"Just don't do anything that might cause misunderstandings, especially with Martha.
Eric said to Rachel, "Regarding Clark, I can handle it myself, Rachel, you have to believe me."
Reaching out to caress her face, Eric softly said to his sister.
"But."
Rachel tilted her head and asked Eric, "I don't think Clark would think that way; he always wants to correct Eric's ideas."
"I don't know what Clark will become in the end, but I always feel he has a prejudice against Eric, and perhaps this prejudice will make him worse and worse."
Rachel pouted and said indignantly, "So I won't let Clark hurt Eric."
"No one can hurt me!"
Eric said to his sister, "Rachel, I need you to put more energy into your own affairs, and not so much into mine."
"Is Eric talking about studying?"
Rachel immediately showed a distressed expression and said, "I might be born with an aversion to studying, Eric."
"No matter how much I study, I can't focus on books; looking at those dizzying symbols, I always fall asleep quickly. But when I look at things related to magic, I become very energetic."
Rachel was frustrated with her performance.
"You always set obstacles for yourself! Rachel!"
Eric sighed, about to begin some ideological education for his sister.
"Creak!"
The sound of footsteps on the stairs, some old, decaying wooden boards, made a somewhat harsh sound in the quiet night.
Eric turned his gaze towards the direction of the sound.
Martha slowly walked down the wooden steps from upstairs.
"Eric, Rachel, why aren't you asleep yet?"
Looking at Rachel and Eric standing in the living room, Martha's eyes showed a look of doubt.
She looked up, using the moonlight to see the clock hanging on the wall in the room.
The clock's hands were already pointing to three fifteen.
"It's so late, what are you doing in the living room?"
When Rachel saw her mother come down, she immediately looked nervously at Eric.
Although she was seemingly a fearless girl, cutting the phone line for Eric and even wanting to use the mist to trap Martha.
But now, seeing Martha's face, she was still a little scared.
After all, when she was mischievous before, she had received many scoldings from Martha.
"I"
Rachel stammered as she looked at her brother Eric, desperately trying to think of something to say to her mother.
"Rachel just seemed to be sleepwalking, so I brought her back from outside."
Eric said to Martha without changing his expression or missing a beat.
"Is that so?"
Martha came down and suspiciously touched Rachel's forehead.
"Why don't I know about this? I remember Rachel sleeps very soundly."
"Maybe Rachel suddenly awakened, just like Clark sleepwalked one day and woke up 20 kilometers away on the highway. This kind of thing might be genetic, who can be sure!"
Eric used Clark as an example.
"Alright."
Martha believed Eric's words and said to Rachel, "You can't become like Clark; tomorrow I'll take you to the hospital for a check-up."
"Oh!"
Rachel responded dully.
Her little face crumpled into a bitter gourd expression, and she asked Martha, "Can I not go?"
"No!"
Martha directly cut off Rachel's idea of wanting to escape.
With a miserable face, Rachel entered her room.
She sat on her bed and spaced out for a while, then thought for a moment and pulled a thick book from her drawer.
It was a book she had recently gotten from Eric.
The thick book was surrounded by purple patterns, exuding a mysterious and ancient aura.
"Fairytale Queen, are you there?"
Rachel whispered to the book in front of her.
"I'm always in here. If you don't want to experience being locked in here, don't keep disturbing an elegant lady!"
The Fairytale Queen's slightly displeased voice came from inside.
Ever since she was hired by the American government and failed in her attack on Smallville, she had been imprisoned in here.
Although Eric didn't understand magic, Diana knew a thing or two and found some people from the magic world to imprison the Fairytale Queen inside the magic book she was so proud of creating.
Trapped in the "Fairytale Kingdom" within the magic book, the Fairytale Queen was confined inside, only able to communicate with Rachel in this way.
"I have many questions I want to ask you."
Rachel tilted her head and asked the Fairytale Queen inside the book.
"I'm not some little girl's spiritual mentor, or some attention-seeking psychologist. If you have questions, you should ask those people."
The Fairytale Queen said impolitely to Rachel, "Unless you bring me what I want!"
Hearing the Fairytale Queen mention what she wanted, Rachel's little face immediately crumpled up.
"Next time, maybe?"
"Of course not! Do you think I'm a tool you can order around?"
The Fairytale Queen said in a stern tone, "If you keep dawdling, I'm going to sleep!"
"Alright!"
Rachel thought for a moment and finally made a decision.
"This is the last time!"
She whispered as she quietly walked outside the door.
Glancing left and right, Rachel quietly went downstairs, tiptoeing into the living room.
The moon outside, covered by dark clouds, revealed a sliver of silvery light.
Using this faint light, Rachel quietly walked to the drawer, gently pulled it open, and rummaged through it.
Finally, at the very back of the drawer, she found what she was looking for—a pack of cigarettes!
Just as she held the cigarettes in her hand, Rachel heard a faint sound.
Turning around, she found that Eric had appeared behind her at some point.
Startled, Rachel immediately hid the cigarettes behind her back.
"What are you doing, Rachel?"
Eric asked his sister with a frown.
"Nothing… nothing."
Rachel gave Eric a dry smile, knowing her smile must look very fake right now.
Her heart was pounding rapidly, like a little electric motor!
"Oh no! If Eric finds out I'm holding cigarettes, he'll definitely misunderstand and think I've picked up a smoking habit at such a young age!"
Rachel, with sweat almost beading on her anxious forehead, had a flash of an image in her mind:
Herself kneeling on the ground, pinching her ears with both hands, tearfully promising Eric that she would never secretly smoke again.
"Is that so?"
Eric glanced at his sister, whose behavior, gestures, and expression all screamed "I'm suspicious."
"Yes… yes."
Rachel was very guilty and dared not meet her brother's gaze.
Eric said nothing. Rachel could only hear the "tick-tock" of the clock in the room and her own breathing.
Just as she couldn't bear the pressure and was about to confess, Eric finally spoke.
"Don't stay up too late, go back to bed."
He said, then turned and left.
Rachel: "Huh?!"
Looking at Eric's retreating back, Rachel's face showed a puzzled expression.
Did brother just leave?
Although she didn't quite understand why her brother had given up questioning her, Rachel still breathed a sigh of relief and quickly returned to her room.
Following the Fairytale Queen's instructions, Rachel lit a cigarette and then placed the cigarette butt between the pages of the book.
Then the book began to open and close, and the cigarette quickly burned as the book clamped together.
It looked as if the book had a consciousness and was smoking on its own.
Rachel watched the Fairytale Queen smoke like this, and asked her somewhat doubtfully, "Can you really smoke like that? I see adults smoke with their mouths, which is very different from you."
"If I still had a mouth, would I need your help? Would I need to do it this way?"
The Fairytale Queen's voice came from inside the book.
"It's all your brother's fault; he had me locked up here! Do you know why he did that? Because he is a blatant male chauvinist. Look at those villains, they are all arrogant men, no matter what evil deeds they commit, they are forgiven after being caught, and then released. But us women, as long as we do a little bad, we are labeled as unforgivable and subjected to harsher punishments than those men, locked up in prison for life and never released."
------------------------
I've posted 70+ chapters in advance on Patreon.
Webnovel updates will still be daily, as usual.
It might not seem tempting right nobut who knows what the future holds?
[email protected]/TripleCrown
"And If you're enjoying it, drop a Power Stone for me!"