Three days passed.

It was four o'clock in the afternoon.

The mansion of Count Batiste in the 4th arrondissement of the Flower Capital, Paris.

Christina leaned somewhat listlessly on the sofa in the parlor, holding a book, occasionally letting the breeze turn a page or two.

"Ugh."

She yawned, a bit unbecoming of a young lady, and then shook her head groggily.

This was the good thing about being at home—she could be casual. Her family wouldn't really scold her anyway; she had been taught from a young age that, as the eldest daughter of the Batiste family, she should live as she pleased.

Apart from going out to the Crystal Orchid Avenue shopping district after lunch, she had now returned home, and as things cooled down, drowsiness washed over her.

"What's taking him so long?"

She looked at the clock and murmured.

Every day at 3:30 PM, the estate's butler, Lanche, would tutor the Count's son, Kyle, with the lesson ending at four o'clock.

Logically speaking, the brown-haired, green-eyed butler should be walking past the hallway any minute now, and would most likely pass by the parlor, which connected the stairs and the corridor, on the first floor.

Just thinking about it made Christina's eyelids feel heavy.

Maybe she should just take a nap.

The afternoon sun in the Batiste estate's courtyard was now a slightly deeper golden-orange. Accompanied by a wisp of floral fragrance, it made the light and shadow in the reception hall on the first floor of the mansion feel a bit noisy and intoxicating.

Just then, Christina noticed a figure walking past the parlor.

"Lanche, over here, over here."

She quickly sat up straight, perked up, and waved to him.

"Miss, how may I assist you?"

The brown-haired, green-eyed butler, holding a book in his hand, noticed the young lady on the sofa, so he changed his pace and walked towards the carpeted area of the parlor.

Lanche had just finished tutoring Kyle and was preparing to check on the work of the other servants in the mansion.

Master Kyle's fashion design course was half an hour per lesson, four lessons a week, which took up two hours of the butler's working time.

The half-hour lesson not only helped the student concentrate, but also allowed the student to better digest the content of the knowledge points, and made it easier to assign homework for the student to practice and think about on their own.

"Wait for me here, I'll be right back."

Christina said, then immediately ran off towards the stairs, heading to the second floor.

"Slow down, please."

Lanche seemed unhurried, a little worried that the young lady would fall.

But the young lady didn't seem to hear him at all.

So he simply stood there, holding the book in one hand, and began to flip through it.

It was a translation of the *Genesis Records* in Porson language, borrowed from Kyle.

No matter how eras were extinguished, only this book had survived hundreds of thousands of years.

Each language's translation had a unique interpretation of the divine era's characters.

Although Lanche couldn't learn the divine arts from the *Genesis Records*, he had been very interested in reading various versions of it ever since he saw the ancient version in the Blood Moon Ruined World, and he would always have different understandings each time.

Not long after.

Christina really came back.

Except this time, when she came back from the second floor, she was also holding hands with a red-haired maid.

It seemed that the maid was cleaning the room and was dragged over by the young lady halfway through her work.

"See what's different about her!"

Christina puffed out her chest proudly, placed one hand on her hip, and let the butler take a look at her personal maid.

The Inoan behind Christina.

Her long bangs covered her right eye, and her faint purple eyes observed the person in front of her. Even though her red hair was tied into pigtails, it still fell to her waist in the back.

Although Christina said she could help Inoan cut her hair, Inoan didn't seem to want to.

It was also possible that covering part of her face would make her feel safer.

Her clothes were a classic Porson Kingdom maid outfit, with a black and white main color scheme adorned with meticulous bows, and the striking ruby on her chest was the finishing touch, perfectly complementing the fabric decoration on her head like a crown.

Inoan's slightly furrowed brows seemed to be worried about something.

"Oh, you're finally willing to wear the headdress today?"

Lanche smiled at Inoan and greeted her.

On her first day at the Count's residence, Inoan was very reluctant to put on this maid outfit when she saw it.

And she refused to wear the maid headdress no matter what, as if it were her last insistence.

When Lanche was teaching Inoan her work this morning, he vaguely remembered that Inoan was not wearing the headdress.

"I just don't want people to say that Christina brought back an inferior maid."

Inoan blurted out those words with obvious dissatisfaction, her voice wrapped in heavy impatience.

