for you. That way it won't interfere with your obligations to Her Grace Meilenn."

Even if there really was a misunderstanding, Sophia didn't dare let her continue approaching Celitia.

If she could be sent away, then send her away. Sophia could still manage a few diplomatic words.

The Princess's arrangement was both reasonable and appropriate, and Kassy couldn't find a reason to object for the moment.

Seeing that things were about to be settled this way, Kassy became anxious:

"Master, even if you don't care about me, you should care about yourself, right? Are you really willing to keep being tormented by that thing?!"

Kassy's words clearly had hidden meaning, and Sophia immediately understood their implication.

"What did you say?" Sophia's eyes widened in disbelief. "Don't tell me you also—?!"

Celitia answered coldly: "My affairs don't need your concern."

But Kassy immediately noticed that regarding this matter, Sophia seemed to know something, and even cared more than Celitia herself.

With Celitia's personality of keeping everything bottled up inside, she was actually willing to tell Sophia about such an important matter...

Should she say there had been some change?

Moreover, for Celitia, perhaps Sophia occupied a considerable position in her heart...

Kassy's mood became increasingly complex, both bitter and jealous.

"It seems Your Highness Sophia knows the details—that's right, last night I was also suffering torment, perhaps to an even deeper degree than Master."

Kassy immediately shifted her persuasive focus to Sophia, deliberately making the situation sound more serious.

"I vaguely remember that earlier, I should have met Your Highness once. Do you still remember what condition I was in at that time?"

"Earlier? You mean that morning?"

With Kassy's reminder, Sophia suddenly remembered that her first encounter with Celitia was because she had meddled in her business, kicking away the elf who was harassing her.

That elf was Kassy?

Sophia still remembered that Kassy had been covered in black spots, her consciousness unclear, her appearance quite hideous.

If Colton hadn't been interested in her, Sophia would have had Kassy sent to the epidemic isolation center long ago.

"Could it be... the curse will continue to worsen and turn into what you looked like then?"

Imagining Kassy's face from her memory replaced with Celitia's, Sophia found it completely unacceptable.

She anxiously turned to look at Celitia: "Lily, is what she's saying true?"

Celitia couldn't give a definite answer to Sophia's question.

Even now, she could no longer say cold words like "what business is it of yours."

In this moment, Celitia had no choice but to remain silent.

Kassy felt that she had already grasped the breakthrough point.

"Indeed, Your Highness Sophia cares more about Master's health than Master herself does—she's always like this, isn't she?"