Mia Grant eavesdropped for a while, but finding it uninteresting, she bypassed the living room and went to the dining room to eat.
To be fair, while she disliked Kian Keller's place, the food from his kitchen was exceptionally to her taste!
'Maybe it's because Kian Keller is so picky.' The ingredients here were supposedly flown in daily from all over the world to guarantee their freshness.
Mia Grant temporarily pushed all her worries to the back of her mind. Just as she was about half-full, Kian Keller walked in from outside.
The chair at the head of the table, diagonally opposite her, was pulled out. A shadow fell over her as the man sat down.
Mia Grant peeled a shrimp with her knife and fork, then glanced up at him. "Are you done talking?"
'I was just eavesdropping. Even if Kian Keller didn't notice, the servants would have.'
Kian Keller's gaze lingered on her face, searching for any trace of sadness.
Mia Grant didn't know what he was looking at. She touched her face in confusion. 'Did I get something on it?'
'Doesn't seem like it.'
Hesitantly, she lifted her fork and offered it to his lips. "Here, you have it."
Kian Keller's expression faltered slightly.
"Not going to eat it?" she frowned. 'Then what are you doing?'
She pushed it a little closer. Feeling the soft morsel against his lips, Kian Keller instinctively opened his mouth.
Only then did Mia Grant retract her hand in satisfaction.
It wasn't until long after he had chewed and swallowed the piece of shrimp that Kian Keller realized what he had just eaten.
'If this were poison,' he thought, 'and she fed it to me, I probably would have swallowed it without a second thought.'
Of course, he was allergic to seafood. Eating this was no different from taking poison.
He picked up her water glass and, drinking from the spot her lips had touched, took two gulps to suppress the strange sensation in his throat.
"Did you hear everything?"
"I heard a little bit," Mia Grant said honestly. "I heard my brother wants to beat you up. Next time..."
"...you should probably avoid him."
Her tone was concerned, and her words were tactful. "You're not in the best of health. If he actually managed to land a punch on you by accident... it really wouldn't be good."
After she finished speaking, the man beside her remained silent for a long time.
If the system hadn't notified her that his blackening value had dropped by one point, Mia Grant would have thought she'd said the wrong thing again.
'As expected, Kian Keller is the quiet, brooding type.'
She happily peeled another shrimp and fed it to him.
Kian Keller glanced at it, but ultimately ate it.
After a brief silence, he suddenly spoke. "School is about to start."
"Huh?" Mia Grant was still focused on peeling shrimp and didn't react much.
"The acceptance letter is in the study."
"Oh, the acceptance... What?!" Mia Grant froze.
'I jumped into the sea two months ago. I never even submitted my college preferences. Unless they pulled some strings.'
"Which university did I get into?"
She didn't even realize her own voice was trembling.
Before she transmigrated into the book, she had secured a guaranteed spot at the nation's top university, but through a strange twist of fate... she never got to attend.
Mia Grant took a deep breath, eager to know which school it was.
'Hopefully, it's one where I can leave Jynsia.'
"Jynsia U."
"..."
'So I'm still in Jynsia.'
Seeing the fire in her eyes extinguish and her gaze grow dim, Kian Keller said, "If you don't want to go, I certainly don't mind you staying here."
Mia Grant immediately put down her knife and fork and obediently raised her hand as if in class. "I'll go, I'll go! I want to study! Why wouldn't I go if I got in!"
'I don't care which school it is, I'm not picky!'
"So, will I still be going as Mia Grant?"
"You want a different identity?"
"Hiss." Mia Grant was used to reading people, but Kian Keller had a complete poker face. Angry or happy, his expression was always the same, making it impossible to read him.
She tested the waters gently, carefully watching his reaction. "On second thought, it's probably better not to."
"Mm."
Kian Keller's mood seemed stable.
Mia Grant breathed a sigh of relief.
"It's just... I don't know how to explain to everyone that I'm still alive... After all, they just held my funeral."
"That's a problem for the Grant Family to consider."
"True."
Mia Grant nodded.
At first, she hadn't quite understood.
Logically, Kian Keller had taken her to her own funeral to make her give up all hope. Afterward, he would have arranged a new identity for her to live on as his fiancée.
But now, it seemed he wanted her to resume her identity as the Grant family's daughter.
'The reason,' she thought, 'probably has to do with Silas Grant.'
He probably hadn't expected Silas Grant to go this crazy over her.
Driving thirty hours straight just to come back and take her away.
'So, he changed his mind.'
As long as she was still the daughter of the Grant Family—even if they weren't siblings by law or by blood—in the public eye, they were brother and sister.
Gossip was a powerful weapon.
Kian Keller was planning to use this to crush any of Silas Grant's lingering ideas.
'This works out well. When two dogs fight for a bone, a third runs away with it.'
Through a strange twist of fate, she had regained her freedom!
With confirmation that school would start next Monday, Mia Grant was in an excellent mood for the past two days. It even made looking at that psycho Kian Keller a little more tolerable.
However, Kian Keller said she couldn't live in the dorms.
Mia Grant didn't argue with him about it. She planned to find another opportunity to discuss it with him later.
'The most important thing is to start school first!'
'What if he gets some crazy idea and doesn't let me go?!'
The day before school registration, Mia Grant slept until noon. When she got up, she went looking for Kian Keller to get her acceptance letter.
"Where is he?"
He wasn't in the bedroom, and the study was empty too.
She also couldn't find the acceptance letter he'd mentioned in the study...
An uneasy feeling grew in Mia Grant's heart. She was terrified he had changed his mind.
She rushed downstairs and grabbed the butler. "Where's Kian Keller? Why isn't he in the study?"
"The master just went out."
"Where did he go?"
"He likely went to the office."
Mia Grant's intuition screamed that the butler was lying!
"Then where's my acceptance letter? Why isn't it in the study?"
'I don't care where he is, where's the letter!'
"I'm not sure about that. I'll call the master and ask."
The butler dialed the number, but no one answered.
Mia Grant's heart sank.
"Did he say when he'd be back?"
"That... is not clear at the moment. The master left in a hurry. There must be something important at the company."
"Then send a driver or anyone, I don't care who, to go find him! I want my acceptance letter!"
"Miss, why don't you just wait for the master to return? He's busy, we shouldn't disturb him..."
"Then have someone drive me there! It's fine if *I'm* the one who disturbs him. If he gets mad, he'll yell at me, not you!"
"Well..."
The butler's eyes darted away.
The more she looked at his expression, the more she felt something was wrong.
'It's over. It's over. It's all over!'
Mia Grant collapsed to the floor, her eyes hollow and vacant.
What did it feel like to have your hopes dashed? No one knew better than her.
The butler was startled and quickly called a maid to help her to the sofa.
"Miss, the master will be back once he's finished his work. Please calm down, have some tea..."
Mia Grant snatched the teacup and smashed it onto the carpet, her eyes red as she screamed, "Kian Keller is a liar!"
"That bastard! I'm done playing his games!"