“Lazer—will he leave the Juan family?” asked the girl, frightened.

“Why would he? Didn’t all the Sun spies die?” Diana asked, annoyed.

“Yes…”

“So everything worked out for the best. He has one less issue to worry about, you survived, and—” Suddenly, Lazer pushed open the door and entered. He stood by the secret door, after which Diana turned and smiled at him proudly. “I also learned a new secret, which means that I do not have to worry about finding a bodyguard for some time. It all worked out for the best for everyone, didn’t it?”

Lazer exchanged glances with Diana quietly before speaking, tired.

“Miss, the maid will become suspicious if you disappear for too long.”

“I will head back now,” Diana brushed her hair and glanced at him before leaving. “Do not just protect her. She is far from being able to function alone. You’d better train her well.”

“You are absolutely correct.”

Diana swung the hemline of her skirt and closed the secret door powerfully before returning to her room agilely. He then turned his head to look at the girl, noticing her curious look.

“What did you tell her?”

“Everything,” he said in a deliberately flat tone. “If I did not, she would not have believed me.”

—He told her everything. What was everything? In addition to the Kingdom of the Sun, did he tell her about his past? Did he tell her more? The girl wanted to ask him but felt that it was not the right time to do so.

Lazer seemed to have guessed what she wanted to ask him, so he changed the subject.

“You do not need to know all the details. Anyway, she just came in to express her sympathy.”

“By slapping me?” She looked up in shock.

“Consider it a twisted way of expressing her sympathy,” he said, crossing his arms across his chest and shrugging calmly. Then, he added, “All things considered, this is probably the best result she could have asked for. She is probably relieved.”

“I do not understand. I feel like that I am always making her angry, but sometimes it feels as though that it is not me whom she is angry with. It is getting more and more difficult to read her…” said the girl, touching her cheek in confusion and quietly sighing.

“That is normal, because you are missing one crucial element.”

“What is that?” She pricked her ears in amazement.

“The arrogance of an intellectual elite,” he raised the corner of his mouth, apparently as a way of getting back at the girl.

“… Teacher.”

“I have to go too. Remember to come to class this afternoon.”

He waved at her and turned to leave the room, leaving her alone. However, through the secret door, the girl could vaguely hear Diana impatiently complaining about Lazer and issuing orders to other maids. The girl looked around the empty room and still felt Diana and Lazer’s presence. Suddenly, this small space did not feel so lonely anymore.

Had she chosen to leave the Juan family, she would never have had a chance to see Lazer again. He would have left her in peace and disappeared silently from her life.

Her decision to stay here was more or less influenced by her selfish desire to see him.

“Lazer…”

She looked down at her deformed hand, her shrunken pinky that had been injured since childhood.

An indescribable emotion surged. She closed her eyes, muttering his name, attentive to all the thoughts that entered her mind. It was a secret that she would not share with anyone. It was not love. Rather, it was more than love; it was something like faith. Lazer and Diana aside, this was a battle that would change the future of the kingdom.