Stellar Echo: Heart of the Myst-Chapter 158: VOL 2 - 103: You did a magnificent job.

Seeing that the situation was turning in her favor, Liliana quickly began hurling her spells at full force and speed. Unfortunately, the enemy team had already withdrawn, and under Christine's direction, they no longer fell for Ethan's tricks. The remaining twelve stood together while Christine glared at Liliana, filled with rage.

Up in the air, Liliana let out a heavy breath as she looked at the enemy group. At that moment, Ethan's figure materialized beside her, looking quite pale and haggard, so she swiftly cast a healing spell while speaking rapidly and moving away, as Christine's group's barrage of attacks rained down once more.

"Luminous Rebirth. Why are you here? Did you fail to enter the palace?" Liliana asked anxiously as she dodged the spells together with Ethan, to which he responded with a small smile on his face—though, given his worn-out appearance, he looked quite pitiful.

"Not at all. The group is about to get into the palace. They just need a few more minutes to solve a small puzzle, but I couldn't live with myself if I let Disciple Faye stay here fighting alone, so I volunteered to buy some time."

"Hahaha, you're quite the fool, but I like you. And since you're here, let's teach those bastards a lesson."

After laughing genuinely in amusement, Liliana spoke with a charming smile on her face. At that moment, the halo above her head began to crack—a clear sign that the potion's effect was wearing off.

"Hahaha, absolutely."

With renewed enthusiasm, Ethan and Liliana split up and charged head-on at Christine's group with everything they had, ready to at least take down as many enemies as possible and finish off that blue-haired harlot. They pushed their exhausted bodies to the limit, unleashing a pandemonium of explosions and screams throughout the cave.

...

Some time later, in the middle of the now completely devastated cave—marked with massive craters and battle scars everywhere—Christine stood, utterly unscathed without a single wound on her body, panting heavily. She slowly turned her head to look at the eight people remaining beside her, an expression of rage and indignation twisting her beautiful face. Then she shouted in a hoarse voice.

"How is it possible that that damn prude bitch Liliana could've done so much damage?!!!"

The men, covered in wounds, dirty, battered, and practically drained of mana—a testament to the grueling fight they had just endured—remained silent with their heads bowed, silently enduring Christine's furious reprimand. This seemed to infuriate her even more, as the seductive woman began to scream even louder.

"Say something, you useless bastards!!!! Why do you think I keep you around? Why do I take care of a bunch of miserable assholes who can't even handle a measly 50-year-old prissy whore?!! Huh?!!! Speak!!!"

While screaming hysterically, Christine stomped the ground repeatedly, causing her massive, round breasts—barely covered by her modified version of the university uniform—to bounce enticingly. Inevitably, several men's eyes were drawn to those tempting "fruits", gazing upon them with longing in their eyes.

"YOU SONS OF BITCHES!!! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE LOOKING AT?! YOU THINK YOU EVEN HAVE THE RIGHT TO LOOK AT ME?!! WHOEVER DARES TO LOOK AT ME AGAIN, I'LL TEAR OUT YOUR EYES WITH MY OWN HANDS!!"

Noticing their lecherous stares, Christine shouted at the top of her lungs, completely beside herself, which made her ample chest jiggle even more seductively. The men quickly averted their gazes, too terrified to ogle the captivating sight again.

After all, they knew who this woman was—and worse yet, who her mother was—so they understood that while mother and daughter wouldn't literally gouge their eyes out, in the Arcane Order no one was foolish enough to anger the Court. They still had many ways to make one wish for death, condemning them to a life where they wouldn't dare be more than a few blocks from a police station, especially considering who the seductive girl's master was.

"Hmph, damned cowards."

Seeing the men duck their heads like ostriches, Christine snorted with contempt, then took several deep breaths, which caused her voluptuous, tempting bosom to rise and fall alluringly. She was trying to calm her erratic emotions and recover a bit of her nearly depleted stamina and mana. She felt too nauseous from all the potions used to take yet another one and recover quickly.

After a few deep breaths, Christine managed to calm down enough for her expression to return to normal: one naturally filled with seduction and flirtation. At that moment, with a slight smile on her lips, she spoke sweetly, as though her earlier outburst had never happened.

"Well, my boys, let's recover from our wounds. It's very likely that those prudes' group can't get past the palace, so we'll have to wait five hours until it reopens. The best we can do is set up a makeshift camp and prepare defenses in case any other straggling team enters this area."

Christine's sweet voice echoed through the cave, prompting sighs of relief from the injured men. They lifted their heads to watch the blue-haired beauty, only to see her heading toward a spot a bit farther from the palace.

The way she walked could only be described as a dance of seduction—her hips swaying gracefully and sensually, making the miniskirt covering her plump rear flutter in the air and evoking a provocative, erotic sensation, almost like some kind of invitation.

...

...

...

In the middle of a beautiful private room with white walls and a marble floor, adorned with elegant furniture and shelves full of books—oozing a feeling of both luxury and comfort—there was a huge bed draped in silk sheets. Out of nowhere, a gorgeous young woman with wavy brown hair and mesmerizing blue eyes materialized on it.

Appearing on the bed, Liliana took a moment to glance around, then began to check her condition. She realized she was fully healed and brimming with energy, as if her desperate battle had been nothing more than a dream. This made her sigh a bit in disappointment before murmuring to herself in a complicated tone.

"It's a shame that bitch is still 'alive'. But oh well, at least we took out a good number of those lapdogs, so it wasn't a total loss..."

Stretching a little, savoring a pleasant feeling of comfort as though she had just woken from a cozy sleep, Liliana got out of bed and walked to the beautiful mahogany door of the room. She opened it to reveal a lovely living area with a rug on the floor, elegant black leather sofas, and a black wooden dining set.

