V1: Chapter 40: Perhaps It's Love

What is she… saying…?

“From the moment you recognized Octaville’s fairy tale book, I knew who you were.”

Liang Di raised her hands, gently stroking Liang Lin’s face.

“Even though I haven’t changed at all, I look so much like I did when I was little, why didn’t you react at all when you first saw me?”

“Have you forgotten me?”

Who?

Who is she?

Liang Di pinched Liang Lin’s chin and gently kissed the corner of Liang Lin’s lips.

“I don’t want our first kiss to be so rushed. I think it should be romantic.”

Liang Lin saw tears welling up in Liang Di’s eyes.

In her memory, there seemed to be such a little girl, her eyes always filled with tears, her pupils like a sea of ​​tears, a little crybaby.

“Liang Di! What are you doing!”

Looking towards the sound, she saw striking long red hair fluttering in the air, wildly unrestrained.

Light returned to Liang Lin’s eyes.

“Octaville…”

Octaville Wells—her sister Hilary’s lover.

“Tower Master…”

A sliver of consciousness returned to Liang Di’s eyes, and she released Liang Lin’s chin.

“Tower Master, I don’t want her to hate me. This feeling is so painful.” Liang Di clutched her clothes tightly; she could feel her heart aching.

Octaville approached, gently touching Liang Lin’s brow with her finger, and whispered, “Sleep, brother… no, sister.”

No, she couldn’t, she couldn’t fall asleep.

But, but why were her eyelids getting heavier and heavier?

Why, why was her vision blurring?

She couldn’t… she couldn’t fall asleep; she had finally seen… a glimmer of hope.

But her eyelids were getting heavier and heavier.

Sister… Hilary…

Liang Lin slowly closed her eyes, and Liang Di opened her arms, embracing the limp Liang Lin.

"Liang Di, you found out? Why didn't you tell us?" Octaville asked seriously, arms crossed, staring at Liang Di.

Liang Di didn't turn to look at her, but gently stroked Liang Lin in her arms.

"But you, when I returned to the Langwendi mansion, you didn't tell me who Liang Lin really was either? So, I guessed right, didn't I?"

Octaville squatted down, distressed, ruffling her long red hair, and sighed heavily, as if resigned to her fate.

"Liang Di, you know, I was the one who took you in, and you wouldn't even call me 'Mom'... and now you're repaying kindness with enmity, making me get scolded by my wife."

"Wasn't that your own doing?"

"That's because... I hadn't become the Tower Master yet. I was protecting them."

Liang Di stood up and picked up Liang Lin in a princess carry. "She's asleep. It's windy here, she might catch a cold. I'll take her to my room. Don't follow me. You take that vampire princess and climb in through the window, don't let anyone see you."

Octaville: "..."

Applause. Good, good, good. This brat, this is how she treats her adoptive mother.

Inside the room.

Bellica sat outside the door, tending to her wounds and keeping an eye out for eavesdroppers. Inside the room, Liang Di and Octaville sat on the edge of the bed, while Liang Lin lay curled up in a small ball, seemingly insecure.

"So, you suspected something when Liang Lin recognized that fairy tale book?"

"Yes, I didn't think much of it at first, but when she could describe your appearance perfectly, I became suspicious."

Liang Di looked at Liang Lin's sleeping face, her eyelashes drooping.

"I knew it. Hilary wouldn't let her brother die, and you wouldn't let Hilary be sad."

Octaville was silent for a long time.

"Liang Di, you've fallen in love with her?"

A hint of confusion flashed in Liang Di's eyes.

Love.

This word was too foreign to her.

"Love? I don't know. I just know I don't want her to hate me."

Octaville sighed again, her brows furrowed so deeply they could trap a fly.

"Okay, fine, I'll help you, I'll help you one last time. You don't need to erase her memory, I'll think of an excuse for you."

"But, Liang Di," Octaville's expression was serious. She turned Liang Di's shoulders, forcing her to look at her, "You absolutely, positively cannot hurt Liang Lin."

"Huh?"

Liang Di was shocked.

"This kind of thing... do I need to be warned about?"

Octaville sighed, "Tsk... you wouldn't understand even if I told you. The hurt I'm talking about is, is like, like the kind of hurt I caused to Hilary."

"Oh, I'm not a scumbag."

Octaville: "..."

Okay, okay.

"You little brat," Octaville grabbed Liang Di's ear, veins bulging on her face, "how come you've become so sharp-tongued after spending a few days with Liang Lin?"

Liang Di winced, slapped the other's hand away, and pointed to the unconscious vampire and nun lying on the ground.

“When you leave, don’t forget to take them both with you.”

“What’s wrong with them?”

Octaville rubbed the back of her neck, walked to the two poor children lying unconscious on the ground, bent down, and examined them carefully.

“Gladys has the blood of the Langwendi family in her veins. She might be the granddaughter, or even a great-granddaughter, of an illegitimate child born to a patriarch of the family several generations ago.”

“And this nun?” Octaville pointed at Laura, then added jokingly, “Oh wow, her figure is rather ‘upright’.”

“If you keep being so pervert, I’ll tell Hilary.”

“You deserve to die!”

Liang Di chuckled.

“You could clearly see that the nun has a real talent for becoming a magician. Lately, there have been fewer and fewer new magicians arriving at the Magic Tower, haven’t there? It’s all because of your inaction as the Tower Master.”

Octaville scratched her head, feeling guilty.

“Fine, it’s good that you still remember me.”

“Have you thought of a reason?”

“Yes.”

“Then I’ll wake her up…”

Liang Di gently nudged Liang Lin’s shoulder.

“Liang Lin, Liang Lin…”

“Liang Lin…”

Liang Lin had a dream, a very beautiful dream.

In the dream, she was still a little girl, holding a little girl's hand, running through a golden wheat field.

“***** (sound of static electricity), I want to go over there, there are pretty little flowers there~”

Liang Lin couldn't see the little girl's face clearly, but she just thought the child was very cute.

“But, but sister said there are a lot of bees in the flowers, and if they sting someone, their hands will get big welts…” the little girl hesitated again.

At this moment, Liang Lin patted her chest, raised a toy wooden sword in her hand, her little hands exceptionally delicate, as was her voice.

“Don't be afraid! I will become the number one swordsman of the Soteland Empire in the future! Then I can protect you, protect sister~ It's just a little bee, I will protect you all!”