572 Easy Way Out
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It didn’t take long for the leader of the Nightingale clan to pick up the phone, but in response to the home minister’s enthusiastic greeting, he could only awkwardly maintain his silence.
Normally, he would have been more than ecstatic to cooperate directly with the home minister, but…
‘Shit, with the elders already breathing down my neck now that both of my recent plans have backfired, am I really in a position to take another risk?!’
Even if the relationship between his clan and the Gray Wolfe was now teetering on the verge of collapse, it still hadn’t been nominally dissolved by either of them. And if he really ‘took the initiative’ to do something like this now, it would definitely attract a lot of resentment from both the elders and other clan members.
To make matters worse, even if he wanted to play safe and reject the home minister, it wouldn’t necessarily earn him any favors with either of them. If anything, they might just take the opportunity to accuse him of incompetence once again.
The clan leader couldn’t help but curse in his heart. ‘Couldn’t this motherfucker have called me earlier?! With his help, even if our people got ambushed somehow, it would definitely never make it to the public. And I could then use that favor to ‘repay’ him without causing any dissatisfaction from any of those stupid geezers too!’
Being an astute politician, the home minister could naturally tell that the Nightingale clan’s leader was in a vastly different mood than he expected, and he couldn’t help but be confused. ‘What the hell… why is he upset? Isn’t it a good thing for him if we’re willing to pick them over the Gray Wolfe…?’
Suddenly, a horrifying idea sparked in his mind, leaving the home minister stunned in shock. ‘D-Don’t tell me… could it be that the conflict between the Gray Wolfe and the Nightingale clan was just a front?!’
If so, the Gray Wolfe and the Nightingale clan were many, many times more terrifying than the officials of Carmen expected, and that was saying something. After all, both Gray Wolfe and the Nightingale clan could be considered superpowers that could cover the sky in Carmen with one hand.
Even while negotiating with the government, the leaders of the Gray Wolfe were able to keep their backs straight and propose mutually beneficial terms, like equals.
Naturally, this had been how the country of Carmen worked for many, many decades, and no one believed that it would change anytime soon. But the rapid escalation of the internal turmoil within the Gray Wolfe gave them all a much needed wake-up call.
For the sake of their country, it was perhaps a good idea to no longer keep all their eggs in a single basket. No, even if they had to do so, that basket shouldn’t be so prone to setting itself on fire.
If his conjecture was true, however, the reality was that while they were moving their eggs from one basket to another, the snake hiding at the bottom of the basket was coiling up to deliver its deadly venom directly into their veins.
Although the probability of all the details and intelligence they had gathered so far being wrong wasn’t very high, just thinking about the possible repercussions of overlooking such a deadly trap, the home minister didn’t dare keep it all to himself. ‘P-President, I-I have to let the president know!’
Naturally, the Nightingale clan’s leader, who had just managed to gather his thoughts, had no idea about the absurd conjectures of the home minister, and was stunned silly when the man’s previously polite attitude suddenly became perfunctory as he hurriedly cut the call.
After the momentary confusion came anger, and the Nightingale clan’s leader cursed. “Fuck! How dare this fucker call me just to make my mood worse, and then run away without making any deal or compensation?!”
It had to be mentioned that if the Gray Wolfe discovered it, simply having any contact with the government without their knowledge was worthy of being considered treacherous. And even if they were too busy with their infighting to pay attention, that didn’t mean that the elders wouldn’t use it as an excuse to punish him.
Just as the thought crossed his mind, however, a light bulb went off in the clan leader’s head. “Wait a minute… how come I’m the one always taking the blame for everything? Isn’t it just because those stupid geezers think I’m the easiest target when no one else is around?!”
In that case, wouldn’t it be perfect if he could pin the blame on someone else first?
With their usual attitude of bullying the weak and fearing the strong, if he were to make it seem like the defeat and ambush of the team in the port town was because of a government conspiracy against their clan, there was no way those old geezers would dare squeak around about it too much, right?
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Meanwhile, back at the hotel in which Emilia was temporarily staying at, the crimson-haired girl found herself facing a dilemma. “Do we really have to do it like this?”
Her manager nodded. “I have already gone through all the possible routes of developing you into a successful idol, and this one seems like the best bet. Of course, it won’t be easy, and you will need to work hard.”
She paused for a moment, as if something had just crossed her mind. “Of course, we could have taken a much more conservative route if a certain someone wasn’t too enthusiastic to share their heroic deeds with the world.”
Emilia rubbed her nose in embarrassment. “I-It’s not like I lied, and I got the permission from Crystal and everything.”
The manager tried her best to resist the urge of bonking the annoyingly adorable troublemaker as she smiled. “I wonder if this is how the teachers feel when their students make trouble needlessly, and when you scold them, they take out their stupid ‘but my mom says I can do it’ card?”
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