But to Liliana's surprise, seated on one of the sofas was Eleonora, who was elegantly sipping tea from a white porcelain cup adorned with silver designs while reading a book in silence. She exuded an almost aristocratic aura, full of elegance and authority.

"Master!!!"

Liliana exclaimed happily at the sight of her master and ran over to greet her, but upon reaching her, she stopped short as her expression changed drastically. Doubt and guilt overwhelmed her, after all, during the tournament she hadn't accomplished anything and instead had left through the back door upon being disqualified—a complete embarrassment for her master.

Seeing Liliana so filled with doubts and sadness, Eleonora set down her teacup on a small table beside her and lifted her gaze from her book. A maternal smile full of pride for her young disciple's growth graced her beautiful face. Speaking in a cheerful voice, she said while placing the book aside.

"Come, Liliana, sit with your master."

Hearing her master's words, Liliana hesitated for a moment as she watched Eleonora pat the spot next to her on the sofa. But after seeing the lovely smile on her face, Liliana slowly walked over and sat down. Then she began to apologize with her head lowered and a voice laden with genuine remorse and shame.

"I'm sorry, Master. I failed you. I couldn't secure a slot for the ruins' exploration..."

"Fufufu, don't be silly."

Seeing how her disciple was acting, Eleonora let out a pleasant laugh and commented as she placed one hand on the sad girl's shoulder, gently pulling her so she could rest her head on her lap. At that moment, Eleonora began to lovingly stroke Liliana's long, wavy hair, resembling a caring mother comforting her little daughter, all while speaking in a soft and affectionate voice.

"You did a magnificent job—no less than I'd expect from my disciple."

Eleonora's warm caresses and tender words filled Liliana's heart with a profound feeling of care, affection, and peace, which inevitably caused her face to flood with tears. She began explaining through her sobs, filled with sorrow and regret.

"I wanted to win, master. I wanted to go on that exploration and achieve something great, to make you proud of me, to prove that choosing me as your disciple wasn't a mistake. But I failed you, master. I was wrong to become your disciple. I'm just a useless failure, a stain on your reputation as a Master. You made a mistake choosing me...

"Desmond is already a famous artificer and mage, publicly regarded as the best of his generation. Even Erik is stronger than me now; he has dazzling academic achievements, and I'm sure he secured a spot on the exploration. I'm the only one who failed. I'm a failure. I don't deserve to be your disciple, Master. Please forgive me. I don't deserve to be called a genius. I've brought you nothing but shame, master. I'm just a pathetic loser who tarnished your reputation..."

Liliana poured out her grief and frustrations on her master's lap, crying inconsolably. Eleonora simply let her vent while gently stroking her hair with motherly affection, lovingly and carefully, until Liliana's voice gradually subsided into tearful sobs.

"You know, Liliana, Desmond couldn't become an artificer until he was 150 years old, and he even failed the exam twice. He was so sad and disheartened after failing the first time that he cried like a little kid for an entire afternoon..."

With Liliana's sorrowful sobs as a sort of backdrop, Eleonora spoke in a soft, calm voice, accompanied by a small, nostalgic smile on her face. She began to wipe the tears from her little disciple's face with a white handkerchief she drew from her storage ring, and, without pausing, continued.

"But that was nothing compared to when he failed the second time. Back then, he wanted to give it all up and return home in defeat, calling himself a fraud and a disgrace to his family. But in the end, he didn't give up. He carried on, refining his technique, his mana control, his theory—everything he could, for nearly fifty years—so he could try a third time. And he finally passed the exam with the highest grade possible."

Eleonora's voice revealed the pride she felt for her first disciple, while her mind wandered through memories of that time—something that seemed incredibly distant, yet at the same time felt like it had happened only yesterday. Quickly, though, her expression turned a bit complicated as she continued.

"But he was much better than me, you know? Back then, terrified of failing, I didn't dare to take the exam until I was two hundred years old. Just imagine that: a two-hundred-year-old Illuminated-Skilled, someone everyone praised as the greatest genius in history, completely petrified by a simple basic one-star artificer exam.

"The most embarrassing part was that even after studying so hard so I wouldn't look bad—practicing until exhaustion, over and over—I barely managed to pass the exam with the most mediocre grade possible. And honestly, I didn't even deserve that grade. They gave it to me to protect my reputation as a 'once-in-an-era genius'. If it weren't for that, maybe I wouldn't even be an artificer today."

Hearing her master's story, Liliana lifted her head, utterly astonished. She couldn't believe what Eleonora was telling her, with a loving smile on her face. After all, her master was the great Master Silverwood, one of the greatest geniuses in human history and, more importantly, one of the finest artificers in the entire galaxy.

She was someone who couldn't be left out when naming the best of the best—the mother of Runic-Geometric Refinement, the most revolutionary breakthrough in at least a million years in the field of artificery. But Eleonora went on, her soft smile never leaving her lips.

"No matter who you are, or how good you think you are, defeats and failures are a constant in life. Nobody is exempt from that, and therefore, it's not something you can run from—nor something to fear. For that very reason, you didn't do anything in the tournament to shame me or tarnish my reputation, as you say. On the contrary, in that tournament you showed me that I made the right choice in taking you on as my disciple.

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"In the tournament, you demonstrated your intelligence, adaptability, your vast array of spells, and most importantly, your courage and guts. You fought till the very end like a lioness, paving the way, so your teammates could take the next step and repaying your 'younger brother's' debt. So if you did anything in that tournament, it was to make me feel immensely proud. You are everything I hoped for—and more—from someone I raised with my own hands."

***

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