Sneaking Inside Her Room

'Well reasonable enough.' An Lanying thought to herself. She couldn't understand why the girl pointed her fingers at Wang Xinyu, and looked back at her with confusion evident in her eyes.

"What? You are ok with the rules?" The girl furrowed her brows.

"Um? Yes. Why wouldn't I be?" An Lanying was curious. The scholar wasn't even strict enough to restrict them chit-chatting among themselves while having dinner. She even felt that he was going easy on them. She took a small bite out of the succulent lamb crown roast. The flavour of the rosemary and mint immediately made her praise the chef inwardly.

Bai Lilling shook her head in disappointment as she looked at Lanying, who seemed content and even a bit happy?

"You don't think it's a restriction of personal freedom to prevent us from practising spells outside the classroom?" She asked again. Her eyes were still cold. But her voice was mellower than before.

"It's truly a shame. But it's for safety concerns, so I don't think he was being very unreasonable." She responded, taking a sip from the Whispering Rose Wine. The aroma of rose wafted off.

Bai Lilling, the girl who was not done with questioning the seemingly naive person in front of her, was yet to take another bite. She nibbled a bit of the roasted lamb at the very beginning of the dinner. Yeah well she didn't feel like caring too much about the old man telling them to dig in. She started before that. Not like anyone noticed.

However, it was barely edible. Her family chef cooked way better than this. Well it's not just her. She was pretty sure that anyone present here got to taste better dishes back at their home. Yet this girl in front of her didn't look like she had any complaints. She even seemed to enjoy the taste.

'Did the academy somehow manage to prepare better food today?' She thought to herself.

She took a mouthful of the freshly baked scones. Nope..same as the lamb. She truly couldn't finish it. Then again, it's not like the academy has any rules about having to finish everything.

"You must have a terrible cook at home." She commented. Yeah, this was her final conclusion. What else could it be? She started nibbling on the chocolate desserts. These were the only items on the entire dinner table that she could eat without frowning.

"Huh? Cook?" Lanying was taken aback. She was not a royalty. How could she afford a cook? She had always just taken help of some fire spells to create a fully cooked meal. They were not as good as the exquisite presently placed before her, but they could definitely be considered to be good.

"Yeah? How else are you going to prepare food? Hey…don't tell me you cook? No that can't be true? Preparing three meals a day would require way too much time. I heard you received the highest assessment. You couldn't possibly manage both together?"

"Umm..why would it take long to prepare food? You can just use fire elemental and …. Lanying stopped noticing the astonished look in the eyes of the woman in front of her.

"Did I say anything wrong?" She asked a bit apprehensively, continuing to take another bite.

Bai Lilling looked away. The rest of the dinner was quiet. Except for some stares Lanying sensed from the man who asked her to partner up for the orientation. She just decided to pretend as if she hadn't felt anything.

Food was more important. She didn't know why he was focusing on her instead of the platters near him.

—------------------------------------------

Lanying slumped down on her bed. The day was eventful. It almost made her forget her true purpose of entering this academy.

She should visit the scholar tomorrow. He seemed genuine. Maybe he could help her find out what happened that year?

The orientation tomorrow…she felt a knot in her stomach. She pulled in the curtains, falling asleep on the bed soon enough.

After a few hours,

rustle..rustle

The woman was still peacefully deep in sleep without a hint of vigilance. A man jumped inside the room as quietly as possible from the window facing the garden.

He glanced at the woman. Although she was asleep he didn't want to risk getting caught. With a wave of his hand, he cast the illusion spell as it put her in an even deeper sleep.

'It won't harm her anyways.' Changmin thought to himself before he started looking around for her belongings.

The camphor chest? Maybe she kept some keepsake from her clan there? He easily broke the lock and opened the chest.

He felt a bit awkward as his eyes fell on the clothes stacked on the very top. It was clearly…..to be worn…

Looking away he took a moment to compose himself.