Raisa’s heart trembled, her pupils contracting sharply.
She raised her hand and touched the spot on her face where the flying needle had grazed, wiping away a drop of blood from her fingertip
Then she looked to the side, at Eliza, who was holding several more needles between her fingers, ready to strike again.
Raisa quickly said, “Wait, Liza, are you misunderstanding something?”
“You think I’m misunderstanding something?” Eliza gave her a sidelong glance, replying with a question of her own.
Raisa said, “Just trust me. I would never go against you.”
“And why should I trust you?” Eliza let out a soft laugh, as if she found her words utterly ridiculous.
She added, “I’ve already nearly died at your hands, more than once, or died because of you. You think I would believe anything you say? Why should! trust you?”
“But everything I did was for your own good! I really didn’t mean to…” Raisa couldn’t help but protest.
“You wanted to drown me in the lake. Was that for my own good too?” Eliza interrupted her furiously, her fingers clenching tightly around the needles.
At those words, Raisa paused, a flicker of guilt flashing in her eyes. She bit her lower lip, struggling to speak.
She managed to say, “Liza, that time… if I said it was an accident… No, that I was momentarily insane, would you believe me?”
“You were insane.” Eliza sneered coldly. “Anyone who tries to kill their own best friend, how is that not madness?”
Raisa gripped her luxurious robes tightly, unsure how to explain that incident. Because back then, she was truly insane.
It was the first and only time she ever genuinely wanted to kill Eliza.
But afterward, she regretted it completely, so much so that she couldn’t even face what she had done.
Especially whenever Eliza brought it up. She always felt completely guilty and couldn’t argue back.
Raisa pleaded, “I don’t know what to say about that time, but everything I did afterwards was for your sake. Truly. I swear, not a word of it is false!”
Seeing Raisa raise her hand to swear, Eliza only found it even more laughable.
She said, “Enough with your nonsense. We had shared kindness, shared friendship, but that’s all in the past. Now, all that’s left between us is hatred.”
Eliza added, “I won’t kill you today. If you want to leave, then go. But you can’t take Sophie’s body.”
Raisa explained, “I know what you’re worried about, but you can rest assured. I’m not trying to bring Sophie back to life. I just need her as a substitute…”
Although Sophie was already dead, she had a way to reconstruct Sophie’s corpse, to make a puppet Sorceress out of it.
If any foreign tribes invaded Bortenland again, Raisa could use this puppet to divert their attention.
“A substitute? A substitute for what?” Eliza stared at Raisa and asked.
But Raisa fell silent.
It wasn’t that Raisa didn’t want to explain. She knew how much Eliza hated Sophie. And knowing that she herself, like Sophie, carried foreign blood and had also become a Sorceress, she dared not speak of it.
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Chapter 704.
Seeing her remain silent, Elira scoffed. “Fine, If you don’t want to say it, I don’t cafe. But thy words are clear. You’re not taking Sophie bo
Raisa opened her mouth, wanting to say more. But seeing Eliza’s increasingly cold gaze, she could only sigh and turn to leave,
Outside the estate. There seemed to be a crowd gathered, likely drawn by the earlier sounds of fighting from within,
But at this moment, no one inside the mansion had time to care.
Raisa, accompanied by her personal maid, left through another exit. Before she departed, she looked back in the direction of the front gates.
As expected, she saw people from the Duke’s estate.
“Your Highness, are you really giving up on that Sorceress’s corpse?” The maid had originally been sent to Raisa by Fletcher. But now, she was loyal only
to Raisa.
Because on the very first day she served close to Raisa, the latter had secretly implanted a parasite into her body.
By the time the maid discovered it, she had already suffered the agony of a fate worse than death. If she dared to act out again, she would be doomed.
As for Fletcher, perhaps he had anticipated that Raisa would do such a thing. But clearly, he didn’t mind.
After all, if his daughter were too stupid, she wouldn’t survive the Imperial Palace, let alone face the foreign tribes.
So, Fletcher wanted her to obey, but not too much.
And Raisa knew exactly what he was thinking, but she didn’t care. More often than not, she was even harder to control than he imagined.
For example, Raisa could have come earlier. Had she arrived earlier, perhaps she could have stopped Sophie from dying at Eliza’s hands.
But she didn’t want to.
In a moment like this, Raisa knew she couldn’t step in and get in Eliza’s way.
Especially not when it came to killing Sophie. If Raisa tried to stop it, Eliza would have hated both her and Sophie together.
Being hated wasn’t the problem. But to be placed on the same level as Sophie was simply disgusting.
Thinking of this, Raisa couldn’t help but frown.
She replied, “The corpse must be retrieved. The puppet must be refined. We just can’t do it head–on.”
Sophie was already dead anyway, and Eliza would surely deal with the body.
If Raisa hadn’t said what she said earlier, Eliza might have already turned the body to blood or burned it. But now, she had spoken.
Raisa knew Eliza’s nature, so she had deliberately left behind bait. A bait Eliza was sure to take.
Using half a corpse to trade for the Henderson family’s secret was a good bargain.
Raisa smiled faintly, then turned and swept away. “Let’s go. Make arrangements. We’re going to ‘steal‘ the body.”
Chapter 705
Chapter 705
