This "auntie" attack lacked power and failed to strike Florence. She laughed and reached out her hand, roughly tousling the girl's light flax-colored long hair.

"By the way, to celebrate our meeting and cooperation, let me give you a greeting gift!"

As Florence spoke, she fumbled around in her pockets and finally pulled out a small box containing mysterious reddish-brown pills.

"What is this?" Celitia didn't dare to accept it.

Florence didn't care what Celitia was thinking and forcibly stuffed the small box into her hands.

"It's an experimental product I made last night on a whim, using completely new materials and proportions. By classification, it's some kind of oral medication, I suppose. Since it hasn't been authenticated, I don't know exactly what it is or what kind of effects it will have."

Florence's voice was excited and full of confidence.

"However, I can be certain that this thing contains considerable magical power and will definitely have unexpectedly miraculous effects!"

After listening to Florence's self-aggrandizing, Celitia wanted to accept it even less.

After all, having grown up together since childhood, Celitia understood this woman's nature all too well.

Florence was passionate about tinkering with all sorts of novel things, which was also why she chose to cooperate with an authenticator—she herself didn't know what kind of items she had created.

Throughout all her tinkering, Florence had never had an accident once, and her luck couldn't be called anything but good.

But correspondingly... or perhaps due to her peculiar constitution, when Florence used up all her good luck, all the bad luck would accumulate in the items she created.

Simply put, whoever used them would be unlucky.

Her reluctance was written all over her face as Celitia tried to stuff the item back to Florence: "You should keep it and play with it yourself."

"That won't do—this is my greeting gift!" Florence waved her hand in refusal. "Besides, aren't you an authenticator? Consider this the first job I'm giving you."

Hearing the word "job," Celitia finally reluctantly accepted: "Fine..."

Just doing authentication—as long as she didn't use it herself, she shouldn't be plagued by bad luck... right?

"Since it's a job, don't forget to give me payment." Celitia reminded her.

"What a little money-grubber," Florence muttered. "Considering you're a beautiful girl, big sister will pay half the compensation in advance this time."

She fumbled around her body for a long time, finally scraping together fifty copper coins one by one. Her eyes were full of pain as she reluctantly handed them to Celitia.

"The remaining half of the payment will be given when you identify the results or use it and tell me!"

Celitia pocketed the copper coins and held the box in her hands, saying quietly: "I will."

She wondered which unlucky soul would have the honor of trying Florence's masterpiece...

As long as it wasn't herself.

Leaving the winding alley and returning to the main road, Celitia bid farewell to the still somewhat reluctant Florence and boarded a carriage.

As the wheels rolled leisurely toward the Herbert family estate, Celitia sat in the carriage, her thoughts gradually drifting away.

To be honest, she wasn't like Sophia, nor like Shanie and Benita—she had no obsession with going home.

Just thinking about her selfish father, harsh stepmother, and hot-tempered brother gave Celitia an indescribable sense of annoyance.

She had no attachment to the so-called home, except for a few people she cared about.

How was Luna doing lately? Had Rebecca's illness improved at all?

She had bought some medicinal herbs again this time to continue nursing Rebecca's health, hoping both she and Luna could stay healthy.

It would be good if she could take them away quickly, but with the little money Florence promised, even saving for a year might not be enough.

She really needed to think of other ways... She wondered if Florence's workshop had any rare materials.

She'd go raid it when the time came. After all, Florence had already promised to let her use them—no backing out allowed.

The carriage gradually reached its destination. Celitia temporarily stopped her research on extorting Florence, got off the carriage, and knocked on the gate of her family estate.

The wooden door opened in response, revealing a not entirely unfamiliar face.

"Miss Celitia, you've returned?"

This was a maid from the house named Gidi, who usually wasn't very respectful toward Celitia but was surprisingly using honorifics today.

"Mm," Celitia said casually, "today is the academy's rest day, so I came back to take a look."

Gidi pulled out a smile that looked worse than crying:

"The master and mistress aren't home today—they went out to attend a banquet. Only Young Master Olar is home. Would you like to see him?"

"Olar and I have nothing to discuss," Celitia refused without thinking. "I didn't come back to see him this time."

"I see..." Gidi suddenly became very dejected.

Hearing the strong disappointment in Gidi's tone, Celitia couldn't help but frown and ask: "Did something happen at home?"

Gidi's body trembled violently as she shook her head vigorously: "No, no, everything at home is normal..."

"You don't need to hide it from me," Celitia said calmly. "Olar is throwing another tantrum, isn't he?"

Gidi hesitantly nodded, then shook her head violently and pleaded:

"Miss Celitia, please don't let the young master know that I told you..."

Olar extremely hated servants who gossiped behind people's backs, and once he found out, he would readily resort to fists and kicks.

"Alright," Celitia agreed without hesitation. "Where is Olar?"

As if finding a savior, Gidi's eyes suddenly lit up: "In the side hall, Miss Celitia, I'll take you there!"

"You might be misunderstanding, Gidi," Celitia's tone became slightly heavy. "I'm asking where Olar is only because I don't want to see him—no other meaning."

Celitia naturally knew that the servants, including Gidi, were hoping she would step forward and stop Olar from taking out his anger on the subordinate servants.

If it were her former self, overflowing with a sense of justice, she might have already rushed over without Gidi saying anything.

Unfortunately, Celitia was no longer her former self.

Since childhood, the vast majority of servants in the house had never truly treated her well.

If that was the case, why bother touching Olar's bad luck for their sake?

"How could this be..."

Fear and despair showed in Gidi's eyes. She suddenly thought of something and cried out: "Miss Celitia, surely you won't ignore even Luna?"

"Luna?"

Celitia suddenly turned around, countless storms and tempests contained within her unfathomably deep purple-gray pupils, ready to erupt at any moment and destroy everything in sight.

"What did Olar do to Luna?"