Chapter 793 Future Value
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Meanwhile, Emilia led her team down a rather familiar road, with Sylvia and her 'best friend' following along silently.
She wasn't oblivious to all the 'attention' that her team had been getting recently. However, the crimson-haired girl didn't believe it was necessary to pay too much attention to such things.
Regardless of their 'choice', all the 'top teams' in their region would have to submit to the country's new 'rules' once they came out. And while submitting to the rich and powerful might let them avoid that fate for some time, that would only be a curse disguised as a blessing, instead.
After all, the national leaders might be able to ignore a few 'high profile' individual teams for some time, but once certain organizations started gathering so much 'firepower' in broad daylight, ignoring them would be no different from simply handing over their country without a fight.
This was one of the core reasons why Emilia hadn't bothered correcting the misconceptions about her 'stupid and na?ve' behavior, and also why she didn't mind 'taking the blame' for things she may or may not have done.
Of course, while she didn't care about being 'bullied' by people who she knew cared about her, the crimson-haired girl wasn't so kind as to let 'strangers' like Dolly do the same.
"You know, at first I thought all of you must also have returned to the capital to make some money like the rest of them, but… looking teammates from getting injured and taking damage in their stead, haven't I done pretty well for a vanguard?"
at your clothes, tsk tsk… things must have been tough, huh?"
Emilia frowned, but didn't stop or turn around. "By preventing my teammates from getting injured and taking damage in their stead, haven't I done pretty well for a vanguard?"
Danielle nodded. "Of course, you did perfectly well."
Robin and Nico also chimed in.
"Some people are just jealous and can't handle the fact that someone else could be better than them."
"True."
Several of her teammates had been consciously helping Emilia by surrounding her while they moved as a group, so not many were able to get a clear glimpse of her for long, and it was difficult for any of them to ascertain the degree of damage that her clothes sustained. But how could it be the same for Dolly now that they were moving as a 'group'?
Not only was the crimson-haired elf's skirt in tatters, with even her silk undergarments slightly exposed, but the rest of her clothing and armor were also heavily damaged.
Dolly couldn't help but sneer. "It's clear to me now that your team values your face more than your skills. Maybe I was lucky that day, avoiding the disaster of joining your group of idiots."
Despite getting a somewhat 'better' perspective of what she used to be like in her childhood, Emilia's impression of Dolly fortunately hadn't really changed much, so she wasn't too disappointed, and just smiled. "Maybe we were lucky, too. Avoiding a disaster."
After all, regardless of what happened before, it remained true that Dolly allowed her 'best friend' to take the blame for something that was her own fault. Not to mention, Emilia found it a little hard to believe that it was a coincidence that Sylvia's reputation was hit a lot harder than Dolly's.
Normally, Emilia would confront this kind of person head-on, and expose all their lies and deceit to the public. But this matter didn't really involve her directly, and Sylvia wasn't yet close enough for her to make such decisions on her behalf.
Sylvia seemed like she wanted to interrupt their 'conversation' several times, but either she couldn't find the opportunity to speak, or just didn't know what to say.
On one side was her 'best friend', but the girl was so different from what she remembered that Sylvia almost couldn't match the face in front of her with the memory from the past. And on the other side was the girl she'd hated at first, but grown to like more and more the longer they were 'stuck' together.
Naturally, Emilia knew that Sylvia definitely wasn't as cunning or deep thinking as her 'best friend'. Looking at how things had turned out previously, allowing the two to talk in public would probably only make things worse for the yellow-eyed girl.
"Okay, we're almost there. Let's not argue on the road and become the target of public ridicule later."
Although Dolly was reluctant, she also knew how much trouble an 'accidentally captured' and carefully edited video could cause, so she could only keep silent.
Her future was too bright to risk for the likes of these upstarts, after all.
Of course, Emilia didn't care about the reasoning behind Dolly's attitude.
Whatever happened previously still hadn't caused any 'irreversible' damage, as not many really knew who Sylvia was. But things were different now, with their 'Crimson Witches' team becoming a lot more famous. Emilia knew that the two definitely couldn't be allowed to talk in front of a crowd.
If Sylvia 'admitted' to something wrong or carelessly jumped into a pit that was meticulously dug by her 'best friend', even Emilia wasn't sure if the situation would be recoverable.
That being said, there were actually very few 'private' places for players to have a short discussion within the capital, unless one wanted to either rent or buy out someplace for at least a day. At least, that was so in the commercial and residential zones.
And even though her reputation was now quite good, Emilia still couldn't take people along to the noble or military zones, either.
Luckily, with the recent frenzy of people pouring money into the game, most new and veteran players alike were too busy trying to earn as much money as they could, leaving the inns and restaurants mostly filled with the 'natives' of Arcadia, including the one where Emilia and her team often stayed at.
"Welcome to Inari's Inn!" The proprietress greeted her 'regular customers' happily, then quickly led them to a large round table. "What would you like to order?"
Obviously, while the food and drinks available on the ground floor of the inn couldn't be compared to dedicated restaurants, they were good enough for Emilia to indulge in from time to time.
"Just a cup of green tea for everyone, please." Danielle ordered without missing a beat.
"Alright, just a moment!"
Once the lady had left, the drill-haired girl's gaze turned sharp as she focused on the sneering face of Sylvia's 'best friend'. "Okay, now you can bark."
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l