Days passed one by one.

To Ariel's chagrin, during the entire seven days after the curse's manifestation, she couldn't find any more clues.

When the time came, Ariel had no choice but to fulfill her agreement and release Celitia back to the academy.

Kassy's personal restrictions were also lifted, though she had indeed been badly frightened and became much more well-behaved, spending more time at the church.

Both were very cooperative, yet Ariel made no discoveries, which was simply a disgrace to her career as Saintess.

Ariel thoroughly memorized the two of them, secretly determined to redeem herself at the first opportunity.

"From now on, you must spend at least one day each week coming here for me to check your condition!"

Ariel's words echoed in her ears, repeated so often that Celitia's ears were about to develop calluses.

She got up early, declined Ariel's offer to have someone escort her to the academy, and leisurely set off to return to school and continue classes.

In just over three months of study time, she had actually taken sick leave for more than half a month.

Celitia felt quite helpless about this.

When she appeared at the academy again, it caused quite a stir.

"Miss Celitia has finally returned!"

"Every day I couldn't see her felt so long..."

Ignoring certain fanatic comments, Celitia listened carefully and found that this time, no new rumors seemed to have spread because of her extended leave.

"Speaking of which, Princess Sophia has been thinking of old friends—won't this put Miss Celitia in a passive position?"

"Shh... but thinking from another angle, doesn't that give us a chance?"

Thinking of old friends? What did that mean?

Celitia was a bit confused.

Then Sophia walked into the classroom from outside.

Somewhat unexpectedly, beside Sophia, Celitia saw a long-absent face.

It was Charlotte.

Noticing Celitia's gaze, Charlotte turned her head and flashed a smug smile at her from afar.

"Lily, you're finally back!"

Discovering that Celitia had indeed returned as promised, Sophia breathed a huge sigh of relief.

She hurried over and sat down beside Celitia, beginning to complain endlessly.

"Really, Ariel is too rigid. When she says she'll keep you one more day, it has to be exactly one full day! I said I'd pick you up in the evening so you could prepare for class the next day, but she absolutely refused and insisted on only letting you go in the morning!"

"That's just her methodical personality," Celitia replied casually. "After these past few days, I've gotten somewhat used to it."

Celitia discovered that as long as you went along with Ariel, followed her arrangements, and didn't disrupt her plans, she was actually quite easy to handle.

Hearing this, Sophia's face fell.

She vaguely sensed that she might have made some mistake—why had she entrusted Celitia to Ariel?

In just a few days, they seemed to have quickly become familiar with each other.

The sourness in Sophia's heart began bubbling up again.

Although she had indeed thought about just watching her from afar, being content as long as she was happy.

But if Ariel got close to her and the two of them left her behind...

No, no, absolutely unacceptable!

Just imagining this possibility made Sophia furious enough to want to kill Ariel.

But thinking carefully, with Ariel's terrible temper, it would be good enough if she wasn't hated by others.

She also quite understood Celitia's personality—she wasn't the type who could be easily approached.

The probability of those two becoming close should be very low, right?

She probably... didn't need to worry too much, right?

Celitia had no idea what Sophia was thinking about with her changing expressions.

Her attention fell on Charlotte.

She saw Charlotte follow Sophia over and sit quite openly on Sophia's other side.

Celitia naturally knew that for quite a long time, Charlotte had been in a state of isolation.

No one dared approach her, and she didn't dare come find Sophia either.

But now, Charlotte actually dared to appear openly beside Sophia.

So, had something happened at the academy during her time at the church?

Noticing Celitia's confusion, Sophia suddenly realized and quickly explained:

"About a few days ago, Charlotte's father, Lord Fels Williams, came to see me..."

After getting Sophia's agreement, Fels immediately made arrangements and brought Charlotte to the palace the next day.

But at that time, Sophia had been staying at the church because of Celitia's health problems, keeping her company.

It wasn't until nearly noon that Sophia returned to the palace yawning, having completely forgotten her appointment with Fels.

Despite being stood up by Sophia, Fels and Charlotte didn't leave and waited stubbornly until noon, actually managing to wait for Sophia's return.

It could be said they showed considerable sincerity.

Plus Charlotte sincerely apologized, so Sophia couldn't keep giving her the cold shoulder and accepted.

After roughly explaining what happened, Sophia turned to Charlotte and said:

"Charlotte, apologize to Lily. You promised me you would."

Charlotte's expression wasn't very pleasant.

But she ultimately lowered her head and, suppressing the irritation in her chest, said to Celitia:

"I'm sorry. Targeting you before was too impulsive of me. I hope you can forgive me."

Looking at Charlotte's lowered head, Celitia found it almost unbelievable.

With Charlotte's temper, she could actually lower her head and apologize to her?

Celitia had never even considered such a thing, but it had actually happened.

Perhaps this proved from another angle that Charlotte actually cared about Sophia very much.

Unlike herself... who only made Sophia sad...

Her thoughts gradually drifted away, and Celitia couldn't help but space out.

"Lily? Lily?"

Sophia carefully called her name several times before bringing Celitia back to her senses.

Seeing Charlotte's awkwardly flushed face, Celitia nodded lightly at her.

"It's fine. I didn't take those things to heart."

Celitia really hadn't taken it much to heart.

In her view, this was just children playing house, and it hadn't even managed to cause her any harm.

Only then did Charlotte's expression improve slightly.

At this moment, Shanie and Benita happened to walk in from outside.

Seeing Celitia, they were delighted and rushed to her side.

"Lily, I heard you were sick again!" Shanie complained. "Your health is too terrible—you must pay attention normally!"

Celitia couldn't explain too much to Shanie and could only nod: "I'll try my best."

"What do you mean 'try your best'? It should be 'definitely,' right? Otherwise, who knows when some disreputable people might take advantage of the opportunity."

As Benita spoke, she turned to stare at Charlotte, and who she was referring to was already obvious.