Chapter 57: Enter Seraphina the Sorceress

The grand courtyard filled with a shimmer of golden mist and the strong scent of roses… and fried radish.

With a dramatic flourish and a small explosion, a tall, radiant woman appeared atop a stack of upside-down chamber pots. Her robe was embroidered with stars (some of which were falling off), her long silver hair shimmered unnaturally, and a floating ribbon followed her every move—erratically.

“I am Seraphina the Spectacular!” she declared with a deep bow… which immediately sent her tumbling headfirst into a flower bush.

SuMing caught his breath. “She’s... beautiful.”

May rolled her eyes so hard it echoed. “She just exploded a carrot cart and declared herself spectacular while sneezing glitter.”

“She’s foreign,” Lian muttered, “and chaotic. That’s two strikes.”

The Empress clapped with delight. “She shall stay! She amuses me. Finally, someone with flair!”

May’s lips twitched. “You mean flares. She set three eunuchs’ sleeves on fire during her entrance.”

As servants scrambled to put out the smoldering topiary, Seraphina emerged from the bush holding a beetroot and a frog.

“Ta-da!” she chirped. “I shall now turn this into a love charm!”

A bright flash followed. The beetroot vanished. The frog turned into a squeaky toy. SuMing jumped.

Lian nudged May. “Is it just me or is SuMing blushing?”

May narrowed her eyes. SuMing was, indeed, tomato-red. He bowed awkwardly to Seraphina, who winked in return and summoned a floating heart… that exploded.

“She’s clearly a fraud,” May said.

“Or very committed,” Lian said with an evil grin.

May glared. “We’re proving she’s fake.”

“Why?”

“Because if I have to compete with another pretty girl, she’s at least going to earn it.”

Lian grinned wider. “Let the magical misfires begin.”

Chapter 58: The Black Silk Sorceress

Seraphina swept into the palace courtyard like a dark cloud dipped in perfume. Draped head to toe in billowing black lace, she blinked against the brightness of the Eastern sun and gasped, “How do you people live in so much light? Where is the fog? Where is the gloom?”

May, arms crossed, whispered to Lian, “She looks like a mourning goose with eyeliner.”

The Empress, trying to impress the court with her “foreign taste,” had Seraphina escorted to the west wing with a full entourage. But within minutes, chaos erupted.

Seraphina sniffed the steamed dumplings. “These smell like boiled sadness.”

She attempted to conjure a loaf of rye bread but instead produced a twitching eel in a bonnet.

SuMing was nearby, trying not to laugh. “Need help, Lady Seraphina?”

She fluttered. “I only eat things that match my wardrobe. Black sesame? Black rice? Do you have... black silk noodles?”

The kitchen staff stared.

A palace runner was dispatched at once to locate “the finest black silk from the southern looms.” Seraphina claimed she couldn’t meditate unless wrapped in obsidian fabric under moonlight, which no one really understood—but the Empress clapped anyway.

May and Lian exchanged looks. “We have to prove she’s a fraud,” May whispered.

“But she’s... oddly charming.”

“She’s a disaster in heels. I love her already.”

Chapter 59: Eastern Delicacies and Exploding Dumplings

Seraphina’s culinary journey continued. Today she tried pickled lotus root. One bite, and she turned green—literally.

“Is this a side dish or a curse?”

“Both,” said May, with a wink.

Trying to impress SuMing, Seraphina attempted a “Flavor Enhancement Charm” at lunch. Instead, every grain of rice turned into tiny fireworks. A dumpling exploded on Lian’s robe.

SuMing ducked and got hit in the face by a rogue fish.

“Your nose is bleeding glitter,” Seraphina cooed.

May’s eyebrow twitched. “She’s winning hearts with edible explosives.”

“I demand black tea... in black cups,” Seraphina cried.

SuMing handed her a teacup, then tripped over her floating skirt. She caught him—with a spell that accidentally turned his boots into slippers shaped like cats.

“Purrfect,” she smiled.

May cracked her knuckles. “She has to go.”

Lian sighed. “Or we learn to fight sorcery with sarcasm.”

Chapter 60.1: Shadows and Silk

Seraphina insisted on a grand entrance.

Having begged the Empress for a bolt of the finest black silk in the Eastern Empire, she claimed she would enchant the cloth into a “Gown of Living Shadows.” May rolled her eyes. Lian watched, arms crossed. SuMing… hid nervously behind a cherry blossom tree.

The courtyard audience gathered. Maids gossiped. Even the palace cat squad lounged lazily nearby.

Seraphina raised her wand — an obsidian stick carved with strange foreign glyphs.

“Prepare yourselves,” she declared with flair, “for the most enchanting attire you’ve ever seen!”

The silk unraveled midair. It danced like a ribbon, spun around her body, shimmered with violet sparks—

—and vanished.

Not into a dress. Not into anything wearable. Just… gone.

The smoke cleared.

Gasps echoed.

Seraphina stood completely naked in front of half the palace.

SuMing choked on his breath and dropped his peach bun. May audibly gasped. Lian stood with eyes wide as plates, face the color of hibiscus tea.

“I…” Seraphina blinked. “This is… not quite the effect I wanted.”

SuMing spun around so fast he crashed into a water urn.

From behind her fan, May whispered to Lian, “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

Lian nodded slowly, dazed. “Unfortunately, yes.”

“They can’t be real,” May added in disbelief.

Seraphina heard them and smirked. “Oh, they’re very real. Want to touch?”

Both women hissed and dragged her behind the closest screen, wrapping her in a bedsheet.

Meanwhile, SuMing staggered behind the tree, pressing his hands over his face. “I’m a good man. I didn’t mean to see that.”

