The monotonous and numbing work seemed to come alive with First Snow’s company.

First Snow wasn’t an annoying kitten. She wouldn’t disturb Adele’s work.

She wouldn’t mischievously knock things off the table.

On the contrary, she would actively massage Adele’s shoulders when she stretched after working for a while.

When Adele was working seriously, First Snow would also do some small tasks within her capabilities.

She would even transform into her cat form, squatting obediently on the computer desk, squinting as if she was dozing off.

In reality, she was doing it so that when Adele got tired of typing, she could reach out and touch her.

 

Because Adele had said that petting First Snow could calm one’s mind and relieve fatigue.

In fact, this wasn’t just Adele’s nonsense, it also had a certain scientific basis.

Scientific research showed that petting cats regularly could make people feel physically and mentally happy, effectively relieve stress and anxiety, and heal sadness.

This was because cute cats satisfied humans’ “nurturing brain” and stimulated the pleasure center of the human brain to secrete dopamine.

Adele could attest that she was indeed a little happier when she petted First Snow!

And the troublesome work quietly came to an end with their mutual company.

Time slowly passed until evening.

 

Adele and First Snow walked hand in hand on their way back to the academy.

From afar, it looked like an older sister taking her younger sister home after school, warm and natural.

First Snow’s little face was flushed, tinged with the color of the sunset.

Adele pretended to be calm as she chatted with her about whether there was really a water monster at the bottom of the school’s lake.

In reality, she would sneak peeks at the cute cat-girl from time to time.

Perhaps it was because of her witch transformation.

Adele felt that her desires… were significantly stronger than in the past.

 

It had probably evolved from suddenly thinking about lewd things every ten hours or so to thinking about lewd things whenever she spaced out!

And the innocent and unguarded First Snow was simply the perfect target for temptation, a pure white lamb!

Hold on, Adele, you have to hold on! Otherwise, you’re a beast!

It was worth mentioning that because First Snow had reached adolescence, according to the natural growth pattern of cat-birds, she could be considered to have just reached adulthood.

In other words, she was fully capable of doing anything an adult could do.

It was just that First Snow’s mental age might not have matured much, she was still as naive and innocent as before.

While Adele was struggling with her desires, First Snow was thinking about the big fish at the bottom of the school’s lake.

 

If there really was a water monster at the bottom of the school’s lake, it would probably be the big fish that she always hoped someone could catch so she could secretly snatch it away.

But she probably wouldn’t be able to snatch it away, meow.

And the fishing enthusiasts in the school, those teachers and professors.

Although they could tolerate First Snow secretly snatching away the small fish they caught.

But if they really caught a big one, and First Snow dared to steal it, they would go to the principal’s house the next day to demand justice.

Even if she wanted to snatch it, she would have to wait until they took pictures and showed off on their social media!

………………

 

Finally back at the academy, Adele couldn’t wait to return to her dorm and have a good night in.

As expected, after work, she didn’t want to do anything troublesome, she just wanted to be lazy and play.

She didn’t have to worry about Li Lige, she had someone Celeste hired to take care of her, and she had also moved to a new place to recuperate to prevent the risk of someone suddenly barging in again.

Adele still vividly remembered the Wen Weiran incident at noon.

However, at that time, she hadn’t expected that Wen Weiran would actually let Li Lige go.

It was just that Adele wanted to go home, but First Snow didn’t.

She expressed to Adele her wish to stay at Adele’s house tonight.

 

Because compared to returning to Xiao Wei’s “castle,” for First Snow, Adele’s small room felt safer and more intimate.

Adele: This doesn’t sound happy at all!

Cats naturally liked to burrow into small spaces.

If you didn’t believe it, just put a cardboard box in front of a cat and see if it would get in.

But faced with First Snow’s preference, Adele’s expression seemed troubled.

After hesitating for a moment, her final response was still a refusal.

Under the setting sun, a cool breeze blew by. First Snow nervously wrung her fingers, looking at Adele, who was looking at her seriously.

 

Adele’s advice also rang in her ears.

“No way, First Snow, you’ve been out long enough.”

“Long enough that even your greedy sister feels uneasy.”

“Of course, sister also wants to continue being with First Snow.”

“But for such a long time, First Snow, I haven’t seen you contact the principal.”

“No matter how you think about it, the principal will be worried about you. You don’t want Xiao Wei to worry, do you, First Snow?”

Adele reasoned with her both emotionally and logically.

 

“Meow!” First Snow let out a pitiful cry, still looking reluctant.

But she actually understood everything Adele said.

After thinking it over and struggling with herself for a while.

First Snow finally lowered her cute cat head and said in a muffled voice,

“…Meow, alright, Adele, take me home, meow…”

“Okay, which way?”

Cromwell Academy covered a vast area, and Adele hadn’t fully explored the entire academy yet, so naturally, she wasn’t very familiar with the roads.

