Light streamed through the delicate window gauze, pure wisps of spirits dancing in the air.
During this brief moment when no one spoke, Lanchi's bedroom seemed especially quiet.
"Can you explain why there's a portrait of me in your bedroom?"
Talia finally asked.
Her face remained expressionless as ever, making it impossible to tell whether she was angry.
"This is a complicated story..."
Lanchi instinctively took two more steps back.
Looking to the side, he saw Hughberlian had already arrived at the bedroom door. Her gaze was also drawn to the conspicuous portrait inside.
"..."
When Hughberlian saw the painting hanging in Lanchi's bedroom, her lips parted involuntarily, but she could not say a word.
The beautiful woman in the painting was all too familiar to Hughberlian. Her solitary figure left no room to mistake her for a fragile person. The more dust covered her, the less it could conceal the nobility flowing through her blood. It was Hughberlian's favorite appearance of herself.
It was at this moment that Hughberlian recalled all the cause and effect.
When Lanchi had left the South Wantina Territory with Tata and mentioned the portrait in his bedroom, he had said it was a portrait of a poor and impoverished old woman.
But the portrait was actually Talia!
Hughberlian finally understood why Lanchi had been so flustered since yesterday.
Yet for some reason, an indescribable emotion surged in her heart.
Why had Lanchi put a portrait of Tata in his bedroom—and why had he painted it so seriously?
Could it be... that Lanchi really had special feelings for Tata?
This thought threw Hughberlian's emotions into chaos. She had always believed that Lanchi and Tata were merely teacher and student, with a clear distance and sense of propriety between them.
She could not help looking toward