Chapter 1118 Too Late

Chapter 1118 Too Late

"What the hell did you just do?" Lady Lyria stammered in horror, witnessing the bashful state of the legendary vixen, whose icy heart was known far and wide.

The icy heart in question had just melted...

"Exactly what I promised. I simply charmed her," Jake explained calmly, scrutinizing the reactions of his new admirer with genuine curiosity.

It wasn't every day he got to see his Charm attribute at work. It was a chance to take notes.

Usually the first to not give a damn about what happened to that bitch, the Keeper of the Archives paled solemnly, foreseeing the far-reaching consequences of such a capability. Though the foreigner was focused on Faye under the guise of retaliation, it was unmistakably a veiled threat towards her too.

If she provoked him, he would do the identical to her...

"There's a difference between seducing, charming, and enslaving," Lyria finally retorted, having regained enough confidence to speak without her voice trembling.

Unexpectedly, Jake didn't contradict her, even agreeing with her.

"You're absolutely right. But where you're mistaken is that I'm not doing anything. If a naïve girl falls for a stunning man, idolizing him for his looks and overlooking his flaws, is the man guilty of manipulating her into falling for him?" novE/lb)In

Lyria frowned, reluctantly pondering the question. After a brief introspection, she cautiously replied,

"He... shouldn't be guilty. It's the girl, in her superficiality, refusing to see beyond, blinded by the tree that hides the forest."

"And it's the identical with Faye and me," Jake concluded, winking at Faye, who blushed so much you could almost imagine steam escaping from her ears. A bit more, and she would have fainted from the emotion.

Finally understanding what he meant, but still skeptical, the Keeper of the Archives repeated several times in her head what she wanted to say, then ventured,

"Are you trying to say you're not manipulating her at all, but your innate charm is so extraordinary that no woman can resist it?"

"Bullseye."

Jake didn't go as far as asking her to reveal all the state secrets she knew in front of Lyria. Not only was Anthace reporting their conversation to the Celestial, but if they didn't preemptively kill her that night, he'd have other opportunities to interrogate her without raising unwelcome suspicions.

"My most precious artifact is..." Faye rushed to reveal all her possessions passionately, as if eager to prove she was worthy of his interest.

Jake and Lyria listened in silence, the former stoic, the latter becoming more pallid as she heard her revered colleague reveal the obscene fortune she had amassed through evil machinations and plots defying imagination. When she learned at one point that her family heirloom, a mage staff enchanted over 20 times stolen during a burglary targeting one of her ancestors, was in the bitch's possession, her face turned green.

"I... I can't believe it..." Lyria growled in a voice abnormally hoarse and ominous. "I constantly thought it was a tribe of raiders from the Duskwight Lands who had stolen it. The traces left at the crime scene supported that theory."

*****

If the expression of the renowned Keeper of the Archives was ashen with rage, then at that moment, the Celestial listening to Anthace's report transmitting their conversation was downright furious.

And not just him...

The other two Radiant Conclave members were beyond outraged. On the verge of rushing to where Jake was to strangle Faye right before his eyes.

"That bitch!" Lord Calyx cursed, violently smashing the stained glass behind his golden throne with his fist. "That bitch swore to me, looking me straight in the eyes, that my Ode to the Titans was destroyed during the last raid!"

Ode to the Titans was his favorite painting, a masterpiece that one of his painter ancestors created after pushing his art to its apex. By using the blood, sap, and pigments of plants and beasts that had acquired a certain number of Life Enchantments, then dipping these ingredients in the western half of the Lumyst River, it was possible to create a 'living' painting.

To paint Ode to the Titans, his ancestor had undertaken a lengthy task before painting the piece itself, collecting the blood of the Titans he intended to paint to use as paint. The value of this painting, both militarily and sentimentally, was immeasurable. Its disappearance had been a severe loss for the Lustra Plains and his clan, but today he discovered that his cherished painting had never gone very far...

"I'm going to kill her..." Calyx declared through clenched teeth before being stopped by a resigned shake of Master Eldrion's head.

"I also long to torture her extensively, but we have a more urgent problem," the old warrior sighed bitterly.

Noticing the gravity on the faces of Eldrion and Valandar, the blood rushing to his head receded as it had come, his face turning pale with horror.

"No!"

"TOO... LATE..." Anthace's somewhat mocking sigh resonated in the room, prompting them to slump back into their thrones, defeated.