Chapter 134 The Open Secret
Looking from the enthusiastic Juvia to Leonardo who seemed lost in thoughts, simply seated there without any intentions of saying anything other than that snide remark, Ingrid smiled imperceptibly to herself.
"Ara~ and who might this little miss be?"
The female beastkin wasn't aware of why would Leonardo send in a subordinate to do the talking, but the old human man and the elven couple could understand clearly, as both their respective domains had a royal court system that albeit differing in the handling of affairs, the concept was the same.
Leonardo noticed that their Chairman didn't join the discussion, but pushed them, her subordinates, instead. Hence, Leonardo responded by pushing out one of his subordinates as well, implicitly implying that despite the difference in strength, his status and position are no lower than their Chairman in this room, and they're not qualified enough to discuss with him directly.
The beastkin male simply yawned and then folded his arms across his muscular chest, gently dozing off to sleep.
"All you need to know is that I am my lord's representative. However, in the hopes that you will forgive me for being late, I'll grace you with a bit of critical yet very secretive piece of information," Juvia took a few steps forward to stand in the middle ground between Leonardo and the six board directors, her light pink lips curving into a conniving smile, "House Erudite are planning to stain the Arcadian Church with the muddled soil of the mundane world, and their aggressive expansion had already started proliferating every corner of the realm."
Juvia clasped her hands behind her straight back, the clipboard also behind her elegant figure as her narrow and long eyes sparkled. She meticulously observed the finest of fluctuations in their expressions by superstitiously combining the efforts of both her and Leonardo's spiritual strength with her soul seed as a medium. Since her soul seed was marked by Leonardo's mind eye, this bit of cooperation was but a triviality.
As expected, the expressions of everyone twitched ever-so-slightly, save for the beastkin female who was as easy to read as an open book, she stared blankly for a moment before turning to look at the elven and human counterparts with a puzzled expression.
"I thought our intelligence mentioned something about human and elven officials joining hands? Since when did the Arcadian Church get involved?" She was thoroughly confused, as this was an unexpected curve ball.
"If the Arcadian Church truly got involved and is planning to establish a Religious Dynasty in the Forbidden Domain, would your Tesla's sit back and watch?" Juvia didn't give them a chance to subtly hint at the female beastkin with their eyes, instead immediately locking eye contact with this simple, straightforward, and beautiful big sister material.
The female beastkin was about to turn her head in the human old man's direction when she met eyes with Juvia, feeling that it would be rude and disrespectful to shun away this elven cutie, hence she smiled in response. "Ara~ it would indeed be a bit problematic if matters of the state and religion got involved in a lawless land like the Forbidden Domain, but how are you so sure?"
The old woman beside the old man parted her mouth, "Indeed, why should we take your word for it? Our people have reported back the unusual interactions between elves and humans both in the open and in the dark, not to mention the flood of elven investors flocking to Valdmor as we speak. I can't blame you for not noticing as you were rushed to meet with our Chairman Tesla the moment you entered Valdmor, but the citation here has changed."
From the woman's choice of words, it was clear that she ignored Juvia and directly spoke to Leonardo, planning to drag him into the conversation in one way or another.
Leonardo noticed this, Ingrid noticed too, and naturally, Juvia was no exception. Thus, with a hint of cold light in her eyes, she decided to wholly ignore this wretched woman and maintain eye contact with the female beastkin.
It is quite odd that except for the human couple, everyone else looked either middle-aged or exceptionally young for their positions as board directors, especially the elven couple who seemed to be in the prime of their youth.
"I am naturally sure, how can I not be when my lord's subordinates are this competent?" As she spoke, she removed a few paper scrolls from her clipboard and advanced towards this straightforward beastkin woman. "What I have here is a list of names, including a record of a secret meeting that was held in an isolated corner of the Forest of Eternal Spring. Of course, words on paper alone aren't enough, but this is some mystical type of paper with the soul imprint and spiritual fluctuations of everyone who joined in on that meeting, those details have been aptly sorted out by two of my lord's elite espionage agents on a secret mission of infiltration."
Juvia handed over the piece of documents. Let alone the stunned female beastkin, even Ingrid was momentarily shocked, but her mind spun rapidly as she proceeded with these words.
