Filed to story: A Little Princess's Journey from Darkness to Light Novel
“She left.”
That surprised Lilly. “Don’t we need to catch her?”
“She can no longer harm anyone. Her soul will vanish from the earth even if we don’t catch her. Let her be.”
The ghostly infants would have to be temporarily kept in the jar of souls. They would be free to go once the opportunity for them to reincarnate arrived!
Lilly nodded. “Okay.”
There was a knock on the door. Bettany walked in to scold the girl for not sleeping yet and offered to read her a bedtime story.
The little girl obediently got into bed and listened to Bettany read her a story until she finally fell asleep.
Bettany gently ruffled Lilly’s hair and wanted to kiss the child on her forehead but found herself unable to do so.
She couldn’t stand up, and Lilly was already asleep.
“Ah, old age is catching up with me.” Bettany gave her granddaughter reluctant looks. “Who knows how long I can remain by your side, this old bag of bones…?”
Pablo leaned against the wall as he watched the sleeping child.
The kid must want to know who her father is.
It was only natural for her to be hurt after being called a bastard so viciously.
“Looking for your Dad, huh…” Pablo took out his booklet. “That’s easy to find out. All I need is ten seconds.”
He concentrated his energy on opening the latter half of the booklet that he usually couldn’t reach.
The veins on his forehead rippled from the strain until he finally turned to the page that belonged to Lilly.
“Damn… It’s going to drain all my energy if I do this every time unless it opens by itself…”
Despite his painstaking efforts to open it, the column where her biological parents were listed read, “Mother – Jean Crawford and Father – N/A”.
“…”
“F*ck!”
He closed the booklet and rubbed his nose bridge. He cleared his throat lightly. “Never mind. You don’t need to know who your father is. It’s information we don’t require.”
Meanwhile, Lilly was fast asleep.
She dreamt that she was surrounded by a thick fog, where she could barely discern the shadows of a forest in the distance.
“Over here, Lilly,” a deep, soothing voice called out.
“Daddy?” She blurted out and hurried towards the direction of the forest. However, no matter how hard she tried, her destination never seemed to get any closer.
Exhausted, she collapsed onto the floor when laughter echoed in her ears. “Hehe.”
This frightened her. As soon as she turned around, she was greeted by an old woman wearing a green Victorian ball gown. The elderly woman was laughing.
“Are you looking for your Daddy? I know who he is. Let me tell you…”
The old woman reached out…
This immediately startled Lilly awake.
It was the weekend the very next day. Drake and Josh Crawford were generally disciplined by nature and woke up at 7. Zachary and Hannah, on the other hand, were not morning people and would not wake up unless they were hungry.
Josh was in the study on the first floor, sitting upright on a chair with a serious expression on his face.
“Magnetic induction… B=F/IL…” Josh mumbled to himself. “If B is the force of the magnetic induction and the magnetic flux required to be on a supernatural frequency is phi… and B and F is…”
Drake, who was sitting opposite Josh reading Shakespeare, looked up from his book. What was Josh calculating?! Drake wondered.
“Are you waiting for Lilly?” Drake asked. Josh usually preferred to stay in his own room since there was a large desk for him to work on his mathematical equations.
“Of course not,” Josh responded without looking up.
Drake smirked as he tapped on his cellphone. “You said yesterday you weren’t looking for her either, but I caught you going over to her room!” he
Josh’s ears turned red, but he did not crack. “Which eye of yours saw me going into her room? I wasn’t looking for her. I just happened to pass by her room.”
Drake refused to let his younger brother off the hook. He turned his cell phone screen in Josh’s direction and shoved it in his face roughly, accidentally hitting him on the cheek.
“Argh!” Josh cried out in annoyance and pain. “Fine, so what if I did look for her?” Josh had no qualms turning to Lilly for help since she was a genius. In fact, if Drake found out just how much of a genius Lilly was, he might even compete for her attention. No, Lilly was his! Josh eyed Drake warily before grabbing his math textbook and moving to the other end of the sofa.
Drake thought Josh was being ridiculous and sensitive, as if he would even be interested in Lilly. Was that even possible? Drake scoffed as he restrained himself from rolling his eyes at his brother.
Just then, Lilly appeared at the bottom of the staircase, hugging Bunny in one arm and rubbing her eyes sleepily with the other. Josh immediately closed the math textbook he was reading upon noticing Lilly. “Lils, you’re up!” he exclaimed.
