After Emily introduced Leonardo to the upper echelons of her Qing Sector, under the disbelieving gaze of everyone, she allowed him to occupy her seat of power as she left the great all.
This action of hers served a two-fold purpose.
First, she wanted everyone to know that despite being an attendant, in her eyes, he had a higher position than everyone present; the military advisor included.
Second, this was a subtle apology for having Leonardo stand behind her this entire time, let alone the way the military advisor coerced him to speak up by using Emily's name as a medium.
With him seated above, this was a clear remark to the military advisor to watch his position and not to give instructions to Leonardo, be it openly or covertly.
The military advisor didn't care much and smiled it off. However, his students thought of it otherwise.
They eyed Leonardo with rancor in their eyes, but they too knew how to separate the general interest of the Qing family and their personal grievances.
Yes, they were distracted from the bigger picture once, but that didn't mean they were any less intelligent than Leonardo; they simply had their eyes focused elsewhere.
The conference carried on for three days and nights.
Maids occasionally entered the hall to provide beverages and spiritual fruits. When Sivan first saw Leonardo in the Commanding General's seat of power, she almost dropped the plates and screamed her lungs out.
Luckily, she got her wits together and gathered herself up, but the shock and excitement bubbled in her eyes for a full day and night. Of course, she spilled the beans to Gal as soon as possible, and the pair of maid and butler celebrated all night long while bragging about their 'close relationship with Attendant Ye.
Sivan had the cheek to say she was so close to Attendant Ye, they had no problem at all holding hands. Of course, no one believed her.
Even she wouldn't believe herself.
…
As the conference came to a closure, Leonardo had just left the building when the left-wing and right-wing advisors caught up to him.
The former started, "How positive are you about this thing actually working out?"
This was actually the question on both of their minds.
Leonardo smiled and responded, "If I went personally? It's a guaranteed success. As for you two…"
He didn't finish his words, deliberately comparing himself with the two as though to rub salt to injury.
This had a greater effect since Leonardo had just proved how his vision far surpassed these two, despite his 'lower' cultivation base.
"Of course," he continued, "if you guys can go up and beyond my standard expectations on this mission, I'll drink three cups of apology to the both of you in front of Her Eminence."
The two who were fuming suddenly paused, their eyes blazing hot.
"Are you sure?"
"Like, absolutely sure?!"
Both of them were intelligent young men, but they were desperate to fix their image in the eyes of the Commanding General. Thus, the significance of this promise to them was far greater than its face value.
"You have my word on it!"
Leonardo responded in the affirmative, his gaze firm.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
The two didn't even bother returning to the library's upper floors and directly rushed outside the dimension, planning to carry out Leonardo's arrangements as fast as possible.
Leonardo shook his head and was about to take a step outside when the air shuddered, two figures flashed from the void.
With a laugh, Gal slapped Leonardo's shoulder without any strength at all and said, "Good brother! Why didn't you tell me about your supreme status? Were you trying to act humble?!"
"You have no idea!" Sivan interjected, "You should have seen how everyone was listening attentively to big Brother Ye, he was so dashing!"
Leonardo stumbled forward two steps and chuckled awkwardly, not knowing how to respond exactly.
"You didn't ask, what do you mean by acting humble?"
He rubbed his shoulder with a mischievously pained expression, but he said, "You're much gentler than Sivan, honestly…"
Sivan blushed in shame, smacking Leonardo on the back of the head as she barked, "I told you that was an accident! I was just too surprised that the military advisor, my boss, would suddenly make an appearance!"
"Yeah yeah… Do you hear that? Just an accident," Leonardo lifted his arm and spoke to his wrist with a solemn expression. Watching him, Sivan puffed her cheeks skulkingly while Gal cracked up, laughing even more.
After laughing for a while, Gal spoke up, "Our friends don't believe that we have a good relationship with you. Thus, they requested we invite you to the local bar in the north district of the camp… Are you available tonight?"
Sivan's eyes glowed as well, looking expectantly at Leonardo. The latter thought for a moment and nodded his head.
He said, "Sure, my body is stiff all over from that hard chair, and my throat is all dry from talking so much…"
Sivan chuckled, having recalled the military advisor saying something about smart people being those who are deft at communicating with their eyes and body language.
"The smarter they get, the less they talk. If one day they had to talk a lot, then the longer they talk, the more it reflects on how stupid their counterpart in the conversation was…"
The more she thought about it, the more she realized that Leonardo was calling those high-ranking officials idiots. Thus, she couldn't help but chuckle.
Gal thought she was laughing with a sense of schadenfreude, giving the maid a glare that urged her not to make fun of serious matters.
Sivan rolled her eyes and said, "Fine! You wouldn't understand it anyway, I'll have my throat parched explaining it to a muscle head like you."
With this comment, it took Gal a minute to realize why she was chuckling, his expression drawing a long face.
He said, "Let's get going then, flight is prohibited in the military base, the only exception is the sub-dimension. Furthermore, we can't go too fast lest it harms Brother Ye's body."
"Right! Right!"
Sivan nodded, snapping her finger to envelope Leonardo within her domain. Then, she stuck out her tongue at Gal, and with a blast of air, she shot into the distance.
