This was a private meeting, strictly speaking, not a banquet inviting Commercial Federation spokesperson Noah Guillerette and the current Nearl Family family head Manner Lim Kwong, but a small dinner party inviting the two in a purely personal capacity.
The meaning was already clear: Luo Su, or rather, the Grand Knight, wanted to have a conversation with the two, shedding their official titles. At this moment, she didn't want them to still treat her as the Grand Knight. Originally, this was a simple matter, as the Nearl Family family, the Kielanlet, and Luo Su shared a bond forged through life and death. Noah had even been held by Luo Su when she was a child. By all accounts, it was merely a kind elder inviting her juniors to dinner.
But the delicate part was… Noah, Manner, and Luo Su hadn't seen each other for several years.
The reasons were similar: Noah's parents and Manner's elder brother and sister-in-law had all disappeared due to orders from the Supervisory Council. To this day, the Supervisory Council had still not given them an explanation, nor had they disclosed the whereabouts of these four, with even their life or death unknown. How could Noah be without resentment? Compared to Manner, Noah's resentment was even deeper. After all, she had lost family members twice in a row!
So, on the way, Noah's mood was already very complicated. Manner, beside her, could somewhat understand, but he still reminded her before getting out of the car.
"This time… it's best not to mention their matter."
"I… know."
Noah nodded glumly. It was clearly inappropriate to press someone in such a private setting, and if they could be told, she believed this respectable elder wouldn't have kept it from them for so long. The two walked into the Supervisory Council's interior with different thoughts, and stopped almost simultaneously in front of the Champion Wall. The champions of Kazimierz's Knight Tournament were all displayed on this wall, and where the two stopped was precisely Margaret Lin-guang's position.
Although Noah couldn't see, when she heard Manner stop, she roughly knew they had arrived.
"Shining Knight" Margaret Lin-guang.
Touching the nameplate, she understood its contents through feel. She slightly raised her head and smiled helplessly, "Even though I was expelled, my name wasn't removed from the Champion's Wall?"
"You haven't come to see it?"
"No."
"The situation back then was quite complex. The Commercial Federation did consider removing Margaret from the Champion's Wall, but the Supervisory Council, on the grounds that the Champion's Wall should not be tampered with, prohibited them from further stripping Margaret of her honors," Manner explained. "So her portrait is still on the Champion's Wall."
"Is that so?"
Noah sighed. As someone who experienced the events firsthand, she knew best that Margaret could not have been Infected with Oripathy. The merchants of the Commercial Federation actually managed to twist the facts and expel Margaret while Old Tianma was still around. To be honest, Noah felt it was a bit strange. From her current position, the Commercial Federation shouldn't have such great power. After all, the Commercial Federation had limited tools at its disposal; besides the bodyguards and security teams they cultivated, their only other card was the Shieldless League.
But the Shieldless League clearly couldn't frame the Nearl Family. Old Tianma was still there. As the saying goes, a starved camel is still bigger than a horse. What kind of excuse did they use to force Margaret away back then?
And they even used… her own diagnostic report.
Thinking of this, Noah felt a bit choked up. She never imagined her own test report would be altered and presented as Margaret's, leading to the innocent Margaret being expelled and stripped of her glory. When she learned the truth, she even had a feeling—could it be that I was the one who forced Margaret away?
This feeling was clearly wrong. These people from the Commercial Federation obtained her test report from who knows where, then embellished it and changed it into Margaret's test report. This must be the reality.
However, what puzzled Noah was why they dared to act while Old Tianma was still alive…
A lot of time had passed, and investigating now would be difficult to yield results, so Noah could only temporarily keep this question in her heart. After the two of them lingered there for a long time, Noah's little ears suddenly twitched. She heard two familiar sets of footsteps.
One walked haphazardly and quickly, while the other walked with completely opposite grace and unhurriedness. Both sets of footsteps were familiar to Noah, belonging to Maria and Viviana respectively.
But why were they here? Were they also invited by the Grand Knight Commander?
Maria was one thing, but why was Viviana also invited? Noah was a bit puzzled, but she still turned her wheelchair around first, waiting for the two to appear from around the corner.
—
For Viviana, this invitation might have been quite sudden. Ms. Luo Su, her adoptive mother, rarely interfered with her affairs, especially after she decided to become an arena knight. She neither opposed nor supported it, merely tacitly accepting her willfulness. It wasn't until she became a Sealed Knight that she realized her actions were somewhat foolish. Even as a Sealed Knight, she hadn't become the kind of knight she dreamed of, or rather, the kind of knight from storybooks.
Now, she was less a knight and more an idol—
This fact itself made Viviana quite distressed, but participating in knight competitions also had its good points, namely, meeting Noah.
At that time, Viviana was still unknown, just an independent knight. Noah recognized her potential, invested in her, but never asked her to change anything or add any logos. Compared to those commercial geniuses who wanted to plaster their brands all over her, Noah's actions clearly made Viviana feel more favorable. Coupled with her curiosity about Noah herself, she quickly became good friends with Noah.
Although nominally they were still in a boss-employee relationship, in reality, they were on equal footing. The contract they signed was a gentleman's agreement; essentially, Noah was only responsible for funding and selling merchandise, then giving Viviana a share of the profits. Everything else was decided by Viviana herself. It was quite free, even allowing her to unilaterally terminate the contract without any breach of contract fees.
Viviana had checked this so-called 'angel clause' contract several times before signing it, unable to find any traps—such a contract was truly too strange.
However, the more she understood Noah, the more she realized why Noah would give her this contract—
Noah later confessed that part of the reason she recognized Viviana was that during an interview in a public setting, a reporter had maliciously tried to test Viviana by bringing up the topic of the Shining Knight, who had illegally participated in the competition.
Viviana, however, directly expressed her admiration for the Shining Knight, her approval of her character, and her dissatisfaction with the rule in the knight system that prohibited the Infected from participating.
At that time, Viviana was not yet the Candle Knight; she was simply an independent knight. Her words moved Noah, who had only come to casually watch the competition, and Noah decided to sign Viviana that very day. After all, it was very dangerous for an independent knight to make such statements, and she needed to be protected.
This was the story of their meeting—simple, yet they became soulmates.
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