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There was a reason that everyone was so mad at the girl’s words, and it wasn’t just because she was obviously gloating about the fact that she managed to beat everyone who faced her so far with apparent ease.
Their clan rules strictly prohibited both polygamy and same-sex marriage, and the punishment for any kind of ‘shameless behavior’ was always extremely severe once brought to the attention of the elders. In addition to losing most of their wealth, everyone involved was generally also beaten close to death.
In fact, those who were more well-read on the history of their clan understood that the rules against polygamy were only there to prevent other ‘undesirable’ behavior. No matter what, the bloodline of the strongest fighters couldn’t be ‘lost’, and pairing one male and one female together obviously gave them the best ‘results’.
Of course, there were ‘exceptions’ to this, like everything else, whenever the offender was too powerful or influential, and managed to skirt around the punishment using various excuses.
Regardless, once married, most ‘normal’ people in the clan weren’t stupid enough to have thoughts of courting a ‘mistress’ like this girl without divorcing their current partner. And even if they did, no one would dare express that out loud.
That was why everyone believed that unless this girl had no idea about how things worked in the Nightingale clan, she was not only trying to provoke them, but also making fun of their traditions!
“Come on, come on, I don’t have all day!”
Emilia had no idea how many people she pissed off, but she didn’t really care as she easily flipped them over on the ground one by one, much to everyone’s horror.
With her strength, even the top combatants of the clan could barely be considered a challenge, so it was no surprise that she found these ‘average’ people so easy to handle.
It didn’t take long for people to realize that their anger and righteous indignation weren’t really helping when faced with superior speed and strength.
“What the hell is going on?!”
It was natural for many in the clan to be dumbfounded.
At first, they’d tried to rationalize the girl’s strength as someone who might have been a lost daughter of their own clan. But her partially exposed facial features were too delicate and didn’t match anyone they knew, and the color of her eyebrows was closer to dark crimson than grey.
Filled with both humiliation and confusion as they watched even some of the stronger fighters of their clan get flipped over on the ground over and over again like little children who were being played around with, the weaker clansmen didn’t even dare to squeak, let alone go up to face the challenge.
After flipping another poor challenger to make him face the sky in defeat and noticing that the ‘pause’ between her opponents was getting longer and longer, Emilia groaned with pretend distress. “Could it be that I have to leave empty-handed here? How lonely and disappointing it is to be so unmatched, ahh, and I thought the Nightingale clan would be a little better than this…!”
“She’s definitely here to cause trouble, this girl!”
“But just who the fuck is she, and how is she so strong?!”
Even though Emilia had been lazy enough to show up in her original form, because of only exposing her face partially and keeping everything else covered, no one was able to connect the two together.
Of course, it also helped that the crimson-haired empress was known to heavily favor girls, while this ‘intruder’ had shown up screaming about a ‘husband’, so most people subconsciously rejected any association between the two.
After all, even if she was great at fighting, would someone like Emilia ever do something so ridiculous as secretly infiltrating another country and coming to challenge people in a desperate attempt to get a husband?
With her status and appearance, simply making a statement like that would be enough to get thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, to line up outside her palace!
Even if someone didn’t really like her, how many could resist the temptation of nearly unlimited wealth and power?
Since there was no way to figure out who this girl was or why she came to pick on their clan, the people gathered quickly made a decision.
“Let’s delay her for a while to keep her quiet, and someone can go inform the elders in the meantime!”
It might be humiliating, and they might be scolded to have to seek the help of the elders for such a ridiculous matter, but it was better to do it now than later.
After all, the girl didn’t look tired at all, and the punishment they would face later if they allowed her to completely ‘defeat’ all ‘challengers’ would definitely be much worse.
Even if she left without causing a scene, where would they put the face of their Nightingale clan if just one girl could saunter around and leave, unchallenged and undefeated?
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“… Are you serious?”
“Y-Yes, elder, I-I swear I’m not joking! T-This girl has some weird way of moving just a little faster than we expect, and always manages to make our fighters trip in a weird way!”
“She’s ridiculously strong!”
The elders nodded somberly.
“… Hmm.”
“We understand. You guys go back and keep delaying her, we’ll be there shortly.”
As soon as the unrelated people were gone, the expressions of the elders immediately changed from somber to happy.
“Isn’t this the perfect opportunity to show off Noelle’s talent and gather support?”
𝗈𝒱𝐞𝗅xt.𝗇𝓔t
“Just when we were wondering how to get it done… the gods are helping us!”
Naturally, they had no idea that this was all far from being a coincidence.
Of course, despite the exaggerations from the people who came to complain, the elders weren’t at all worried about the gray-haired girl being unable to defeat this unknown husband-seeking challenger.
After all, her strength and skill were monstrous enough to fend them all off all by herself. If someone could still defeat her, would they still be human?
“Should we send in some of the top fighters first to make the stage higher for Noelle when she beats the girl later?”
They discussed it for a while before rejecting this idea.
“It’s not worth it. If the girl gets defeated, not only would we have no reasonable excuse to show off Noelle’s talent anymore, but we might also be giving those idiots an excuse to break the clan’s rules.”
After all, almost all of their top fighters were already married. Even if it was unlikely that things would go that way, the elders felt like there was no need to take such a chance.
“Let’s go get Noelle.”
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Naturally, Noelle already knew what kind of mischief her crimson-haired girlfriend was up to, and had long since been prepared for the elders to come seeking her, but that didn’t stop her from pretending to be innocent to prod at their sore spots.
“You mean to tell me that some unknown girl managed to beat up hundreds of your fighters one by one without even resting? Are you sure…?”
The elders were obviously embarrassed when she put it like that.
“I-It’s not like we’ve made any of our top ones move, given the nature of her challenge.”
They were relieved to see that the gray-haired girl looked enlightened after hearing their excuse, but…
“I see, I see… since she’s here looking for someone to marry, it’s not like old prunes like you guys can have the face to show up in front of her. That would be too shameless.” Noelle nodded to herself.
Some of the elders almost coughed out blood.
“There are stronger people in our younger generation that have yet to move, you know!”
“L-Let’s not mind these things for now.” The grand elder coughed. “Noelle, this is the perfect opportunity for you to win over everyone by showing off your strength and talent. We can’t afford to miss this chance!”
Although they could definitely organize a tournament to select the toughest fighter of the clan or something like that as they were previously planning, it wouldn’t have the same effect.
After all, with Gildroy and Narcissa’s interference, maybe the top fighters on their side would simply refrain from participating, and then they could claim that Noelle simply won because she had no real competition.
This time, however, as the challenger was an outsider, making such a claim would be like slapping their own face. Since the reputation of the clan was on the line, why not come out and take the challenge if one was confident in their strength?
The elders breathed a sigh of relief when Noelle nodded.
“Let’s go take care of this mischievous little girl who’s been bullying you guys, then.”
“…”
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