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While the rest of his companions had already lost their cool, the leading elder was a little more hesitant. After all, this girl couldn’t have been so calm and confident in front of them if she had no means to defend herself, right?
Although he couldn’t feel the presence of any experts nearby either, he still felt that they shouldn’t be too hasty.
Unfortunately, despite his best efforts, the man could only hold back one of his fellow elders while the rest rushed in to ‘teach the girl a lesson’.
“Since your parents couldn’t teach you proper manners, don’t blame us!”
“Let me show you what it means to respect your elders, you brat!”
Although Ginny and Jasper had already been told by Emilia to stay calm no matter what happened, they were still inevitably flustered. ‘S-She’s going to be fine, right?’
Fortunately, one look at the completely calm crimson-haired girl soon restored their confidence, and the twins figured that Emilia must know what she was doing.
In fact, the attacking elders weren’t being completely driven by their fury, either.
The thought that really made them move was…
‘Once we capture this girl, won’t everything else be much easier going forward?’
After all, unless their alliance was just a ruse, so long as they had Emilia’s life in their hands, not to mention the White Deer, even the Gray Wolfe would have to reconsider their position when negotiating with their Nightingale clan.
Thinking like this, wasn’t this naïve and overconfident girl simply the solution to all their problems delivered right into their palms?!
Unfortunately, their ecstatic thoughts snuffed out before they could even fully form.
It wasn’t Emilia who moved, though it wasn’t clear whether it was because she wasn’t able to react, or if she simply felt that there was no need for her to make a move personally.
Whatever it may be, the figure that suddenly flashed to intercept the attack on her behalf clearly demonstrated that her confidence wasn’t misplaced at all.
The aged ‘claw’ approaching the crimson-haired girl’s face was easily swatted away, and under the dumbfounded gaze of his companions, the old man who tried to grab her was directly sent flying like a broken doll.
The threat level they felt from this figure was on a completely different level compared to the empress of Blue Dawn, and the elders didn’t even turn to look at their groaning companion as they focused completely on this ‘enemy’.
But the more they looked, the more shocked they became.
Not only was their enemy a ‘young lady’, but there were also far too many of her features that seemed eerily ‘familiar’ to them.
Although quite a bit of her hair was still covered with traces of a slightly duller shade, the roots near her scalp were the same shiny gray as their Nightingale clan, and her facial features also had a striking resemblance to many in their most prominent branches!
Combined with the ridiculous strength she displayed… there was no way the elders could deny the terrifying conjecture in their hearts.
“A… traitor…?”
“Who the hell are you?!”
Noelle and Emilia were both just about to reply when one of the elders exclaimed in shock.
“Aha! I know who you are!”
Of course, even though they rarely ever indulged themselves in ‘gossip’, it wasn’t as if the elders were completely isolated from the world.
“You are… uh…” The elder who was so excited at having matched the girl’s face with the one he saw on the news suddenly found himself speechless. ‘Wait a minute… what was her name again? Did they ever mention it?’
Noelle could more or less tell what the man must be thinking, and she couldn’t help but roll her eyes as she jumped down from the table with a snort. “Who I am is not important. The only thing you need to know is that unless you wish to have them removed permanently, you better keep your hands to yourself.”
While the man who was still trying to recall Noelle’s identity was only stunned, the elder who was brushing himself off while groaning in pain almost fainted from the anger and humiliation. ‘This bitch, who does she think she is?!’
Even if she was a ‘stray’ from their Nightingale clan and caught them by surprise just now, it didn’t mean that they would be afraid of her.
Emilia chuckled. “Now now, everyone, let’s all calm down, okay? Even if you’re all okay with getting beaten up by my dear Noelle, I don’t want her to later feel guilty for bullying the sick and the elderly.”
Cynthia almost clapped in admiration. ‘Amazing! It seems like even if she rarely uses it, Emilia does still have the talent to ‘instantly infuriate people’, a core skill of a good villainess!’
Immediately after that thought, the raven-haired girl suddenly frowned. ‘Wait a minute… doesn’t she do that with me all the time?!’
Cynthia immediately became angry. “Emilia, you—!”
‘Yes?’
She’d wanted to give her partner a piece of her mind, but as soon as she thought about it, the raven-haired girl suddenly found herself lost for words once again. ‘Hold on, isn’t it a good thing that she’s practicing her skills…?’
In that case, although she hated that she was the target for the practice, wouldn’t it be counterproductive to scold her partner for just ‘doing her job’? She didn’t want Emilia to think she was a hypocrite!
Fortunately, Cynthia didn’t have to bother explaining herself, as the elders could no longer hold on to their sanity after being repeatedly provoked like that, and immediately lunged at the gray-haired girl in front of them in fury.
“How dare you stain our clan’s name, you stray filth?!”
“Die!”
𝒪𝒱𝓁xt.𝒸𝑶𝐌
Even if Noelle was more than prepared for their assault, it still was no joke to handle the five elders of the Nightingale clan at the same time!
‘Luckily, Emilia is right by my side—?!’
Noelle didn’t even have the time to gape at how relaxed and unguarded the crimson-haired girl looked, as if the situation had nothing to do with her, as she was forced to defend the both of them from the incoming flurry of punches and kicks.
“Stand still!”
“Take this!”
The gray-haired girl felt as if her head was about to split open as she tried her best to dodge and parry as much as she could while blocking the old men from approaching the ‘vulnerable’ targets behind her.
And just when she thought things couldn’t get worse, Emilia started ‘cheering her on’ from the side.
“Look, even with all of you attacking together, you’re no match for my Noelle! Hmph, if you think someone like her is bad, aren’t you just worse than trash?”
‘…!’
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