The next day, Fors, who had only been asleep for a short while, was awakened by Susie's repeated urging.
She struggled out of bed, dark circles clearly visible beneath her eyes. Tucking the manuscript she had spent all night revising and organizing under her arm, she yawned and walked out of the room.
"Didn't you sleep well last night?"
In the dining room on the first floor, Audrey, who was already preparing to enjoy breakfast, looked curiously at the listless Fors coming downstairs.
Fors subconsciously reached up and scratched her head. Looking at the strands of hair that had fallen between her fingers again, she smiled bitterly. "I stayed up late last night. I didn't fall asleep until early morning."
As she spoke, she took out the manuscript tucked beneath her arm and neatly placed it in front of Audrey.
Audrey asked, "What's this?"
"The new story I revised last night according to your suggestions."
She had stayed up until dawn precisely to get this done. It could be considered her formal apology to Miss Audrey.
"Oh. Let's eat breakfast first."
Audrey merely glanced at it before quickly withdrawing her gaze and focusing on the food before her. Fors wasn't sure if her eyes were playing tricks on her, but she seemed to have seen Miss Audrey's cheeks turn red just now, with an inexplicable trace of shyness in her eyes.
It must have been her imagination. Fors still chose to doubt her own eyes.
After quickly finishing breakfast, Fors returned to her room to catch up on sleep.
Audrey finally turned her attention back to the neatly organized stack of manuscript pages on the table.
Her gaze wandered slightly. Thinking about what had happened last night, her cheeks gradually turned red and warm.
She didn't know why she had said those things last night.
Originally, she had intended to chat with Fors, but after seeing the novel Fors was writing, she forgot that purpose and instead became concerned about the contents of the story.
After only a brief look, she could tell that the male and female protagonists were modeled after herself and Mr. Hastur.
With a complicated mixture of novelty, excitement, and happiness, she finished reading the story. She then disagreed with many of the plot developments and unconsciously began discussing with Fors how they should be revised.
Only after they finished discussing those matters did she belatedly come to her senses and realize that there seemed to be something wrong with her words and actions.
It seemed she had put herself in the place of the story's heroine and had even begun empathizing with her.
The moment she remembered that the story was based on herself and Mr. Hastur, her face grew burning hot.
"It's just an ordinary novel. The characters are all fictional. There's no need to care so much about it."
Audrey explained this to herself inwardly, then stood up and carried the manuscript back to her room.
Inside the room, Susie leisurely approached Audrey, who was seriously reading through the manuscript. She worked hard to place her two front paws on the edge of the chair and stretched her body upward, trying to see clearly what Audrey was reading.
When it came to reading, she had no intention of letting Audrey surpass her.
But before she could catch sight of the manuscript's contents, Audrey flipped her hand and closed it. Turning her head slightly toward Susie, she said seriously, "This is Miss Fors' secret work. It isn't suitable for you to read."
"Audrey, I think I can read it."
"No. It's unsuitable. You can't read it."
"All right..." Faced with Audrey's firm attitude, Susie could only give up on the idea of sneaking a glance at the manuscript. "Audrey, can you tell me what it's about?"
Audrey thought for a moment before saying with a solemn expression, "It's about a man and a woman."
"..." This time, Susie truly couldn't understand.
Audrey had no intention of explaining it to her. She simply told Susie not to disturb her while she continued reading.
After watching Susie leave the room and lie down by the doorway, Audrey reopened the manuscript and continued reading with flushed cheeks, the corners of her lips slightly raised.
It wasn't until close to noon that Audrey finally closed the manuscript in satisfaction, softly humming a beautiful melody. However, she soon furrowed her brows slightly.
She felt that the novel was still too short. It should be longer so that it would be more interesting to read, and there were still many things that hadn't been written about.
For example, after the male and female protagonists confessed their feelings to each other and entered the halls of marriage, there would still be plenty of things to write about.
There were also too few adventures. Fors could add more scenes that deepened their relationship and had them relying on each other.
"It seems Miss Fors still needs to keep writing. But she's so lazy and just stayed up all night. Wouldn't that be a little unfair to her?"
.Audrey thought for a while and soon came up with a solution
She could pay Miss Fors to write. According to what Miss Fors herself had revealed, she normally only earned a few hundred gold pounds a year from writing novels.
Audrey could take out 500 gold pounds and directly hire her to write for an entire year.
That way, she could have her write some other stories as well. The male and female protagonists could first spend time together, then slowly fall in love with each other. There could also be many other interesting setups.
Or they could continue using the original male and female protagonists and turn the story into a series of novels.
Audrey seriously pondered for a while longer, and her mood became cheerful again. Her gaze inadvertently swept toward Susie, who was guarding the doorway, only to discover that Susie was staring at her with profound eyes.
