Chapter 311: 311

After Michelle woke up, the healer lady examined her once more before letting her get on the same beast Vincent was on. To everyone, she was Ana Ostrich and Vincent was her father, so it was natural for her to go to him after she had, though only supposedly, nearly died.

Then, people stopped paying attention to Michelle. The fact that the Heavenly Law was ignoring her played a great role in that.

But because Michelle was sitting next to Vincent and talking with him, when someone looked over, they would see her. Because she was doing something that drew attention. At least a bit.

Vincent and Michelle perfectly played their agreed roles. Vincent was a concerned father, checking on his daughter after finding her unconscious, and Michelle was a confused young girl, not knowing how she ended up nearly drowning.

The whole time, the group progressed on their journey.

So they could move fast, they were traveling on the backs of big feline beasts. Each beast could carry two to three people along with the baggage.

But even with the speed of those beasts, as the Ostrich family was deep in the upper realm, the journey took three weeks.

The first days, Michelle was only with Vincent. But then Leonard came over to talk to her, so she got on the beast he was on with his newfound little sister, Amelia Ostrich.

Leonard first came to talk with Michelle so he could ask how she knew about how she ended up in the lake.

As the family head’s grandson, he held the highest authority in the group except for his uncle, Vincent, so he thought it to be his duty to make sure everyone was safe and to find out about any threats.

But Michelle perfectly played dumb. She said that all she remembered was falling asleep in her room before waking up in the lake. And as she could not swim, she lost consciousness.

“I must have been born under a lucky star to be washed out on the shore before I drowned…” she added as she finished speaking.

Seeing the way Ana spoke, Leonard thought she must have been greatly shaken up. Of course, that was just Michelle’s acting. She knew that if she was pretending to be someone who had nearly drowned, she could not just sit around calmly when asked about it.

So when speaking about those moments, she fidgeted with her hands or squirmed in her seat.

And that was not noticed only by Leonard but also by Amelia.

“Big sister, you do not have to be scared anymore!” she hugged Ana to comfort her. “You are safe now! Brother will protect you!”

Michelle did not really take Amelia into consideration when she talked with Leonard, so she did not expect the hug. Her eyes, grayish green, widened in surprise.

Then, she moved her hands to hug the little girl back. “I am not scared.” She smiled a bit.

Even if she used to be a cold-blooded assassin, she would not raise a hand against a child. She had quite the soft spot for them. So when one was being kind to her, she could not help but smile. It was a rare moment of humanity in Michelle, who was no longer human.

Of course, when she was on missions in the past, or scheming something, there were times she completely ignored children and took them as background noise. She could not let her sentiment for children get in the way of her work or plans. In those times, she was truly cold-blooded.

She still would not hurt children on purpose, but if they got hurt in the crossfire, she would not give it any attention. Not even after her mission was done. She made sure not to think back to those moments so pointless guilt would not block her mind.

Someone could say that was inhuman. Well, it was. Even when Michelle was still human, whether in the 21st century or in her second life, her humanity could easily be questioned. Sometimes it appeared, and sometimes it could not be found no matter how hard one searched.

For a while, Ana stayed with Leonard and Amelia. Leonard did not really think much about her. She seemed like an ordinary girl. But Amelia came to like Ana very much.

After the talk, Ana returned to her father and the journey smoothly continued. Once again, people stopped noticing her.

The only one who kept looking back at Ana was little Amelia. And whenever the group stopped to let the beasts rest or to camp for a while, she would run over to play with Ana.

Like that, the group reached the Ostrich family residence. On the way, they had to fight a few wild beasts because they were moving through the wild wilderness of the upper realm, but except for some mild injuries, no one got hurt. When they arrived at the large residence, everyone was already healed up.

For that, they were thankful to the healer lady. It was not only because she possessed light element spirit energy.

It was true that light element spirit energy was excellent for healing. But the healer lady was also skillful in using healing herbs and concoctions, which allowed her to heal things that healing skills could not fix.

