Marianne was a devout believer of the goddess who had practiced asceticism in the church for a period of time. Her proficiency in healing magic was no less than that of the church nuns.

She began reciting prayers in a low voice, her hands suspended in mid-air, as intense white light enveloped the girl's body.

Magical power was being consumed in large quantities. Fine beads of sweat gradually flowed down from her forehead, but Marianne gritted her teeth and continued maintaining the healing magic.

Celitia's deathly pale complexion regained a bit of color, and she moved her fingers very slightly, showing a tiny response.

Seeing that the healing magic was taking effect, Marianne was greatly encouraged, and the white light surrounding the girl's body became even brighter.

Tears gradually accumulated at the corners of the girl's eyes, forming a crystal-clear teardrop that slid down her pale skin and fell into her disheveled hair.

Her lips moved extremely lightly, and from her throat escaped a broken sound, almost inaudible:

"...Mother..."

Marianne's whole body trembled, unable to maintain the healing magic any longer. The white light in her hands suddenly extinguished.

She couldn't describe what she felt in that instant—only that her chest hurt as if pierced by needles, tears gradually welling up in her eyes, almost cascading down along with that disappeared teardrop.

"Mom? What's wrong?"

Noticing that Marianne had suddenly stopped her actions, Sophia couldn't help but ask in alarm.

Awakened by her daughter's voice, Marianne hurriedly covered her face, quietly wiping the corners of her eyes at an angle where Sophia couldn't see.

Fortunately, the dungeon was too dark, with only one candle for illumination, so no one could clearly see her expression.

"It's nothing."

Marianne took a deep breath, calming the waves surging in her heart, before answering, "Sophia, let's take her home."

When she said "home," Marianne's heart ached again, and the tears she had held back nearly fell once more.

Sophia felt that Marianne's emotions were somewhat agitated, but didn't think much of it.

She herself had felt both heartbroken and angry when she saw Celitia's condition—how much more so for the always compassionate Marianne?

Her gaze fell on the shackles binding the girl's limbs as Sophia asked, "Where's the key to the shackles?"

Gidi quickly searched in a wooden box outside the cell and found a rusty set of keys.

"Your Highness, please try this—is this the right one?"

Sophia took the key and tried inserting it into the keyhole. The shape seemed to match, and the key went in smoothly.

But the shackles probably hadn't been used for too long—the keyhole had rusted, and no matter how Sophia turned it, the lock wouldn't budge.

Sophia became anxious and used slightly more force. With a crisp sound, the key broke off at the root inside the keyhole.

Sophia was dumbfounded.

"The key broke?"

Seeing the situation before her, even though she had been frightened into silence by Marianne for a while, Lady Herbert couldn't help but let out a cold laugh.

"Serves you right! Sure enough, Celitia should be locked in this dungeon—this is the goddess's will!"

Sophia and Marianne turned back simultaneously, speaking sternly in unison: "Shut up!"

The mother and daughter were remarkably in sync, frightening Lady Herbert so much that her body trembled, and she had no choice but to reluctantly close her mouth.

"These shackles are quite rusty too and should be relatively fragile," Marianne pondered. "Sophia, try to see if you can forcibly break them?"

Use brute force...

As a not-so-ladylike princess, Sophia still had some confidence in her strength.

"Let me try!"

Carefully holding the girl's slender wrist, Sophia grasped the not-too-thick shackle with both hands.

Iron rust powder fell in flakes, covering that fair wrist.

"It might hurt a little bit, but I'll be as careful as possible not to injure you!"

Even though she knew that the unconscious Celitia couldn't hear her words, Sophia still made this earnest promise.

Sophia steadied her breathing and summoned all her strength.

Battle energy erupted powerfully, the girl's eyes emitted an intimidating light, and her hands applied force precisely. With a "crack," she cleanly twisted the shackle apart.

The broken edge scraped across Celitia's wrist, leaving a deep red mark, but fortunately didn't draw blood.

"Wow!" Gidi's eyes widened.

So amazing!

She hadn't expected the princess to have such great strength that she could break metal shackles with her bare hands!

Feeling Gidi's admiring gaze, Sophia's face reddened slightly as she mumbled:

"Well, I'm not usually this violent—today is an exceptional situation..."

While making excuses with her mouth, Sophia's hands showed no mercy as she broke the remaining three shackles one by one.

Finally freeing Celitia from her restraints, Sophia lifted the unconscious girl from the ground and gently wiped away the dried blood marks on her cheeks with her sleeve.

"It's alright, Lily. We're taking you home."

As if hearing Sophia's voice, Celitia's lips moved lightly again, uttering a broken word:

"...Sophia..."

This time, Sophia heard it clearly.

She hadn't expected to hear her own name from the lips of the barely conscious Celitia.

She couldn't help but feel joy in her heart, but at the same time, intense sadness rose from deep within.

She would absolutely never let this kind of thing happen again.

Holding Celitia, Sophia slowly stood up and walked toward the cell exit.

"Your Highness," Rebecca asked carefully, "shouldn't I carry the young miss instead?"

"No need." Sophia shook her head.

The girl's body in her arms was cold as ice. Sophia hoped that the warmth from her own body could make her a little warmer.

"Are you really taking her away?"

Seeing that the two were really going to take Celitia away, Lady Herbert suddenly became anxious.

No matter how dull-witted she was, Lady Herbert knew that once they took the person away, how Celitia would be dealt with afterward wouldn't be up to her anymore.

Thinking of Olar still lying unconscious on the bed, Lady Herbert felt a pang of heartache.

Marianne's earlier threats were immediately thrown to the back of Lady Herbert's mind.

"No! Even if it's Her Majesty the Queen and Her Highness the Princess, you can't just barge into our home and take away our daughter!"

"Do you have an objection?"

At this point, Marianne no longer wanted to reason with Lady Herbert.

"We don't have time to tangle with you now. If you have any objections, come to the palace with Charles tomorrow to find me."

If it weren't for coming in such haste without bringing anyone, Marianne would have already ordered someone to lock Lady Herbert in prison to cool down.

Perfect—if Lady Herbert still wanted to court trouble afterward, she definitely wouldn't show mercy.

Sophia carried Celitia upward. Just as they were about to reach the entrance, she nearly collided with a brown-haired girl.

The girl was so startled she almost screamed, hurriedly covering her mouth tightly with her hands.

Then she saw Celitia being held in Sophia's arms, her face showing an expression of disbelief as tears immediately flowed down:

"Lily?!"

"Luna?" Rebecca asked incredulously. "How did you get out?"

The brown-haired girl who had suddenly appeared was indeed Luna.

According to Charles's orders, Luna should have been confined to her room, yet here she was, having secretly run to the dungeon entrance.

"I... I really couldn't rest easy," Luna said in panic. "So I took advantage of the darkness to secretly climb out the window and scale the wall to come down, thinking that no matter what, I had to rescue Lily today..."

Luna's room was on the third floor. For an ordinary girl who knew neither martial arts nor magic, escaping through a window required tremendous courage.