Princess's Struggle for Survival-Chapter 149: Uneasy

Elise's steps were light but swift, arriving before Astrid in the blink of an eye.

"Elise, when did you arrive?"

"Reporting to Miss, two minutes after you left the restaurant."

"Why didn't you inform me?"

Hearing this, Elise glanced at Lyra and slowly replied,

"Miss was with someone."

Astrid and Lyra rarely had a chance to stroll alone together, and as a personal maid, Elise naturally knew what she should do, hence she had been hiding in the shadows, silently ensuring their safety.

However, to Astrid, this was misunderstood as Elise not wanting to disturb her conversation with Lydia, hence not showing herself.

"Thank you for your hard work, Elise." Astrid said softly.

The head maid probably had as much to consider daily as she did.

....

Late at night, in the ancient castle of the palace, after hugging Amalia for a while and giving her the promised goodnight kiss, Livia sat at the desk, continuing to write the fourth chapter of her serialized novel.

According to the biweekly release schedule, she had to update two chapters every fifteen days.

To ensure it didn't affect future plans, Livia prepared to write drafts in advance to cope with any possible contingencies.

Amalia, as usual, sat beside Livia, holding the "Summary of Magical Knowledge" that Livia had given her the day before, quietly reading while occasionally glancing at the person beside her.

Under the faint yellow candlelight, their shadows leaned together, the sound of the pen scratching on paper softly echoing, a warm atmosphere quietly spreading in the air.

Amalia turned her face, looking at the light reflected in Livia's blue eyes, her distant mountain-like brows slightly furrowed, then relaxed.

It seemed as if something had changed, yet nothing had changed.

Feeling Amalia's gaze, Livia turned her head to meet her eyes, whispering softly,

"What's wrong?"

The golden-haired girl shook her head, "...just wanted to look at sister."

On one hand, Amalia hoped Livia would notice her unease, comforting her with sincere words and actions, providing enough security.

On the other hand, she didn't want Livia to find out, even if the reality was most likely as she thought, Amalia didn't want to burst this bubble of illusory happiness.

Every time she met Livia, this inner conflict grew, sometimes even giving Amalia the illusion that Livia was using a blunt knife named tenderness to cut her flesh.

Hearing this, Livia smiled gently, leaned down to hug Amalia, and pinched the golden-haired girl's cheek.

"After I finish writing and you finish studying magic, how about we play a game of 'The Great Lord'?"

Amalia softly replied with a "good," her eyes, as Livia expected, showing a hint of anticipation.

Over an hour later, Livia finished writing the new chapter, carefully read it to ensure there were no issues, then took a bottle of transformation potion from her bag and asked Amalia about her learning progress.

"Can you feel the presence of mental power?"

"Yes."

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"Try controlling it."

Opening the elemental vision, Livia noticed a faint transparent force dispersing in the space, belonging to Amalia's mental power.

The latter clearly hadn't mastered it yet; rather than controlling, it was more like letting it act freely.

"Relax your body, focus your attention on the spirit itself, treat it as an extension of your limbs."

Livia spoke softly, simultaneously wrapping her own mental power around Amalia, guiding her outward.

"..."

Feeling a strange force enveloping her, Amalia instinctively wanted to break free, but soon realized this force wasn't forceful; on the contrary, it was as gentle as water, supporting her, aiding her effort.

Looking into Livia's gentle eyes, Amalia understood, releasing her spirit to follow Livia's guidance, gradually covering the elements.

Ten minutes later, Amalia felt she could cover a portion of the elemental particles, then, as per the book, softly chanted the incantation, transforming her mental power into magical power, driving the elements to reorganize.

But just a second or two later, Amalia felt stuck, the elemental particles pulled by her magical power seemed as heavy as a thousand pounds, no matter what she did, she couldn't change their original state.

"Don't rush, your current mental power reserve and control level aren't enough yet."

Livia gently reminded, simultaneously stopping the mental power transfer.

"But it's quite good already, knowing how to release mental power on the second day of learning magic, perhaps Amalia has a talent for this."

Testing elemental affinity required a mage to reach the level of an early apprentice, and Livia didn't have the specialized tools for testing, so she couldn't definitively say whether Amalia was suited for learning magic.

