Florence pretended not to hear, walking to the door with a grin before suddenly turning back.

"Oh right, remember to help me pay the rent during this time. I don't want to come back and find I don't even have a home anymore."

Florence pressed her palms together in a pleading gesture, "Also, last month's rent that I've been putting off—help me pay that too, please!"

Afraid that Celitia would give her trouble, Florence ran off without a trace as soon as she finished speaking.

Celitia: "..."

This landlord was way too good-natured, wasn't he? How had he not kicked Florence out yet?

Speaking of which, was she also too good-natured? Why was she still helping that girl pay rent?

Looking speechlessly at the delicate bracelet on her hand, Celitia let out a long sigh.

Fine, for the sake of this bracelet, she'd endure it this time.

Florence had patted her butt and left, so Celitia had to tidy up the workshop for a while before carefully locking the door and returning to her own home.

Luna was busy in the flower shop and looked up in surprise when she spotted Celitia:

"Lily, you're back?"

Sensing that Luna seemed quite surprised, Celitia asked: "What's wrong?"

"Princess Sophia suddenly passed by just now and came in to ask if you were here. I told her you had gone to Miss Florence's workshop, so she left."

Luna looked a bit anxious, "Princess Sophia hasn't been gone long. If you hurry over now, you should still be able to catch up with her."

Florence's workshop was just behind the flower shop, not far at all—it would only take a minute or two to walk there.

But Sophia hadn't come to the workshop to find her, and she hadn't encountered her on the way back either.

"I didn't run into Sophia. She must be busy, so she probably didn't have time to come find me."

Celitia lowered her head, "Since she has things to do, I won't go disturb her."

"Lily."

Luna's voice became very serious, "I feel like your emotions have been somewhat strange this whole time. It started about half a month ago, after you took that walk with Her Highness."

She stopped wrapping flowers, turned around, wiped her hands with her apron, and stared earnestly at Celitia.

"Tell me, did you have a fight with Princess Sophia?"

Celitia's expression looked somewhat flustered.

She didn't want to answer this question, but the person in front of her was Luna. Even if she didn't answer, Luna would find ways to get to the bottom of it.

"We really didn't. I'm just trying to adjust the relationship between Sophia and me."

"Is that so?" Luna looked at Celitia searchingly, "Even I know that a birthday ball is about to be held for Princess Sophia's engagement."

Celitia fell silent.

After a moment, she slowly spoke: "Precisely because of that, I should find the proper relationship between Sophia and me, shouldn't I?"

Luna quietly gazed at her and sighed softly:

"I'm not as smart as Lily, I'm always very, very foolish, but when it comes to getting along with people, I think I should tell you..."

Luna gently cupped Celitia's hands, placing her palms over the backs of Celitia's hands.

"You must tell the other person your true thoughts, otherwise, she might never know."

Celitia's whole body trembled as she awkwardly withdrew her hands.

How could she not know this?

This heart had been enduring all along.

Precisely because there were still many things she couldn't be honest about with Sophia, she had to suppress herself.

How could someone who didn't even dare speak the truth to her have the right to walk alongside her?

Seeing Celitia remain silent, looking as if she had made up her mind to keep her mouth shut, Luna sighed deeply again.

She picked up a bouquet of already-wrapped flowers from the table and handed it to Celitia.

"Here, these are flowers Princess Sophia sent for you."

"For me?"

Celitia took them in confusion.

This bouquet had no fancy, complex arrangement, just one after another light purple flowers, delicate and small, arranged in the bouquet in a well-ordered fashion.

"These are bellflowers?" Celitia asked.

"Yes, bellflowers." Luna nodded, "Her Highness said she had come to my shop several times but never patronized my business, so this time she definitely had to buy something. But she didn't choose gorgeous flowers, only bought these small bellflowers. It felt somewhat unexpected."

In Celitia's mind flashed the words Sophia had said back at the church.

Perhaps, for Sophia, she just wanted to be an ordinary, simple person like these bellflowers.

"So," Celitia asked, "what meaning do bellflowers represent?"

Luna thought for a moment: "Well... probably blessings from afar."

Holding that bouquet of bellflowers, Celitia was stunned for a long time.

Blessings from afar...

Could this mean that Sophia was about to let go of her obsessions and head toward the distant place she should go?

At this moment, Celitia couldn't clearly identify what kind of feeling was rising in her heart.

She hadn't been able to remember what those tastes represented for a very long time, her days passing as blandly and numbly as her sense of taste.

Only at times like this...

She seemed to recall that bitterness settling deep at the root of her tongue, long and hopeless.

This bewildered sense of loss continued until the rest day ended and Celitia returned to the academy.

Sophia was too busy to make it back to the academy that evening.

And the next morning brought the first final exam.

The first course to conclude was Magic Theory, also the most difficult to understand among the many major courses.

The theory course had many knowledge points that might not actually be useful but required a lot of time to memorize, giving quite a few people headaches.

But for Celitia, this wasn't a problem.

Her theoretical foundation was the most solid, and she could complete every assigned homework with near-perfect scores.

This also meant she was often copied from.

When Celitia walked into the classroom, she discovered that her classmates, who had originally been sitting fairly spread out, all moved toward her direction.

They probably wanted to copy her answers.

The teacher in charge of the course also knew this subject was difficult to learn and had always been fairly tolerant with them.

Most of the students were nobles anyway, so if he could turn a blind eye, he would.

Celitia didn't mind.

It was just that sitting close meant the students' chatter drifted into Celitia's ears.

Two girls sat in front, discussing enthusiastically. When Celitia looked up, they were Shanie's two friends, Rebecca and Linda.