 

It was conceivable how many secrets and past events were hidden in this academy that Adele didn’t know about.

“This way, meow.”

Now it was First Snow’s turn to guide the directionally challenged Adele.

First Snow had been in the academy for a long time. Since Winona became the principal of this academy, she had flown all over the academy with her golden wings, personally measuring every area here.

And the most familiar one was the mansion that the academy specially built for the Stargazer Winona, which was also First Snow’s home.

That mansion could be considered a castle-shaped building.

Adele arrived outside the castle’s estate and opened her mouth wide in envy.

 

“Wow~”

The castle in front of her was quite in line with Adele’s imagination of a mage’s residence.

However, this was precisely what Winona found speechless about.

Because the Magic Association and the academy’s higher-ups had built the villa in a retro castle style for her precisely for this reason.

But in reality, Winona preferred modern high-rise houses.

“Can’t go any further, meow. Xiao Wei’s magic circle will attack strangers, meow!”

Just as Adele wanted to send First Snow further into the estate.

 

First Snow suddenly stopped and nervously explained to Adele.

“Eh, magic circle!?”

First Snow opened her round eyes and nodded.

“Not only Xiao Wei’s house, but there are also many places in the academy with magic circles, meow.”

“But First Snow can go in~”

“As expected of the principal’s cat.”

Adele exclaimed, mistakenly thinking that First Snow could enter because she had some kind of privilege, so everyone had to give her some face.

 

“?”

But First Snow tilted her head, her face full of question marks.

The kitten thought, what did this have to do with Winona, meow?

It was clearly because she could use the short-distance spatial teleportation that only legendary mages could learn.

That was why she could reach places that ordinary people couldn’t.

First Snow had always been very proud of this.

Because even the genius Winona hadn’t learned this type of magic as quickly as First Snow.

 

But she didn’t care about explaining this to Adele or showing off her strength.

On the contrary, she wanted to invite Adele to visit her and Winona’s house!

But Adele would have to wait a little while because First Snow was going to enter the castle first and tell Xiao Wei.

This was the politeness she had learned, meow.

On one side was her friend, and on the other was the important Adele.

In First Snow’s heart, she really hoped that the two could get along well, meow.

It would be best if they could become the legendary “besties” in human relationships. That way, they could pamper First Snow together.

 

With Xiao Wei and Adele’s company, First Snow wouldn’t have to worry about being lonely anymore, meow.

“N-no, next time for sure!”

But Adele showed a clear refusal to First Snow’s proposal.

Not to mention that she had already run away in the next moment, waving to First Snow from afar.

“See you next time, First Snow!”

After saying that, before the dumbfounded First Snow could respond, the girl had already disappeared behind the bushes that served as landscaping in the distance.

Perhaps First Snow had never been a student.

 

So it was hard for her to imagine the fear that Adele, as a student, felt towards the principal from the bottom of her heart.

Generally speaking, there were only two situations where one would see the principal. First, it was to be commended for bringing honor to the school, and second, it was to have caused trouble so big that one was about to be expelled.

Which one would Adele be… well, the answer seemed quite obvious.

But it wasn’t impossible that there were principals who were very close to their students.

Seeing Adele leave, First Snow could only return to the castle where she and Winona lived alone.

But what the kitten didn’t expect was that.

The moment she opened the door.

 

In front of her, Winona, Xiao Wei herself, appeared, having just teleported down from upstairs.

The remnants of magic still lingered in the air, gradually dissipating, forming beautiful patterns.

Magic was extremely beautiful, more than one mage had publicly stated this.

But the current situation didn’t allow First Snow to appreciate the beauty of magic.

Because the expression on Winona’s face was unprecedentedly gloomy and serious.

“First Snow, I haven’t seen you all day.”

“Where did you go? And who were you with?”

 

Winona asked knowingly, hoping to exchange her concealment for First Snow’s honesty.

She could pretend that she didn’t know anything and respect First Snow’s privacy and feelings.

But correspondingly, First Snow should also do what a good kitten should do and confess her whereabouts to Winona.

Winona also hoped to use this to judge whether First Snow had been led astray by staying with Adele all the time.

If First Snow answered honestly, Winona might still give Adele a chance.

But if First Snow lied, it would prove that Winona had to find Adele and have a good talk with her.

It was easy to understand Winona’s feelings. Just imagine a daughter who skipped school, had a puppy love, and her grades dropped.

What would a mother think at this time?

Could she still greet the bad student who had led her daughter astray with a smile?

She would definitely talk to the other party, reason with her, and exercise her parental authority.

Hearing Winona’s stern tone and the serious expression on her face that was far beyond usual, First Snow’s shoulders tensed up nervously.

She had never seen Xiao Wei like this before, meow!

