Utara liked Senja with this personality better. It was a good thing that she had forgotten about everything that had happened to her in the past. It was a dark and gloomy experience for someone as young as her after all.

"Okay, let's start!" Utara turned serious as he spoke.

........

It had been five days since Xiao Tianyao had left. Senja practiced with Utara each night.

Utara would come to the same place at same time every night. However, he had asked her to keep his visits a secret even from her grandfather. Actually, he was here on a mission on behalf of Xiao Tianyao. Thus, teaching Senja martial arts was an extra assignment.

Senja couldn't fathom how Xiao Tianyao had found this place or how he had managed to keep those Shadow guards away from it. All she had to do was evade the regular guards to reach her 'school'.

Thus, from that day onwards, Senja's sleep pattern underwent a drastic change. She would practice until almost sunup, have breakfast with her grandfather and sleep right until lunch arrived.

Rindy didn't come looking for trouble, because she had been kept busy by the task grandfather had assigned her. Senja had an inkling that Elder Dam had intentionally done it for her sake.

This afternoon Senja was extremely bored with her routine. So, she rummaged through her wardrobe to look for a beautiful dress to wear. One of the things she liked to do when she was bored was to doll herself up.

She had dismissed Aunt Hu and Yoda's mother from her room because she liked to be left alone when she was in a mood. She just needed them to clean up after her.

Elder Dam had given her another place to put her belongings. Ever since the incident with the four maidservants, Carye had never intervened, neither with her attire nor anything related to her.

Senja had made sure to change everything around her to her taste because that was what her grandfather had told her to do, right? She could do whatever she wanted and that was exactly what she did.

Senja changed the white flowers in her courtyard to colorful ones and had gotten rid of all the white dresses and dull accessories that Carye had given her. She made sure all this reached Carye's ears. Of course, her intention was to exasperate 'Senja's dearest stepmother to the core.

However, when Senja was scouring, she found something unusual inside the old wardrobe. She was a thief after all, so she was extremely sensitive to anything hidden like this.

On the corner of the wardrobe, something sharp poked her finger. Curiously, Senja put away the dresses that were hiding it and discovered it was a splinter from a crack in the wood through which a white sheet like thing was peeping out.

Senja furrowed her brows and pulled the white sheet. It was a letter.

(My stepmother hit me again and Rindy made me a target for her archery practice. How about you? Does your family treat you like this as well?)

Senja's eyes almost popped out as she stared at the sheet in her hands. She took out all of her dresses and found that there was more. She pulled out two more and read the contents.

(I am hungry. Are you hungry? I can't come out now because Hikari is still looking for me.)

And the other one.

(You like those story books that I bought for you?)

**Damn! What is this?! ** Senja's heart thumped frantically. She literary threw away all the things inside the wardrobe and looked carefully at the crack.

This was a thin sheet of wood that someone had added inside the original wardrobe. No wonder its width decreased when one paid closer attention and looked at it from the side.

Senja darted her eyes through the plain backdrop of the wardrobe and then she found what she was looking for.