"What's wrong?"
The question drew Attendant Rue from the reverie, quickly shaking her head with pearly white teeth pressing hard I told tender pink flesh.
"N-nothing, my lady…" Attendant Rue responded with a soft breath and hurried to pluck another piece of fruit, feeding it to Lady Viola.
Lady Viola was a bit confused, but the taste of these fruits quickly distracted her. After savoring the taste for a while, and not noticing the teasing expression on Leonardo's face, she said, "Are you here to pave the way for my little sister? You know, she's only a Qing in name, and if she wasn't the patriarch's daughter, she wouldn't have anything behind her name at this point."
Viola finally got to the main subject of her visit, even as she closed her eyes. Because she was so immersed in acting aloof and out of this world, she wouldn't notice how Attendant Rue would quiver, on the verge of moaning out a gasp, each time she fed Leonardo a piece of fruit while accidentally touching his soft lips.
Careful as she might act, there were times when her skin would inevitably come into contact with those lips.
Leonardo replied, "Precisely because she doesn't have any power to her name, our cooperation can work just fine. I'll help her get whatever she desires, and in exchange…"
Leonardo's words trailed off as he wasn't planning to explain himself, nor elaborate on what Emily truly desired as desire was truly an illusive whim; that could change in a heartbeat.
However, Viola was interested nonetheless. "What does my little sister desire, then? To establish her own branch of the Qing family?"
"You know, desires come on a whim and leave just the same— it's only a question of whether you pursue those desires to live the moment…" As Leonardo finished his words, he clasped down yet another piece of fruit while accidentally touching Attendant Rue's hand.
The woman's body shook intensely for a split second as a light gasp escaped her cherry lips.
"Are you alright?" Lady Viola asked, lifting her head only to find Attendant Rue a bit restless with a flushed face.
Attendant Rue panicked, not understanding what happened to her body, even as she clamped her thighs tightly.
"I… I'm fine, my lady…" Attendant Rue struggled to compose herself and respond. Lady Viola was still skeptical, but nonetheless, she didn't chase the matter.
By now, the plate of fruits was half empty, and so Leonardo said, "You've worked hard, little Rue, I think I'm full of snacks for now."
Leonardo then turned to Viola. "Must it be a Qing family? Why can't it be something else? For example, a Ye family?"
Leonardo's raised brows and sudden question shocked Lady Viola to the core. She wasn't concerned about the part of the Ye family, but if her little sister really changed her surname and started a new family altogether, this would be a huge blow to the Qing family.
They might do anything at their disposal to make her little sister come back into the family's genealogy even if she were to be selected as the next matriarch.
However, Leonardo's second meaning was also clear; Emily wasn't after Viola's position in the family, she wouldn't come to fight for something she already gave away. Moreover, she was too proud to crawl back into a family that tossed her like a broken tool.
"Are you trying to usurp the position of the Qing family from the alliance altogether?" Lady Viola suddenly realized the even greater threat of these prospects, shooting off the critical question.
If the Qing family did fall from grace, what's the point of being a matriarch in such a family?
"Are you really that naive?" Leonardo was shocked by such a stupid question. "The Qing family has tens of thousands of members and tens the number of vassals!"
Leonardo shook his head. "They hold numerous positions in the court, and control the economy, agriculture, and military of many cities; even the army under your little sister is an extension of the Qing family's resources, she merely stands as a commander of the troops
"Do you think these accomplishments are something to complete overnight? These are accomplishments spanning multiple generations, it's not something a 7th-tier upstart and her personal attendant can accomplish in their lifetime, let alone carry out in a place such as the Jin Prefecture."
Lady Viola visibly relaxed after hearing the explanation. She almost forgot how a big family operates like a nest of ants of many branches. A queen ant without its working ants is as useless as the vice versa.
