Life is such a marvelous enigma.
Racking her brains, Seraphina, who was once contemplating how to expose the meeting of Count Stoneheart, is now troubled by matters of a different dimension.
Ansel promised her to distribute coal to the impoverished of the Red Frost territory before the onset of the severe cold wave, a deed of great benevolence indeed!
The terrifying cold wave of the North is one of the main reasons why this vast land can never be compared to the central region of the empire. Crops, livestock, population, and even infrastructure... all are likely to suffer severe damage in the cold wave.
If it were not for a certain emperor five hundred years ago, who built the Eternal Flame Tower at the northernmost point of the North, capable of reducing the lethality of the cold wave by sixty to seventy percent, this land would have been a desolate wasteland, only survivable for powerful beasts.
— Of course, the emperor at the time was merely interested in the rich mineral resources of the North, so he casually expanded the imperial border without much thought.
In any case, Seraphina has experienced two severe cold waves in her life. They were not as terrifying as she had imagined, but they still left a deep impression on her. These two cold waves drained her family's resources completely. If they hadn't done so, the coal would not have lasted until the end of the cold wave. And after each severe cold wave, many people in the village would die.
Elderly people who did not wish to be a burden would voluntarily walk into the snow, ending their humble lives painlessly under the extreme cold.
How could Seraphina not be happy that Ansel was willing to listen to her and spend so much money to help the poor people of the Red Frost territory through this crisis?
And then, in the midst of her happiness... she began to feel sad.
"I'm so annoyed... so annoyed..."
The young girl sitting cross-legged in the room, leaning on the coffee table, was poking at the image crystal.
"It's rare for Hydral to do such a good deed so directly. It would be too unkind to tarnish his reputation further."
Miss Wolf was troubled by this. On one hand, she hoped that Ansel's policies beneficial to the common people of the Red Frost territory could be fully and thoroughly implemented. On the other hand... she did not want Ansel to lose the reputation he valued because of this.
"Why didn't he do things like this earlier, making me so headache-ridden, Hydral is really annoying!"
With a kick of her fair and tender foot against the table leg, all Seraphina could do was complain to herself, unable to talk to Ansel.
Ever since Marlina made that request, she hadn't seen Ansel even once today. The reason was simple - to count all the poor families in the entire Red Frost territory, to ensure that the distribution of coal is implemented on every noble's head, and to ensure that they will not embezzle, while also managing procurement, distribution, transportation, and so on.
Seraphina's simple sentence, "Give coal to all the poor people in the Red Frost territory," sounds simple, but she doesn't know how complicated the process is, how heavy the workload is. With the severe cold wave approaching, the difficulty of this task can almost be said to be hellish, which is why Ansel gave Marlina such incredible authority.
Even if the work is done by the people below, neither Ansel nor Marlina are the kind of people who give orders and then don't care about anything.
"Forget it."
Looking at the image crystal made Seraphina feel annoyed, so she simply threw it into her tool bag and didn't care about it: "I should go and train. If I'm not strong enough, I can't help Hydral..."
The young girl stood up, stretched lazily, and muttered, "Speaking of which, these days, it's been Marli helping him, I haven't done much for Hydral... it doesn't seem very good."
Feeling a bit guilty, Seraphina quickly changed into her training clothes, took out a collar from the jewelry box under the dressing table, and buckled it on herself with great proficiency.
In the training plan that Ansel made for her, there was an item to carry a low-voltage current to temper her body - anyway, she didn't know how this thing worked, she just had to tell Ansel before she started training.
Just as Seraphina, who had buckled the collar, was about to close the jewelry box, she suddenly caught sight of a ring inside.
It was a ring she had casually picked up from the Red Frost Manor, set with an emerald, which was very beautiful from a normal woman's perspective.
"Didn't Hydral say... I have to be mentally prepared to wear this thing?"
Seraphina picked up the ring and looked at it for a while with her head tilted: "What does it mean, does it have negative effects? Is it suitable for weight training?"
She actually wanted to wear it a few days ago, but she didn't know where she had thrown it, so it turned out to be in the jewelry box.
Based on the principle that "Hydral won't harm me", the somewhat curious young wolf, without thinking, directly put it on her index finger.
It can only be said that Seraphina is such a person. After having Ansel to handle any possible troubles that may arise afterwards, her already barren and impulsive brain has almost given up working most of the time, completely stopped, and is driven by instinct.
"Hiss!"
