V2: Chapter 17: Miss Tentacle's Happiness is so Easily Satisfied

"Gael, Miss Liang Di's legs aren't very strong, so please don't force her," Doris's voice was so gentle, her smile subtle yet meaningful. "I know Miss Liang Di is a very charming girl, but don't force her to dance with you, okay?"

Her words gave Gael a way out. Gael breathed a sigh of relief and stood beside his mother, but his eyes couldn't help but linger on Liang Di.

The King stood not far away, witnessing this scene, his brows furrowed in disappointment, his eyes seemingly also reproaching Doris for interfering in the matter.

“Miss Liang Di, your long, silvery-white hair is truly beautiful. I noticed you from a distance, and I immediately thought you must be a very pretty young lady. Now that I see it, it’s true!”

Doris praised Liang Di, but her tone carried a deeper meaning. She specifically mentioned Liang Di’s silvery-white hair; usually, only the offspring of monsters have silvery-white hair. Most ordinary people have blonde, black, or brown hair. Hair colors like the Queen’s blue, Liang Di’s white, and others like red or green are extremely rare.

Liang Di’s acting was still superb. She seemed shy, raising her hand to cover her mouth, giggling, her cheeks flushed, like an innocent young lady.

“Thank you for your praise, Your Majesty… But if I stood next to you, everyone’s eyes would only be on you. Ah… If only one day I could be as beautiful as Your Majesty.”

Liang Di spoke these flattering words without batting an eye.

If it were anyone else praising Doris like that, Doris would be in high spirits for a while. But with Liang Di, Doris couldn't muster a smile.

"Miss Liang Di, how has your mother been lately?"

This "mother" probably didn't refer to Miranda. Looking at Doris's forced smile, Liang Di offered a friendly one.

"My mother is doing well. Thank you for your concern, Your Majesty. I will definitely tell her when I get back that the palace is thinking of her. I'm sure my mother will be very happy and will come to 'visit' you someday."

Liang Di emphasized the word "visit," her tone suggestive.

Doris chuckled.

"Well then, I won't disturb your ball any longer. It was Gael who acted rashly earlier. Let's go, Gael, let's go back."

Doris led Gael away, and Liang Di breathed a sigh of relief.

She saw that the Queen was summoned away by the King afterward, and she guessed that the King was probably reprimanding her for interfering in Gael's affairs.

Just as Liang Di expected.

“Doris, it was me who asked Gael to invite Liang Di to dance. Why did you go and ruin their chance? It was such a good opportunity!”

Doris was unconvinced.

“You saw it yourself, Liang Di rejected Gael. She’s not interested in him. I couldn’t just leave the prince standing there awkwardly.”

The King said, “Young people can develop feelings. Besides, my son is so handsome and dashing, and he’s a prince. Langwendi has only recently risen to power. Although they were quite glorious a hundred years ago, things are different now. No matter how glorious they are now, it’s not what it used to be.”

The King thought for a moment and continued, “I think Liang Di is a smart woman. If the royal family is willing to give her an opportunity, she will definitely seize it.”

“That can’t be true…”

Doris also started acting, pretending to be embarrassed and lowering her head.

“I saw it before. Liang Di went to see the Third Prince. The two of them stood together, chatting and laughing, seemingly very happy. Maybe… they’ve already pledged their lives to each other?”

"How could that be?!"

The king's face was filled with disbelief. He waved his hand dismissively.

"Gael is the eldest prince, and the third prince is just a bastard. Although they are both my sons, there's a world of difference between them. She'd rather fall in love with a bastard than marry the future monarch of the Soteland Empire. It sounds completely unbelievable. Besides, I think Liang Di is a smart woman; you can tell from how well she manages the family business."

Doris fell silent.

Even if she were a monster, she couldn't kill the king, control him as a soulless puppet, and rule the Soteland Empire.

If she could, how could the king have survived until now? Even if the king died, Doris, as a woman, couldn't possibly ascend the throne. It would definitely be Gael who takes it, although, as her biological son, he would be easier to control, but…

Doris couldn't bear it.

