After the two of them left, the teahouse returned to its usual tranquility.
Li Yuan closed the door and returned to the bar counter. Hui was still lying there, her tails splayed out, as if she had completely turned the bar counter into her own nest.
Li Yuan looked at her and, with a bit of a headache, asked the question he had wanted to ask earlier.
“What is with you?”
This question was partly for Setis, but also partly for himself... back then, he hadn't been able to get even a single hour of vacation from this fellow.
He felt a bit slighted inside, so he wanted a proper explanation.
Hui looked up, her eyes meeting his, which could almost be considered interrogative.
Li Yuan sat behind the bar counter, a thick trace of jealousy in his tone:
“How could you agree to let Setis take a leave of absence to go home?”
Hui's original lazy demeanor instantly vanished. She raised her head and glared fiercely at Li Yuan.
Li Yuan was a bit baffled by her glare... seemingly, he was the one who was most aggrieved here, alright?
“Where did I offend you again?”
Hui sneered and asked in response,
“You still have the nerve to ask?”
Li Yuan was even more confused. Hui sat up on the bar counter, her tone filled with blame.
“Didn't I say that this place isn't Kyushu?”
Li Yuan still didn't get it. Not Kyushu... of course he knew it wasn't Kyushu, but what did that have to do with Setis being able to take leave?
The more Hui thought about it, the more annoyed she became, her tone full of complaints.
“She said that since you're here, she felt there was absolutely no need for her to practice bitter cultivation like I told her to.”
Li Yuan was taken aback. How did this end up being related to him?
“Then what does she want to do?”
Hui lay back down and replied testily:
“What else? Just let nature take its course.”
She scratched her fox head with her paw, feeling uncomfortable all over.
“Anyway, someone will back her up. This place isn't like Kyushu, where people kill and rob treasures at the drop of a hat, and this world isn't that chaotic either. Right now, she has more than enough ability to protect herself. If she wants to be a bit lazy, then so be it. There's no rush anyway.”
After listening, Li Yuan couldn't find any reason to refute her for a moment, and fell silent.
He originally wanted to emphasize that cultivation shouldn't be too lax.
But thinking about it carefully, combined with the situation here... there was indeed some truth to those words.
Setis, after all, was not a Kyushu cultivator.
She lived on the Ogu Continent, had a family, her own life, and her own destiny.
Forcing her into the law-of-the-jungle cultivation environment of Kyushu would indeed be pushing it too far.
As the saying goes, different environments shape different people, and in this world where the Heavenly Dao has not yet manifested, there aren't that many crises.
Thinking of this, Li Yuan sighed softly. If she wanted to be lazy, then so be it, but he felt he still needed to give her a small reminder.
“We can't think of it entirely that way, either.”
Hui squinted at him, saying disdainfully,
“Then you tell me, what should we do?”
Li Yuan paused for a few moments, and in the end, shook his head.
“Never mind, what you said makes sense.”
Only then did Hui snort in satisfaction.
“Hmph, it's rare to see you be so honest.”
Li Yuan was somewhat helpless, but he didn't mind Hui's slander and instead asked,
“Which step has she reached now?”
Hui replied lazily:
“She can sense spiritual qi and barely draw qi into her body, but she can't retain much of it. She's still a ways off from crossing the threshold.”
Li Yuan was not surprised.
“Three months is indeed a bit short.”
Hui glanced at him.
“Do you think everyone is like you? Looking at everyone as if they're some kind of freak?”
Li Yuan pretended not to hear, raising his teacup to take a sip.
Seeing him like this, Hui lost her desire to continue her sarcasm and said with a soft sigh,
“It's good that I let her go home for a day. She's been cooped up for too long, her state of mind is in disarray, and continuing to practice would be useless. Going back to see her family might actually work wonders.”
Li Yuan nodded.
“That's true.”
Hui rested her head back on her front paws and closed her eyes.
“She will be back tomorrow. Don't forget to leave the door unlocked.”
“I know.”
...
After Setis left the teahouse, she rushed home almost without stopping.
The royal capital nowadays was much quieter than usual.
Having not been out for three months, Setis actually felt that this familiar city was somewhat foreign now.
It seemed to have changed a lot, yet familiarity was still written all over it, though it wasn't quite as she remembered... it was a very contradictory feeling.
Yet seeing these changes made her heart feel much more at ease.
At least this was still the royal capital, and it was enough that it was still the place she was familiar with.
Her body was now much lighter than before, and even without using mana, her speed was far superior to what it used to be.
A distance that would have originally taken half an hour to walk now took only ten minutes or so, and she felt no physical exhaustion whatsoever.
It was as if she had an endless supply of strength, and she could feel that if she chose to sprint with all her might, she would be able to unleash a speed far exceeding her previous limits.
By the time she arrived in front of the Duke's estate, the guards on night duty at the entrance almost thought they were hallucinating.
“My Lady?”
The guard called out tentatively.
Looking at the familiar gate before her, Setis suddenly felt a lump in her throat.
She nodded slightly to the guard, her tone feigning calmness:
“Open the gate.”
Only then did the guard snap out of his daze, immediately turning to open the gate.
Before long, the attendants and maids on night duty in the estate began to arrive one after another. Upon seeing that the newcomer was Setis, many of them showed expressions of shock and joy.
Within moments, the entire Duke's estate seemed to be completely awakened. The corridor lights turned on one by one, and the sound of footsteps echoed from all directions.
Standing in the hall, Setis looked at the familiar stairs, murals, carpets... and everything else. The calmness she had intentionally maintained finally began to crumble.
She had really returned, and it wasn't a dream.
Although three months wasn't particularly long, for Setis, who had never been away from home for such a long period in her entire life, it was already quite a long time.
Hurried footsteps came from upstairs—
The first to appear was Duchess Sebas, whose clothes were in disarray. She had clearly just crawled out of bed and rushed out in a hurry before she even had time to tidy herself up.
The moment she saw Setis, the Duchess's eyes welled up with tears, which began to pool in her eyes.
“Anna...”
Hearing this name, Setis felt a sudden sharp pang in her nose.
In the next instant, Duchess Sebas quickly walked over to her, pulling her tightly into her embrace and gently resting her palm on Setis's head.
“You're back, you're finally back...”
The Duchess's voice trembled, her emotions on the verge of spinning out of control. Setis quickly raised her arms to hug her mother back.
At this moment, all the anxiety, irritability, and persistence that had weighed on her heart over the past three months seemed to find the best resolution.
Burying her face in her mother's shoulder, she gently shook her head.
“I'm fine.”
Duchess Sebas held her even tighter.
“It's good that you're fine, it's good that you're fine...”
The two of them embraced in silence for a moment. Not far away, Duke Sebas walked downstairs, draped in a coat, his expression as steady as ever.
However, his eyes also glistened slightly, and his breathing was somewhat rapid.
Reinhardt followed behind his father, his steps much faster than usual, and the anxiety on his face was completely undisguised.
Seeing the scene of Setis embracing her mother, his tense shoulders finally relaxed.
“You... why are you only back now? Are you leaving again?”
When Reinhardt spoke, he wanted to act a bit more normal, but the moment the words left his mouth, his voice became hoarse in spite of himself.
Setis ended the hug with her mother, stood up straight, shook her head, and replied happily.
“I took a leave of absence. I got a one-day vacation.”
Reinhardt was taken aback.
“A... leave of absence?”
Setis nodded.
Looking at her matter-of-fact expression, he didn't know where to start asking.
The phrase “leave of absence” didn't sound like something a person who had been missing for three months and just returned would say.
Could it be... she went to school?
Rate on N.U.
