Councilor and Two Maids

Su Shijun stood by the window, propping her chin on her arm as she gazed dreamily at the plant in the flowerpot before her.

It was a cluster of Seven-Colored Flowers.

Legend had it that this flower possessed miraculous magical effects. As long as someone plucked one of its petals and recited an incantation, it could grant one wish. Of course, only underage young wizards believed such fairy tales. To an adult wizard, especially someone like Su Shijun, who had surpassed the level of a Registered Wizard and become an Archwizard, this cluster of Seven-Colored Flowers was merely somewhat prettier.

Winter sunlight lacked the brightness of spring and the splendor of summer, carrying a certain blandness. Yet within that blandness lay endless flavor—like salt in soup, little in quantity but indispensable. With sunlight, even the cold wind held a few more traces of hope, helping vitality sprout from the depths of people's hearts.

Sunlight streamed through the window and fell among the flowerpots. Rings of multicolored radiance rippled across the Seven-Colored Flower's seven-hued petals, as though they possessed magic, making it impossible to look away.

Su Shijun stared at the flowers for a long while, then suddenly let out a long sigh. She raised her hand, extended two slender fingers, pinched a red petal, and gently tugged it free.

"Fly away, fly away. I want my troubles to become fewer."

The Senior Councilor of Under the Moon Council murmured and prayed in a voice only she could hear. At the same time, she lightly flicked her fingers, sending the petal hanging from her fingertips into the air.

Like a flame, the red petal drifted through the window and floated unsteadily toward the brilliantly colored garden. It soon fell among a patch of equally dazzling red spider lilies and vanished from