She knew that if Gael were placed on the throne, the target of many people's attacks would shift from the current king to Gael.

This isn't the most important thing. The most important thing is that the one across the sea… is highly likely to do something bad to Gael.

Doris, she didn't know when she had developed so many emotions.

Yes, as a mother, even a monster would feel tenderness and love for her child.

"But I definitely saw her getting quite close to the Third Prince." Doris's attitude was very sincere, and her eyes were very genuine.

The King frowned. He simply couldn't believe that Liang Di would be interested in the Third Prince. He assumed that the Third Prince and Liang Di were friends, or that they had bumped into each other by chance and chatted for a bit.

"Doris, don't interfere in my affairs. I've already found several suitable marriage partners for our son, and among them, I think Liang Di is the top choice."

The King snorted coldly.

"Auston is really something; he even tried to keep it from me at first. I don't know why, but the news that Liang Di is the real young lady has been kept secret for so long that for a while I even thought Liang Lin was the real young lady of the Langwendi family."

Liang Lin's reputation as a villainess was infamous, even the King had heard of it. At that time, he jokingly said to his guards, "If I married a woman like that, I'd probably commit seppuku on my wedding day. Having a woman like that by my side would be both frightening and shameful; I wouldn't live a day without her."

"Fortunately, she's not the real heiress of the Langwendi family."

Doris was still unaware of Octaville's ambitions, nor had she imagined that a Tower Master would want to overthrow the Soteland Empire.

This was something unprecedented in a century.

Everyone had lived so obediently, never doing anything to break this rule, and no one had ever done so.

From that day on, Gael began intentionally or unintentionally creating chance encounters with Liang Di. Whether within the academy or in the shops Liang Di frequented, she always saw Gael.

This annoyed her immensely.

She thought Miranda and Edwin would make a move against her within two months, but unexpectedly, they endured two months, waiting for half a year, until now.

Liang Di handed a glass of milk to Bellica.

"Bellica, give this milk to Auston. Make sure he drinks it. I have a feeling he might be cured. If he speaks and identifies you, that would be troublesome."

Initially, what truly paralyzed Auston wasn't the potion Gael gave Liang Lin to fight magicians, but the toxin on Liang Di's tentacles. It was a real killer, but required a specific dosage. Liang Di had misjudged the situation once; she intended to kill Auston outright, but used too little.

This time, she didn't add much milk either, because she had promised Donald that she would spare Auston's life. Liang Di still held a sliver of goodwill towards Donald, this kind old man.

Bellica took the milk.

"Miss, I feel it will be difficult for me to enter Auston's room. Miranda seems to have noticed something; recently, the door to Auston's room has been filled with Miranda's guards."

Liang Di sighed.

“Octaville, are you watching over there? If you are, hurry up and come over and resolve this. I don't know memory-erasing magic, or you can just climb in through the window and force the medicine down Auston's throat.”

“Oh, how did you know I was watching over there? I drew the teleportation array as soon as you finished speaking~”

Octaville's entrance was as flamboyant as ever.

A burst of golden light illuminated the entire room, and then, dressed in fiery red, Octaville struck what she thought was a very cool pose and appeared before the two of them.

“…”

“Can you please stop making these weird poses…”

Octaville didn't retort. She reached out and, taking advantage of Liang Di's momentary lapse in attention, suddenly ruffled the other's hair.

"You only remember you have a mother when you need me, right? Fine, leave this to me. Focus your attention on managing the shops. The Magic Tower needs a large sum of money for expenses soon, and it's all up to you, Liang Di."

Before, the magicians in the Magic Tower lived a very meager life. Now that Liang Di is rich, the Magic Tower is rich too. Suddenly, the magicians in the Magic Tower rarely complain. When they're tired, they can rest in luxurious beds and eat delicious aristocratic food. All sorts of novel trinkets are also being delivered to the Magic Tower. In addition, Liang Di has established a reward and punishment system, making every magician in the Magic Tower diligent.

