"I have no wish."
Deep down, she truly did wish to reclaim the happiness she had once known, but that wish was far too distant. Saying it aloud would only trouble the young man who had actually taken such good care of her and Arcadia.
"Really none at all?"
The young man, who should now be considered a member of Avatāra, propped up his chin with one hand and continued questioning the girl, who probably did not want to cause him trouble.
"Your work period is over, and I'm very satisfied with your performance. Even if you made a wish like Pest's, I'd try to handle it."
"A wish like Miss Pest's?"
Leticia smiled bitterly. Her relationship with Li Zihan was nowhere near as close as his relationship with Pest.
"There's no need. Your willingness to help Arcadia reclaim its banner and grant me freedom is already an enormous kindness."
Leticia, who had already incurred many debts of gratitude in such a short time, shook her head.
"Things like saving the younger sister who bore the curse in your place and clearing the Hakoniwa Knights' name are not things you can resolve right now."
The young man seated on the throne sighed. The ones who had slandered the vampires were all problem-child poets; they were not people Leticia could deal with at all.
"..."
Leticia lowered her head and closed her eyes. What surfaced in her mind were her younger sister's smiling face and her clansmen, distorted by rumors and stripped of their former glory...
"Can I rely on you?"
The vampire princess looked at the young man, whose personality was truly difficult to fathom, with a trace of unease in her red eyes.
"Of course."
Having already decided to make enemies of everything in Little Garden, the young man