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Noelle just sneered at the unfocused and hate-filled gaze of her mother. "So just because you gave birth to me, I should be indebted to you all my life regardless of how you treat me after that? Do you even know what you're saying?"
Did she really never expect what she did to be exposed to everyone?
"You—!"
The gray-haired girl didn't allow the older woman another opportunity to spew poison, and swiftly knocked her out with a ruthless kick to the head.
Many in the crowd stared at each other, perplexed, but no one dared to say a word. With the elders being behind her, they'd always just assumed that Noelle must be a child hand-picked by them, and must have been taken away from her parents with the consent of everyone involved.
As for the reason why the identity of her parents wasn't exposed, they could only assume that it must be part of Noelle's training somehow.
No one ever expected that there would be such a dark and hideous secret behind her unknown origins, and that the elders hadn't actually taken her from her parents, but rescued her instead!
The fact that doing something like this would usually incur an unimaginably heavy punishment only made it more difficult for people to comprehend, and for a while, they couldn't make heads or tails of what they were hearing.
Of course, while the elders weren't too panicked as they already about it all, they also hadn't expected Noelle to expose everything in front of the whole clan at this time.
But since it had already happened now, the grand elder decided it was best not to make things worse by being rash.
Since Noelle was already heading off with her masked 'wife', their first priority should be to secure Narcissa and Gildroy first using the excuse of making sure they were alright.
"Let's take the injured into custody first, and wait for them to recover before deciding on further action."
While most of their reputation should have already fallen apart by now, it could still be troublesome if they were allowed to recover and regroup with the factions they'd created before.
His words were ambiguous enough, and even the elders by his side were unable to determine what he really wanted to do with the 'prisoners' after detaining them.
It was only after they'd left that the crowd finally burst into furious arguments.
"So our hidden genius was actually an abandoned child and not someone picked out by the elders personally due to exceptional talent?!"
One of the older ladies frowned. "Now that I think about it… Noelle has to be the daughter that Narcissa had with Gildroy, right?"
"How unfortunate. Blessed with such talent, but cursed with such demonic parents!"
"Alas, if only she was my daughter instead… Maybe I can still adopt her?"
A few people rolled their eyes at the old lady. "Give up, granny, she's already grown up, and has already taken a spouse. You can't keep thinking of pairing her up with your useless son."
The old lady coughed indignantly. "I-I was thinking of no such thing! I only felt angry when I thought of a mother treating her daughter like that, you know? That moron Narcissa didn't even seem to regret it, either!"
Her words immediately caused many to nod in fury.
"It's unbelievable how vicious she can be to even her own daughter. Even if she didn't want to raise her, that woman had more than enough servants to take care of the girl for her, didn't she?"
"You can't expect the decisions of someone so full of conceit and stupidity to make sense."
"Right. I cannot fathom just how stupid one has to be to abandon a daughter like that!"
"As stupid as Narcissa, it seems."
"The stupid moron didn't even give her the chance to grow. I wouldn't even dream of abandoning my daughter even if she was untalented."
"Heh. I've always thought of that woman as someone with all conceit and no conscience, but never realized the full extent of her hubris."
"Her husband's no better, in my opinion. Both of them must have decided this together."
"Man, I feel sorry for Noelle. With such vicious parents, how could she possibly have faith in anyone while growing up? Fortunately, the elders came to her rescue, or we might have lost a great genius."
The hatred and disdain for Narcissa and Gildroy mounted at an incredible speed as people finally connected all the dots, and many who were still uncertain of their stance before immediately decided to cut ties with the two.
Naturally, they would have felt some pity for her even if she was just a normal girl, but it couldn't be denied that it was Noelle's apparent 'talent' that really roused most of the emotions in the people of the Nightingale clan.
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Obviously, while the elders were soon bombarded with requests to punish Gildroy and Narcissa according to the old clan rules, they didn't actually dare do anything without Noelle's consent.
After all, the two unconscious idiots were of little use to their clan, as their fighting strength couldn't be used due to their disobedience, and their greatest use was only to placate Noelle somehow.
The problem was, however, that the gray-haired girl refused to communicate with them after her fight, and had completely shut herself off in her mansion, telling them to come visit her tomorrow.
Quite understandably, the elders were a little worried.
"Do you think her old wounds getting opened like that might have made her too emotional? Should we barge in anyway and try to soothe her somehow?"
"We don't want her suddenly hating the whole clan or something. That would be disastrous for us!"
"B-But I-I don't think barging in forcefully is a good idea!"
The grand elder nodded. "He's right. Even if things are as you say, we will need someone she actually gets along with for the job."
"… Should we contact the people in White Deer Corporation?"
Unfortunately, the results of such actions were as expected, as they received no response, and could only sigh in defeat.
"I suppose we can only trust that masked girl, then."
"Hopefully she's a little more caring and sensitive than she seems."
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