Eleonora's words caused Liliana to look at her master with eyes completely wide, brimming with a complicated tangle of love, hope, surprise, happiness, and countless other emotions. Tears began to flow like a waterfall, to the point where she had to press her hands against her chest, trying to calm the furious storm raging inside her.
"M-Master… did I make you proud…?" Liliana asked in a sobbing, trembling voice, laden with insecurity, to which Eleonora responded with a warm smile and an almost maternal tone.
"But of course. In the tournament, you proved yourself more than worthy of being my disciple. You did far more than I expected. You, Liliana, are undoubtedly a disciple I'm proud to have raised."
Eleonora's words were a critical blow to Liliana's fragile heart. She threw herself at her beautiful master and hugged her slender waist tightly, tears continuing to stream down her face. She felt so many things, but most of all, she felt an overwhelming happiness and relief. These were the words she had wanted to hear her entire life, and finally hearing them brought her a joy like no other.
Meanwhile, Eleonora smiled affectionately upon seeing her young disciple and then placed one of her hands on Liliana's back, gently caressing her brown hair. She comforted her disciple with warmth and care until Liliana gradually stopped crying and fell silent, shifting slightly with nervousness, as if she hesitated to do something.
Without pressuring her young disciple, Eleonora continued to gently stroke her soft hair, waiting for Liliana to clear her mind. After a while, Liliana, having thought long and hard, mustered her resolve and got up from her master's lap, then sat on the sofa. She looked at her master with a tear-stained face and red-rimmed eyes.
"Master… I… I'm not a good older sister… I don't deserve for you to be proud of me. I'm a terrible person…"
Liliana began to speak, but as she continued, her voice began to break and grow softer. At the same time, the tears that had finally stopped began flowing again, yet the beautiful girl bit her lips firmly and continued talking while Eleonora listened in silence.
"I hated Erik. I saw him as useless, arrogant, pretentious—one of the worst cowards—and I wished with all my might for him to fail and for you to abandon him. Just seeing him disgusted me, and I fantasized daily about leaving him on some remote planet where no one could find him, so he would disappear from my life forever. I cursed the day Master Eldurdóttir found him."
The more she spoke, the more tears filled Liliana's face, and her heart was overtaken by fear and despair. Mentally preparing herself for her master to reject her for being such a terrible person and for thinking those things about the person her master loved.
But she could no longer remain silent; her conscience wouldn't allow it. She couldn't happily accept her master's praise and congratulations while harboring those thoughts about her younger brother—especially now that she knew how special Erik was to her master.
She wasn't the good person her master believed her to be; thus, she didn't deserve so much love and affection from her. Even so, Liliana genuinely loved her master, who had been like a mother to her for almost her entire life. And although the outcome would be devastating for her, Liliana no longer had the courage to keep lying to her. So she kept talking.
"I was filled with envy for how you treated him, for everything you gave him. I felt like he was displacing me and that you no longer loved me, that at any moment you'd abandon me. That's why I left him alone the day you asked me to go with him to enroll in his first class. I even thought of doing many worse things… Forgive me, Master. I'm a terrible person; I don't deserve your love or your care. I'm sorry… I'm sorry… I'm sorry…"
Tears of bitterness and pain flooded Liliana's face. She pulled her feet up onto the sofa and hugged her knees, burying her face in them, almost as though she were trying to find a tiny refuge to calm her heart, which was filled with sorrow, loneliness, and despair. She was certain of what her master would do after hearing her confession.
When Liliana was at her lowest, drowning in a well of sadness and solitude, overwhelmed by her master's silence—she didn't dare look at her for fear of seeing anger and disappointment—she suddenly felt a tender kiss on the top of her head. Completely taken aback, she then heard her master's voice, which sounded somewhat amused.
"You're a very sweet girl, you know that? Fufufu."
Utterly stunned, Liliana turned to look at her master. Rather than seeing disappointment or anger, she found a loving and cheerful expression, and Eleonora opened her arms to embrace her once again, pressing Liliana's head against her generous chest. Liliana heard her master's warm voice again.
"Did you think I didn't know? Even Erik was well aware of it, not to mention Sig or me. And you're not a terrible person, nor any of those things you said. You're just a spoiled little girl who felt her new younger brother would take her place.
"What you felt and thought is quite normal. And it's precisely there where you showed the kind of person you really are. Because although in your heart you 'hated' Erik, you always respected him as your brother, and aside from that little incident when Erik entered the university, you never openly antagonized him. You always treated him properly in public.
"Moreover, your younger brother isn't just anyone. He's a monstrous talent on Sig's level—maybe even superior. Most people in your position couldn't handle that, and they'd lose all confidence and motivation, eventually going down a dark path of hatred, regret, and apathy.