Drake barely lifted his head from his book despite overhearing Josh. Wow, he gave her a nickname already? Drake thought to himself.
Lilly looked dazed and unfocused, and her hair became even more disheveled as she let out a loud sneeze.
“Why didn’t you sleep a little longer?” Josh asked.
“Mmm…” Lilly pouted as she looked in Josh’s direction. “A ghost scared me, and then I couldn’t go back to sleep…”
Josh couldn’t help but recall the fierceness in Lilly’s eyes when she caught the ghost last night. How could she still be afraid of one?
Just as Josh was about to offer Lilly some words of comfort, he noticed Drake looking at her intently with a curious glint in his eye.
Josh resisted the urge to give her a hug. Instead, he simply patted her on the shoulder stonily as he said, “There’s no such thing… Ghosts are nothing to be afraid of.” He was just about to say that there were no such things as ghosts, but he knew better now.
Old Mrs. Crawford appeared from the kitchen carrying a tray of food. “Lilly, you’re up early!” the old lady said as she noticed Lilly with the boys.
“Granny!” Lilly squealed as her vision came into focus. “I’m hungry.”
“Oh? It seems hunger is the only thing that can wake you up, silly girl,” the old lady chuckled heartily. “Come, try some of these buns fresh out of the oven!”
“I’ll brush my teeth first!” Lilly exclaimed as she ran up the stairs two at a time.
Josh closed his textbook and went over to help Old Mrs. Crawford set up the table for breakfast. Drake watched all of this in amusement. Josh never let anything distract him when he was focused on his arithmetic calculations. He probably wouldn’t even move in the event of an earthquake, and yet here he was helping Granny arrange the breakfast table just for Lilly.
Drake shrugged as he walked over to help his brother. Typically, chores like these were done by a servant, and as the young master of the Crawford family, Drake never had to lift a finger. Family meals at the Crawford home were never like this. Back then, once the dining table was set up by the servant, the Crawfords would each sit down quietly to finish their meal and go about their own way once they were done. Drake had gotten used to the cold detachment of the entire ritual.
As he heard Lilly’s excited footsteps barreling down the stairs, he couldn’t help but think to himself how much had changed since their little sister entered their lives. All of a sudden, she didn’t seem so irritating anymore.
As Lilly rushed down the stairs, she missed a step and found herself in mid-air for a few seconds before landing on the ground with a loud crash. As she lay motionless on the ground, a parrot appeared from behind her, spreading its wings wide and shaking its little head. Instead of stopping where Lilly was, the parrot perched itself on Lilly’s head.
Drake let out a cackle as he watched the entire scene unfold. “What an idiot!” he muttered.
Lilly grabbed at her head. “Polly, you’re stepping on me!!” she grumbled.
Polly immediately hopped off Lilly’s head onto the ground and scampered around in circles. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry! One more time! One more time!” the parrot squawked repeatedly, only to be met by Lilly’s death stare.
Josh immediately rushed to Lilly’s aid, lending her a hand to help her stand up. “Are you alright? Does it hurt?” Josh’s voice was concerned.
Lilly shook her head. “Nope. Pfft, that’s nothing!”
Josh couldn’t hold back his laughter. “Well, that’s quite a skill you have there!” he chuckled.
A lightbulb went off in Lilly’s mind. She finally realized what she possessed – it was skill! When she lived with the Hatchers, nobody bothered to talk to her, so she had to play pranks to get someone’s attention. Now, she was a brilliant prodigy who could learn new words and acquire new skills in seconds! She was only going to become more skilled from now on!
As Old Mrs. Crawford brought a tray of pasta to the table, Drake approached to take the tray from her. “Granny, just let the servants do their job,” he said flatly.
“It’s alright, Drake. It’s good exercise for me anyway,” Old Mrs. Crawford smiled. She enjoyed cooking and had been personally preparing meals for the family lately. The servants and cooks had rearranged the kitchen layout so that Old Mrs. Crawford could move around easily with her weak legs. On today’s menu were spaghetti bolognese, hot cross buns, blueberry muffins, and chocolate milk.
Lilly took a big bite of the hot cross bun and squealed with delight. Even a plain bun like that tasted so delicious!
