Chapter 12: Tell Me What You Are Thinking
Eating, someone watching.
Reading, someone watching.
Dazing off, someone watching.
Even going to the bathroom…
Everyone has urgent needs that can’t be suppressed.
Mili emerged numbly from the bathroom, closing the door and stiffly returning to the desk, with Seraphina trailing behind, resuming her position.
The silver-haired woman seemed to have truly cleared her schedule, as she’d claimed.
After forcibly pulling Mili to her, using antiseptic and gauze to personally treat the bloody nail marks she’d left on the girl’s shoulder—under the pretense of “preventing infection”—she dragged a sleek, cold metal chair to the side of Mili’s desk and sat down leisurely.
No matter what Mili did, Seraphina would intermittently raise her arm’s portable light-screen to record, practically shoving the lens into the girl’s dress…
But the wounds were her doing in the first place.
Injuring her one moment, tending to her the next—was something wrong with her?
Mili kept her head down, her mind churning with confusion, unable to fathom why someone like Seraphina—a figure of immense power and responsibility, who should be swamped with critical duties—acted like…
An idle, perverse stalker.
Hiss…
Sigh.
Why did Seraphina insist on hovering by her side, indulging her terrifying obsession?
What cosmic crime had Mili committed?
Was it just for some rumored ability?
Or simply to satisfy her outrageous, twisted whims…
She couldn’t figure it out.
When silent, Seraphina was like an exquisite but lifeless ice sculpture, radiating an unapproachable aura.
Yet her gold-and-blue heterochromatic eyes, which should have been mesmerizing, now pierced Mili with an unabashed, chilling stare, as if blinking were a luxury she couldn’t afford, making Mili feel like needles were pricking her back and throat.
Seraphina held an open book, her fingers pinching the page’s edge, the occasional rustle of turning pages grating on Mili’s ears.
Because Seraphina’s attention wasn’t on the book at all—
Her gaze remained locked on Mili’s every move…
Who was she pretending for?
Mili grumbled inwardly, her small face creased with misery, not daring to show the slightest discontent.
She tried to protest with silence, but Seraphina seemed unfazed.
In fact, when Mili stayed quiet too long, Seraphina would frown slightly, tapping her temple as if pondering what was wrong with her new toy…
“How much of Chapter Three’s light conditions have you memorized?” Seraphina suddenly spoke, her tone sharp, as if chastising Mili’s inattention.
Mili’s body jolted, her scattered gaze snapping back to the book’s text.
The dense words danced before her eyes, not a single one sinking in.
“I… I’m still reading…” she replied softly, trembling.
“Still reading?” Seraphina’s voice was calm, but it sent a chill through Mili.
She rose slowly, the crisp tap of her boot heels on the floor sounding like the arrival of death itself.
“It’s been four hours since breakfast.”
She stepped behind Mili, leaning close to the girl’s frail neck, casually brushing aside a lock of hair by her cheek.
Her warm breath grazed Mili’s slightly dry skin, carrying a faint, sinister whiff of blood, cold and pungent…
“What are you dazing off about?”
Caught red-handed, Mili froze in her seat, barely daring to breathe, let alone answer.
The book’s pages quivered in her trembling hands.
Seraphina’s hand toyed with her dark hair, her slender fingers deliberately brushing Mili’s neck, her touch gentle as if stroking fine silk, yet her words filled Mili with bone-deep fear.
“Hm? Tell me, what are you thinking about?”
“N-nothing…”
“Then why are you dazing off? Tell me what you’re thinking—!!” Seraphina’s hand shot forward, seizing Mili’s delicate neck, forcibly twisting her face around.
Her tone shifted from rage to a low, sinister whisper in Mili’s ear, cold and sticky like a snake’s hiss:
“I want to know what’s in your head… Do you dare hide anything from me?”
“Is it too comfortable, so you can’t focus? Or do you think my demands are too much?”
“No… no…” Mili shook her head frantically, her jaw aching from the grip of Seraphina’s fingers.
Staring coldly into the girl’s reddened eyes, Seraphina fell silent for a moment before releasing her with a disgusted flick, straightening and walking to the window.
“Your efficiency is pathetic.”
Afternoon light filtered through the barred window and bulletproof glass, casting mottled patterns on her silver hair, giving it an ethereal glow:
“At this rate, you won’t finish in a year.”
“…” Mili rubbed her sore neck, head bowed, not daring to respond.
“Let’s try another approach.”
Seraphina turned her head, her lips curling into a cold, humorless smile, her eyes glinting with something Mili couldn’t decipher.
Mili couldn’t reconcile the cold, radiant woman before her, bathed in holy light, with the fleeting sense of transcendence she felt.
An illusion.
It was all an illusion.
—This woman was just a capricious, cruel tyrant in a beautiful shell…
She was a lunatic.
Seraphina pressed the communicator on her chest, issuing a cold command: “Evelyn, prepare some things. I want to test her other abilities.”
“What do you need, Your Majesty?” a voice crackled through with static.
“A patch of the most barren soil, contaminated by gray mist, from the western mines. Clear out the slave workers there first.”
“And bring the seeds we found on her.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Mili’s heart sank with dread as she listened to the exchange.
She timidly looked up at Seraphina, only to find the woman gazing down at her with a playful, mocking stare:
“What… what are you going to do?”
“Make you show me that legendary miracle, of course.” Seraphina tapped her light-screen, data streaming across it, then snapped it shut.
She strode to Mili, yanking her from the chair: “Practice is the best teacher, and it’ll keep you from drifting off.”
Her wrist burned under Seraphina’s crushing grip, her bones feeling like they might snap.
Mili let out a pained whimper, her frail body lifted effortlessly, feet dangling, powerless to resist.
“Let… let me go…” She struggled futilely, flailing her hands and feet against Seraphina.
The woman didn’t flinch, her toned muscles hard as steel, making Mili’s resistance as futile as an ant shaking a tree…
“Quite spirited.” Seraphina watched Mili flail like a kitten, amusement flickering in her eyes.
“You…! You…”
“Hm? What?” The woman raised an eyebrow, seemingly eager for what came next.
Mili opened her mouth but didn’t dare spit out the word “lunatic.”
She didn’t want to die.
She really didn’t want to die.
Ignoring her struggles, Seraphina dragged her out of the room.
The corridor guards showed no reaction to the sight, their faces blank, as if seeing the Queen hauling a sobbing girl was perfectly normal…
In this wretched place, no one would pity her plight.