Chapter 506
"Let's go take a look at Windsor," said Shaer.
"Are you familiar with her?" Aivina turned her face towards Shaer, her expression unchanged, as if merely curious.
"Not really," Shaer shook her head.
Just a few times, actually.
Shaer had no desire to engage with that twisted princess; if she could, she wouldn't even want to see her.
The moment she laid eyes on her face, Shaer would be reminded of the first simulation, where the princess sat before her, looking sickly and deranged—a truly disturbing memory.
"Alright," Aivina nodded. Since Shaer wasn't close to Windsor, it must be related to the incident with Qiangyin.
Coincidentally, Charles had mentioned that they could visit Windsor or Vita at will, so it was perfect to take Shaer along now.
Aivina instructed a maid to prepare the carriage, and it wasn't until they were all seated—Shaer, Tara, and Nia—that Aivina finally released Shaer's hand, which had grown a bit sore from her grip.
In less than eight minutes, the carriage stopped at the entrance of Windsor Palace. After informing the maid of their purpose, they were asked to wait in the reception room.
Shaer and Aivina waited in the reception room for nearly twenty minutes before a figure with white hair was brought in by two maids.
Windsor, meticulously dressed, entered like a marionette, almost pushed along by the maids. She kept her head down, her body trembling slightly, and only sat down across from Shaer and Aivina when the maids pressed her shoulders.
One maid stood behind Windsor, while the other picked up a teapot to pour tea for her.
However, both Aivina and Shaer noticed that as the maid poured, Windsor's body noticeably leaned away, as if she were terrified of the act, as if it triggered some deep-seated trauma.
"Princess Windsor," Aivina spoke slowly, calling out to the princess across from her.
But Windsor remained still, until the maid behind her gently tapped her shoulder. Only then did she jerk her head up, looking at Aivina with wide, panicked eyes.
Windsor stared at Aivina, and after a long pause, she muttered, "Na... Nana..."
Then, as if she had spotted a lifeline, she pushed herself up from the table, crawling towards Aivina like a baby just learning to move, using both hands and feet.
"Windsor! What are you doing?!"
"Windsor!"
The two maids gasped at her actions, but their cries only made Windsor crawl faster.
She passed the teacups on the table and lunged towards Aivina, but Aivina simply stepped aside, causing Windsor to miss and crash to the floor with a thud.
The two maids hurried around the table to help her up, but upon hearing their footsteps, Windsor panicked and dove under the table, clinging tightly to Shaer's leg.
Shaer frowned, suppressing the urge to kick her away. Taking a deep breath, she looked at the two maids approaching.
"Sorry, but we need to discuss something important with Princess Windsor. Could you please step outside?" Shaer said with a slight smile, directing her gaze at the maids.
Shaer's eyes froze the maids in place, making them hesitate to step forward, while Aivina took a step forward, blocking their view.
"Please wait outside," Aivina said coldly. "I won't say it again."
"Miss Aivina, Princess Windsor isn't in a state to talk to anyone alone right now..."
One maid's words were cut off as a hand landed on her shoulder.
"Come on," Tara said, looking up, her hands resting on the shoulders of both maids, her smile not reaching her eyes. "Let's go wait outside... we don't want to disturb Lord Shaer."
The white figure of Tara slowly emerged from the shadows of the two maids, who seemed to lose control as Tara guided them step by step out of the reception room. As they exited, Tara casually closed the door behind them.
With the ordinary distractions gone, Shaer slowly lowered her gaze to the princess clinging to her leg.
"Princess Windsor..." Shaer began softly.
At the sound of her voice, Windsor slowly looked up. When their eyes met, her eyes widened in shock, as if she were frozen in place.
"Ah... ah..." Windsor's mouth moved, producing sounds that were indistinguishable, like a baby babbling.
Shaer bent down, grasped her collar, and gently lifted her up.
"Ah... ah!!"
Windsor flailed her arms in panic, her eyes turning red—she might have even forgotten she was an extraordinary being, her strikes leaving red marks on Shaer's arm.
"Aivina, can you help her calm down?" Shaer said, glancing sideways at Aivina.
"Sure."
A purple glow flickered in Aivina's dark violet eyes, and the aura of an extraordinary being seemed to captivate Windsor. She turned her head, staring blankly at Aivina, and gradually, her struggles ceased. After a brief battle with her eyelids, she fell into a deep sleep.
Shaer stood up, dragged Windsor to the sofa, and placed her down, then raised her hand to pull off the various hair ornaments adorning Windsor's head.
Shaer's rough actions made Aivina's eyelids twitch, as if she could feel the phantom pain of hair being pulled.
"What's wrong with her?" Aivina asked, unable to hide her concern.
Aivina didn't know what Windsor had endured while Qiangyin was still alive; to her, Windsor was just a childhood friend with a troubled fate, not someone deserving of such treatment from Shaer.
As if to confirm something, Aivina stepped forward and removed the silk opera gloves from Windsor's hands—no one would wear such long gloves in the increasingly warm daytime.
Once the gloves were off, Aivina noticed the extensive burn marks on Windsor's arms.
Recalling Windsor's instinctive flinching when the maid poured tea earlier, Aivina shook her head gently.
It seemed this princess, now reduced to a state of stupor, had not been treated well in the palace. She must have faced retaliation from the maids she once bullied, and Windsor herself would hardly be able to "report" it.
She might not even realize she had the power to crush those ordinary people at will.
At that moment, Shaer remained silent, her fingers running through Windsor's white hair as she carefully examined the wounds on her scalp.
Although Shaer wasn't using her saved state now, the knowledge she had gained from drinking the potion wouldn't vanish with it. Coupled with the medical knowledge she had crammed, her understanding of medicine was on par with other "physicians" and "plague doctors."
Shaer had seen how Lafayette operated on Windsor's skull—removing the entire cranium, always through the same opening, which now had a distinct white circle beneath her hair.
However, this white circle showed no signs of recent suturing or healing. Instead, there was a two-centimeter hidden incision within her hairline, resembling a keyhole approach... but it seemed there had been no subsequent craniotomy; it was merely opened and closed again, looking more like an examination.
This incision was likely made during the inspection by the people from the Redemption Society.
Lafayette hadn't taken the frontal lobe; the information Charles and the others received was incorrect.
That piece of frontal lobe had dissipated as part of Qiangyin's flesh...
Now, Windsor was like someone who had undergone a frontal lobe resection, her intelligence nearly completely regressed.
The reason she hadn't lost her self-awareness and become a fully regressed "living dead" might be due to the potion in her body, which preserved some of her cognitive abilities... or perhaps the Redemption Society had performed some treatment.
Having confirmed that Windsor's Qiangyin brain hadn't been removed, Shaer felt relieved. She withdrew her hand, wiped it with a handkerchief, and said, "I'm done checking. There's nothing wrong. Let's go."
"Okay." Aivina said nothing more, simply standing up and following Shaer out of the reception room.
As they passed by the two maids, Aivina wore a stiff smile, casting a meaningful glance at them.
Tara and Nia followed, with Tara climbing into the carriage while Nia took the reins, slowly guiding the horses forward.
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