Viola furrowed her brows. "The Qing family won't allow this to happen, they'll try everything they can to rope her back in, and if that didn't work, they would do things to an extreme— they might attempt to kill you, or her, or anyone who stands to help her get a foothold in this political arena. The imperial family doesn't care about the power of one person, let alone someone banished from the family…"
Viola paused for a bit, remembering some important tidbit of information as she said, "Unless…"
"Unless?" Leonardo raised an eyebrow, wondering what was about to come from this lady's mouth.
Lady Viola smiled. "Do you remember the upheaval brought about by that Leonardo person and how he kidnapped the Holy Maiden of the Interstellar Supreme Court? Well…"
The more Leonardo listened, the more shocked and elated he was on the inside. Apparently, the Interstellar Supreme Court is arranging for an expedition to sweep through the stellar worlds of this plane. Every plane had a core mainland and from this mainland stretched a vast space of cosmos, residing in that space were the stellar worlds.
When people from the court descended on the stellar world where House Hestia used to be, they also discovered the Exiled Paradise in their tracking down of Leonardo's whereabouts and movements.
Unbelievably to all, even 6th-tier, 7th-tier, and 8th-tier powerhouses were restricted all the same whenever they entered that gray space. Thus, the following expedition has a few goals in mind, one of which is to uncover the secrets of that mysterious sub-dimension, which is believed to be a fragment of some plane's Core Mainland.
At first, everyone simply thought the restrictions were limited to people below the rebirth realm and treated it as a prison. Now, however, they understood how wrong they were.
According to Viola, if Emily managed to accomplish great merits in that expedition, she might be recognized by the Imperial family and granted a noble title such as Marquee or Duchess. These were provincial and prefecture regional titles. She didn't need to control a region through political means and economic policies, she would have the impetus family as a backing. Of course, she would need to make it back alive, given that the imperial family wouldn't break the sword after using it.
Viola clearly wanted to send Emily into a death trap, but she hadn't expected that Leonardo was very eager to make the trip himself.
He smiled. "This is perfect; I'll go on my lady's behalf and garner some merits for her… Hm, do you think that Leonardo made it back to the Exiled Paradise?"
Viola was surprised that Leonardo would make the trip personally, but it would work just fine as long as he couldn't make it back to the Core Mainland.
She answered, "Most probably… intelligence states that it was the place where he comprehended his first martial intent so he must have obtained some core inheritance from that place; it isn't impossible that he could teleport in and out of the Exiled Paradise since it is disconnected from the space-time all around it."
Leonardo nodded, somewhat relieved to hear that since no one would have anticipated he joined the expedition party.
Just as he nodded, a hesitant voice echoed, "B-brother Ye, do you want more fruits?"
Both Leonardo and Viola were shocked, the latter even more so than the former. Since when did Attendant Rue become so polite to her lady's enemies?
Their conversation lasted for almost an hour, and during this hour, Attendant Rue kept having reflexive flashbacks to that weird sensation all across her body. Whenever she thought about it, the more restless she felt.
It was unbearable yet addictive, but she couldn't simply voice out her twisted desires in front of Lady Viola.
Hence, she proposed to feed Leonardo some fruits as a medium. She felt embarrassed, but she thought no one was privy to what wonderful of a sensation her body enjoyed whenever she touched Leonardo's lips. These goosebumps were inexplicable.
Leonardo smiled. "Now that you've mentioned it, I do feel like some fruits could help moisten my throat after all this talking."
Lady Viola felt a little uncomfortable at this display, getting off her seat. "I'll be taking a tour around Skyflare City to finish some other business; we shouldn't disturb Attendant Ye anymore than necessary."
Lady Viola obviously didn't want to keep her attendant next to Leonardo as she didn't trust the latter. The piece of fruit was an inch away from Leonardo's lips, and Attendant Rue's hands shook with disappointment.
Leonardo said, "You've already sold your attendant to me for the rest of the day, where else would I find another 6th-tier attendant to stand for my maidservant?"
Lady Viola was shocked. "That woman was a 6th-tier? I didn't notice it." Her eyebrows locked together.
Leonardo rolled his eyes. "Do you think House Renhuang is that generous? They wish to keep an eye on me at every moment of the day, you've given me a good excuse to send her off."
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