By the time everything settled down, it was already the middle of the night.
For safety reasons, Anastasia ordered the refugees to keep a fifteen-meter distance from the carriage.
According to Anastasia, even though these refugees had received help from Fia, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t sneak over at night to steal something.
To avoid any bloodshed, it was necessary to keep a safe distance.
As for the night watch shifts, just as Fia expected, Anastasia was strongly against taking turns and insisted on keeping watch alone all night.
She even claimed that the Royal Guard had their own special magic and potions that could eliminate fatigue, allowing them to perform guard duty day and night without rest.
But when Fia asked Anastasia to show her, Anastasia just hemmed and hawed, refusing to give a straight answer.
In the end, Fia concluded that those magic and potions could only resist fatigue, and their actual effect was about the same as strong tea or coffee—they couldn’t really get rid of sleepiness.
So finally, Fia used a commanding tone to have Anastasia take the first half of the night, while she herself would take the second half.
After seeing how serious Fia was, Anastasia finally softened her attitude and reluctantly agreed.
—Although that was the plan, Fia soon ran into her first problem on the journey.
She couldn’t sleep.
The carriage was stuffy and hot, the floor she was using as a bed was hard and uncomfortable, and the sounds of crickets and frogs in the nearby bushes, along with the calls of nocturnal birds in the forest, all made it impossible for Fia, a “person from the future,” to fall asleep.
She might as well stay up all night and then sleep in the carriage during the day.
Might as well use tonight to study some continental history, and maybe try to figure out some of the magical principles she hadn’t understood before.
As this thought crossed her mind, Fia’s attention was quickly drawn to something else.
Calling it a “thing” wasn’t quite right—more accurately, it was Liti.
Fia and Liti were both lying in the carriage with the seats folded away, and since it was so hot, both of them had taken off their jackets.
Fia, at least, had the decency to change into a thin nightgown, but Liti was down to just her cute light purple underwear and the stickers on her magic surge.
Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal.
In Liti’s eyes, Fia was a trustworthy older sister with whom she shared blood ties.
Plus, Liti was still young, so sleeping without clothes wasn’t anything strange—in fact, it fit her childlike innocence.
So Fia didn’t think much of it, as long as she avoided looking at Liti.
But what puzzled Fia was that, even though Liti had taken off her clothes to stay cool, she hadn’t taken off her white over-the-knee socks.
In theory, no one would sleep in over-the-knee socks, especially not in the heat of summer.
Not only that, but Liti was now rolling over as if she didn’t feel hot at all, lying on her side and hugging Fia like a stuffed animal, with one leg draped over Fia.
Objectively speaking, as the third princess of the elven kingdom, Liti’s weight was as light as her young age—Fia could barely feel it, and even with Liti’s leg on her, she didn’t feel uncomfortable.
The problem was, Liti’s actions were way too intimate.
Not only was she hugging Fia like a plush toy, but her soft thigh and stomach kept gently rubbing against Fia’s leg.
The silky feel of fine fabric brushing against her skin, and the faint, childish scent of Liti’s sweat (even though she was still a kid, she was already using perfume)—even if Fia only saw Liti as a cute little sister, it was hard to stay unaffected.
Way too close.
And Liti was a girl with a bright future, a pretty face, and potential that rivaled the elven princess.
Once she grew up a bit more, she’d be absolutely stunning.
Fia couldn’t help but sigh inwardly.
No, actually, she was already stunning now.
Especially those slender arms wrapped around her neck, their slightly sweaty skin pressed together, the sticky feeling making Fia uncomfortable, but also creating a strangely intimate atmosphere.
Fia’s body and expression both stiffened.
She instinctively rolled her eyes to the side, looking at Liti.
Just as she expected, Liti had her eyes closed and was fast asleep.
She was sleeping so soundly that her cute little mouth was slightly open, showing a glimpse of her white teeth, and her purple bangs were damp with sweat.
The sight of her sleeping made Fia reluctant to disturb her.
It’s nice to have a little sister who’s so affectionate, but this is a bit much.
Doesn’t she feel hot sleeping like this? Feeling a bit awkward, Fia couldn’t help but complain inwardly.
With Liti hugging her, Fia’s arm was pressed right up against Liti’s chest, and she didn’t dare move at all.