If anyone could seamlessly infiltrate this type of meeting and leave undetected. No, two in fact, and even manage to record the content of the meeting while replicating the spiritual fluctuations of those secretive and careful individuals, she could think of only one person with such capabilities in Leonardo's entourage, that petite female assassin.
However, this kind of a matter requires more than godlike concealment arts, as there was no way for her to find out the meeting location, time, and members directly involved to follow their trail relying solely on assassinations and concealment.
While the female beastkin was going through the papers, spiritual fluctuations from the other four swept over like a gentle breeze to scan the remnant spiritual fluctuations imprinted within the papers, their expressions growing odd and a bit dark.
Other than the signature auras of humans and elves, they could faintly discern the fluctuations of faith energy, a martial intent unique to the Arcadian Church and House Erudite.
They didn't even need to read the content of the report, as this was sufficient proof that this was a bigger conspiracy than they had anticipated. Only now did Ingrid put two and two together from when Leonardo mentioned a maniac blinded by faith.
"I assume one of those two subordinates is the female assassin by your side," Ingrid's voice finally joined the conversation as this was no longer a matter of a business transaction, but a potential war of influence between two ancient hegemon organizations.
Both the Arcadian Church and Tesla's were organizations established during the post-apocalyptic era of Arcadia, to the extent that no one knows the depths of their roots and power anymore. If they wanted to rise and establish a dynasty in the Forbidden Domain, this will naturally spell bad news for them.
Everyone looked at Juvia for an answer, while Juvia looked at Leonardo instead, redirecting everyone's gazes to the young man who seemed no different from a statue in the room.
"My lord?" Juvia gave Leonardo a look, wondering about whether or not he would expose that wild card to them.
Leonardo lifted his black eyes and stared Ingrid directly in the eyes.
"We are here to discuss business, not my subordinates. Currently, House Erudite is unaware of its open secret, which is precisely why I don't want your organization to take an aggressive stance either. All you have to do is invest in 49% of my property, and give everyone the illusion that you are my backers, while in fact, we're going to slowly bait the Arcadian Church into exposing more and more of their hidden powers," Leonardo closed his eyes indifferently, "They're treating everyone under this domain's sky as a frog they could slowly boil to death while the frog itself is unaware of the dangers in the water."
"Ara~ and who might this little miss be?"
The female beastkin wasn't aware of why would Leonardo send in a subordinate to do the talking, but the old human man and the elven couple could understand clearly, as both their respective domains had a royal court system that albeit differing in the handling of affairs, the concept was the same.
Leonardo noticed that their Chairman didn't join the discussion, but pushed them, her subordinates, instead. Hence, Leonardo responded by pushing out one of his subordinates as well, implicitly implying that despite the difference in strength, his status and position are no lower than their Chairman in this room, and they're not qualified enough to discuss with him directly.
The beastkin male simply yawned and then folded his arms across his muscular chest, gently dozing off to sleep.
"All you need to know is that I am my lord's representative. However, in the hopes that you will forgive me for being late, I'll grace you with a bit of critical yet very secretive piece of information," Juvia took a few steps forward to stand in the middle ground between Leonardo and the six board directors, her light pink lips curving into a conniving smile, "House Erudite are planning to stain the Arcadian Church with the muddled soil of the mundane world, and their aggressive expansion had already started proliferating every corner of the realm."
Juvia clasped her hands behind her straight back, the clipboard also behind her elegant figure as her narrow and long eyes sparkled. She meticulously observed the finest of fluctuations in their expressions by superstitiously combining the efforts of both her and Leonardo's spiritual strength with her soul seed as a medium. Since her soul seed was marked by Leonardo's mind eye, this bit of cooperation was but a triviality.
As expected, the expressions of everyone twitched ever-so-slightly, save for the beastkin female who was as easy to read as an open book, she stared blankly for a moment before turning to look at the elven and human counterparts with a puzzled expression.
"I thought our intelligence mentioned something about human and elven officials joining hands? Since when did the Arcadian Church get involved?" She was thoroughly confused, as this was an unexpected curve ball.
"If the Arcadian Church truly got involved and is planning to establish a Religious Dynasty in the Forbidden Domain, would your Tesla's sit back and watch?" Juvia didn't give them a chance to subtly hint at the female beastkin with their eyes, instead immediately locking eye contact with this simple, straightforward, and beautiful big sister material.
