53: Chapter 53 What do you want to do! Do you really want to? Sylvia's helplessness!

In the master bedroom.

Rowan Flynn was silent for a moment, then suddenly spoke up and asked, "What about you? Are you leaving after this visit?"

Elise, lying on his chest, replied without hesitation upon hearing this, "Nonsense! Of course I have to go back. I just came to deliver things, and once I'm done, I have to..."

She didn't finish her sentence before suddenly realizing something. She jerked her head up and looked at Rowan in surprise, "Why... why are you asking this?"

Rowan lowered his head, meeting her somewhat flustered eyes, and chuckled, "What if I said I want you to stay?"

"I..." Elise opened her mouth, her heart skipping a beat.

Stay? Stay in White Cliff Territory?

This thought had never crossed her mind before she came.

She was the young lady's personal maid, a person of the Latour Ducal Mansion; her future, of course, should be by the young lady's side.

But... when Rowan said it in that tone, she didn't feel offended or find it absurd at first. Instead, her heart felt a ripple of turbulence.

She even thought... it didn't seem impossible, did it?

She felt like she must have gone mad.

Seeing Elise stuttering and unable to speak, Rowan understood and said directly, "You can contact Sylvia directly, right?"

Elise was startled and instinctively wanted to brush it off.

Magical communication items were precious. Her whereabouts and situation needed to be reported to the young lady regularly, and before leaving, the young lady had indeed given her a means of contact.

But now, being watched by Rowan, she suddenly felt a bit guilty. After hesitating for a while, she finally gave a muffled "Mm," her voice barely audible.

Rowan immediately said, "Then contact her right now. Now. I want to speak with Sylvia directly."

Elise widened her eyes, "Now? You..."

She wanted to refuse; this was too sudden.

They had just...

And the situation between the young lady and Rowan was so complicated; what would they say in a direct communication?

But under Rowan's burning gaze, her desire to struggle grew weaker and weaker.

In the end, she sighed, rummaged through the clothes scattered by the bed, and found a disc-shaped magical item carved with intricate magic patterns.

Elise gripped the palm-sized disc tightly and glanced at Rowan with a bit of guilt, "Do we really have to contact her? The young lady might be busy..."

"Hurry." Rowan's tone was flat.

Elise bit her lip and said no more.

She injected a trace of weak battle energy to activate the magic patterns.

A few breaths later, a clear and pleasant female voice came from the magic disc—it was Sylvia: "Elise? Have you arrived? Was the journey smooth? Are the children... all doing well?"

Hearing this familiar voice, Elise gave an "Mm" and then didn't know how to respond.

On the other end of the communication, Sylvia keenly sensed something unusual. Elise's reaction was wrong. After a moment of silence, she seemed to understand something.

"Is he... by your side?"

Sylvia's voice was very soft, coming through the magic disc with a trace of imperceptible trembling.

"Long time no see, Sylvia."

Rowan leaned toward the disc and spoke in a steady voice, his tone carrying a strange magnetism: "I received the letter. The children are doing well, and they received the gifts; they liked them very much. Thank you for keeping them in mind."

On the other end of the disc, Sylvia's breathing seemed to hitch. After a long time, a very soft "Mm" came through.

Then, there was silence again.

"Elise told me roughly about your affairs in the Imperial Capital. Graduating from Saint-Helens, the Lenhe Tower... Congratulations. That is the sky that suits you." Rowan continued, his tone calm.

"..." Sylvia still did not respond.

Rowan paused, then suddenly changed the subject, his tone carrying an uncompromising air: "There is one thing I need to tell you."

"Elise will stay in White Cliff Territory this time. I need her to look after our children."

A sudden, heavy intake of breath came from the other side of the disc.

Upon hearing this, Sylvia forced herself to suppress the urge to fly to White Cliff Castle and blast Rowan to death with a fireball spell, and said directly, "No! Elise is my maid; she must come back."

Rowan acted as if he hadn't heard her refusal, his tone even carrying a sense of entitlement: "Don't be so heartless, Sylvia. Mia, Aidan, Finn... they are your children too."

"Elise has also taken care of them; they rely on her, and she can't bear to leave the children either. Besides..." He paused deliberately, his gaze sweeping over Elise, whose face had turned somewhat pale, and his voice slowed down: "Shouldn't you also ask for Elise's own opinion on this matter?"

"Elise!" Sylvia's voice rose sharply, coming through the disc, filled with questioning and disbelief: "Do you want to stay there?"

The pressure was instantly on Elise.

She gripped the somewhat hot disc, looking at Rowan's deep gaze close at hand.

She also felt as if she could see the young lady's cold and disappointed eyes in the Imperial Capital through the disc.

Her heart was in chaos, and she opened her mouth.

"I... Young Lady, I..." She was incoherent, and her palms began to sweat.

Stay? Of course, she had never thought of it.

But when Rowan brought it up... the words of refusal just wouldn't come out.

In the end, under the gaze of Rowan's calm eyes and in the midst of Sylvia's increasingly heavy silence, Elise seemed to use all her strength to carefully squeeze out a sentence: "Winona... she, she is actually quite good, very attentive, and can... can take over my duties to take care of the young lady..."

As soon as these words were spoken.

The other end of the disc fell into a deathly silence.

Only the faint crackling of static noise remained.

For a long time, so long that Elise thought the communication had been cut off, Sylvia's icy, cold voice slowly came through: "Rowan Flynn... take good care of Elise. If she suffers even the slightest grievance there, I..."

Her words went unfinished—

Rowan chuckled and said, "Of course, I will certainly take good care of Elise."

"..." Sylvia did not respond again.

With a soft click, the light on the disc instantly went out, and the communication was unilaterally cut off.

Clearly, the person on the other end no longer wanted to continue this conversation.

Rowan took the now-dim disc from Elise's stiff hands and placed it casually on the bedside table.

He lowered his head, looking at Elise, who was pale and dazed in his arms, and a lazy, triumphant smile curled the corners of his mouth.

"It seems your young lady has agreed." He whispered, his fingers caressing Elise's cold cheek.

Elise snapped back to reality, looked up at his smiling eyes, and felt a complex mix of emotions. Shame, guilt, a trace of relief, and an inexplicable sense of belonging clashed and intertwined.

In the end, all these emotions turned into an eye-roll and a choked, reproachful remark: "It's all your fault! Now the young lady must hate me to death..."

She buried her face in Rowan's chest, her shoulders trembling slightly.

Rowan turned over, following his wife's wishes to take good care of the dainty maid, while thinking to himself: "Now I can get some more freedom; whenever I need to go out in the future, I'll just leave Elise to watch the house..."

The Imperial Capital, Latour Ducal Mansion, Sylvia's study.

The exquisite magic communication disc was thrown casually on the desk, its luster dim.

Sylvia was not as angry as Elise had imagined.

She just sat quietly in the high-backed chair, her back straight, looking at the distant autumn sky of Seran City outside the window, with no expression on her face, terrifyingly calm.

Elise had been sent back by her on purpose.

Now, it just verified some of her conjectures, and could even be said to be an expected result. Rowan had indeed made a move to keep Elise. And Elise... had indeed been unable to refuse.

"This is fine too." She whispered to herself, her voice barely audible in the empty study.

But immediately, a more helpless sense of exhaustion swept over her.

She sighed softly and closed those beautiful, melancholy emerald-green eyes.

What's the use of thinking about these things now? There are already seven children.

The path was one she chose herself.

She only blames herself for being too young back then...