The kitten’s instincts made her want to avoid it subconsciously.

No matter what method she used, whether it was lying or something else.

As long as she could escape Winona’s questioning.

This had nothing to do with Adele, it was purely First Snow’s instinct to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages.

“First Snow, First Snow went to the student council to sleep, meow!”

In her nervousness, First Snow even forgot that the current student council president wasn’t Li Lige, the old softie who would cover for her.

It was the cold and ruthless Wen Weiran!

Of course, the “cold and ruthless” might need to be put in quotation marks now.

Wen Weiran still had a little bit of compassion, otherwise, she wouldn’t have let her senior, Li Lige, go at noon.

But this didn’t change the fact that First Snow’s lie was very clumsy.

Winona’s heart felt like a heavy stone sinking into a lake, endlessly falling towards the dark and deep bottom.

“Are you going to lie again…”

Her voice was so suppressed that it almost trembled, filled with disappointment.

“First Snow, how did you become like this!”

“Meow…!”

“I can’t hear a single word of truth from you, do you know what you’re doing?”

“Not everyone in this world is as naive and innocent as you. They might use you, play with you, both physically and emotionally!”

Winona gripped First Snow’s small shoulders, unable to help but exert the force she wanted her to understand, making First Snow bare her teeth, clearly feeling the pain.

First Snow’s mind was completely in turmoil, and she started speaking without thinking.

The result was that the lies she wanted to tell didn’t come out, and the truths she told wouldn’t be believed.

“No… Adele wouldn’t bully First Snow!”

As mentioned before, if First Snow even forgot to use her “meow” verbal tic, it meant that she was really sad.

Sad that Xiao Wei misunderstood Adele.

Why did Adele have to suffer such injustice?

And why did she… have to suffer such injustice!

She did lie, so what, meow!

She only went to Adele because she was bored and lonely.

Adele didn’t bully her, she was very good to her!

She just accompanied her to work, why did Xiao Wei look like she had done something wrong and had to explain herself and accept punishment!

Moreover, wasn’t it precisely because Xiao Wei didn’t accompany her!

Xiao Wei… big dummy, meow!

“Are you still arguing?”

Winona clearly didn’t believe First Snow’s words.

She didn’t believe Adele either.

Under her piercing gaze, First Snow’s emotions uncontrollably spiraled towards a breakdown.

“Dummy! Dummy Xiao Wei! Sob, meow!”

“I’m never talking to Xiao Wei again, meow!”

The moment her tearful words fell, First Snow erupted with a power that even Winona found surprising. Surging magic patterns distorted the space.

And First Snow disappeared among the magic patterns.

She opened a portal and hid in her little nest, sealing off all ways to enter, too sad to control herself.

“Pitter-patter.”

Winona looked down in a daze.

She found that it was a teardrop, the wet trace falling on the floor, both glaring and heartbreaking.

An inexplicable sadness welled up in Winona’s chest, and she couldn’t say a word for a long time.

First Snow had hidden herself.

And she would never see Xiao Wei again…

………………

Was she really wrong?

Darkness completely enveloped the sky. Winona’s private office didn’t even have the lights on, only a few magic world vessels emitted a faint, constant glow.

They were priceless, but they couldn’t even get a glance from Winona.

This legendary mage, who was worshipped and admired by countless people, could only hold her forehead in pain like a helpless “mother” who couldn’t get along with her child, her flaxen hair messy, and her eyes stinging.

She had tried knocking on First Snow’s door.

There was no response from inside, only low whimpers that were heartbreaking.

They had been together for so many years, and it wasn’t like they had never had conflicts and arguments before.

But it had never been as serious as today. In the past, either First Snow would apologize, or she would coax her, and First Snow would obediently reconcile with her.

Only this time, First Snow’s attitude made Winona start to worry, even despair.

But from Winona’s perspective, as the principal, she could access a lot of information about Adele.

Naturally, she also knew about Adele’s ambiguous relationships with many Sequence One vampires.

Those incidents made it hard for Winona not to be prejudiced against Adele.

But prejudice was prejudice.

If in the current situation, even she couldn’t open First Snow’s door, but Adele could…

Winona’s heart ached.

Then she was willing to put aside her prejudice and have a proper, formal meeting with this student, whose image in her mind had already fallen into the negative.

If it was really a misunderstanding, Winona wouldn’t hesitate to apologize.

Even though her status was so lofty.

Compared to First Snow’s friendship.

It was worthless.

Winona took a deep breath, as if making up her mind.

She picked up the phone and dialed a number.

About five minutes later, Adele was happily playing games in her dorm.

But from downstairs, there was a sudden, urgent knock on the door.

It broke the silence of the night, startling the crows into flight.

A bad premonition filled Adele’s heart.

She hurriedly closed the game and walked downstairs with uneasy steps…