The mouse scurried by and squeaked smugly.

Chapter 60.2: Teasing, Tension, and Torn Dignity

Seraphina, now wrapped in hastily summoned curtains and radiating zero shame, strutted through the palace like nothing had happened. “Well,” she sighed, “at least the silk obeyed someone.”

SuMing hadn’t recovered.

He sat slumped on a garden bench, his face still red, mumbling to himself like a monk in penance. “Nope. Didn’t see anything. Nothing at all. Pure thoughts. Just fog. Mist. Shadows. Not curves. Definitely not curves.”

May arrived with a tray of tea, smirking. “Still dizzy, Captain?”

“I’m fine!” he said, then accidentally dunked his sleeve into the teacup.

Lian sat beside him and patted his back sympathetically, only to whisper: “So... were they real?”

He jumped so high he knocked over the tray.

“Lian!” he hissed. “I am a soldier of discipline!”

May leaned in on the other side, sipping with dramatic slowness. “They did bounce.”

SuMing nearly fainted.

That’s when Seraphina arrived, still regal in her makeshift curtain-dress. “I can perform a memory-erasing spell, if you’re all that scandalized.”

“No!” SuMing shouted, nearly tripping over the palace cat that had crept up behind him.

The mouse squeaked from the balcony above, chewing smugly on the very black silk that vanished during the spell.

May pointed. “There! That rat ate her dress!”

Seraphina gasped. “So it wasn’t my spell?! I’ve been sabotaged by a rodent!”

SuMing gave a tired groan and collapsed face-first onto the grass.

The three women stood over him.

May: “Poor thing.”

Lian: “He’s so cute when he suffers.”

Seraphina: “I give him a week before he proposes.”

As SuMing groaned and rolled away, the mouse dropped a tiny torn piece of black silk on his head… like a trophy.

The war had only just begun.

Chapter 61: The War of Wits and Whiskers

The mouse had declared war.

It chewed through silk, stole palace keys, nibbled a sacred scroll, and even left a tiny turd on SuMing’s perfectly polished armor. This was not mischief. This was sabotage.

“Enough is enough!” SuMing declared, banging his fist on the planning table. “I’m initiating Operation Whisker’s End!”

He gathered his guards, all solemn and ready for battle.

May peeked into the war room with a snack in hand. “You’re holding council over a mouse?”

Lian added, “It already pantsed your Captain last week. What’s left to defend?”

Seraphina waltzed in, holding a tea cup that floated above her hand—then exploded in a puff of glitter.

“Who needs plans,” she said dramatically, “when you have magic?”

SuMing paled. “No! No more spells! Your last ‘mouse detection spell’ turned my bed into a sponge cake!”

“It was delicious,” Seraphina shrugged.

Operation Whisker’s End began at dawn. Traps were set. Cheese was baited. Guards were posted.

Then… silence.

Until midnight.

BOOM!

May, awakened by a loud crash, peeked into the hallway.

Seraphina was clinging to the chandelier.

Lian stood on a stool, armed with chopsticks.

And SuMing? He was on the floor, wrapped head to toe in a spellbound curtain—again. His armor had vanished. Again.

From the shadows, the mouse squeaked victoriously… and vanished into the night with a sliver of black silk clenched in its tiny teeth.

“It took her bra again,” May muttered.

Seraphina snarled. “That demon vermin has tasted its last glamour thread. I shall summon... the Cat Legion.”

SuMing blinked. “Wait… the what?”

The sorceress grinned. “The Special Forces. Of Cats.”

From behind her, six majestic feline silhouettes emerged… wearing tiny helmets.

“Ladies and SuMing,” Seraphina declared. “The war just got adorable.”

Chapter 62: Scooby-Doo and the Black Silk Phantom

Late at night, under the eerie glow of the palace lanterns, the Mouse struck again—stealing a sacred hairpin and leaving behind a single black silk thread tied around SuMing’s doorknob.

“A warning,” Lian said grimly.

“We’re being taunted,” May growled. “And I don’t like it.”

They gathered in the hidden corridor of the palace’s east wing.

“We need a plan,” SuMing whispered.

“We need traps,” Lian suggested.

“We need drama,” Seraphina said, sweeping in wearing a black robe two sizes too long. “And better lighting. This wing is terribly flat.”

“You’re Daphne now,” May announced.

“Excuse me?”

“Pretty, dramatic, keeps getting into magical trouble. Definitely Daphne.”

Lian nodded. “I’ll be Fred.”

May pushed up her spectacles. “Velma. Obviously.”

Everyone turned to SuMing.

“…I hate this,” he muttered. “Why am I Shaggy?”

“You keep losing your pants,” May replied with a straight face.

With that, the hunt began. May and Lian set logic traps. SuMing carried snacks and panic. Seraphina, desperate to be useful, cast a revealing spell.

POOF!

Nothing.

POOF!

More nothing.

BOOM!

SuMing screamed as his pants vanished again. “WHY DOES IT ALWAYS TARGET ME?!”

The mouse skittered by, wearing SuMing’s belt as a sash.

Lian lunged. May dove. Seraphina shrieked.

They landed in a heap—on top of SuMing.

“Get! Off! Me!” he shouted, blushing so hard it turned his ears red.

The mouse vanished once more, laughing in squeaks, black silk fluttering behind it like a cape.

Seraphina groaned. “This is a curse. I’m cursed. We’re all cursed.”

“Split up and look for clues,” May muttered.

“I swear,” SuMing said, still pantless, “if that mouse shows up in a monocle and cane, I’m retiring.”