"How could anyone say that?"

Lanche raised his eyebrows in surprise and asked.

This family was pretty good, they shouldn't be hurting Inoan's feelings.

Inoan was always stunned by their kindness.

Moreover, Inoan's work ability wasn't a problem, she was just starting to learn to work, and sometimes she might be a little rusty.

"It was that viscount last time. After he saw that Inoan was a girl, he insulted her even more shamelessly."

Christina said with particular indignation.

That guy even ridiculed Christina for picking up some decent trash.

"Viscount Hammond?"

Lanche asked.

"Yes, that's him!"

Christina nodded.

Viscount Charles Hammond, their opponent that night, was also Inoan's employer, belonging to the Hammond Financial Group, which engaged in international financial services in the Southern Continent, providing a wide range of financial services, including investment banking, asset management, and insurance.

The wealthy Batiste family had known the Hammond family for a long time, and they occasionally cooperated, but most of the time they were at odds.

Last week, Christina had caused him to lose an important commission competition, and Inoan had also personally lost the fight. Charles Hammond was furious when he saw these two people walking together.

"It really pissed me off. If he had said two more stupid words, I would have let Inoan do something. At worst, we'd both go to jail for a few days."

Christina still felt a surge of anger when she thought about it, and she stamped her foot.

On the other hand, Inoan looked very calm.

"The few words I scolded him with were already light!"

Christina's temper wasn't always good. She immediately retorted on the spot for Inoan, not giving the old-generation noble, Viscount Hammond, any face.

Later, after returning home, Christina felt that Inoan had changed a bit. Upon closer inspection, she realized that she had put on the headdress.

"Miss, using violence to solve problems is certainly not acceptable. Please don't think about going to jail for a few days again."

Lanche looked at her seriously and advised her.

"Oh, okay."

Christina didn't expect that she would one day be educated by this butler in this way.

But no matter how you looked at it, Butler Lanche was unexpectedly a very law-abiding person.

"When you encounter this kind of situation, you can ask me to help you negotiate with Viscount Hammond, so that he can give you corresponding compensation, emotional distress fees, reputational losses, public apology statements, etc. If that doesn't work, we can use some legal means to investigate and report on his company's business one by one. These highly leveraged financial companies are actually very prone to blow up. If something goes wrong, we can still make a friendly acquisition of their company."

Lanche told Christina what he thought was a more reasonable idea.

If she encountered this kind of situation in the future, maybe it could give Christina some inspiration and teach her to solve problems more harmoniously.

"Friendly acquisition my ass. Don't make malicious acquisitions sound so fresh and refined, okay?"

Christina still understood a little bit about her family's business operations. Malicious acquisitions were illegal, and the Porson Kingdom's laws explicitly denied that malicious acquisitions were legal acts.

She really shouldn't have listened to Butler Lanche.

"Inoan can already clean rooms now. She's also learning maid etiquette very quickly, and she's remembered all the precautions you taught her."

Christina decided to change the subject and bragged to Lanche.

"..."

Inoan stood quietly behind Christina, neither admitting nor denying, as if she wouldn't take any action until she received instructions.

"Look, she's completely a lady now."

Lanche looked at Inoan and evaluated her with a smile.

Inoan looked away with some displeasure.

"Okay, Inoan, ask Butler Lanche whatever you want to ask."

Christina patted Inoan's shoulder lightly, motioned her to sit on the sofa, and said to her.

"How can I get my memories back?"

After Inoan sat down, she looked at Lanche, who also sat down opposite her, and asked.

"Why did you suddenly ask me this question today?"

Lanche slowly closed the book in his hand and looked at her.

"..."

Inoan didn't answer him.

"Of course you'll panic without memories. Inoan doesn't want to be someone without a past."

Christina sat down next to her and said to Lanche.

"I see."

Lanche reopened the book and murmured.

Her monster-like physical fitness allowed Inoan to quickly remove her bandages.

But her internal injuries hadn't recovered yet.

And although she seemed to have very powerful magic, she didn't know any combat skills at all. In the test in the Count's courtyard, she was quickly defeated by Tata, who was possessed by Lanche.

Not only were the injuries on her body not healed, but she had also forgotten how to use her power.

