"P-p-p-princess? What are you talking about, Lanchi?!"
Sophia was so startled that her tears stopped on the spot, and she spoke with her cheeks burning red.
She did like Enoer, but she had never asked Lanchi to help her take things that far!
But...
Those words kept echoing in her mind, making her heart beat faster and faster beyond her control.
If I trusted Lanchi... could I really become a princess?
"Sophia, a fountain can never rise higher than its source. If you never have that wish in the first place, it will be almost impossible to fulfill. Relying on fate to favor you is simply too difficult."
As patient as ever, Lanchi answered her questions and cleared up her doubts.
Sophia stared, looking a little dazed.
"Is that so...?"
She seemed confused, lost in layers of fog, yet she also seemed to have begun reflecting on her own problems.
"Think about it. Doesn't Karen's appearance prove my point? This world may be full of fantasy and beauty, but it's also dangerous and complicated. Good people won't go to bad places, but bad people will come to good places. Your relationship with Enoer can't be as smooth as you imagined when you were little. Not everyone is like me, interested only in helping lovers find their happy ending."
Lanchi leaned back on the sofa, speaking like a philosopher.
"Lanchi...!"
Beside him, Hughberlian kept poking him with her finger, her voice lowered.
She felt that neither Lanchi nor Sophia had noticed—
From her perspective, Lanchi looked like a benevolent, fatherly evil god tempting Sophia into corruption!
Stop it! This isn't sweet, innocent romance!
Yet.
Across from them.
After a long while.
Sophia finally seemed to understand something.
"So that's how it is..."
Sophia murmured in a daze.
Lanchi's words had exposed