Luciana Auxesis Theodoro de Montefio.
The true-blue heiress of the Montefio family, one of New Eridu's old money dynasties, was currently under glorious house arrest.
They called it 'confinement,' but really, it was just being grounded. They hadn't even taken away her computer or phone, and right now, she was on a call with a classmate.
"Miss Luciana, thank you for sticking up for me in front of Jacqueline at school the other day."
Alice's voice was a little timid, but it carried a sincere weight.
"Don't worry about it. I've had it with that girl for a while now. Her Holiness of the Sacred Heart Bat—thanks to that incident, Jacqueline even gave me a pretty cool nickname."
Although Jacqueline's goal was to slander Lucy, her high-society upbringing meant that the most vicious nickname she could come up with was completely toothless. It was so cute it made Lucy want to laugh.
"But Miss Luciana, are you really going to drop out of school to become a Hollow Investigator?"
After expressing her thanks, Alice hesitated for a long time before finally mustering the courage to voice the question on her mind.
"Alice! I've already told you, this is my dream! I'm not giving up on it!"
Lucy's words were filled with unshakable conviction; nothing could sway her determination.
"But... but as a student, shouldn't you be focusing on completing your studies? Isn't it a bit too bold to just plan on leaving without any kind of formal notice?"
Alice's voice was still faint, laced with panic at Lucy's audacious decision, like a frightened little rabbit.
Oh, wait. To be precise, as a Rabbit Thiren, Alice was a little rabbit.
Looking at the ever-timid Alice, Lucy felt a surge of exasperation.
"Alice, my old man isn't like yours. To stop me from becoming a Hollow Investigator, he's been giving me the cold shoulder for a long, long time."
When it came to her father, who frankly just wanted to chain her to the family, Lucy didn't even want to pretend to be pleasant.
"Let's not even talk about other things. If you told Mr. Lionel that you didn't want to continue as a scholar in the Ether Industry and wanted to do something else, would he get angry and ground you?"
"But, as the heir to the Thymefield family, I should continue my research related to the Ether Industry. I don't want to pursue any other career."
Faced with this earnest little rabbit, Lucy felt like she was about to have a breakdown, but she pressed on according to her own temperament:
"Argh... I can't take you anymore! If! I'm saying if! If you wanted to change careers, say you wanted to become the world's greatest fencing master and travel the world, would Mr. Lionel stop you?"
Hearing this, one of Alice's ears drooped while the other stood straight up. She thought about it seriously for a moment before shaking her head.
"My father... he certainly wouldn't stop me. Instead, he would give me his wholehearted support. But it's precisely because of that that I have to give my all to become a worthy Ether scholar of the Thymefield family."
Hearing Alice's words, Lucy nodded in satisfaction.
"See? But that old geezer in my house, he's been hitting me with a cycle of scoldings, verbal abuse, the cold shoulder, and confinement, all with the goal of making me give up my dream and obediently become the family heir."
Lucy glanced around the room. The exquisite and noble decor showed that even under confinement, she lacked for nothing material.
But Lucy couldn't care less about this so-called comfortable life.
"Everything he provides is just a means to tie me to this family. It really makes me feel like I'm nothing more than a canary he's keeping in a cage."
The stark difference between their families made Alice realize how different they were. She lowered her head slightly and stopped trying to persuade her.
She had only made this call after her father had encouraged her to work up the courage. Seeing how resolute Lucy was, Alice understood that continuing to argue would just be irresponsibly projecting her own views onto Luciana.
Although Lucy's Montefio family absolutely crushed the scholar-born Thymefield family in terms of financial power, their fortunes were completely reversed when it came to emotional and spiritual wealth.
"Let's not talk about that anymore, it's just depressing. But speaking of Mr. Lionel, has he still had no luck finding that person in white armor who called himself a Hunter, the one he's been looking for all these years?"
At the mention of this, both of Alice's normally perky ears drooped dejectedly.
"No, Father is constantly searching in the Waifei Peninsula, but he's found nothing so far."
Although everyone knew her father was looking for the man who had saved his life, for some reason, knowing her father as she did, Alice felt he was searching for more than just that.
But every time she asked, her father would evade the question with vague answers, which left Alice feeling a bit disheartened.
Seeing Alice's dejected look, Lucy wasn't surprised. After all, the fact that the Thymefield family was searching for this life-saving benefactor who had unexpectedly rescued Mr. Lionel years ago was no secret.
However, the fact that years of searching had yielded no clues was also no secret.
"It's a legendary story, really. Not only did Mr. Lionel discover that a researcher from Porcelumex was conducting human experiments in secret, but he also managed to escape alive from the siege of so many people. It really makes you feel that good people get good karma."
Hearing Lucy's remark, Alice's ears perked up again with emotion. She said seriously:
"It was all thanks to that Hunter's help. If it weren't for him, my father never would have escaped from the siege of all those people. So, we will never give up looking for this benefactor of the Thymefield family."
After speaking, Alice recalled her father's description of the situation and couldn't help but add with some confusion:
"They were clearly leaving the Hollow from the same spatial rift, but after they passed through, only my father appeared outside the Hollow. The Thymefield family has been studying Hollows for so long, yet we still haven't figured out the reason for something like that happening."
But whenever she thought of it, Alice couldn't help but remember her father returning to the research institute back then, just because of a single sentence she had uttered.
The signs of his severe injuries upon his return, the large patch of dark red on the clothes over his abdomen, remained fresh in the young Alice's memory to this day.
However, looking back on the final outcome now, Alice couldn't say whether it was a good or bad thing.
After all, the wound under her father's clothes had been completely healed by a miraculous potion, but the end result of reporting it to the police was merely the research institute being shut down.
The two supervisors at Porcelumex, Lucro and Ferox, were still locked in their endless infighting. Although the incident caused quite a stir in public opinion, it all ended after the person in charge of that institute was arrested, with no further developments.
As a child, Alice could never have guessed that there might be another hidden reason, besides finding his benefactor, for why her father spent all his free time searching in the Waifei Peninsula.
Though grateful, the thought that this unknown Hunter big brother was going to steal her father away made the little rabbit pace anxiously in the living room every day.
But now that she was older, Alice understood that the events concealed something far from simple; otherwise, her father would not be so persistent in his trips to the Waifei Peninsula.
Alice knew that since her father never spoke of it, he must have his own concerns. The only thing she could do was pretend she hadn't noticed anything and continue to be an outstanding, model student.
Her childish jealousy towards the person who had saved her father had long since vanished, replaced by endless gratitude.
But the worry in her heart over her father's investigation could not be stopped.
Looking at Lucy on the other end of the call, her face alight with excitement at the thought of dropping out of school, a rebellious idea that had never before occurred to Alice sprouted in her mind:
'The next time Father goes to the Waifei Peninsula, should I secretly follow him and see what he's really investigating?'
The sudden thought grew into a towering tree the moment it broke through the soil. But although her mind was racing, Alice didn't forget about Lucy, who was still on the call.
Continuing their previous topic, the two chatted about everything under the sun for a while longer before hanging up. Lucy was still very grateful for the sincere concern from the young lady of the Thymefield family.
However...
Looking at the kidnapping request posted on the Proxy Net on her phone, Lucy couldn't help but reveal a cheerful smile.
"What I want to do... isn't just dropping out of school."
Having finally endured until adulthood, faced with her father's confinement, Lucy made up her mind completely. She was going to use some... extraordinary measures to let herself experience true—freedom!
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