Honestly, Melrose had initially considered keeping the Crystal Ball, but she quickly abandoned the idea. As a member of the royal family, she could never stoop to strong-arming a purchase or pocketing someone else’s belongings.
There was another reason too: Melrose discovered that she had no way to use the Crystal Ball at all. Ximo had ghosted her for the past two days, giving her plenty of time to study it, and she reached the same conclusion as the appraisers at the auction house—this thing didn’t even have a formed Magic Circuit. By all rights, it should have been nothing more than a worthless Magitool.
Yet Melrose had witnessed its power firsthand in the Mist Forest… Perhaps only Ximo could use it now? She recalled how the Crystal Ball had absorbed Ximo’s blood back then. Maybe it was some kind of Magitool forcibly bound to its user.
Since that was the case, keeping it would have been pointless for her. That was why Melrose had made a little tweak to it before handing it back to Ximo.
However, judging by the Crystal Ball’s performance, it really was the Saint-Level Magigear crafted by the Great Sage Gandalf, as recorded in the royal family’s secret annals. She never expected a genuine article to show up at that auction.
Melrose had only learned right before the auction began that one of the items was suspected to be Gandalf’s Saint-Level Magigear, the [Seed of Hephaestus]. Of course, she could have used her royal status to buy it outright, but that would have drawn too much attention.
She couldn’t risk even the slightest leak about the royal family’s secrets, so Melrose had urgently sought out Mira, handing her a large sum of money to act as her proxy buyer… Who knew the girl would manage to lose her bank card on the spot.
Still, the incident had brought her and Ximo into closer contact. Whether that was a blessing or a curse remained to be seen.
As for whether Ximo had bought the item by sheer coincidence or knew some hidden truth, Melrose had no way of knowing. Out of concern for the royal secrets, she couldn’t just ask Ximo outright and had to find other ways to probe.
That was why she tampered with the Crystal Ball… Not out of any malicious intent, but because Melrose, who knew the royal secrets, understood that the Great Sage’s Saint-Level Magigears were incredibly powerful—and dangerously so.
For instance, back in the Mist Forest, without Melrose’s help, Ximo would have been sucked dry and killed on the spot by the Crystal Ball.
So now, the most pressing matter was… to quickly pack away the little toys in the drawer!
Melrose moved swiftly, stuffing everything from the drawer into her bag. The incident with Ximo had served as a wake-up call—not every student feared her, and what if some hotheaded freshman stumbled upon her secret by accident?
Gazing at the assortment of toys in her bag, Melrose fell into deep thought.
…
As the princess of the Roland Empire, Melrose had endured extremely rigorous education from a young age. When she was born, the palace diviners had cast her fortune, declaring that she would grow into a ruler who dominated others.
“You must be the best as the royal heir,” her mother had drilled into her since childhood. Melrose was indeed exceptional; she had never disappointed anyone from start to finish.
Melrose realized she was different from others around the age of eight or nine. One of her personal maids had made a mistake and was harshly scolded by the head maid, who then struck her palms with a switch—the rules for servants in the Royal Palace were naturally even stricter.
Melrose witnessed the whole scene. She watched as the maid’s palms swelled red from the blows, yet she bit her lip, holding back tears without a sound. At that moment, staring at the switch and the maid’s pitiful expression, a strange emotion welled up inside Melrose.
…It felt so good!
From then on, the unusually precocious Melrose realized she was not like normal people.
She felt an impulse—and it was a bit embarrassing to admit—that made her want to do just like the head maid: to see others crying or begging before her… Just thinking about it was thrilling!
Facts proved that Melrose was indeed born to dominate others—in every way.
But the moral and etiquette education she received from childhood made her know from the start that this mindset was wrong. So she suppressed the urge deep inside, never sharing it with anyone.
Yet the desire didn’t vanish. Instead, it grew fiercer with Melrose’s development, especially in her high-pressure upbringing. The more she played the flawless princess, bottling up her emotions, the stronger the impulse became.
Finally, secretly tying up her pet cat in her room for “games” no longer satisfied her. She decided to seek out more entertaining “toys”—of course, without anyone ever finding out.
And so years passed until she entered the Imperial Magic Academy. Her first “toy” was her Student Council senior, Weila.
Even with a “toy,” Melrose never went too far. She only played games in symbolic ways that wouldn’t harm Weila.
Like binding her with thick rope and leaving her on the sofa for placement play, forcing her to hold her breath for a minute, or—at most—using Weila as a chair.
Melrose knew her hobby wasn’t healthy, so she never overdid it. And she compensated Weila in her own ways.
Weila’s father had been diagnosed with a serious illness after she enrolled, and with their family’s finances, they couldn’t afford treatment. Weila had considered dropping out to work several times. Melrose had learned of this and gradually lured her into the trap.
But now, with Ximo as a “prospective toy,” Melrose found her interest in the girl unusually intense. Was it because this little maid was special?
Melrose even worried she might lose control. If she truly turned Ximo into her toy… she might end up doing far more extreme things to her.
…
At that moment, Ximo was back in the dorm, staring wide-eyed at the Crystal Ball she’d retrieved from Melrose.
“A Saint-Level Magigear, the [Seed of Hephaestus]… Yeah, this thing looks pretty high-class, doesn’t it?”
Ximo stopped her second scan with the [Eye of Discernment]. It proved the Crystal Ball was no ordinary item.
“Melrose just handed it back without saying a word?” Meanwhile, Xiliya beside her was focused on something else. “Wasn’t there anything suspicious about her?”
Xiliya had zero trust in Melrose. In her mind, the girl was a scheming little villain.
Pretending to be a pure white lotus in front of everyone, then bullying others behind their backs—she hadn’t forgotten a thing from her past life.