A strong wave of pain and tearing sensation tormented Seraphina's brain for a few seconds. The young girl covered her forehead, furrowed her brows, and it took about ten seconds to recover.
"...Gone?"
Apart from the pain, there was no special reaction, which made Seraphina a bit strange.
"Um... Ha!"
The young girl shouted loudly and swung her fist forward.
Regrettably, she did not release the light wave she had imagined.
"Tsk, it's weak. I'll ask Hydral about it later."
With a sigh of disappointment, Seraphina let her arms fall, picking up a replenishing fruit from the basket, munching on it as she nonchalantly stepped out of the door.
She had barely taken a few steps when a maid approached, greeting her with a gentle smile. Seraphina intended to nod in response, but then she heard —
"Why does the master dote on this wild wolf who is so rude and lacks any ladylike demeanor?"
Taken aback, Seraphina spat out the fruit pulp and juice in her mouth, staring incredulously at the twitching maid.
"What... what did you say?!"
I am okay to being called rude and unladylike, but what does she mean by 'wild wolf'? Not even using my name, let alone a title!
The maid seemed slightly stiff, "What... what? Miss Seraphina, I didn't say anything."
At the same time, Seraphina heard a voice identical in tone, but with a completely different message.
[What is she ranting about? So troublesome, almost got spat on my clothes.]
The young wolf's face gradually darkened. She first stared at the maid for a while, then quickly shifted her gaze to the ring on her index finger.
"…"
Without uttering a word, she headed straight towards Ansel's study.
On her way, she encountered many maids, and without exception, the words Seraphina heard were all along the lines of—
[Why doesn't the master punish the wild wolf for running around so rudely?]
[So noisy... I hope she didn't disturb the master.]
[She shouldn't have run around outside, getting her shoes all dirty, disgusting!]
[Why is there such a big gap between the wild wolf and Miss Marlina, even though they are sisters?]
[If someone has to be favored by the master, I'd rather it be Miss Marlina.]
Not only were there various expressions of disgust, but Seraphina also felt... their emotions.
Annoyance, envy, jealousy, numbness, and even more aggressive hatred... not a single positive emotion.
This mansion seemed to have turned into a terrifying cage filled with blades, leaving no room for Seraphina to stand.
She tried to remove the ring, but found it stuck on her finger, immovable.
Overwhelmed by such intense emotions and disturbed by so many negative words, Seraphina gritted her teeth. Even though she wanted to yell and glare at those annoying maids, she held it all back.
Because Seraphina was used to others' criticism. Although she always seemed to overreact, that was just her instinctive, tit-for-tat retaliation. It didn't mean she cared too much about everyone's evaluation of her.
Especially these maids! They just clean tables and mop floors every day... My clothes are washed by Marli, not them! What does it have to do with them, making such a fuss.
Anyway, Seraphina never wanted to get along with these maids, she didn't care at all.
But if this thing can't be taken off, and she has to listen to these gossipy women every day, that would be too annoying! And she doesn't have the low-level hobby of eavesdropping on others' thoughts, she needs to ask Hydral how to remove this thing.
Our young wolf spends her days either being reckless or paying the price for her recklessness.
Seraphina quickly arrived at the study, the closed door made her a bit upset, but she still knocked hard, "Hey, Hydral! I need you!"
"…Seraphina, have you forgotten what I promised Marlina yesterday?"
Ansel's voice came from the study. His voice had a warning tone, the seriousness and earnestness made the girl even more uncomfortable.
"But it's really important!"
Seraphina, who had never been refused by Ansel, felt a bit wronged, "I, I'm in some trouble."
After a few seconds, Seraphina heard a helpless sigh from inside.
"Marlina, could you please open the door."
The girl's tense expression relaxed a lot, she crossed her arms, waiting happily for the door that never closed for her to open.
He's so serious... but in the end, he's still willing to open the door. Okay, from now on, unless it's super important, I definitely won't bother—
As the study door opened, Marlina, with her black butterfly hairpin, her usual simple braid turned into soft straight hair, her eyelashes and eyeliner seemed to be thicker, the whole person seemed to be renewed, smiled at Seraphina, "Don't worry, Seri, come in and talk slowly."
But Seraphina's thoughts, along with the smile on her face, froze there.
Because she heard it.
The moment she saw Marlina's warm smile, she heard... the words in her sister's heart.
Numb and indifferent.
[What a hassle, Seraphina.]