Hearing this, Amalia thoughtfully nodded, then quickly confirmed,

"Sister, was that your mental power just now?"

That gentle, water-like feeling, she had only experienced it with Livia.

"Yes, it was mine." Livia softly replied.

As soon as the woman finished speaking, Amalia lowered her eyes, softly asking a question.

"Sister..."

"Is everyone's mental power different?"

She could sense that even on the spiritual level, her mental power and Livia's had a subtle difference.

Hearing this, Livia nodded, affirming Amalia's thoughts.

"Just like there are no two identical snowflakes in the world, every mage's mental power is unique."

This was evident from the Light Spell taught by Charlotte; whether input or output, magical power could be shared, but a person's mental power belonged solely to themselves.

In other words, to determine a person's identity, compared to appearance and temperament, mental power was a more accurate indicator.

Amalia blinked a few times at Livia's words, her gaze lingering on Livia's face for a couple of seconds before she softly spoke.

"Sister, since everyone's mental power is different, can the way it feels to others be changed according to one's own will?"

Hearing Amalia ask such a question out of the blue, Livia felt a slight unease in her heart, and her gaze towards the golden-haired girl carried a hint of subtle scrutiny.

Perhaps she was being overly sensitive, but Livia felt that Amalia's two consecutive questions seemed to carry some hidden meaning.

It was as if she had seen through her disguise.

After a moment, Livia brushed her hair and spoke softly.

"The inherent aura of mental power generally doesn't change easily, but there are special methods to alter how others perceive it, such as certain combat techniques used to conceal one's presence or spells that hide fluctuations in mental power."

"Of course, all of this is just a cover over the original foundation. To use a more appropriate metaphor, it's like draping a hazy cloth over something. You might not know exactly what's underneath, but you can still roughly discern from the exposed outline whether it's more likely to be a vase or a small dish."

The more precise a mage's control over mental power, the more they can detect the subtle differences between each person's mental power, thus confirming their identity.

In a way, mental power is somewhat like DNA, and knights and mages are the instruments used to detect it.

"In other words, appearance and temperament can change, but mental power cannot."

Amalia softly summarized, each word falling on Livia's ears.

Hearing this, Astrid narrowed her eyes, her wine-red pupils gazing at Amalia, who still wore that obedient expression, her eyes occasionally showing affection and attachment towards her.

"Well, but we shouldn't be too hasty in our judgment."

"A person goes through many stages in life, childhood, youth, prime, and old age. Although there isn't much change overall, there are still some differences in each stage."

"Generally, a person's mental power is relatively tender during childhood and most malleable. By youth, it's mostly set, and in prime, it begins to diverge from its original foundation. In old age, it gains a bit more depth, and the mental power as a whole tends to become more profound, not as agile as in childhood."

After advancing from an apprentice to a Sorcerer, one begins to understand the specific concepts related to mental power.

Although Astrid's mental power reserves were still below that of a middle apprentice, her understanding of magic far surpassed her peers, so she had read many texts that were only supposed to be accessed by Sorcerers.

As for the relationship between mental power and the soul, the book used the term "completely bound."

If we follow this reasoning and consider Hibbort's attitude towards her and the memories in her mind from childhood to the age of eighteen, Astrid could confirm that a significant part of her came from the original Astrid, or perhaps the current person was a fusion of two souls, with the previous soul taking the dominant position.

But no matter what, she had accepted this body and had the chance to live again.

As long as she could still think independently and wasn't influenced by miscellaneous thoughts, Astrid wouldn't overly concern herself with who she truly was.

From the very beginning, her goal was clear: to avoid the potential doom of the villainous princess in the future.

As for helping Lyra and Amalia, part of Astrid's motivation was for her own survival, but more so, it was driven by a higher level of spiritual need.

She didn't want a good girl like Lyra to endure so much suffering, nor did she want to watch what should have been an innocent flower wither and rot in the castle.

Reason told Astrid that it would be simplest and most appropriate to not bother interacting with Amalia and just let her be a puppet emperor.

But her emotions reminded her that the latter was just a child lacking love, and she shouldn't just ignore her.

After listening to Livia's explanation, Amalia touched the cover of her book and softly replied.

"I understand, sister."