Guinevere couldn’t think of any solution. How should she handle this? Watching her dazed expression, Siod sighed.
“Just show off a bit. Invite her classmates over for parties, brag about her in social circles.”
“…”
“Let’s start by inviting Larissa’s school friends. That’s the easiest step.”
Guinevere nodded readily. It wasn’t a difficult task. But Siod’s continuous advice was quite surprising.
“First, make that haunted house of a mansion look normal. If a kid goes missing during a visit, it’d be troublesome.”
“A haunted house?”
“Isn’t it? More like a Demon Lord’s mansion than a typical noble’s residence.”
Demon Lord? Was it that bad?
“Nobody mentioned it during William’s birthday party.”
“Not that they didn’t want to, they probably couldn’t. I wasn’t there, but the reactions of those who went were all the same. They said it was indeed a fearsome place. Such a bizarre place isn’t good for a child’s mentality. Clean it up, please.”
Guinevere was perplexed by this unexpected criticism.
“How am I supposed to clean it up?”
“If you can’t do it, hire someone. Why keep all that money? Hire a gardener, have the butler redo the interior. Why did you gather all those mages? Each showing off their uniqueness, the mansion’s a total mess.”
Guinevere was speechless. She began allowing mages to stay for other reasons.
She wanted to give those earnestly studying magic a chance, as she never had one.
“And why are there so many strange men in a woman’s house? Kick them out.”
Only Hedel was taken as a disciple, the rest she had expectations for. She hoped one day someone would surpass her, just as she did…
“Vera, are you listening to me? You don’t have a thing for one of those guys, do you? No wonder there were so many men…”
Had she been that lonely? Guinevere was shocked at her own childishness. She’d gathered them without paying much attention.
Feeling like a person who hoards too many cats without properly caring for them, she realized a clean-up was necessary.
“Vera, are you listening???”
Thus began the mansion’s major clean-up.
“Did I even have this in my garden? Hideous.”
Guinevere, with newly hired gardener Hedel, was surveying the garden. She planned to make it suitable for Larissa’s friends.
But in the middle of the garden, a giant carnivorous plant, big enough to swallow a child, gaped its mouth. Approaching it, the plant even bared its teeth. As she grabbed its ‘neck’, a mage caring for poisonous and carnivorous plants in the garden cried out.
“No, Guinevere! Please spare our Margret!”
“Margret?” Guinevere loosened her grip. It was someone’s cherished research; she couldn’t just destroy it. She mercifully said,
“Move them all. You have a week.”
“But without this garden’s soil… these children…”
Guinevere turned to the whining mage, flames swirling around her.
“Should I burn them now?”
“No!”
Yet, there were more problems. Guinevere, unsuspectingly walking through the backyard, stepped into a swamp and pulled up her mud-covered foot.
“Why is there a swamp here?”
Hedel hurriedly summoned the owner of the swamp. A mage appeared through teleportation and spoke with a grave voice.
“Lady Guinevere, this swamp cannot be disturbed. It’s the habitat of the last Big-eyed Crocodile in existence. Look at its innocent, large eyes!”
The Big-eyed Crocodile was not just big in eyes but also in size. It was a wonder how it was content with such a small swamp.
“Sigh. I’ll give you a week. Release it.”
“Release it? Rosalind is my companion crocodile. I can’t live without Rosalind!”
“Release that one too.”
“Yes.”
Hedel immediately took the crocodile and its owner away.
Guinevere sighed. Besides the swamp, there were thorny vines covering the walls and clusters of huge, seat-like poisonous mushrooms – Siod was right to call it a haunted house.
Turning to the trembling gardener, she asked, “How long will it take to clear all this and make a normal garden?”
“At least a year…”
“I’ll give you a month.”
“A month?”
“I can’t wait a year. Make a normal yet beautiful garden within a month.”
The gardener turned pale, realizing he had inadvertently become the chief gardener of a grand mansion. He braced himself.
“I will make it happen!”
The problem wasn’t just the garden. Walking through the mansion with the butler, Guinevere sighed.
“Butler. Why is the house such a mess?”
The elderly butler Leonard replied sadly, “Madam, I am but a powerless butler. I can manage the servants, but how can I restrain the mages?”
He lamented. The mansion, which seemed different when she first bought it, had now turned into a den for mages, each decorating their rooms and even the hallways to their liking.
Guinevere, who usually teleported around, hadn’t noticed this disarray until now…
“The servants must have had a hard time.”
“Indeed, madam. Despite our top industry salaries, most are scared off.”
“This won’t do. Hedel, gather everyone.”
“Yes.”
In the lobby, dozens of bewildered mages looked around at each other.
“Everyone’s here.”
The Male lead Always Seduces Her with His Beauty (Matriarchy)
Xin Jiao Zhou is the leader of the world’s premier sect. She has just experienced betrayal from all sides, was poisoned in an assassination attempt, and faced death squad attacks while the poison was taking effect. After finally clearing out the scum from her sect, she was drugged again while trying to detoxify.
After waking up from a night of unconsciousness, she gained a “beautiful and kind-hearted” husband.
Xin Jiao Zhou: “???”
He fell ill.
She came to see him, bringing breakfast.
As she put down the breakfast and was about to leave, his hand slipped while holding the spoon. “Clank!”
She turned around upon hearing the noise.
He looked up at her, his eyebrows drooping: “My hand… has no strength.”
“Shall I… feed you?” she asked tentatively.
He opened his mouth cheerfully: “Ah—”
Thinking she was drowning, he jumped in without hesitation to save her, but nearly drowned himself. In the end, it was she who swam over to rescue him, giving him air underwater.
After emerging from the water, his ear tips turned red. He lightly brushed his cheek, tucking his sideburns behind his ear, revealing delicate, pink-tinged ear tips. He lowered his gaze, too embarrassed to look at her.
Xin Jiao Zhou: He’s truly beautiful, kind-hearted, and adorable.
A certain someone when disciplining subordinates behind the scenes: “If they don’t obey, just kill them.”
What’s that? She might already have someone she cares about in her heart? A certain someone: Find out who it is, kill them, and then there won’t be anyone.
What? She met a man by the riverside? What? That man even hurt her? A certain someone: Whichever hand hurt her, chop off his entire arm.
Love at first sight without realizing it, gradually falling in love, slowly getting closer…
Family and national grudges, schemes and desires, good and evil, crime and punishment, she and he face the future together, seeking justice with passion!
A naturally dark female lead who could accidentally destroy the world but is actually an honest person VS a weak, pitiful, and helpless but skilled fighter, beautiful white-cut black male lead
My heart is not of stone, how steadfast is your love? — Tao Yuanming “Imitating the Ancients (No. 3)”
— Reading Guide —
Cold female lead & dramatic black lotus with hidden yandere traits male lead