"Susie, peeking at someone is impolite," Audrey said with a stern little face.
Susie's eyes revealed the focused expression of a wise person encountering a difficult problem. "Audrey, I'm just curious why your mood can change so quickly?"
"It's a secret."
Audrey had no intention of discussing it with Susie for the time being. She needed to go find Miss Fors and unleash Miss Audrey's temptation of gold pounds.
...
Fors had just finished catching up on sleep and was still somewhat groggy when she heard Miss Audrey's request.
She couldn't clearly remember the specific details, but she distinctly remembered that Miss Audrey wanted to give her 500 gold pounds as payment for her writing.
Five hundred gold pounds! That was an enormous sum of money!
Fors instantly became wide awake and readily agreed to Miss Audrey's request.
Wasn't it just writing some novels? That was her specialty.
Still, she couldn't help but wonder inwardly. Would someone like Miss Audrey really be so fond of romance novels?
"By the way, Miss Audrey, are we going to visit Mr. Hastur this afternoon?"
"Not for now."
"Then when are we going back to Backlund? It's almost New Year."
"Let's stay here for New Year. Mm, Mr. Hastur won't be returning to Backlund this year either."
"All right." Fors nodded helplessly. She guessed that Miss Audrey was probably yearning for freedom.
"Then I'll ask Xio to come here for New Year too. Otherwise, leaving her all alone in Backlund would be far too pitiful."
Fors didn't delay. She prepared to summon a spirit world messenger and quickly send the message to Backlund.
"Will there be enough time? Even if she starts traveling by steam train right now, she won't be able to get here within three days, right?" Audrey reminded her from the side.
"That seems to be true..." The light in Fors' eyes immediately dimmed, but she quickly thought of a solution.
She could ask Mr. Hastur for help.
The next day, when Audrey and Fors came to visit, Hastur was in his study assigning tasks to Caius.
Since the Loen royal family wanted to target him, he couldn't be bothered to hide anymore. He might as well take control of the entirety of Southville County.
At present, nearly all the naval officers stationed along the coast of Southville County were his people. This had been accumulated through one accident and coincidence after another.
Combined with the powerful memory-altering abilities possessed by members of the Yellow-robed Monks, the loyalty of these people could be guaranteed.
Hastur wasn't afraid of the Loen royal family alone. What concerned him more were the Churches of the three gods standing behind them.
Even now, investigators from the three major Churches were still stationed outside Puning Harbor. They were probably waiting for orders from their headquarters.
That suited him just fine. He also wanted to see what attitude the Evernight Goddess, the Lord of Storms, and the God of Steam and Machinery would have toward believers of the Stars.
After finishing his business, Hastur had Caius leave first before heading to the first-floor hall to receive Audrey and Fors.
After hearing Fors' request, he told her to go find Caius and have him arrange the matter.
Bringing Xio to Southville County before New Year wasn't particularly difficult. If Hastur were willing to do it himself, he could use a Traveler's abilities to bring Xio here in less than an hour.
But he didn't want to busy himself with such a matter, so he simply had a member of the Yellow-robed Monks make the trip for him.
After Fors left, only Audrey and Hastur remained alone together.
Looking at Mr. Hastur before her, Audrey couldn't help thinking about the novel Fors had written. The tips of her ears became tinged with a faint blush.
In the past, she had always been able to face Mr. Hastur calmly. But now, she felt somewhat flustered inside, along with many emotions that were difficult to put into words.
She took a sip of tea to suppress the complicated emotions in her heart, then casually glanced around as if it were nothing unusual.
"Is Miss Sharon not here today?"
"She isn't very accustomed to interacting with people."
"I see. Is Miss Sharon also a Beyonder? She gives off a very special feeling, like a delicate and beautiful doll-like girl."
"Mm. She opened the door to the Beyonder world earlier than either of us."
"Did you meet while adventuring outside?" Audrey lowered her head slightly and took another sip of hot tea.
"Sharon used to live in Backlund as well."
Seeing that Audrey seemed very interested in Sharon, Hastur began telling her how he had first met Sharon. However, he only gave a simple account without going too deeply into the details.
He couldn't exactly tell her that Sharon liked hiding inside mirrors and that he would then keep her against his chest.
Such words would sound a little too ambiguous, whether to Sharon or Audrey.
Audrey listened with great interest. Just as she was becoming absorbed in the story, Hastur suddenly stopped speaking. His gaze passed over her and turned toward the staircase behind her.
Audrey followed Hastur's gaze.
There, standing on the staircase, was Miss Sharon, the person who supposedly didn't like interacting with others. At this moment, she was holding the docile and obedient Ariella in her arms.
Their gazes briefly met.
At that moment, Audrey had a feeling.
Miss Sharon had appeared because of her arrival.