"But you didn't go down that path. You worked harder than anyone else. Even when Erik surpassed you, you never wavered. On the contrary, you trained even more intensely, achieving feats that undoubtedly make you the best of the current generation below Erik—someone most people don't even count because he's too far off the charts.
"That's why you are not only fully deserving of all my affection, but I'm proud to have you as my disciple—an unwavering, fearless warrior of a woman who also happens to be incredibly gifted and hardworking. As your master, I feel blessed to have you. Besides, you're too adorable for your own good. Fufufu."
Hearing her master's soft laugh at the end, Liliana felt overwhelmed by happiness, tenderness, love, and pride, leading her to hug Eleonora even more tightly. But soon enough, confusion surfaced, so with a hint of nervousness, Liliana raised her head slightly to ask a question.
"But Master, I thought terribly of Erik and wished him all sorts of misfortune. Why aren't you angry? Don't you hate me for thinking those things about your…?"
Liliana's voice died out at the last moment, unsure about openly discussing her conjectures regarding her Master's feelings for Erik. But Eleonora chuckled pleasantly as she took out another handkerchief from her storage ring and began wiping Liliana's tear-stained face once more. Then she answered in a cheerful tone.
"Fufu, you don't have to be afraid to say it. Erik is the man I love, and he'll be my future husband. I wanted to show you that during the trip, since you're my beloved disciple and you deserve to know. Though it's a family matter, so let's not say it too loudly outside the house." Eleonora said with a small smile, watching her now clean-faced disciple, who nodded enthusiastically, like a little chick.
"Turn around. I'm going to comb your hair."
Seeing her disciple's face free of tears again, Eleonora spoke gently, and Liliana promptly obeyed. She turned on the sofa, giving her back to her master, who then, with a beautiful comb that looked like it was made of obsidian, began to gently and lovingly smooth Liliana's long, wavy hair. At the same time, Eleonora spoke in a calm, warm voice.
"Even though I love Erik from the bottom of my heart and want to spend the rest of eternity by his side, that doesn't mean I don't love you too. It's just a different kind of love. You are my beloved disciple, you're like a daughter to me, whereas Erik is the man of my life. So I can't be mad at my daughter for being upset with her 'dad', can I? Fufu."
"…" Liliana didn't know how to respond to that, so she chose to remain silent and enjoy her master's care. Eleonora continued speaking unhurriedly.
"The same goes for Desmond, who also knows about it. You're my children, my little babies, and I love you all from the bottom of my heart. But I also understand how hard it can be for anyone to be so close to someone like Erik, who has such ridiculous talent that it can be disheartening to others. So there's no reason to be angry if you couldn't get along at first. With time, that will improve, and we'll be a happy family…"
"…M-Master, can I ask why you fell in love with him?"
After a few moments, Liliana bit her lip and asked in a slightly choked voice, feeling she was crossing a line but determined to take that risk to better understand the situation. Eleonora just smiled and answered cheerfully as she continued combing Liliana's hair with delicate care.
"That's a tricky question. I truly love everything about him, but if I had to say something, it's that he's not only handsome and incredibly talented, but also hardworking, clever, and filled with crazy, creative ideas—definitely someone destined for great things, exactly the kind of man I want to spend the rest of my life with.
"But what really made me fall in love with him was his personality—his confidence, his calm, his honesty. How he treats me like a normal person, still with affection and respect, but without pointless flattery or excessive reverence, as if I were some kind of deity. From the very beginning, he treated me like a woman—like Eleonora—and not as Master Silverwood.
"I also adore his steady way of doing things, always so sure of himself, always step by step, keeping his own pace, almost as if he were constructing a solid building with each thing he does. It fills me with an incredible sense of peace and tranquility, like if I'm by his side, things will naturally turn out perfectly because every little step he takes is a perfect one, building an unshakable foundation.
"He's also very sweet and adorable when he's surprised or discovers something new, and how he eats his cookies like a little mouse, or how he somehow always manages to get his way… fufu, it seems I've gone on and on, yet I still haven't said a quarter of what I love about him."
"You really do love him, Master…"
Liliana remarked with a smile on her face, feeling somewhat amazed at the lively tone in her master's voice—perfectly fitting a maiden in love, something she had never heard from Eleonora before. At that moment, Eleonora responded with a big smile and visible delight.
"Of course I do. He's the love of my life. Fufu."
Upon hearing her master's voice so filled with love and happiness, Liliana hesitated a bit but gathered her courage to ask something slightly over the line. If her master loved this man so deeply, Liliana would do all she could to support her happiness, so she needed to understand the situation better—and there was a massive elephant she couldn't ignore.
"...And does Master Eldurdóttir feel the same way about him…?"
***
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