After cleaning up the traces on her body, Celitia put her clothes back on.

Sophia helped smooth the wrinkles in her dress and straightened the long hair behind her head.

Lifting that seaweed-like light flaxen gray curly hair, Sophia saw the red mark she had bitten on the side of the girl's neck.

The blush that had finally faded rose again on her face, and Sophia mumbled:

"Is... isn't this a bit obvious?"

She could only say it was fortunate that the evening gown covered the front quite thoroughly. Otherwise, if someone saw that string of red marks on her chest...

But on second thought, Sophia became happy again.

Those were all marks she had left. Wouldn't it be even better if people saw them?

It would make those guys who were always thinking about Celitia never dare to approach her again.

Celitia couldn't see: "What's obvious?"

"Nothing." Sophia quickly deflected.

Celitia confusedly touched her own neck, not feeling anything unusual.

Sophia looked at her and smiled foolishly for a while, her heart full of happiness.

Taking the black swan brooch from the inner pocket of her dress, Sophia carefully placed it in Celitia's palm.

"Let's go, we're going back."

Sophia smiled brilliantly at her, elegantly bowed, took the girl's hand, and gave it a light kiss on the back.

"Back to the ball held for me, and for you."

Celitia gripped her hand tightly, borrowing some strength to stand up from beside the bed.

The pleasurable feelings hadn't completely faded yet, and Celitia's legs went weak, almost falling forward.

Sophia caught her and held the girl in her arms, laughing as she breathed in Celitia's ear:

"Your stamina is a bit poor, Lily. How about I carry you back?"

Celitia's earlobes immediately turned red: "No! I can walk by myself!!"

If she returned to the ballroom flushed and disheveled in Sophia's princess carry, Celitia couldn't even imagine how much she would die of embarrassment.

Supporting herself against Sophia to stand steady, Celitia took a deep breath and slowly stabilized her physical condition.

Smelling a trace of sweet, sticky fragrance emanating from herself, Celitia turned back to look at the messy bed with embarrassment.

She asked quietly: "Then here..."

Sophia said with a smile: "It's fine, I'll have someone come clean up and make sure word doesn't get out."

Those blush-inducing scenes flashed through her memory, making Celitia even more embarrassed as she lowered her head.

Looking at the girl's red earlobes, Sophia gradually tightened her grip on her fingers.

"Well then, let's go, my dear Miss Celitia."

Because of Celitia's departure, Marianne had made a big show of sending people to search for her whereabouts, throwing the scene into chaos and temporarily stopping the ball.

Those nobles searching for the brooch couldn't be happier to have more time.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, they were still searching everywhere.

As they searched, they suddenly saw Sophia leading a girl by the hand, walking in from the depths of the great hall.

In the girl's hand, she tightly clutched an iridescent cat's eye stone black swan brooch.

Someone gasped: "No way, she found the brooch?"

Someone still held onto hope: "It should be the one in Her Majesty Marianne's hands, right?"

Regardless of their discussions, Sophia and Celitia walked hand in hand with determined steps back to the ballroom.

Ariel had searched a large area in another direction without finding any trace of Celitia. When she turned back, she happened to see the two walking in.

"Sophia, you found her?"

Ariel was immediately delighted and breathed a huge sigh of relief.

"Yes," Sophia nodded to her. "Thank you for your hard work, Ariel."

Looking at their tightly clasped hands, for no apparent reason, Ariel felt somewhat uncomfortable in her chest.

Successfully finding Celitia was certainly a good thing.

But why did Sophia get there first?

What was stranger was that when she realized this fact, she felt quite dejected.

Hmm... it was probably just competitive spirit at work.

In terms of efficiency, there were very few cases where she was outdone by Sophia.

So she probably just felt unwilling to accept it.

Ariel thought she had found the reason.

Sophia approached Ariel and whispered in her ear:

"Some villains infiltrated the ball and nearly harmed Lily... Please go check at the entrance to see if there are any suspicious people."

Ariel was stunned, her brow furrowing deeply.

She remembered catching Celitia who had jumped from a window in the garden, but hadn't had time to ask about it then.

Looking at Celitia inquiringly, Ariel happened to see that small red mark exposed through the gaps in her scattered hair on her neck, and indescribable killing intent immediately erupted in her golden eyes.

Celitia instinctively covered her neck, feeling like she might have misunderstood something: "Ariel?"

"Don't worry, leave it to me," Ariel said coldly. "If I catch him and don't beat him unconscious, I won't be called Ariel."

With that, Ariel turned around briskly and strode away.

"Wait—!" Celitia called after her.

"Just leave it to her," Sophia stuck out her tongue, completely unaware that she was the real culprit. "Ariel is always reliable."

Celitia felt helpless. If Ariel got involved, things might become even more troublesome.

She didn't want to be targeted by the Church.

Sophia tugged at her: "Let's go."

Celitia looked once more in the direction Ariel had left, then had no choice but to continue forward with Sophia onto the central platform of the ballroom.

Marianne had been standing by the railing, looking down at the entire hall from above, anxiously searching everywhere.

Seeing Sophia leading Celitia's appearance, Marianne finally relaxed completely.

"Celitia, you're finally back. We searched for you for half an hour without finding you—I was nearly worried to death."

Walking up to Celitia, Marianne worriedly took her arm and carefully examined her from top to bottom.

"You suddenly ran off in such a hurry and then disappeared for so long—did something happen?"

"Something did happen..."

Sophia spoke quietly with Marianne for a while.

While the two were talking, Celitia thought for a long time.

Even in her own heart, she hadn't been able to sort out all that information yet.

The conspiracy against Sophia, Charlotte's actions, the mysterious black shadow, the disappearing Bren...

Which parts should be told, and which shouldn't be spoken?

After pondering for quite a while, Celitia finally made up her mind and spoke to Marianne: "Your Majesty..."

Celitia picked out some key points, mainly saying she had encountered a mysterious black shadow who locked her in a room on the second floor; the gift box sent to Sophia might have problems, which was why she threw it out, and so on.

As for what happened afterward, Celitia continued to conceal it, claiming she had forgotten.