Living as the Villain’s Stepmother - Chapter 207

Lila honestly doubted that Lacias would stop her from doing something that piqued her curiosity. He was a man who had never raised his voice in front of her or got mad at her.

With her decision made, Lila opened the door ever so slightly.

Creak.

The sounds of evident neglect came from the creaking door as if it were groaning from the long years of being unused.

Lila was hit with a cloud of dust but once her eyes adjusted to the darkness she could see that the room was relatively empty.

“Hm? There isn’t anything special in this room.”

All she could spot was a single pillar sitting in the middle of the vast room. The pillar was wrapped in rough cloth.

If Lacias didn’t tell her, Lila wouldn’t have even known that what she was looking at was a family heirloom.

As Lacias said, it must be a trivial thing. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been abandoned here like this.

Lila pulled down the cloth and slowly the fabric came off, and the heirloom revealed itself.

“What is this…?”

She stared at the pillar in disbelief. It was filled with intricate designs and markings but to Lila, it almost seemed supernatural.

It looks like something that doesn’t belong to this world… Like a magical tool.

The pillar was giving off mysterious, dark energy. It seemed like it would appear in an old painting from decades ago.

Is this really an heirloom of the Wipere family?

There was nothing about the heirloom that resembled their design.

“I heard it was a gift from the imperial family.”

People would say as a joke that Wipere’s power in the empire was above the power of the emperor, but still, a hierarchy clearly existed.

Lila placed her hand on the pillar. “Whose idea was it to leave it here like this? Could it be Lacias?”

It seemed to have lost its function at the moment, but it also seemed like it would work again at any time when certain conditions were met.

She slowly stroked the pillar, but nothing changed.

How do I start this?

Lila had no way of knowing what had to be preceded for it to work.

If it’s something that only Wipere can use… A ring.

Lila grabbed her gun and once again aimed her barrel at the pillar. She could feel the ring ready at the tip of the muzzle.

“Feels like I’ll be in big trouble if I shoot.”

Instead of shooting, she chose to rub the muzzle against the pole. As soon as the muzzle and pillar made contact a loud and heavy operating sound rang out throughout the empty room.

Vrooom

Dark-colored black and blue spheres began to float inside the pillar. The colors symbolized the Wipere family.

“What are those….”

Is it really a magic tool?

Lila couldn’t take her eyes off the pillar, she was mesmerized by the unexplainable phenomenon.

Looking closely, Lila noticed that the floating spheres in the pillar resembled rings.

If all the rings belonged to the same owner, they would have stuck to each other to generate greater force, but the rings in the pillar moved in different directions as if they were an entity of their own.

Lila noticed it at once. “These rings have different owners.”

If I’m not wrong, the owners of the rings floating in this pillar belong to the former Dukes of Wipere.

If so, is Lacias’ ring also in there?

It was difficult to distinguish Lacias’ ring among the rings that looked alike and had almost identical colors.

“Mmm……?”

But then, one ring stood out in Lila’s eyes.

A ring bounced around the tip of Lila’s muzzle and a faint sea-colored aura surrounded its black body.

This must be his.

Only his ring reacted to her own and it circled the tip of the muzzle that touched the pillar. Lila stared blankly at the ring with bewildered eyes. Just then, a voice sounded from behind her.

“What are you doing here?”

“…!”

I didn’t notice anyone coming in!

Lila was also quite sensitive to her surroundings ever since she learned to use her ring, so she knew by instinct that the person behind her was far stronger than her.

She turned around slowly trying to hide her surprise.

“Ah… it’s just you.”

Hizette quietly stared at the pillar that Lila was touching with his usual expressionless face. He then shifted his eyes back to Lila.

“How did you get all the way here, Madame?” he asked, not forgetting his manners.

“Ah, I came here to find Lugar’s ring.”

“It’s dangerous here, we should leave.”

Lila found it strange that he wanted her to leave so quickly. “Looks like you know what this pillar is?

“…”

“Why did no one tell me about something that even the knights know?”

“…”

Lila took his silence as proof that Lugar and Roxana also knew about the existence of the pillar. She didn’t feel great about being left out.

Lila forced herself to smile, pretending like nothing was wrong. But Hizette, who saw how she felt behind the smile, turned his head to the floor.

“It’s confidential. I can’t….”

“No,” she said simply. “You’ll have to tell me.”