Chapter 176: To meet a beautiful woman

“Huh? W-Why are you crying? Don’t cry, don’t cry… I… forgot to change clothes, my handkerchief is still back in the room.”

The moment she saw the glimmering tears welling in Olivia’s eyes, Perletti hurriedly reached out and gently wiped them away.

She had never expected that simply bringing this reclusive princess out to experience everyday life would somehow end with her suddenly bursting into tears.

Well… maybe it wasn’t that unexpected.

When a long-held yearning finally became reality, even Perletti herself would probably find it hard not to cry.

The two leaned against each other like lovers deep in the throes of romance.

“Don’t cry, don’t cry. It’s your birthday, you’re supposed to be happy. Crying like this isn’t good.”

“But I want to cry, okay? Am I not allowed to cry? Seriously… this is obviously all your fault.”

“Mine?” Perletti pointed at herself in disbelief. She never imagined this could somehow be blamed on her.

A wave of grievance instantly rose in her heart.

She had gone through so much trouble just to spend Olivia’s birthday alone with her, and now somehow she was the bad one?

“Of course it’s your fault. You’re the one who made me cry, Titi. If I don’t blame you, who else am I supposed to blame?”

Olivia tightly clenched the hem of her skirt, her body still trembling faintly.

She was a little angry.

Angry that this blockhead Titi still didn’t understand what she meant.

There wasn’t a single elf around in this desolate wilderness, the atmosphere was perfect, and if Perletti had just comforted her a little more, she could’ve naturally used the moment as an excuse to push things further with Titi.

And even after all that, she still didn’t get it?

Had she seriously never dated anyone before?

…Wait.

Why am I even thinking about this?!

“Alright, alright, it’s all my fault. Then… should I go buy you a little cake?”

Only then did Perletti finally realize something.

She and Olivia had not been having the same conversation at all.

In fact, she hadn’t understood what Olivia was trying to say from the very beginning.

Now that she thought about it, Olivia probably just meant that Perletti was the reason she cried, not that she had any malicious intent. It was Perletti herself who had misunderstood her meaning.

“Honestly, I don’t know whether this is just how elves are, or if girls are all like this. Sometimes they really do feel completely incomprehensible…”

“Who the hell wants your little cake?!”

“You don’t like small ones? That makes sense. Back where I’m from, royal nobles always celebrate birthdays with gigantic cakes. That’s what gives it the proper birthday atmosphere. But there’s no time to custom order one now, and I don’t have that much money either.”

“……”

“Well then tell me what you actually want! If you don’t say anything, how am I supposed to know?”

“If I said it out loud, there wouldn’t be any atmosphere anymore!”

Olivia puffed her cheeks in dissatisfaction.

The two returned to Goliath and found a cake shop, sitting inside while eating cake and watching the elves outside wearing all kinds of smiles.

“Hey… what exactly were you trying to say back then?”

Perletti suddenly leaned close to Olivia’s long ears and whispered the question.

She genuinely could not understand what went on inside this girl’s head.

Surely she wasn’t trying to trick her into bed or something.

Impossible.

Olivia was such a pure and innocent princess. There was no way she’d have thoughts like that.

I’m the filthy one for even suspecting her and tarnishing five hundred years of spotless purity.

Feeling the warm breath brushing against her ear, Olivia blushed and looked at the utterly clueless Perletti beside her.

How did she end up liking this blockhead?

Sometimes she was so clever, yet whenever feelings were involved, she became unbelievably dense.

Honestly…

It was kind of funny.

“I like you.”

“I know.”

Perletti nodded casually and took a huge bite of cake.

You know?!

“Yeah.”

Perletti answered as though it were the most natural thing in the world.

She’d seen this sort of thing too many times already, so naturally she no longer found it surprising.

First there was Josuna, then Scarlet Night, and after spending a whole route together with Qingcheng, they all more or less ended up the same way—developing extremely high affection toward her because of Qingcheng’s influence.

Or perhaps it was some other kind of emotion.

Josuna was always talking about “saving” her, while Scarlet Night viewed her as the only one of her kind in the entire world.

At this point, all those outrageous things they did had already become completely normal to Perletti.

“That’s not what I mean…”

Seeing Perletti’s calm reaction, Olivia immediately realized she had misunderstood again.

With Perletti’s pitifully nonexistent romantic experience, if a beautiful girl really confessed to her, there was no way she could stay this composed.

“Idiot… what I mean is…”

Olivia lowered her voice.

“Maybe the distance between us… could become a little closer?”

Perletti froze slightly.

After staring at Olivia for a moment, she swallowed hard.

“You… also want to lock me in a basement?”

“It’s not that!! Are you really this dense, or are you pretending?! Wait…”

Looking at Perletti’s slightly guilty expression, Olivia suddenly realized the truth.

A wooden stick instantly formed in her hand, and she smacked Perletti right on the head.

“You are pretending to be stupid!”

The sudden scene immediately attracted everyone’s attention. Even the elves passing outside the shop raised their heads curiously to see what was happening inside.

“Alright, alright, stop hitting me already…”

After a long while, Perletti finally surrendered while clutching her head.

“Hmph. That’s what you get for lying to me.”

“I didn’t really have a choice. Your family’s ancestor already dislikes witches enough as it is. If she found out you liked me, she’d probably explode from anger.”

“So what? She can’t say anything to me anymore anyway.”

“…What did you just say?”

Perletti’s eyes widened in disbelief.

Generally speaking, there were only two situations where elders in a clan could no longer interfere with the younger generation.

Either the junior had already surpassed the elder by far—

Or one of them was about to die.

Olivia’s strength…

What did she mean by that?

Was she dying?

No, impossible. Olivia showed absolutely no signs of someone near death.

It was probably just angry words.

Suddenly, a strong wind swept past.

Listening to the fierce rustling outside the window, Perletti inexplicably felt a strange sense of familiarity.

“Perletti, hurry and come outside with me!”

The moment Olivia saw the wind, her eyes instantly lit up. She grabbed Perletti’s hand and rushed out of the cake shop.

Perletti’s brain never even processed what was happening.

By the time they reached the street, she saw all the surrounding elves staring up at the sky. Curious, she followed their gaze.

Countless leaves were slowly drifting down from above.

“What is this?”

“Huh? Don’t you have anything similar in your hometown? Like a fortune-telling ritual?”

“This is divination? Is it actually accurate?”

“Of course it is! This is a prophecy bestowed by the World Tree. It’s incredibly accurate.”

Perletti had seen leaves used to transmit information before, but this many clearly weren’t for messaging purposes.

Following Olivia’s example, she stretched out her hand.

Soon, a single leaf floated gently into her palm.

Just as Perletti was feeling puzzled, words slowly appeared on the leaf.

“After darkness comes light?”

Perletti shook the leaf in confusion.

Suddenly, another leaf landed on top of hers.

Clear words appeared upon it—

“To meet one’s destined beauty.”

It was Olivia.