When the plot-skips players into the game world

After returning to the Hall of Silver and Tin, Lily began to confirm the items she needed to bring for the journey tomorrow.

She hummed a tune softly, vivaciously double-checking her luggage.

Actually, compared to Aiwass, it was Lily who was more excited about the trip. She was truly looking forward to this journey.

Since birth, she had never left Glass Island—before joining the Moriarty Family, she lived in the Lohar District; and afterwards, she moved to the White Queen District.

Even before Aiwass took her to the Hall of Silver and Tin to request a spot for her from Isabel… Lily had not left Moriarty Manor for several years, let alone the White Queen District and Glass Island.

It wasn't that Aiwass didn't give her time off.

It was because Lily would use her rare vacation days to read, to enrich herself.

——However, this wasn't because Lily disliked going out.

On one hand, she had little free time to begin with, and she yearned for reading; the reason she wanted to read was because she instinctively didn't want to live out her days as an ignorant maid, blundering aimlessly through life.

In this regard, it was evident that Lily indeed had the insatiably greedy Drost Blood flowing within her.

On the other hand... it was because Lily didn't want to leave Aiwass for too long.

Because she had read many books, she knew more than the other servants. Hence, she understood that girls who served as personal maids generally weren't as fortunate as herself.

To have regular holidays, generous wages, be allowed to read the master's books, to sometimes dine together when there are no outsiders, and to serve a master who is as young, intelligent, handsome, and gentle...

Lily knew she was lucky.

Therefore, she did not wish to miss out on this fortune.

Even on her days off, she was reluctant to leave Moriarty Manor. What if Aiwass needed her precisely on the day she took her holiday? What if Aiwass had an accident the day she wasn't at home? What if someone else took care of Aiwass by then, and when she returned, she was no longer his personal maid?

After all, in Avalon, real, influential figures generally did not have personal maids. Explore more stories at My Virtual Library Empire

Heirs of such families usually were accompanied by personal male servants from a young age.

They were stronger and more robust, able to help with heavy lifting, and could protect their master. Growing up together, they were often closer than real brothers, exploring everywhere side by side. They could serve as chauffeurs, bodyguards, cooks, assistants, secretaries... This was far more liberated than the personal maids, who need to maintain beauty and decorum.

In the past, Edward had not yet joined the Supervisory Court, so he could have inherited the Moriarty Family. Thus, James was assigned as Edward's manservant, and a maidservant for Aiwass.

After that, Edward joined the Supervisory Court. According to Avalon's rules, one cannot engage in family business after joining the Supervisory Court—to prevent abuse of power. Mainly, because the Inspectors' primary duties are to monitor the various Knight Families.

In other words.

Lily knew that from that moment, the first heir to the Moriarty Family had already become Aiwass.

And for a male family head to have a personal maidservant... according to the books Lily read, this would be the subject of ridicule by peers in Avalon's public social environments. It was basically like saying, "I haven't grown up yet, I need a maid to look after me," or admitting that one had no luck with the opposite sex, and didn't have a lover presentable and excellent enough to be approved by the family's seniors.

In Avalon's Knight Families, there were nearly a hundred on Glass Island alone, and the heads of families who were accompanied by maids totaled just over ten. The impression they gave was generally more towards the gentle and weak type.

——Since knowing this, Lily had been very anxious in her heart. She was deathly afraid that once she stepped out, by the time she returned she would no longer be Mr. Aiwass' maid, and she might even be expelled from the Moriarty Family, because she was no longer of use...

If it were the few years after she had just joined the Moriarty Family, she might have felt happy. Because that would mean she was free.

But now she was no longer naïve, she had gradually come to understand many things—on her own in the outside world, without a family, without reliance, where could she go? Marry someone she had never met and did not love, become the wife of a businessman or a scholar, as written in the books?

She didn't even have parents.

Having no father or mother also meant no home.

James, who was so kind to her, and Aiwass, they were her family. Edward, always strict and silent, and Miss Julia, gentle and good-hearted, they were all kind and good people.

Parting with family is an affair that should happen only once. Lily was always afraid of being left behind again.

That's why Lily never dared to take holidays to go out; that's why she worked to maintain her beauty and etiquette, craving knowledge and demonstrating loyalty. At the heart of all these impulses was a fear lurking deep inside her, a fear not even she herself perceived.

She was like a cat or dog that had been abandoned once before, becoming very well-behaved when taken in and cared for by someone new.

——As long as we can stay together, that's all I need.

When Lily was offered the chance to embark on the Path towards Transcendence by Mr. Aiwass, she was truly elated.

It meant she would become more useful. It also signified that Mr. Aiwass valued her and did not see her as a replaceable burden that made him look bad.

And now, Mr. Aiwass even took her with him on trips...

Did this mean that she had become useful? That she wouldn't be abandoned again...

Once she was certain of this, the fear in her heart began to fade away. The shadow was like a tea brick washed over with hot water, dissolving into warm and bright water with a scent of flowers.

After finding reassurance, she subconsciously began to crave more.

As Lily packed her bags, she felt the desires in her heart magnify.

She wanted to monopolize the young master, to love him, to love him fiercely.

She wanted... to devour him. To suck his blood, to chew his flesh...

Imagining this, her pupils gradually turned crimson. Her breathing became heavy, her heartbeat intensified, and the sound of her heart echoed loudly in her ears.

"...Huh?"

Lily suddenly paused, her eyes slightly widened in surprise.

Her power from the Path of Adaptation suddenly calmed her down.

"Why..."

She was astonished by her own sudden wild fantasies.

It was then that Lily felt a slight anomaly in the room.

Guided by an indistinct urge within her, she walked over.

She found it was the birdcage the young master had left on his desk during the day.

Inside the cage was supposed to be a book. It was the "Morning Crow Scripture" the young master had been reading a few days ago, during which his clothes had burned off and his hair had grown longer.

——But.

Lily's eyes suddenly widened, her heart skipping a beat, "The book... it's gone?"

Where the book should have been inside the birdcage, there was now a snow-white rabbit.

The rabbit's crimson gaze fixed upon her, unblinkingly causing Lily some unease.

But what really made her anxious was that the young master's Codex Book was gone.

"Damn it, how could this..."

Lily walked over subconsciously, wanting to check if the rabbit was sitting on the book.

But as she neared the rabbit, a hallucination suddenly appeared before her eyes—

She saw the birdcage door suddenly fling open, and the rabbit leaped out from inside.

The world around her instantly turned into a snowy landscape—she was no longer in the room, but found herself amidst a deep, snowy night.

The rabbit glanced back at her before running ahead.

"Don't run!"

A surge of intense irritation and raging anger welled up inside Lily, her sanity vanishing without a trace.

Unaware of how abnormal this snowy night was, she instinctively chased after it, "Come back here!"