Chapter 725: The Cold Gaze and Sharp Fangs
Chapter 725: The Cold Gaze and Sharp Fangs
When facing your enemies, do you only show them your coldest gaze and sharpest fangs?
The female cleaner, who was laughing heartily at Lyon but had a tense expression when looking at herself and the others, along with the envoys from various kingdoms, suddenly fell into an awkward silence.
Following this logic... so you're in cahoots with him, and we're the enemies?
"No, that's not it!"
Seeing the group of envoys with grim faces, the female cleaner realized her mistake and quickly waved her hands in explanation.
"I'm on your side, he's the one..."
At this point, she paused unconsciously, waiting for Lyon to return to find Princess Veronica. After he had walked a considerable distance, she relaxed and whispered, "He's my enemy! As the princess of the Northern Kingdom, I would never collude with him, rest assured!"
"..."
Rest assured? After seeing your expression, we can all give up hope!
...
"Veronica."
Ignoring the female cleaner who was being 'besieged' by the envoys of allied nations, Lyon returned to the area where the envoys from various nations had been arguing. He flipped his hand and took out a small dish of red velvet cake from the Mirror Realm, offering it to Queen Veronica.
"Are you hungry? Do you want to eat a little first?"
"Yes!"
Looking into Lyon's calm eyes and hearing his caring inquiry, Queen Veronica, who had been slightly worried, immediately relaxed.
Although the situation over there was indeed a bit concerning, Lyon's expression didn't seem to indicate that he had done anything wrong. So, the situation wasn't as she had initially thought.
However, despite her rational understanding, Queen Veronica still felt a bit sour when she recalled the previous scene.
As the dish was passed to her, her lips moved slightly, wanting the same feeding treatment, but with the envoys from various nations around, she couldn't bring herself to ask.
With regret, she took the dish and ate two pieces before passing it to the attendant by her side. Then, she linked arms with Lyon and introduced him to the envoys.
After politely greeting everyone, Lyon, as usual, reached for his cufflinks and, with the help of the Black Sheep's soul vision, examined the soul colors of these envoys.
Ambition, honesty, deceit, loyalty, suspicion, humility...
Overall, it was a mix of good and bad, but the 'bad' side was slightly more prominent. None of them had a purely good soul like the female cleaner's, which was as pure as her (clumsy) innocence.
However, on the other hand, these people didn't seem to have any malicious intentions either. Their souls were chaotic and noisy, but not dirty, indicating that while they had ambitions, they also had a decent moral compass.
In short, there were indeed no hidden agendas among the allies Queen Veronica had chosen.
After checking the quality of his allies, Lyon's expression became much more amiable. He politely shook hands with the envoys, one by one, showing his goodwill.
As Lyon's expression softened, the envoys from the allied nations also breathed a collective sigh of relief.
For some reason, although Prince Lyon had a gentle demeanor and wasn't scowling, when he wasn't smiling, he gave off a peculiar sense of pressure.
This strange feeling of oppression wasn't the typical arrogance of a ruler who had been in power for a long time, but rather, it was closer to a more primal fear. It was similar to how people might pay extra attention to an elephant's footsteps when standing too close.
Even as the elephant raised its trunk in a friendly greeting, the vast difference in "quality" couldn't help but make one suspect that they might be trampled to death by it...
"Sir Lyon."
After shaking hands with Lyon's "trunk" and feeling the warmth of human skin, the leader of the Conservative Party of the Oleron Kingdom finally shed that strange pressure temporarily and smiled as he spoke.
"I've heard of your great name long ago. I was planning to wait until the banquet officially began and present the wedding gifts on behalf of the kingdom to you and your spouse. That's why I didn't visit beforehand, and I hope you don't mind."
"You're too kind."
Having received training from the Armored Elder and learned some basic etiquette, Lyon hastily returned a slightly awkward bow.
When he realized from the other's soul state that this wasn't mere politeness but a sincere statement, Lyon couldn't help but ask curiously,
"May I ask where you heard my name?"
"Hehe, I'm a close relative of Miss Abigail from the Scorpion Bureau. I heard some things about the Purification Bureau from her."
Abigail... Oh, the Sheepwhip!
Upon hearing the familiar name, Lyon's expression became even more friendly.
Although this party leader wasn't a cleaner, it was good to connect with a relative of Abigail's. After all, if Lyon wanted to collect the full set of sheep-themed items, he couldn't avoid the sheepwhip in Abigail's hands. It was beneficial to have more acquaintances, as they might be able to help later.
The smiling, plump old man across from him seemed to have similar thoughts to Lyon.
After the common acquaintance brought them closer, the leader of the Conservative Party of the Oleron Kingdom immediately seized Lyon and began to lavish praise upon him. Although nine out of ten sentences were nonsense, the initially cold atmosphere quickly warmed up again.
Once the formal greetings between allies were over, the fat old man who claimed to be Abigail's relative immediately seized the opportunity to ask about the distribution of the "inheritance" of the Corlock Kingdom.
"Let me answer this one."
Seeing Lyon entangled by the Oleron Kingdom's envoy and looking a bit troubled, Princess Veronica took over and responded to the crowd of allied envoys.
Lyon, having been "relieved" by Veronica, quickly found an excuse to slip away from the crowd and sat down by a pillar, still feeling a bit shaken.
The level of these envoys' attempts to get close was truly nerve-wracking.
Lyon had just wanted to get to know people in the Oleron Kingdom and expand his network there, thinking it might be useful in the future. But these people got their "network" and immediately put it to use, climbing up the ladder.
If it weren't for Veronica taking over, the atmosphere at the time felt like he had to leave something behind to get away. In a situation where he couldn't fight but only talk, it was...
"This is so not my thing... Waa... I really can't do this..."
Lyon was surprised to find that at some point, the female cleaner had escaped another group of envoys. She was now sitting on the other side of the pillar, wiping her eyes and humming to herself as she looked into a small mirror.
"I said I can't be an envoy, but Harvey insisted... Waa... Uncle, I want to go home..."
(TT)
(End of Chapter)
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