When the group returned to the residence, the people dispersed. Only Leonard, Vincent, Amelia, and Ana stayed together, heading to the elders’ meeting room.

A servant had already gone to inform the family head that the group had returned, so he was already waiting for them.

Upon entering the meeting room, Michelle glanced around. It was basically an empty hall with large chairs placed along the walls, except for the wall where the door was.

“Grandfather!” Leonard bowed his head first. “We found Amelia!” He motioned with his hand to the little girl at his side.

Having grown up in the lower realm, she was not taught how to greet elders, so she just stared at the group of old men with wide eyes, not knowing what to do.

Seeing the little girl, the man sitting at the highest seat, directly opposite the door, stood up, his tall stature blocking the light from the window. He had a smile on his face, but he still looked quite scary.

“Amelia…” he squatted down so he would not intimidate the little girl. “I am your grandfather, do you know that?”

Seeing the interaction between the family head and Amelia, Michelle frowned.

While she was talking about plans with Vincent, he told her he was the family head’s second son. That made him the Ostrich Academy’s second headmaster.

It was also said that Amelia was the family head’s only granddaughter.

But that made no sense.

Amelia was the daughter of Vincent’s older brother, the headmaster of the Ostrich Academy. In other words, Amelia was Ana Ostrich’s cousin. And that would mean that Ana, too, was the family head’s granddaughter.

So why was Amelia named as the only granddaughter?

Turning her head to look at Vincent, Michelle did not conceal her frown.

What was going on?

She would very much like to ask him, but she could not. Not with so many people around. It would completely blow her cover.

After talking with his granddaughter for a while, the family head instructed Leonard to show her to her room so she could rest and get to know her servants. After that, he could show her around the residence.

He also said there would later be a feast to celebrate that she was found.

When Leonard led Amelia away, she waved her hand at Ana with a smile before disappearing behind the door.

The family head then returned to his seat and looked down at Vincent. “Son, what is bringing you to your father? As far as I remember, you usually hate to ask others to help with your problems.”

Vincent bowed his head slightly. “Father, elders, I am not asking for help. I only came to report something.”

The family head raised a brow. “What would be so important that you would deem it worthy of reporting to us?” he asked.

Vincent continued. “Father, someone has attempted to kill my daughter.”

The family head frowned. “Ana?” A strange silence took over the hall for a moment. It clearly was not only because the elders were stunned. Michelle could tell there was something more to it.

“Where is she now?” the family head finally added.

Ana, by Vincent’s side, let out a slight cough. At the same time, she infused a bit of shadow essence into her shadow, making it flicker ever so slightly.

“Oh-” the family head shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “We did not notice you again, Ana…” he spoke apologetically. The other elders showed similar expressions.

“How are you feeling?” a gray-haired man sitting on the family head’s right asked, clearly concerned. “What happened?”

Ana put on a slight smile. “I am fine. I have already recovered.”

The elder nodded, leaving the floor to the family head.

The head looked at Vincent. “How did it happen? With her state, even people in the family are mostly unaware of her existence. How could someone have attempted to kill her?”

Vincent shook his head. “Father, I do not know, but I suspect it is the work of one of my enemies. Ana has always been secluded, so she does not have enemies. The only ones who could target her would be my enemies or rivals.”

The family head nodded. Vincent’s words made sense. “Vincent, the outside world does not know you have a daughter.”

The family head’s words carried great meaning. The enemy was from within the family. And the family head and elders wanted to avoid bloodshed between kin at all costs.

“Yes, father!” Vincent nodded. “That is why I want to send Ana to the academy for a while. She should not be targeted there, and I can find out who tried to harm her. I will make sure not to let things turn extreme. Just let me send her to the academy.”

The family head frowned at Vincent’s words.

He had always been strictly against sending children to the academy if they did not have what it took to enter through their own skills. Ana did not have those skills.

But Vincent’s words carried a hidden meaning: if the family head did not allow Ana to go to the academy through connections, Vincent would take care of the culprit using bloodshed, disregarding the fact that they were family.

“Very well!” the family head agreed. “She can go to the academy.”

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