Normally, when Liti wore her white dress, you couldn’t really tell she was a girl, but now, with her jacket off and her cute light purple underwear with white lace, her just-beginning-to-develop, still childish chest was on full display.
In the moonlight streaming through the window, Fia could see Liti’s smooth, jade-like skin and petite body—including her curled-up little toes.
Even though Liti was just breathing normally, the soft sound from her nose and the gentle rise and fall of her chest made Fia feel a subtle sense of guilt.
If she didn’t know for sure that Liti was asleep, Fia would have suspected she was doing this on purpose to tempt her.
Wait, that’s a weird thought.
Never mind that they were sisters—first of all, they were both girls, and besides, Liti was an innocent, polite little sister.
There’s no way she’d do something as outrageous as trying to seduce her big sister.
Maybe the previous elven princess was too strict, so now that she had a more easygoing sister, she could finally let go of her fear and get close.
“Haa.”
Fia couldn’t help but sigh quietly.
Still, she had to get up and study.
With Liti hugging her like this, there was no way she could sleep, let alone concentrate.
With that in mind, Fia started wriggling like a snake, trying to escape Liti’s grip.
But Liti was holding on tighter than Fia expected.
Fia could break free if she really tried, but that would definitely wake Liti up.
So Fia carefully pried Liti’s fingers off one by one, then pushed her leg off—her silk-covered calf was so springy, Fia couldn’t help but want to give it a squeeze, but she kept that thought to herself.
What made Fia tilt her head was that as soon as her upper body left the floor, Liti snuggled up again.
This time, Liti didn’t hug Fia, but her leg stubbornly draped over Fia’s again.
Then, Liti reached out and, as if by accident, grabbed the corner of Fia’s nightgown.
This kid is way too attached to me, Fia thought, like a little animal abandoned by its mother.
But even so, she couldn’t let Liti keep hugging her.
In Liti’s eyes, she was a big sister, but in her own eyes, Liti’s “female” side outweighed the “little sister” side just a bit.
They’d only known each other for less than a week, and even though she rationally knew Liti was her sister, her subconscious hadn’t fully adjusted to the fact yet—it would take time to get used to it.
So Fia used the same trick again, prying Liti’s hand off and pushing her leg away.
Then, Liti’s slender little leg, wrapped in white over-the-knee socks, came over again.
…Something’s not right.
Fia frowned, her hand pausing in midair.
If the first time was an accident, and the second time a coincidence, then the third time was definitely suspicious.
Could Liti be awake? But if she was, why would she keep hugging her like that?
With that question in mind, Fia decided to wait and see.
She stayed sitting still, letting Liti’s leg rest on her, holding her breath and watching Liti’s face for any sign of movement.
Although there were windows on both sides of the carriage, only the one near Fia had the curtain drawn.
Moonlight shone on Liti from behind Fia, and Liti’s completely unladylike sleeping posture was on full display.
From this perspective, Liti’s body really is tiny.
The elf princess is only about 1.4 meters tall, but Liti is even shorter than her.
Elves just develop way too slowly.
Thinking about this, Fia stayed perfectly still with impressive composure, quietly waiting for Liti’s reaction.
If Fia had been the prey just now, then right now she was definitely the top predator.
Five whole minutes passed in silence, with only the sound of crickets.
Then, finally, Liti moved in Fia’s line of sight.
Her long eyelashes trembled slightly, and Liti cautiously peeked to see what Fia was doing, her eyes opening just a sliver, timid and careful.
Their eyes met.
With her back to the moonlight, Fia’s face was hidden in shadow.
Her calm expression and seated posture made her seem cold and imposing, so much so that Liti was too scared to remember she should quickly shut her eyes and pretend to be asleep.
Her body was stiff like a rusty machine, and she awkwardly looked at Fia’s stern face, her heart in her throat.
Busted! Liti screamed inwardly.
She’d forced herself to wait a long time before daring to open her eyes, hoping Fia wouldn’t notice, never expecting her sister to be so patient, just watching her the whole time.
Panic and anxiety flooded Liti’s heart.
She had no idea what to do.
Fia’s calm expression gradually softened, and she pressed her right hand to her forehead, sighing with a troubled look.
“Liti, you were pretending to be asleep just now, weren’t you?”
“Uh…” Liti’s brain finally rebooted, and she glanced aside nervously, her hands unconsciously twisting together.
“I… I… I haven’t seen you in so long, so I wanted to…”
“Look me in the eyes when you talk.”