Hmm, this is probably the power of money.

After pouring the milk into Auston's mouth, Octaville returned to Liang Di's room.

"Hmm? What's wrong? Is there anything else you need to tell me?" Liang Di asked when she saw that Octaville wasn't leaving.

“What’s wrong? Can’t a mother look at her daughter a little longer?” Octaville retorted.

Liang Di was silent for two seconds.

“Whatever.”

Octaville sighed. She had once again been met with indifference, but she was used to this. She went to Liang Di’s bedside, smiling, and put her hands on her hips.

“Hey, Liang Di, stop looking so gloomy. All you do is hold that portrait of Liang Lin.”

Mentioning Liang Lin, the light in Liang Di’s eyes dimmed again, and even her straight back hunched over.

“Hey, what’s with that look? You look like the sky is falling, and you’re about to die.”

Before coming here, Octaville had already made a certain decision.

“Liang Di, lift your head now and look at me. I'm going to tell you something that will make you happy.”

Liang Di, uninterested and listless, raised her head, expecting another trick up her sleeve. She was impatient.

“Tell me, what are you going to say to insult me ​​this time, or tell me a ghost story?”

Octaville just smiled.

“Oh dear, is that what you think of me?! It breaks my heart.”

“What is it? Stop joking… go talk to Hilary if you want to.”

Octaville didn't expect Liang Di to be nice to her immediately, after all, she was in the wrong first.

“This news… I'm afraid you'll be overwhelmed with surprise~”

Octaville stared into Liang Di's eyes, enunciating each word clearly.

“Liang Lin, she had a baby.”

“..... Hah?”

Liang Di's brain went blank.

"What, what did you just say? Did I hear you wrong? Say it again, say it again quickly!"

Liang Di suddenly became excited, her pale face turning rosy.

"She was pregnant, and you said she had a baby. Then, then that child must be mine, right?!"

Liang Di was so excited she couldn't think straight.

If it wasn't my child, whose could it be? Could she have conceived and given birth to a normal child within six months?

"Of course it's yours, Liang Di," Octaville smiled, genuinely happy for her adopted daughter.

"That's right, you're going to be a mother, no, I should say, you're already a mother."

At this moment, Liang Di felt a long-lost happiness, even an urge to collapse onto the bed and laugh until she was convulsing.

"Hahahaha~"

Liang Di laughed until tears streamed down her face, raising her hand to wipe them away repeatedly. She was laughing so hard she was sobbing uncontrollably.

When she saw Liang Lin's words in the letter, "I'll abort our child," her heart sank to the bottom. But now, Octaville told her that her and Liang Lin's child was still alive and had been safely born.

The feeling of having lost it and then found it again filled Liang Di with overwhelming joy.

"Mommy! I'm a mommy too!"

Tears welled in Liang Di's eyes as she blurted out to Octaville.

Octaville, who had been laughing along with her, paused for a moment upon hearing the name, then a genuine smile spread across her face. She couldn't hold it in; her lips simply couldn't contain their laughter!

This was the first time in many years that Liang Di had called her "Mommy" so loudly.

"Congratulations, Liang Di."

"I, I...I'm so happy, I'm so, so, so happy...You know what? I feel so incredibly blessed..."

Hearing these words and seeing her radiant smile, Octaville felt a pang of sadness.

"Is that all you're doing to feel happy and content? Liang Di, you're such an easy child to please and satisfy. But it's precisely these kinds of children who are least likely to be pitied."

"However, Liang Di, I think you should wait a while before going to see Liang Lin," Octaville said sincerely.

"Liang Lin hasn't finished her mission yet, and she hasn't completely given up on the Soteland Empire. And you, well, you haven't finished what you were supposed to do. I think… it's better to meet again after you've both grown up."

In the past six months, Liang Di has grown a lot. After listening to Octaville's advice, she nodded.

