━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Since they believed that Emilia needed the Nightingale clan for her plans in their country, the elders naturally didn’t think that the crimson-haired empress would remain indifferent to their troubles.
After all, no matter how little she cared for a ‘tool’ in her heart, she wouldn’t let it break before it was done serving its purpose, right?
It might hurt their pride to acknowledge it, but it remained true that the future of their clan as it was now really could be molded on a whim by people like Emilia.
Luckily, there were likely very few forces within the country that could meet Emilia’s requirements, and none of them were on the same scale as their Nightingale clan.
Even if the crimson-haired girl allowed Noelle to do as she pleased in order to vent her anger for being ‘abandoned’, the elders didn’t believe that her status in Emilia’s heart could high enough to really make the little princess give up her objectives.
They’d already done their due research over the past few days now that they realized how their fates depended on the crimson-haired beauty’s whims. And while it was true that Noelle appeared by her side quite often, there were many who appeared to be much more intimate with the Empress of Blue Dawn.
Of course, there was no way to be really sure about any of their guesses, so the elders still decided to watch the situation carefully. If it really looked like Noelle was losing control of the situation… they would be left with no choice but to send someone to contact Ginny and Jasper.
After all, the Empress of Blue Dawn hadn’t even left them with a way to contact her directly, and simply gave Noelle full discretion on how to handle things at the Nightingale clan.
The grand elder couldn’t help but scratch his chin in confusion. “I don’t get it… why does the little princess of White Deer favor that girl so much?”
Naturally, none of the others had any answer to that question, though many had their own guesses that they kept in their hearts.
Some believed that Noelle must have won the girl’s appreciation early as they grew up together, and was simply banking on that wise investment, while others believed that the younger girl was too cunning to be easily manipulated by someone as dumb as Noelle.
The girl didn’t even know when to put a stop to her ‘mother’ and ‘father’ gathering more support when things were getting so bad!
In their opinion, it was much more likely that the Empress of Blue Dawn was much smarter than she appeared, and Noelle was simply another useful tool for her. One she was fond of, perhaps, but a tool nonetheless.
Of course, regardless of their varied opinions, they didn’t dare go and directly voice them to Noelle, for the fear of things getting even worse if the girl’s mood became unstable.
The grand elder sighed as he concluded the meeting. “Let’s just hope that Gildroy and Narcissa will only compete with each other on a smaller scale, and our clan’s core interests won’t be affected by their conflict.”
Unfortunately, his hopes were dashed soon enough. Within days, not only was almost half of their clan now in one of the two ‘camps’, but the remaining half wasn’t completely indifferent to the situation either.
The elders finally couldn’t sit still, and rushed to Noelle’s room in a panic.
When the grand elder saw the gray-haired girl braiding Emilia’s crimson locks in front of the dressing table without a care in the world, he almost had a stroke. ‘How can she be so carefree when their clan is in so much trouble?!’
Not to mention that she was currently the acting leader, just her status as a biological member of the Nightingale clan should have been enough for her to be sleepless from worry about their future if things kept getting worse!𝗈𝒱𝐞𝗅xt.𝗇𝓔t
Obviously, they had no idea that the little girl leisurely swinging her legs back and forth in the air was actually Emilia.
Noelle seemed to have finally noticed their presence as she turned to the grand elder with a frown. “Hm…? Did you guys need something?”
Although none of them were particularly happy, they still hadn’t forgotten their previous ‘lessons’, and remained well aware that provoking this girl right now would not be the wisest decision.
“Noelle, we know that you don’t want to fight with your parents, but… I think it’s about time for us to do something about it, or things might really start getting out of hand.”
“They already have almost half of our clan’s men and women rallied to their side, and if we wait any longer, it might be too late to make a move even if we wanted to in the future.”
Of course, the elders were aware that Noelle wasn’t the brightest when it came to reasoning, so one of them quickly took out their ‘secret weapon’.
“If more people keep falling in line with either of those two, the control that we, and by extension, you, have over the clan will definitely not be enough to properly fulfill whatever requests Emilia might make in the future. At that time, won’t she be disappointed?”
Noelle’s hand that had been moving the comb through the silky crimson locks of her girlfriend froze, and the elders couldn’t help but rejoice.
As expected, even this girl couldn’t remain indifferent anymore after they brought up such a thing!
Noelle seemed to hesitate for a while before she shook her head wryly. “Even if I wanted to do something about them… what can I even do? They’ve both already suffered and repented, and I don’t want to make things worse.”
Obviously, these weren’t her true thoughts, but the elders didn’t know that.
Thinking that Noelle was such a stupidly ‘filial’ girl, they couldn’t help but feel complicated.
How good would it be if Narcissa hadn’t abandoned her, and she’d been raised within their clan? With her talent and their guidance, maybe their clan would have already had an unbeatably capable, intelligent, and loyal leader by now.
Of course, there was no use thinking about ‘what ifs’, and the elders knew that.
“Noelle… things will actually be worse for them if you don’t do anything. You know just as well as anyone just how much the two of them hate each other. What do you think they’ll do once they have finished gathering their strength?”
The grand elder nodded grimly. “The only way to stop them from killing each other is to be stronger than the two of them combined!”
Noelle was so shocked by his statement that the comb in her hand shattered. But even when the young girl she had been pampering yelped and jumped away from the chair in surprise, the gray-haired girl didn’t even seem to notice.
“C-Can I really do it? I-I don’t think I can, even with my strength—”
The elders looked at each other happily as they realized that she was at last willing to listen to them, and quickly stepped forward to reassure the gray-haired girl.
“You don’t need strength for this kind of thing. With our support and some luck, as long as you’re willing to go forward and invite people to your side, the rest will definitely fall into line soon enough!”
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━