Chapter 629 Puppeteers?

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Naturally, it was impossible for Noelle and Emilia to remain unaware of such commotion for long, but even though they clearly knew about it all, they still pretended to be oblivious.

After all, these 'elites' weren't jumping up and down so enthusiastically without reason. Hurt egos or not, most people within the Nightingale clan simply wouldn't risk offending the elders unless they had something much more substantial to gain.

Such as perhaps the favor of someone they believed would become the next clan leader.

Obviously, even with the elders making their intentions more than clear, there were still many who refused to believe that their choice of jumping ship early had been wrong, and would rather close their eyes and keep running towards the cliff.

Although Noelle understood their reasoning, she didn't really sympathize with them.

Courage and stupidity were often separated by a very fine line, and these people clearly had no idea where that thing might be, or if it even existed.

Instead of continuing as they were and putting everyone they held dear in danger, wasn't it better to just give up their ambitions and beg for mercy while there was still a chance?

Of course, compared to the pawns that kept trying to stop a river with a net, Noelle was much more interested in the movements of players directing them into making such futile moves.

Even if these 'masterminds' hadn't already tried to approach Noelle directly, she still would have been able to guess their thoughts with her toes.

In Noelle's opinion, the more emotionally invested someone was in something, the more narrow their range of thoughts became.

And when it came to her so-called parents, their hatred for each other was already at its peak, to the point where they were even willing to seek help from the daughter they clearly disdained associating themselves with.

Was there any need to guess what they were trying to do?

Emilia grinned. "Do you want to have more fun?"

Noelle hummed thoughtfully for a while before shaking her head in denial. "It might be fun for a while, but I don't want us to stain ourselves with their disgusting hypocrisy any more than we have to."

The younger girl giggled. "Well, leaving them guessing might be fun on its own. Not a bad idea."

Needless to say, the urgent requests of her 'parents' to have even the slightest contact with her were promptly rejected by the Nightingale clan's elders.

Narcissa couldn't help but stomp her feet in rage. "Those old fools! How dare they?!"

Even when she hadn't been the leading figure in the main branch, no one had dared to reject her request to simply meet someone within the Nightingale clan.

Of course, although her ex-husband appeared much calmer in comparison, that was only because they unexpectedly happened to have approached the elders at the same time.

The moment they parted ways after sharing a mutual hateful glare, the man immediately punched his thigh dozens of times in rage before barely calming himself down. 'Shit! I can't get in touch with that gray-haired bitch, and I can't contact Emilia either! How the fuck am I supposed to get back in touch with the two of them?'

Obviously, the two he was worried about didn't refer to the two girls he mentioned before, but his wife and son. After all, regardless of what had happened before, making sure they were fine and healthy was still his highest priority.

Although the promise of Blue Dawn's empress managed to reassure him to some extent, the fact that there had been no 'updates' from their side inevitably made him worried.

In the end, he could only sigh in defeat. 'I guess I can only continue doing as I was told for now, and hope that the stupidity of that stupid bitch doesn't affect the deal between me and Emilia.'

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With both Gildroy and Narcissa certain that the clan's elders were the 'puppeteers' exploiting their 'dumb' daughter, who was now indulging herself in something either ridiculously stupid, perverted, or both, the two of them naturally stopped bothering to make requests for a meeting, and instead focused their in a completely different direction.

Since it wasn't possible to force Noelle out or convince the elders, couldn't they just use the same method as the one that the old geezers used to win over the people of the Nightingale clan?

"Hey, hey, did you hear…? Gildroy and Narcissa are about to have a public duel!"

"What?!"

"Is that for real?"

With their established reputation and well-known mutual hatred, no one doubted the authenticity of this news, and when it wasn't refuted by the concerned parties themselves, people soon confirmed that it really wasn't just hearsay, after all.

Such news soon rang through most households in the Nightingale clan, and it didn't take long for even the elders to hear about it.

"Can we stop it?"

The grand elder sighed. "… That's… not against the clan rules in any way."

"Ah… unfortunate."

Naturally, the reason they wanted to prevent the two from fighting wasn't because they were concerned about their well-being.

"Not many could clearly observe Noelle's movements given how fast she was that day, and if Gildroy and Narcissa fight with all their might…"

"It won't be impossible to convince people that they might be much stronger, especially if there are those within the crowd from their side encouraging such thoughts."

The grand elder chuckled. "What's the worry? So long as we show up and 'analyze' their fight in front of everyone, wouldn't it clear up any misunderstandings before they can arise?"

"…!"

"The grand elder is wise!"

Unfortunately, before they could celebrate coming up with such a perfect countermeasure, their enthusiasm was rudely doused by a certain gray-haired girl's intrusion into the meeting room.

"Are those two really going to fight?"

One of the elders had barely managed to nod, and the gray-haired girl grinned like a devil.

"Great! My wife was just crying about how she wasn't able to see how glorious I was when fighting because she was too busy defending herself. What a perfect opportunity!"

The grand elder was still trying to process the ridiculous statement when Noelle stared at him straight, like a hunter would at its prey.

"I'm sure you understand what I mean, no? When the time comes, just sit back and watch quietly. I would hate to have my wife's mood ruined when the time comes, so don't do anything unnecessary."

She left without so much as saying goodbye, leaving the grand elder scratching his head, dumbfounded. "Why is she always like that...?"

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