Eugene was sitting upright in the center of the Lionhearts’ forest. The talkative Mer wasn’t with him right now.

The Lionheart family’s second mistress, Ancilla, was affluential in the high society of the capital Ceres. But many Lionheart knights didn’t respect her as much as they respected their more conspicuous Patriarch, Gilead. Still, she was well aware of what went on in high society and influenced the other members into making decisions in her favor even though she did not participate much in social parties. That was how she acquired the nickname ‘The Lioness of High Society.’  

However, the Lionheart family’s reputation was now in the gutter because of Eward.

To continue her reign over the high society, there was a lot of stuff Ancilla had to do, such as personally writing letters to the nobles and even attending parties that she had rarely attended before. Since there were some lowlifes who spoke badly of the Lionhearts at banquets or tea parties, Ancilla had to blackmail them in the name of gifts[1]. She also had to warn and, if needed, threaten the press to keep them from publishing any articles or tabloids about the Lionhearts.

To sum up, she was under a lot of stress. She usually had her own methods of relieving stress, like downing glasses of wine before going to bed or a good, hard jog before dawn in her training suit until she was out of breath.

These days, however, Ancilla had not needed any of her usual go-to stress-relieving tactics. Mer currently happened to be in the main estate — the very person with whom Ancilla could fulfill her fantasy and interact to get rid of regrets from her previous parenting. Ancilla realized that dressing, feeding, and adoring this little girl were just as effective, if not more, in relieving her stress.

Therefore, Mer was with Ancilla right now. In fact, Eugene couldn’t have let Mer stay by his side even if Ancilla hadn’t wished to spend time with her.

‘She might be negatively affected by this,’ Eugene thought.

When Eugene saw the Lightning Flame for the first time, Melkith warned him that Mer’s formula might get damaged while Eugene tried to make the Lightning...