Their romance storyline only begins on the second playthrough

"No way... I would never care about that stupid maid."

"It's just that Cecilia caused a lot of trouble in the previous life, and in this life, she's kept us from getting a good night's sleep tonight."

"Wouldn't it be terrible to let her die like this?"

The sound fell silent.

Neither of them dared to imagine a positive outcome. After all, if Cecilia really went too far and Rhodes had to kill her, then Rhodes would actually be the one who was more upset.

They are not qualified to comment on future possibilities.

silence.

There was silence for about five minutes.

The peace was broken.

dong dong dong-

A knock sounded on the conference room door, followed by Xia Li's strong voice:

"We've arrived! We're back safely!"

squeak-

At that moment, Shirley forcefully pushed open the two large doors of the conference room, simultaneously connecting the interior and exterior views—

Naturally, the same applies to vision.

Lilith and the others pushed open the door and entered, where they saw Natalie and Felicity sitting upright.

Felicity's amber eyes lit up for a moment. She propped herself up on the sofa cushions, stood up with a dazed look on her face, and her golden hair swayed gently with her movements.

"Everyone, you're back."

Natalie quickly threw away the cushion in front of her.

Where is Rhodes?

“Things have been handled perfectly,” Lilith said softly. “Rhodes seems to need a few minutes to recover from his breakthrough, so he asked us to come over first.”

"Phew—" Natalie breathed a sigh of relief, but her crimson eyes also began to scan, and her breath caught in her throat.

No.

Cecilia was not among these people.

died?

No way?

But it just didn't happen.

At that moment, for some reason, she felt a sense of emptiness inside.

She doesn't have many friends, at least not among her peers.

Cecilia is one.

That silly, troublesome, and difficult maid was always finding fault and arguing with her.

They studied and worked together for more than four years. Two years after she betrayed them, she returned to fight alongside them for another year.

In her previous life, Cecilia died. When she died, she felt a sense of disorientation—it was as if someone she had argued with her whole life had suddenly been buried and there was nowhere to visit their grave.

She also knew that Cecilia deserved to die in her previous life, but in this life, at least she hadn't done anything that really threatened anyone.

Moreover, in terms of hatred, Cecilia in her previous life was not the enemy who killed her and Felicity's family.

Their only enemies have always been the powerful figure of the Dragon God Empire who shattered the empire, and the Dragon God himself.

But the result...

She paused for a moment, then stepped aside:

"Please come in, everyone."

"Then, how was the battle? Did Rhodes resolve it very impressively? We can see the earth-shattering sky effects from the academy's side from here; that must have been an eight or nine-stage battle, right?"

"It's a pity I couldn't go and see for myself... But what about Cecilia? Did Rhode turn that girl into a meat patty?"

Lilith paused, then turned her head to look—

Not here.

Cecilia was not in sight.

But she... was behind.

She stood behind the door frame, leaning against the wall beside the door, calmly gazing at the paintings hanging in the hallway, instead of facing Natalie and Felicity directly like the others.

It's understandable that Natalie couldn't sense it; no matter how bad Cecilia was, she was still a powerful being who had advanced seven times.

Cecilia is such an odd person.

Are you embarrassed to face your longtime friends after being caught doing something wrong?

childish.

Lilith thought to herself softly, but as she thought about it, she felt something was off.

Because she herself didn't seem to be much better than Cecilia...

However, meetings will still have to be met eventually, and problems that need to be solved will still have to be solved eventually.

Cecilia took a deep breath, then turned around, her figure appearing before Natalie and Felicity as her long, dark hair swayed.

“I’m still alive.” Cecilia stepped out from behind Lilith and stood in front of Natalie.

At this moment, the two girls, who were almost the same height (1.6 meters), looked at each other.

Natalie's breathing became lighter, her crimson eyes briefly lost focus before returning to normal, and her lips curved into a slight smile.

"I thought you'd been killed again."

"Ahem." Cecilia was genuinely embarrassed this time. She turned her head away. "Luckily, I'm lucky enough to be here in front of you and get in your way."

"It's good that you're back. Behave yourself from now on, right? If you cause any more trouble, I'll beat you to death."

After Natalie finished cursing, she took a half-step forward and then hugged Cecilia tightly.

"Hmm...?" Cecilia felt a slight wariness at the soft, yielding sensation in front of the girl, but she quickly regained her senses at Natalie's gentle touch.

It was Natalie who was twitching.

She was crying—though not actually crying, but at least she was genuinely happy.

Cecilia lowered her eyes.

Perhaps it's a good thing that the plan was disrupted here.

After all, if it were to actually happen, Natalie would probably never be able to forgive her again.

……

...

dong dong dong-

After Rhodes resolved the Dragon God's matter and retrieved the second fragment of the Demon God's position, he quickly arrived at Lilith's side.

He pushed open the door and entered, pausing briefly against the edge of the doorframe, gazing at the scene before him in silence.

As expected, the matter has basically come to an end.

At this moment, everyone is leisurely doing their own thing, without arguing or cursing, and it is quite peaceful.

The atmosphere was joyful and harmonious.

The girls seemed to have put aside those meaningless struggles, just like they had at the beginning.

Cecilia leaned against Ivina, the two of them holding a book in their hands, lounging on the sofa reading.

"Turn the page quickly, Cecilia."

"Is it childish or not...?"

"turn!"

"Good good."

Cecilia became Ivina's page-turner.

Lilith closed her eyes, calming herself down, ignoring their commotion.

Natalie and Felicity were still together as usual—but now they were playing cards with Shirley.

Seeing this, Rod's cheek twitched.

Why play cards when there are so many other games to play?

Rod knocked on the door again.

It was this sound that finally drew the attention of all the girls—

"Sorry, I had to take care of something, so I'm a little late." Rhodes let out a soft sigh. "But it seems like it's not a big problem?"

“There’s nothing wrong.” Lilith calmly opened her eyes and replied softly, “In the end, Cecilia’s matter was just about teaching her a lesson.”

There's no problem.

Indeed, in the eyes of most girls, Cecilia's ability to change her ways and give up those things is pretty much enough.

But she didn't tell the whole story.

There are still problems—the only ones with problems are Lilith herself and Cecilia.

They don't speak, but when they do, their tone is never pleasant.

Lilith wanted to try her best to change this situation, whether considering the problems she caused in her previous life, or the fact that in this life she still felt the same way about managing the girls as the empress.

Of course, it's not about oppression, but rather protective management by the leader.

Because if there isn't a leader in a group of girls... it's really easy for them to start arguing over some issues, right?

Like Shirley and Ivina.

Unfortunately, although she had this idea to change the situation, the words that came out of her mouth turned into sharp attacks in response to Cecilia.