Chapter 548 Over The Horizon
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While everyone else was busy watching the mess in Oriana, the Nightingale clan’s leader was too busy dealing with his own mess to even care about some random president’s murder or its aftereffects.
He never imagined that Mr. Black’s son would attack the daughter of the family that was hosting him without reason, let alone do it so viciously.
Although the injury didn’t seem to have caused any permanent damage to the girl’s brain according to the doctor, it still knocked her unconscious and scared her parents half to death.
No matter how careless their attitude towards her usually was, she was still their only daughter! And after so many years without another child, that was unlikely to change in the future.
At this point, they didn’t even care whether the daughter they previously shook their heads at in disappointment sympathized with people they detested, or even became a part of them herself!
In the worst case, they could always pretend not to hear some of the things she said, couldn’t they? If they were to really lose their daughter, though, what would either of them look forward to in their old age?
Fortunately, after the doctor invited by the clan leader assured them of her being out of danger a few times, the couple finally calmed down.
Needless to say, however, after being given such a huge fright, they weren’t keen on continuing to keep the two ‘burdens’ around anymore.
Even the usually subservient father of the girl was furious. “I don’t care if he’s related to my wife’s father or not, didn’t you see what his moron of a son did to my daughter?! It’s good enough that I haven’t thrown him down from the roof, how can you expect us to continue housing him?”
His wife nodded to the clan leader as well. “Not only do the two of them need to get out of here, but you should also give us an explanation, right?”
Although they didn’t expect the father and son to be sent to jail according to Carmen country’s laws, asking for them to be punished by the clan’s own rules really wasn’t unreasonable.
Naturally, neither of the parents had any idea about Mr. Black and his son not even being from their clan, despite the duo’s less-than-stellar acting and disguise.
Unfortunately for them, however, the clan leader wasn’t concerned about their daughter or seeking justice on her behalf at all, and only cared about what could go wrong for him instead. ‘Shit! I can’t let anyone discover this!’
He’d only managed to secure his current position as the Nightingale clan’s leader thanks to the change in main branch after that year’s scandal and numerous other factors, and to call it all a series of lucky coincidences wouldn’t be far from the truth.
With him being far from the most qualified candidate, he knew very well just how the elders would react if they found out he took such a big risk by himself when it could have endangered the whole clan.
All for the purpose of showing himself off as a great leader if things worked out in the end.
Of course, even if his plan with Mr. Black hadn’t worked out, he was already prepared to run away and abandon Carmen country as a whole, but not yet. His preparations were far from complete!
Gilli’s parents mistook his furious expression as indignation for what happened, and they couldn’t help but be satisfied.
“We’ve had the two of them locked in the guest room upstairs.”
The clan leader nodded grimly, a vicious glint in his eyes. “Rest assured, I will deal with this matter… most appropriately.”
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The wounded girl’s parents were temporarily satisfied once the clan leader took the two ‘relatives’ away, and focused back on their own affairs while believing that they would hear news of the ‘punishment’ soon.
Unfortunately, such news never came, and what they got instead was a smack to the face.
Having not left their own home much due to their daughter’s condition, the couple had been completely unaware of the rumors spreading about them throughout the clan until it was already too late.
Not only did everyone think that their daughter was injured because of her own mother, but they also ‘knew’ about her apparent relationship with her friend, Heather.
In order to cover up her own shameful acts, however, the lady now pinned all blame on the ‘poor’ cousin she had just taken in.
And being both helpless and without any other foundation in the clan, the poor father and son could only seek shelter in the clan leader’s home, who generously took them in.
Although her standing was quite high, with the already established snobby reputation of the girl’s mother, the rumors were naturally far from unbelievable.
Even if she went to the elders to seek justice now, it was too late. Gilli’s mother knew that if it was just her word against the clan leader’s, all it would result in was inconclusive quibbling, and would only solidify the rumors further.
“How could he do this to us?!”
The loss of reputation in front of the whole clan was bad enough, but now they also had to worry about what their daughter would think once she found out!
The girl’s mother almost cried. ‘I should have just followed the “no talking at the table” rule and not brought up irrelevant things!’
Obviously, she thought that her apparent relative’s generally always silent son was crazy, and must have been triggered by their conversation somehow.
Although the fault still lay with him and his father, it was impossible not to think about how easily they could have prevented it from happening.
Unfortunately, now it was already too late for regret, and they could only fret over how to console their daughter later, completely unaware of the truth.
Naturally, while Heather visited her friend often, she had also come to know of the slander regarding her friend’s family too late.
Not only did their daughter already know about the rumors, after a heart to heart talk with her friend, she was now also aware of some ‘truths’ that neither of her parents could have dared imagine.
That was why neither of them were really bothered.
After all, they knew that the Nightingale clan was about to change… very soon.
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Meanwhile, the source of all the chaos had long since returned ‘home’, and was leisurely enjoying the show with a smile while nibbling on juicy grapes being pressed against her lips one at a time by her blonde girlfriend, clearly in a good mood.
Crystal knew it was only to be expected, given how everything went according to her girlfriend’s plan in Oriana, and even the ‘aftermath’ seemed to be heading in a favorable direction.
Although she personally didn’t like the dead president’s wife much, especially given that she hadn’t had the chance to personally ‘assess’ her, since Emilia made the decision to make her Oriana’s hero, Crystal could only keep her opinions to herself.
She knew very well why Emilia couldn’t expose her ‘heroic deeds’ to the public. After all, had that not been the case, the president wouldn’t have been assassinated, but executed instead.
With Emilia’s popularity in both Blue Dawn and Oriana, it was unlikely for her to suffer much backlash even if she decided to do so, after all. In fact, she could even take over Oriana while at it!
Unfortunately, the world outside of these two countries wasn’t so easy to handle, and Crystal was well aware of its ugliness.
‘Obviously, she did such a good thing, but now someone else is taking the credit.’ The blonde girl complained in her heart. ‘Why are international politics so complicated?’
Needless to say, despite Emilia’s claims of Crystal having a ‘heart of gold’, she didn’t sympathize much with the now-dead president.
In her opinion, that man was going to drive the country into a crisis sooner or later, and could be considered the root cause of countless tragedies both in the present and the future.
Instead, she simply felt it was a pity that Emilia had to personally dirty her hands with his blood.
Even if her princess assured her that she hadn’t really had to touch the bastard at all, the blonde girl still believed that such menial tasks shouldn’t need Emilia to move personally and take risks.
Of course, Crystal could tell that it wasn’t just the situation in Oriana going as expected that made her girlfriend so happy.
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