"That's what I think too. Now that Sister Liang Lin has my child, our bond is even stronger, and it won't be so easily broken… So," Liang Di smiled broadly, "I'll do what I should do, and then I'll go see Sister Liang Lin myself. She'll be amazed by how much I've changed. She said she was once attracted to me, and she liked me. How could someone you've liked before only be attracted to once?"

“Ah… where did you hear that?” Octaville asked, pleased.

Liang Di tilted her head. “Probably just her own interpretation.”

Liang Di had grown up.

Although she was still biased and possessive, she was so much better than before.

Sometimes, human transformation and growth are accompanied by pain and setbacks, and Liang Di was no exception.

Liang Lin's departure was a blow more painful than death itself. It was this pain that forced her to grow rapidly.

“Good, Liang Di, as long as you're happy,” Octaville said sincerely.

She knew that telling Liang Di about this might draw some criticism from Hilary when she returned to the Magic Tower, but she didn't care. She saw her daughter's long-lost smile.

The mistakes she made always needed to be made up for, and now,....

It wasn't nearly enough...

Octaville clenched her fists, silently vowing to ensure her daughter's true happiness—that she and the one she loved would be together forever.

So, what was so unworthy of being scolded by her wife in exchange for six months, or even years, of happiness for her daughter?

Octaville returned home satisfied.

Back at the Magic Tower, as expected, Hilary complained a bit, but Hilary didn't grumble for long. She knew everyone was suffering after what had happened.

"Honey, you're a kind person too," Octaville said, hugging Hilary.

Hilary shook her head. "No, that kind of foolish kindness, I discarded it long ago."

Octaville just smiled and didn't say anything. Hilary was always stubborn.

Inside the Langwendi Mansion.

Having learned that she and Liang Lin's child hadn't been aborted and had been successfully delivered, Liang Di was now lying on the large bed, giggling foolishly, completely abandoning any of the reserve expected of a noble lady. Hugging her pillow, she was throwing a tantrum, like a little monkey.

"Great, great, great~"

"I wonder what Liang Lin and I's child will look like."

"If it's our child, it will definitely be very cute~"

Suddenly, she sat up, scratching her hair in annoyance.

"Oh! Right, I forgot to ask if it's a boy or a girl!"

After saying that, she lay back down, hugging her pillow again, continuing to roll around on the bed. "It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter, who cares if it's a boy or a girl! As long as it's Liang Lin and I's child, that's all that matters!"

The important thing wasn't the child, but Liang Lin who bore her child.

Yes, they were true love; the child was just an accident.

Liang Di was already looking forward to the day they would meet again, lost in her boundless fantasies.

Suddenly, something occurred to her. She got out of bed, went to the table, took a delicate little key from her pocket, and opened the drawer.

Inside, everything related to Liang Lin was laid out.

There was a wooden teddy bear, a leather case Liang Lin had used, gifts Liang Lin had given her, and the last farewell letter Liang Lin had written to her. Although reading the letter's contents made Liang Di very sad, she couldn't resist the urge to read it again. She wanted to see if she had overlooked any details.

Reading it again, the words of farewell still pierced Liang Di's heart, but now she felt hope for the future, and the pain lessened.

Just then, Liang Di glanced unintentionally into the envelope, and in that single glance, she noticed something unusual.

"Huh...?"

Why does it seem like there are words inside the envelope?

"Nothing's wrong, right? No one should write anything in the envelope, right?"

Liang Di's heart pounded with excitement. She had a premonition, a very good premonition, a premonition that her happiness was coming.

From this angle, she couldn't see the words inside the envelope at all. Liang Di gritted her teeth, wanting to tear the envelope open, but then she remembered it was something Liang Lin had left for her, and her heart ached. She couldn't bear to part with it, so she opened one eye, trying hard to see the contents.

After struggling for a long time, she could only vaguely make out one word, an insignificant "you."

Liang Di hesitated for a moment.

Finally, she gritted her teeth and began to pull hard with her fingers.

Rip!

A crisp sound.

The envelope was torn open, and the hidden contents were fully exposed.