The commanding tone made Liti’s shoulders jolt.
Her sister’s long-standing authority made her too scared to resist.
Right now, Fia reminded her of the old days—cool, handsome, and so quiet it was intoxicating.
Almost instinctively, Liti twisted her neck with a crack, looking up at Fia from below.
Fia’s eyes, usually as beautiful as rubies, now made Liti feel like her soul was being seen through, like she couldn’t lie at all.
I’m doomed.
There’s no way out of this! Liti screamed inside.
Fia’s gaze gave her a bad feeling—no matter what half-truths she tried, Fia would see right through her.
The only option left was to tell the truth.
She’d been so stupid, getting cocky just because she thought her sister had lost her memory! Even without her memories, her sister was still terrifyingly perceptive.
Damn it.
That’s exactly why she was so hopelessly obsessed.
Like a butterfly caught in a spider’s web, no matter how much she struggled, she couldn’t escape.
She was the butterfly, and her sister was the spider weaving the web.
But her sister was much easier to talk to now than before, and her expression wasn’t that unreadable coldness anymore.
Even if she confessed, she probably wouldn’t be hated, right? From what she’d observed, her sister seemed to really like cute, innocent little girls now.
If she acted cute afterward, maybe she could get away with it? More importantly, her sister was super adorable and approachable now, and since she’d lost her memories and didn’t know anything about the world, maybe being honest would actually bring them closer—sharing secrets makes people feel trusted.
Even before she confessed, Liti’s mind was already racing ahead to what would happen next.
“Why aren’t you saying anything?”
“Uhh…” Fia’s follow-up question made Liti panic again.
She kept looking into Fia’s eyes, bit her lip, and after a pause, slumped in defeat and said shyly, “I… I like you, sis… I’ve liked you since I was really little…”
…???
A string of question marks popped up in Fia’s mind.
Before Fia could ask what kind of “like” she meant, Liti blurted out the whole story all at once.
“I’ve always kept a secret… Sis, actually… actually, this isn’t my first time in this world.
Before this, I lived a life as a human.”
Could she be like me? Fia was instantly interested.
Most people would think Liti’s words were nonsense, but not Fia.
When Liti introduced Duke Bart, she’d said he claimed to be “from another world.” Back then, Fia had guessed that she probably wasn’t the only one who’d come from another world.
Of course, to get her usually sweet-acting but actually two-faced little sister to confess, Fia kept up her calm facade.
“Go on.”
“O-okay…” Liti knelt carefully on the floor, head down like a child admitting a mistake, and started telling her story honestly.
About two hundred years ago, Liti was born as a human in the southern part of the Bart Duchy, in the Kingdom of Afreg.
She was just a girl from a poor family, couldn’t get an education, and had to help with farm work every day.
She was too young to plow the fields, but she did things like weeding, gathering sticks, and milking cows almost every day.
Back then, Liti didn’t think there was anything wrong with that.
Like a frog at the bottom of a well, she knew little about the outside world, so she didn’t long for it.
As long as she could eat and sleep well every day, she was satisfied.
Until she turned ten, and the lord discovered she had magical talent.
On the World Tree Continent, everyone can learn magic, but not everyone is suited for it.
People with magical talent are rare.
They’re born with higher magic adaptability, can grasp magic quickly, and reach higher levels faster.
Any lord with sense would want to recruit them, and Liti’s lord was no exception.
After that, Liti’s life changed dramatically.
She realized not everyone had to do farm work—some people could do nothing and still have dinner fall from the sky.
All sorts of new things she’d never seen appeared before her.
Learning magic became the only way for Liti to reach greater heights.
If she wanted a better life, she had to become stronger at magic than anyone else.
With that in mind, Liti started studying magic hard.
By sixteen, she’d reached the second rank.
Among her peers, that was already impressive—most people were still stuck at the second rank even in their thirties or forties.
But just when Liti thought things were looking up, war broke out in her territory.
Another human kingdom attacked the Kingdom of Afreg, and Liti’s territory was right on the border.
Caught off guard, her city was quickly overrun, and the invading soldiers started burning, killing, and looting everywhere.
The men were killed outright, and the women were raped and then killed.
Liti and her companions held out in the lord’s castle for a few days, but soon lost under the relentless assault.
Then Liti saw the soldiers, with disgusting grins, raping her companions and the maids.
