Leonardo sighed. "Well, if you face any difficulties at all, just let me know in the future."
Leonardo wouldn't try to keep them by his side since they rejected his goodwill. Moreover, he could also tell that despite the difficult times ahead, these two were willing to endure due to their loyalty and faith in Emily.
No matter how difficult the bullying is, at most, it would be some extra menial labor or enduring some taunts and humiliation from time to time. Leonardo wasn't worried about Sivan as the Military Advisor didn't have such a petty, jealous personality. However, Gal's situation was a bit more worrying since his superiors were military personnel, the typical ruffians of all brawls and little brains.
"Don't worry about us," Gal lightly slapped Leonardo's shoulder, a confident smile on the former's handsome face. "You should worry more about yourself, I heard that the competition in the capital is very, very tense. The relationships there are pretty complicated, one wrong step and you might offend both friend and foe."
"Yeah, no kidding." Sivan bobbed her head, gently fixing the collar of Leonardo's robes even as worry clouded her eyes. "If you find it too difficult, I'm sure Her Eminence won't force you to stay there, you just gotta ask. She's a very nice person."
Gal nodded his head, too. He agreed wholeheartedly with Sivan on that one.
As he was subconsciously looking around, he turned his head to see a familiar yet unfamiliar face, crying out in surprise. "Emily? When did you get here?"
Gal had expected only himself and Sivan to come to see off Attendant Ye, he hadn't expected another girl from Sivan's department to also come over. However, thinking about it, Attendant Ye and Emily seemed to hit it off when everyone went to the night pub the other day, but he woke up the next day in his bed without a clue of what transpired.
He was too anxious to find Attendant Ye back then that he didn't notice Emily's disappearance. Thinking about it now, Sivan did mention something about Emily going missing, but the two of them were more concerned about Attendant Ye than some servant girl who had little to no interactions with them.
Leonardo was also surprised to see 'Emily' here at this point in time. The usual snow-pale complexion, black hair, and black eyes. She wordlessly approached Leonardo, as though she hadn't heard what Gal said.
Leonardo was caught aback by her attitude, but to maintain his image as a little 2nd-tier mortal cultivator, he could only smile faintly in the presence of this extra servant who came to see him off.
"You don't have to worry about Sivan, I'll look after her," said Emily as she stood within arms reach from Leonardo. Sivan was a little surprised. Sure, Emily could be considered a senior sister in the circle of maidservants, but that seniority didn't mean anything in the face of superior military officers and advisor candidates in the library.
Only Leonardo knew what these words meant, but he was baffled as he hadn't expected to give off the impression of caring so much about a pair of servants. In his opinion, they were fooling themselves to believe he actually owed them anything, while he simply enjoyed the company of such straightforward, casual people.
Even as these thoughts raced in his head, his eyes widened in disbelief just the same as everyone else. Emily reached her fair hand, and pinched the chin of a seemingly flustered Attendant Ye, then plastered her plump and cold lips on his.
From everyone's perspective, it was impossible for Attendant Ye to evade the frontal assault of a 4th-tier cultivator, but Leonardo had over a thousand ways in which he could avoid this situation were he not pretending to be a weak mortal.
Gal gaped with eyes wide open. "Damn, here I thought we had the most benefits from befriending Attendant Ye."
Pah!
Emily retreated and with a pulse of energy, she was gone. At this point, Leonardo felt beyond helpless, and he began to miss Pandora's and Juvia's company even more.
"Let's go, lovestruck kid!"
Someone slapped Leonardo's shoulder from the back. Turning over, it was the accompanying lieutenant from the Renhuang Sector, smiling brightly at Leonardo with a meaningful look in his eyes. This lieutenant heard a lot about Attendant Ye from his superiors, and they tacitly mentioned how highly His Eminence thinks of the little guy. Even though Commanding General Roxfield doesn't very much like mind games, plots, and schemes… The Commanding General knows how to value real talent. If even that muscle head values Attendant Ye, his talents must be off the charts.
