Chapter 43: Coup d'état?
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No, I need to quickly figure out what to do, Jiang Cheng lowered her head, seriously contemplating.
Let me review what happened before. Jiang Cheng frowned. Wait a moment.
While thinking, she looked up and saw Liu Shutao winking at her playfully with a confident look.
Could it be that she interpreted my earlier warning as a hint for her to agree to Lyle's proposal?!
Damn, Jiang Cheng sighed. It just goes to show that talking with people who are too emotionally intelligent comes with its risks.
But for now, the most urgent thing was to think of a way to cover it up.
The Saintess's status was far inferior to that of the Hero, so by normal reasoning, as a Saintess, the elves wouldn't casually gift her such precious things.
However... Jiang Cheng knew she was an exception. In the original story, Lyle was the only Hero to ever go without a Saintess.
Precisely because of this, the Temple of the Gods had always believed Lyle must have angered the gods, so they didn't grant him the usual "plentiful" and disposable Saintess.
It wasn't until later that Lyle relied on his own upright and kind character to break that bias.
So... theoretically, she was the only Saintess of this generation. Her position was still not quite equal to the Hero, but nevertheless significant.
With no precedent to go by, those old geezers didn't know what would happen if the Hero had no Saintess, so they dared not touch her.
And the fact that she messily murdered and dealt with wicked nobles in the past without facing retaliation also proved this point.
Liu Shutao probably knew this too, which was why she wasn't concerned whether Jiang Cheng was "qualified" to receive such a level of gift.
However... the problem was that this information was supposed to be known only by a handful of great nobles.
It was normal for a high-ranking non-human like Liu Shutao to be in the know.
But judging by the look on Lyle's honest face, he clearly had no idea—nor should Jiang Cheng have known under normal circumstances.
So, it'd be difficult for her to directly tell Lyle. But how could she allow Lyle to reasonably find out about this information?
Jiang Cheng's mind spun at high speed, then she froze. Wait, why was she so obsessed with being reasonable?
Many of her previous plans and information weren't things she ought to know in the first place. Instead, she might as well be bold and confidently cement her image in Lyle's mind as someone who knows everything.
Thinking this, Jiang Cheng relaxed, turned her head confidently toward Lyle.
Lyle was a bit puzzled as to why Jiang Cheng was suddenly staring at him without speaking, but didn't say much. He stepped forward and took the aromatic perfume that Liu Shutao casually tossed.
After taking it, Lyle sized up the perfume, remembering its name. If he liked it, he might buy a few more bottles in the future.
But when he saw the writing on it, he froze.
There was no brand on the perfume, nor even a name. Under its scent label, only a line of small, elegant handwriting read:
"Elven royal exclusive. Forbidden to be circulated. Severe punishment for any violation upon discovery."
"This..."
Lyle was a bit shocked, and quickly waved his hand, "This is too precious—I can't just accept it."
"Since I've given it to you, just take it,"
Liu Shutao said with a beaming smile, "I've already given a bottle to Miss Saintess too, haven't I?"
She looked meaningfully at Jiang Cheng, raising her brows.
"But doesn't it say here that private gifting is forbidden, and there's punishment if discovered?"
Lyle hesitated, asking carefully.
"How could you just give it to me so casually, let alone gift a bottle to Jiang Cheng?"
"Well..."
Liu Shutao smiled, narrowing her emerald eyes, "Because I trust the kind-hearted Hero and Miss Saintess not to tell anyone else—right?"
Jiang Cheng found it a little funny. Kind-hearted? Was this elf actually using such an utterly unrelated word to describe her?
"But Jiang Cheng's status... Wouldn't it be hard for you if you were found out?"
Lyle probed.
He didn't state it outright, after all, Lyle himself believed in the principle of equality.
But the subtext was still that the status of Saintess was not worth currying favor over.
Such a precious thing could maybe be overlooked if gifted to the Hero—but if it was given just to the mere Saintess, the elves would definitely not let it go if discovered.
"It doesn't matter,"
Liu Shutao said with a smile, "It's not really that valuable anyway. It's just that nearly the whole batch of this stuff was stolen by a mysterious person in the past, so the royal family started paying a little more attention."
Jiang Cheng's face stiffened, and she coughed twice inwardly. So it had almost been her own alternate identity screwing herself over again. Maybe that was the downside of having too many alter egos.
"Besides, Lyle,"
Jiang Cheng spoke up, laughing lightly, "I'm not just any ordinary Saintess."
"As the only Saintess of this term, even the Temple of the Gods wouldn't dare touch me. If the elves were really dumb enough to cause me trouble, they wouldn't have grown so big and powerful."
"The only Saintess, huh..."
Lyle frowned, accepting Jiang Cheng's explanation.
Otherwise, he couldn't explain away other questions—not only had Jiang Cheng caused so much trouble before without getting sanctioned by the Temple or the great nobles, but also, in the current moment, how else to explain Liu Shutao giving perfume to Jiang Cheng?
It couldn't possibly be that Jiang Cheng's bottle was originally hers—that she was the mysterious thief who'd stolen the whole batch?
"Right, peach,"
Bai Luxia smiled gently from the side, "You elves really are so clever. The money you make each year makes me jealous."
"Haaa, the batch of idiots under me—I can't even talk about it anymore. Why are all dragonkin so stupid?"
"Don't tease me, xia Xia,"
Liu Shutao laughed, patting Bai Luxia lightly. "Even if I make money, it all goes to those arrogant elders in my tribe. How can I compare to the dragons? You pocket tens of thousands of gold every year just to build a nest, and your tribe doesn't say a word."
"Speaking of which,"
Jiang Cheng suddenly interjected with a bright smile,
"As it happens, the Hero is here. I have a big business deal. Shall we discuss it?"
"Huh?"
Lyle was startled to hear this. What did this have to do with him? He was still thinking of sleeping next to the perfume to see if he'd dream of his teacher.
"Business deal?"
At that word, not just Bai Luxia—even Liu Shutao's eyes lit up.
There's no helping it—when you have to feed an entire clan, money is always in short supply.
"Actually, neither of you needs to do anything,"
Jiang Cheng said with a smile.
"By your level, you should know already that the Mechani cists' Association is divided into two factions."
"Yes,"
Liu Shutao nodded. "Tech faction and Faith Faction. So?"
Jiang Cheng glanced at Lyle's clueless face but ignored him, continuing,
"Three days from now, the tech faction will strike against the faith faction, utterly wiping them out. What I need from you is not to aid the faith faction, and to make a public statement supporting the tech faction."
Utterly wipe them out? Hearing that, both their expressions became much more grave.
This was already beyond the scope of an ordinary deal. Something like this was enough to affect the fate of the whole world.
"So, what do we get?"
Liu Shutao asked with a frown.
"The current Association President is a member of the tech faction, so once he succeeds, he'll come bearing heavy gifts in thanks to both of you,"
Jiang Cheng said.
"That may sound fine, but... why should we agree to it?"
Bai Luxia tilted her head. "You have to know, the tech faction advocates human supremacy."
"Which is precisely why you should agree,"
Jiang Cheng no longer hid her intentions, smiling wickedly.
"With the Hero and me on their side, the tech faction will definitely win,"
Jiang Cheng said confidently.
"So whether you join in or not only affects how smoothly things go, not the final outcome."
"When the time comes—"
Jiang Cheng tilted her head, grinning with little fangs bared, smiling devilishly.
"Those who support us, all's well. But those who don't—I'll remember very clearly. When the time comes, will those who didn't support us even be able to do business here anymore?—I'm so curious to find out."