To avoid the same fate, she set herself on fire with magic and jumped into a well to kill herself.
When she opened her eyes again, she found herself a baby—and an elf.
With memories of her past life, Liti learned much faster than others and quickly mastered the elven language.
But because of her past, she became afraid of men—even her father, the Elf King, was no exception.
As a toddler, if the Elf King even got close, Liti would bawl her eyes out, but she was fine with women.
When she got a bit older and could walk around freely, Liti discovered her sister—the crown princess.
By then, Liti had gotten a little more used to men and wouldn’t start wailing as soon as one got close.
One day, she overheard the Elf King and the prime minister talking about marrying her off to the prime minister’s son.
Of course, Liti was totally against it, but she knew that being born into royalty, objecting to a marriage wouldn’t do any good.
The only way out was to become queen herself.
But her sister was way better than her at everything except talking—Fia was superior in every field.
There was no way she could replace her sister and become the Elf Queen to escape her fate.
But soon, she thought of another way.
Because of the magic surge and the Holy Tree, elves can reproduce even with the same sex.
And among royals, inbreeding doesn’t cause deformed offspring—like the current Elf King and his queen, who are actually cousins.
So if Liti could somehow win over her poker-faced sister, she might be able to change her future.
That’s why Liti tried to sit on the elf princess’s lap to win her favor, but ended up knocking over a cup, soaking a magic book, and getting slapped in the face by the angry princess.
Normally, Liti should have been in despair at that point.
In fact, at first she was—she thought the elf princess was a block of wood, totally unresponsive, and her life would be bleak with no hope of turning things around.
Until Anastasia was brought back from exile by the elf princess.
Anastasia’s appearance made Liti realize that the elf princess wasn’t as unreasonable as she’d thought.
In fact, she might even be more emotional and care more about family than most people—she just didn’t know how to express it.
So Liti’s hope was rekindled, and she tried to get close to the elf princess again.
This time, she decided to change her approach: first, she’d quietly observe the elf princess’s likes and dislikes, then figure out how to win her over.
What Liti didn’t expect was that, as she watched the elf princess from an adult’s perspective, she found her unbearably adorable.
Setting aside her perfect looks, whether it was her cold, dignified bearing, the way she lowered her head in deep thought, or her far-sighted strategies in battle, the elf princess always seemed mature beyond her years.
But she was still, undeniably, a child.
That contrast, combined with her quietness, lack of emotional expression, and almost no change in her facial expressions, drew Liti in completely.
A mature but still delicate little sister—Liti couldn’t get enough of that feeling.
She even forgot her original reason for getting close to the elf princess, and all her attention was on this wise, extraordinary sister.
Unfortunately, because of mistakes she’d made when she was younger—or maybe because the elf princess had sensed her “bad intentions”—Liti never got the elf princess to look at her properly.
The elf princess even started to avoid her, so Liti never had a chance to get closer.
After years of trying with no results, Liti fell into despair again.
Until a few days ago, when Fia appeared in front of Liti, and finally broke the stalemate.
With chaos and the darkspawn overrunning the prison, and all the paladins guarding her dead, Liti thought her life was about to end again.
But just when things were at their darkest, the sister who’d always ignored her came to save her.
The nervousness and anxiety on her face, and her small figure bursting through the door, made Liti’s heart race—she was completely captivated.
If a princess in distress is supposed to be rescued by a prince, then Fia was the prince in Liti’s heart.
Even though Fia had lost her memory, so many of her habits were still the same—the way she thought, the calm look on her face—it all reminded Liti of her old sister.
Even more precious, her sister wasn’t avoiding her anymore.
She was energetic, and even wanted to protect her.
Liti had never even dared to dream of this before.
No doubt about it, Fia losing her memory was like a gift from the heavens for Liti.
For someone who was so obsessed with her sister that she’d become completely addicted, this was her best chance.
If she could be cute and charming now, maybe she could finally win her sister’s heart.
Unfortunately, she just couldn’t control her urge to get close to Fia.
So when she finally got the chance to be alone with her—even sleep beside her—she accidentally let her feelings slip.
And that’s how she ended up getting caught red-handed by Fia, who’d been waiting for her.
After confessing everything, Liti knelt there, her face bright red, hands nervously twisting together.
She lowered her head and stammered,
“T-that’s… that’s all of it…”