The female beastkin was about to turn her head in the human old man's direction when she met eyes with Juvia, feeling that it would be rude and disrespectful to shun away this elven cutie, hence she smiled in response. "Ara~ it would indeed be a bit problematic if matters of the state and religion got involved in a lawless land like the Forbidden Domain, but how are you so sure?"
The old woman beside the old man parted her mouth, "Indeed, why should we take your word for it? Our people have reported back the unusual interactions between elves and humans both in the open and in the dark, not to mention the flood of elven investors flocking to Valdmor as we speak. I can't blame you for not noticing as you were rushed to meet with our Chairman Tesla the moment you entered Valdmor, but the citation here has changed."
From the woman's choice of words, it was clear that she ignored Juvia and directly spoke to Leonardo, planning to drag him into the conversation in one way or another.
Leonardo noticed this, Ingrid noticed too, and naturally, Juvia was no exception. Thus, with a hint of cold light in her eyes, she decided to wholly ignore this wretched woman and maintain eye contact with the female beastkin.
It is quite odd that except for the human couple, everyone else looked either middle-aged or exceptionally young for their positions as board directors, especially the elven couple who seemed to be in the prime of their youth.
"I am naturally sure, how can I not be when my lord's subordinates are this competent?" As she spoke, she removed a few paper scrolls from her clipboard and advanced towards this straightforward beastkin woman. "What I have here is a list of names, including a record of a secret meeting that was held in an isolated corner of the Forest of Eternal Spring. Of course, words on paper alone aren't enough, but this is some mystical type of paper with the soul imprint and spiritual fluctuations of everyone who joined in on that meeting, those details have been aptly sorted out by two of my lord's elite espionage agents on a secret mission of infiltration."
Juvia handed over the piece of documents. Let alone the stunned female beastkin, even Ingrid was momentarily shocked, but her mind spun rapidly as she proceeded with these words.
If anyone could seamlessly infiltrate this type of meeting and leave undetected. No, two in fact, and even manage to record the content of the meeting while replicating the spiritual fluctuations of those secretive and careful individuals, she could think of only one person with such capabilities in Leonardo's entourage, that petite female assassin.
However, this kind of a matter requires more than godlike concealment arts, as there was no way for her to find out the meeting location, time, and members directly involved to follow their trail relying solely on assassinations and concealment.
While the female beastkin was going through the papers, spiritual fluctuations from the other four swept over like a gentle breeze to scan the remnant spiritual fluctuations imprinted within the papers, their expressions growing odd and a bit dark.
Other than the signature auras of humans and elves, they could faintly discern the fluctuations of faith energy, a martial intent unique to the Arcadian Church and House Erudite.
They didn't even need to read the content of the report, as this was sufficient proof that this was a bigger conspiracy than they had anticipated. Only now did Ingrid put two and two together from when Leonardo mentioned a maniac blinded by faith.
"I assume one of those two subordinates is the female assassin by your side," Ingrid's voice finally joined the conversation as this was no longer a matter of a business transaction, but a potential war of influence between two ancient hegemon organizations.
Both the Arcadian Church and Tesla's were organizations established during the post-apocalyptic era of Arcadia, to the extent that no one knows the depths of their roots and power anymore. If they wanted to rise and establish a dynasty in the Forbidden Domain, this will naturally spell bad news for them.
Everyone looked at Juvia for an answer, while Juvia looked at Leonardo instead, redirecting everyone's gazes to the young man who seemed no different from a statue in the room.
"My lord?" Juvia gave Leonardo a look, wondering about whether or not he would expose that wild card to them.
Leonardo lifted his black eyes and stared Ingrid directly in the eyes.
"We are here to discuss business, not my subordinates. Currently, House Erudite is unaware of its open secret, which is precisely why I don't want your organization to take an aggressive stance either. All you have to do is invest in 49% of my property, and give everyone the illusion that you are my backers, while in fact, we're going to slowly bait the Arcadian Church into exposing more and more of their hidden powers," Leonardo closed his eyes indifferently, "They're treating everyone under this domain's sky as a frog they could slowly boil to death while the frog itself is unaware of the dangers in the water."
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