So Christina, who had originally considered letting Inoan compete in matches and earn some money to split with Inoan, now decided to let Inoan do some ordinary work in the mansion in peace.

"..."

Christina didn't know what the butler was thinking at the moment, and whether he agreed or disagreed with what she had said earlier.

"If you want to help you recover your memories, the doctor said that either you need extremely strong mental stimulation, or you need to see some familiar things and scenes to trigger the recovery of the injured area of your brain."

Lanche had read Inoan's diagnosis report and also talked to the attending doctor.

"So if I want to get my memories back, I have to suffer a bit?"

Inoan frowned again.

She couldn't feel pain anyway, so even if someone abused her, she wouldn't feel too bad. She just didn't want to die.

"Theoretically, that's the case, so your situation is very complicated, and it may be difficult to get your memories back."

Lanche nodded in reply.

"Inoan, don't worry, I'll take you to see the best doctor."

Christina's voice fell lightly, like a web woven from worry, entangling the surrounding air.

Lanche knew that Christina liked her very much, because this was the first servant that Christina had personally hired.

Moreover, Inoan looked pretty no matter what she wore. When she first came home, Christina took her to her room to change clothes for a long time, and also bought Inoan several new outfits.

After hearing that her salary wouldn't be deducted, Inoan seemed to hesitate for a moment as if weighing the pros and cons, and then accepted them.

"If I can't remember, then forget it."

Inoan said expressionlessly.

Anyway, it was pretty safe in the Batiste estate now, and it didn't seem like her enemies would come to her door. It would be nice if she could just live like this.

"Who knows? Fate is always fickle. When you want to find something, you may not be able to find it no matter what, and when you start to be afraid of finding it, it may come one after another."

Lanche flipped through the translation of *Genesis Records*. He had just read the last chapter on fate and reincarnation and recited it.

"I would be afraid?"

Inoan seemed to have heard a joke and laughed subconsciously.

"First of all, you need to understand one thing: fear is not a bad thing. Just like the sense of pain I told you about last time, although it can cause pain, it's very important."

Lanche heard this, formally closed the translation he had finished reading, and said to the red-haired girl in front of him.

"I'm asking you, what do you think is the most important emotion?"

He gently raised his index finger and pointed to the colorful flowers in the courtyard outside the French window, as if these flowers corresponded to each emotion.

"Pleasure?"

Inoan asked.

"This question depends on each person's opinion, and any answer is correct."

Lanche put his hands together on his lap and nodded solemnly.

"But the more straightforward the answer, the easier it is to ignore a problem, which is that every emotion is important."

"Why do you say that?"

Inoan had lost her memory, but she hadn't lost her basic knowledge. She still knew how to eat, how to walk, and how to do arithmetic.

Similarly, she also felt that she had never heard what Lanche was saying now.

"When you crudely divide emotions into positive emotions and negative emotions, or more simply call them good emotions or bad emotions, you will ignore the meaning of many things because of a natural instinct to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages."

Lanche's words were low, slow, and filled with worry.

"You will hate yourself during periods of low mood, and you may cruelly force yourself to do things that you shouldn't be doing when you should be accepting the low mood, just like when you're injured, you should rest and recuperate instead of ignoring the wound."

Each word seemed to be weighing whether these words were suitable for Inoan at this moment.

"On the contrary, if you clearly recognize the meaning of each emotion, you will accept the laws of how the world works, and you will become more likely to treat yourself and others kindly, just like the coming of day and the going of night. Any of your physiological and psychological reactions are normal and are important signal lights."

Lanche had been giving Inoan psychological counseling lessons every day these days.

Christina was a little worried, so she sat aside and listened.

As a result, after listening for two or three days, she tentatively felt that there was nothing wrong and even learned some skills in comforting others.

And Inoan was initially very resistant to listening to Butler Lanche, as if this pure natural kindness made her very uncomfortable. She was like seeing something she had never seen before, and she was filled with fear of it.

Later, perhaps she gradually felt a little more at ease chatting with Butler Lanche, Inoan stopped resisting and mostly listened to him in silence.

...

An hour later.

It was almost time for their Count's residence's butler to get off work.

Lanche once again carried his briefcase and passed through the reception hall.

Inoan had already gone to work.

And Christina was still lying lazily on the sofa.