"I am in no way lovestruck," mumbled Leonardo, rubbing his 'stiff' shoulder awkwardly. On the inside, however, he decided to teach Emily a lesson about teasing someone like that during their moment of weakness.
If he wasn't bound by the circumstances, he would have pressed Emily down there and then for playing such a dangerous game with him. Thinking about it, why should things wait?
"Actually, I think I am lovestruck," Leonardo suddenly looked up at this lieutenant with a know-it-all smile. "Can you guys wait for me to finish some business before we leave? Who knows if I'll ever get this chance in the future, right?"
The lieutenant paused for a bit, exchanged a look with his comrades, and thought back to the attitude of his superiors. If he knew this would happen, he wouldn't have teased the young man. Then again, how is he gonna handle that woman with his weak cultivation? Things should end very quickly.
Thinking like this, the lieutenant's face relaxed as he slapped down on Leonardo's shoulder once more. "Sure thing, friend! Go get things straight, don't leave any unfinished business or regrets!"
Leonardo thanked the group very enthusiastically and rushed in the direction of the core region. As for the rest of the group, they shared a knowing smile, laughing to themselves.
"Is our friend Ye about to pop that cherry?" Gal mumbled distractedly, only to be smacked by a heavy elbow in the stomach.
Sivan fumed. "Watch your language!"
…
Emily rushed back to her pagoda, though she didn't dare enter the fourth layer with her current state of mind lest she lashed out a current of energy uncontrollably, destroying a few delicate trees or plants in the process.
Face flushed red, she paced back and forth in the spacious, empty hall. This was a sub-dimension after all, even if built in the image of a spacious hall of many, towering pillars.
She wanted to ascend all the way to the peak, but her energy was in a mess due to her current state of mind. While she was anxiously trying to calm down, biting at her nails, a voice that had her body shudder all over echoed from behind.
"You really thought you could take advantage of me like that and run off?" Leonardo stepped into the sub-dimension, his disguise quickly falling off and reverting back to his original appearance.
Emily was shocked. "Shouldn't you have already left? What are you doing here?"
Leonardo shook his head. "Don't have to feel so shocked that you couldn't sense me. In fact, you should feel relaxed since even you, the 7th-tier cultivator, couldn't sense my entry. By that logic, no one else in this entire sector has any idea that I'm here."
Emily snapped. "That's not the point!"
"Oh really?" Leonardo pressed, "Was the point that you foolishly thought I wouldn't be able to do anything if you approached me in broad daylight? Was that some kind of retaliation for pinching your chin?"
"What are you talking about?" Panic filled Emily's eyes as she stumbled back to the edge of the sub-dimension, very quickly at that.
However, her speed was nothing when compared to a genuine movement technique. These techniques were something she lacked since the Qing family didn't experience a deviant martial intent for a very, very long time.
Emily gasped when Leonardo suddenly appeared in front of her. It was so sudden that she almost stumbled into his embrace, though it didn't matter as he took the initiative to wrap his left arm around her waist, his right hand pinching her pointed chin.
"I have a history with stronger women taking the initiative, you know? But this time it's different… You're not a stranger woman." As he spoke, Leonardo's thumb crawled over Emily's trembling chin, pressing intimately on her cold, bottom lip.
The woman's mind blanked out, though she was feeling lucky she hadn't removed the disguise as soon as she made it back to the pagoda.
Leonardo had no idea Emily's mind was blank at the thought of almost exposing her true appearance, but appearances matter very little to him. Emily's mind was suddenly yanked back to the present time as her airflow was blocked.
She quickly realized that Leonardo had kissed her and quite aggressively, her mind going blank again even as her fists smashed down on his broad chest.
Emily screamed in her mind that she had truly played with fire this time!
She couldn't help it back then, she simply wanted Leonardo to experience the feeling of being helpless when someone breached your private space with little to no ability to prevent it.