After noticing Lanche, Christina ran over.

"Thank you, Lanche."

She patted Lanche on the back lightly, sending him off from work.

Of course, more than anything, she was thanking Lanche for helping her untangle Inoan's mental knot.

In this mansion, Inoan still maintained some distance from the others, but she trusted the two of them and even gradually began to be willing to let them stay very close to her.

"Miss Christina, I think she's obviously more dangerous than me. Why do you like her so much, but you're still so resistant to me?"

Lanche asked Christina in confusion.

"Your familiarity makes people very scared. It always feels like no matter where you're thrown, you can quickly get along with the people around you."

Christina leaned back warily and sized Lanche up.

"But Inoan feels like a wounded wolf that was picked up... and now she's turned into a cub. Can I take this opportunity to tame her?"

Christina said somewhat uncertainly.

"So you prefer raising them, and don't like those who come out of nowhere."

Lanche shook his head in disappointment, as if no one liked him.

"Tsk, don't look at how dependent my family has become on you."

Christina clicked her tongue as she looked at the butler acting weak.

"By the way, if she gets her memories back, will she immediately not recognize me?"

Then Christina asked again.

She was a little afraid that everything she was doing now would be in vain. One day, Inoan would suddenly treat her as a stranger again and disappear from her in front of her. She would be very sad.

"No matter what kind of past she remembers, this period of memories of being with you will always be in her mind. Perhaps for her, who originally had a violent personality, this is a kind of pollution, but happiness and joy can't be faked, and she will also get a taste of it."

Lanche explained with a smile, walked to the door, and bowed slightly to her.

During this period of time, he had discovered that Miss Christina seemed to have very few true friends.

Most people treated her as an evil young lady similar to young master Kyle before they even understood her.

And Inoan was like a blank sheet of paper. She saw Christina as soon as she opened her eyes and trusted and relied on Christina.

With such a maid that she had saved, Christina had already regarded Inoan as a treasure and wanted to be good friends with her.

"I understand."

Christina smiled and waved to Lanche, wishing him a pleasant day off.

Hearing what the butler said, she was finally relieved.

...

After the sun through the top of the sky began to set, it had been a while and it was already dusk.

Next to the Parier street stained with the colors of the sunset, there was a small road leading to the Platinsem Palace Mental Hotel in the cultural district.

Lanche and Talia were on their way to find a restaurant.

"I have to get up early again tomorrow, probably at seven o'clock. Can we go back earlier today?"

Lanche looked at Talia next to him, holding the cat and asking.

Logically speaking, Talia had waited for him all day at work, and she hadn't made a fuss about becoming a magic card. She was much quieter than a great love poet, and now that she was off work, she should want to stroll around the Flower Capital Parier very much.

The Platinum Card Maker exam will begin on the weekend.

Tomorrow, Friday, they don't have to go to work at the Batiste residence, but the two of them have to go to the Southern Continent Card Maker Association branch in the Flower Capital Parier to report to Countess Rosalinda and learn about the proctoring matters.

"No problem, you can sleep peacefully. I'll wake you up when the time comes."

Talia said indifferently.

Now every day when she woke up, she would wait for Lanche to wake up.

If she left Lanche too far, it would increase the continuous consumption of her mana, and she wouldn't be able to figure out his state. If she accidentally caused his mana to bottom out and she didn't know it, then Lanche would be in danger.

"You even have an alarm clock function?"

Lanche turned his head to look at her.

"When Hyberian was in school, I would help her make breakfast and then wake her up. She sometimes has a bit of low blood sugar, and it's difficult for her to get up in the morning."

Talia looked ahead and replied.

"Then I won't set an alarm."

Lanche said to himself, looking somewhat lost.

Talia could even cook?

Moreover, he couldn't accept Talia's habits, which seemed to be very wife-and-motherly!

"I always helped Asina in the kitchen, so I know a little bit. It's just that I don't cook very seriously when I'm alone. It's better to just buy something than to do a perfunctory job, unless I'm cooking for someone else, then I'll be a little more serious."

Talia was too lazy to be angry with Lanche and explained to him.

He would think about this level of damnableness many times a day unintentionally.

After Talia finished speaking, she stopped paying attention to Lanche.

Lanche continued to look for the road as always.

There, here—

He seemed to change his route without any direction, but his steps were completely without hesitation.

Talia looked up and stared at his profile, always curious about how much time this guy would spend recognizing the map in advance.

If she were to lead the way, she would at least occasionally take the wrong turn once or twice.

When the two people's footsteps finally stopped, it was after turning past several small roads in the Er cultural district and entering a particularly lively main road in front of a traffic light.

Waiting for the traffic light.

It didn't change for a long time.

"By the way, is that guy really okay?"

Talia suddenly asked.

She felt that Inoan wasn't right.

She was the one who fought Inoan that day.

Lanche, who was possessed by her, couldn't feel the intensity of the incongruity that filled Inoan's body at all.

Although Lanche and Christina hadn't found any criminal records for Inoan.

But according to Talia's experience, the more this was the case, the more wrong things were.

"I think she's okay. Inoan seems to have serious mental trauma and personality defects, but she's not actually dangerous now. I think I should be able to teach her how to treat others kindly and enter society normally."

Lanche looked at Talia in confusion and said.

"You believe in yourself and believe in others too much. This kind of cognitive pattern is your biggest defect."

Talia had wanted to talk to Lanche about this matter for a long time.

After traveling with him, she found that Lanche's problem was particularly serious.

She knew that Lanche wouldn't quickly categorize Inoan as a certain type of person based on one-sided information. Instead, he would only treat Inoan as a separate individual based on what he saw and felt.

He was right to do so, but that didn't mean he could always be right.

"But, do you think I should be hostile to Miss Lisanthea?"

Lanche hesitated for half a second, stroked the little black cat, and then said to Talia.

"..."

Talia didn't know what to answer for a moment.

Miss Lisanthea, whom they met on the floating airship Floating Castle when they first came to the Flower Capital, was indeed, Lanche's trust and lack of prejudice saved Lisanthea. If it had been someone else, perhaps it wouldn't have been so easy to choose to help Lisanthea, a demon, and a cursed demon, so firmly under the approach of the executioner Nigel.

Now Inoan was the same. Her identity was unknown and she was also full of possibilities.

Lanche still unhesitatingly carried out his previous choice.

Talia could understand Lanche, but she didn't agree with Lanche.

"I finally know why the two of us don't get along."

Talia said.

"Why?"

Lanche asked curiously.

"You always have a kind of mysterious confidence and will pursue the most extreme optimal solution, while I like stability and certainty. The optimal solution is by no means walking a tightrope for me."

Talia's golden eyes looked up and stared straight at him, conveying her thoughts to him.

"You will be decisive when I hesitate, and you will hesitate when I am decisive, so our steps are always out of sync."

Their collaborative card making hadn't made much progress so far.

"I see."

After listening, Lanche nodded with a slightly sluggish look, and also felt that this was indeed the reason.

During this period of time, the two of them had gradually figured out why their cooperation was so poor.

Technically speaking, they both knew each other very well. Logically speaking, they should have become familiar after practicing a few times.

The actual reason was that their thought patterns were mutually exclusive, or rather, they were born to be partners with extremely low compatibility.

If he and Talia didn't give in to each other, or rather, if they didn't agree with each other, then perfect collaborative card making would be absolutely impossible.

"Let's make a bet."

Lanche came back to his senses and simply said this.

He was referring to Inoan's matter.

"Okay, let's see who's right."

Talia didn't need him to explain much, she naturally understood what he meant through telepathy—

Whoever won would be listened to at that time, and the loser would change their pace to accommodate the other party.

"Why does this sound so much like an angel and a devil making a bet, meow?"

The cat boss lay on Lanche's hand, looked back and forth between the two, and listened to Lanche and Talia's discussion.

"I believe that no matter what kind of past she has, I have a way to save her, as long as she gives me this opportunity now."

Lanche firmly believed.

Or rather, this opportunity was more like the goddess of fate giving it to him.

"Then I guess your thoughts will only lead to her destruction, or rather, you can't save her from the beginning. You're not omnipotent, and in the end, there will be people you can't save."

Talia added.

Although Talia had never seen Lanche fail miserably, she was looking forward to it.

She wanted to see Lanche's calm confidence shatter on the ground one day like glass.

(End of chapter)