Chapter 41
His words lingered in her ears, his voice pleasant and magnetic, yet every word he uttered carried an air of wickedness, both righteous and evil, like a demon emerging from the abyss, trying to tempt her and make her do as he said.
At the same time, the gazes of those behind him all turned toward him, but Hughes blocked them all from his back.
He wouldn't let her slip out of his arms, not even a little bit.
They said they wanted her to speak, but when she actually came in, Hughes wouldn't let her out. He treated her like a weak little animal, blocking her completely and not letting her show any skin.
Hughes really is...
Protecting one's own.
Paranoid and protective of his own.
Her gaze lingered fixed on the young man's handsome face.
At the same time, the elder's voice came through with a complex tone, "Your Highness."
It was just two simple words, but the tone seemed to carry a hesitant objection: "Your Highness, it's not that I object. It's that Xia Qian doesn't meet any of the requirements for being released from slavery."
“Our empire is wealthy, and one more of her wouldn’t make a difference, but the resources belonging to those with superpowers are being monopolized! This is not in accordance with the empire’s resource laws.”
The other elders echoed her sentiments, and the gazes directed at her from all around the room were disapproving, filled with hostility as if she were some dangerous person.
That look was as if she were looking at an ancient, alluring concubine who had captivated their usually rational emperor, making him feel that she was a dangerous person and had driven Hughes to lose his mind. However, the emperor, who was considered by everyone to have lost his mind, remained calm.
However, the boy's eyes were icy cold, so cold that Xia Qian seemed to be able to read his inner thoughts.
They're so annoying.
Just then, a sharp male voice rang out, "Your Highness, it is utterly licentious to help a slave who has done nothing to be freed from slavery without any reason."
"Have you considered that what you're doing will hurt the feelings of all the elders in the council?"
The speaker was Peter, one of Hans's men. He was standing to the side, a completely unrelated figure, yet his voice kept echoing in the room. Anyone with eyes could see that he felt the atmosphere wasn't intense enough, and his sharp voice was provocative, each word a taunt.
The reason he's standing here is because Hans deliberately sent him to create more chaos and try to get the elders to support Hans's rise to power.
But Hans really thought he could take over?
He's just the second in line to the throne. Does he really think he can take over even without him?
How naive.
"I'll teach you how to manage them," the boy said softly to the girl in his arms. At the same time, his cold gaze fell on Peter. His handsome face was calm, but his gaze was as sharp as a blade, as if saying a single word would be a sin.
The powerful aura made Peter, who had originally wanted to fan the flames, swallow hard and immediately stop, only daring to be cautiously respectful and ingratiating, "Your Highness..."
"Your Highness, what I said is all true..."
"Besides being pretty, what else does this little slave have to offer?"
"Then what do you have to offer?" The aloof boy, prickly as he was, seemed to have no patience for a complete stranger. His cold gaze fixed on Peter. "Just this dog mouth of yours that can please Hans?"
"I……"
Peter had a weak presence and wished he could disappear. He originally thought that offending this important figure was nothing, but when he actually met Hughes's gaze, he felt fear all over his body.
At the same time, a weathered voice rang out, "But I also think Peter is right."
Xia Qian looked in the direction of the voice and found that the speaker was Elder Zuo. In the midst of a group of people who were completely silent, Elder Zuo's voice fell with force, "To be precise, what His Highness Hans said makes sense. How can the Crown Prince of the Empire be so indulgent?"
Elder Zuo looked at Xia Qian with disgust, "Why is Your Highness removing her from slavery?"
"Although there is no explicit rule that the Empress of the Empire must be of noble birth, not just any cat or dog can become one."
He was angry just thinking about it, because he had been criticized to his face by Hughes for this, and Elder Zuo had been secretly ridiculed for a long time. He had never lost face like this before, especially because of a little slave.
The thought of it made him angry. The embarrassment he suffered at the Desert Temple last time was still fresh in his mind. At this moment, Elder Zuo began to recount the incident, and his tone became even angrier as he questioned, "Your Highness, with your indulgence, where do you place the future of the empire?"
However, Hughes' expression remained calm.
The boy was a cold and indifferent person, and nothing could really affect him. He was indifferent to everything, but it was precisely this kind of personality that made him protect Xia Qian even more tightly at this moment.
It seemed as if they were unworthy to even glance at her.
Hughes looked coldly at Elder Zuo, "So the future of the empire depends on choosing an empress?"
The other party was taken aback.
The other elders also looked at him disapprovingly, "When has our empire ever needed to rely on this?"
"Zuo Ming, what kind of twisted logic are you spouting?"
“That’s not what we’re against…”
Some even sighed at him, as if there was no hope for him, and bluntly said to Elder Zuo, "Zuo Ming, you don't understand, so you'd better not speak."
Each word struck Elder Zuo like a thorn, disrupting his original plan. In an instant, all the disapproving gazes turned to him.
It seems he said something that made no sense.
"What a joke! How could I not understand!"
Elder Zuo looked at Hughes, who was clearly the one whom everyone disagreed with!
But now everyone is turning their guns on him!
He was filled with resentment, and his previously slow and deliberate tone was now a roar, "Your Highness! She has no special abilities, she is not worthy to stay by your side!"
"And what kind of blood flows through her veins! It's not even the blood of a commoner, how can she be worthy of you?"
"Even if Your Highness doesn't intend to make her Empress, she's still unworthy to be your mistress. The children you have with her are..."
"What is that?" Xia Qian looked at the other person with displeasure.
She is soft.
But that's on the premise that the other party has neither harmed nor offended her.
It doesn't mean she'll stay submissive and let the other party speak ill of her and insult her.
Moreover, the person who spoke was Elder Zuo.
That selfish and scheming man who plotted against Hughes and pushed him into the abyss.
In the book, Elder Zuo deserves a large part of the credit for Hughes's later transformation into a violent and ruthless character.
He is the one who doesn't deserve to be by Hughes's side.
The girl was soft-spoken, but her eyes held a firm resolve.
Elder Zuo stared sharply at her, trying to force her to back down, but she continued to look directly at him and even spoke up to mock him.
"Elder Zuo, I know you don't like me."
Before Zuo Ming could reply, Xia Qian continued, her voice soft and gentle, as always.
She spoke slowly, yet every word was sharp and carried her own offensive power, clearly reaching the ears of each elder: "I know you don't like Hughes either. You feel that he doesn't listen to you, that you can't control him, so you supported Hans to take the throne."
"What did you say!" Elder Zuo's veins bulged. Before he could retort, the other elders all looked over, their eyes filled with the same shock and disbelief.
Some had already suspected this, whispering among themselves, "I knew it! How come Peter, who works for Hans, just happened to be passing by there and brought us here!"
"I also thought the timing was too coincidental."
Some people mocked, "It was all planned out; how could it not be a coincidence?"
Every word pierced Elder Zuo's eyes, and the thread in his heart seemed to be filled with guilt, but it was impossible!
She couldn't possibly know!
Even Elder Gao, the head of the elders, hadn't discovered his sordid deeds, so how could this little slave possibly have?
She's definitely just talking nonsense!
She couldn't possibly have any evidence!
Where did you get this evidence?
Thinking of this, Elder Zuo suddenly seemed to gain immense confidence. He glared angrily at the girl in front of him, wishing he could skin her alive, and his tone was filled with disgust, "Do you have any evidence?!"
"You, a slave, dare to slander me in public without any evidence. Do you know that as a slave, you don't even have the right to speak to me? And you still dare to look me in the eye!"
Hughes frowned, and it seemed he was about to make a move in the face of the other person's vulgar words directed at the girl.
However, the girl behind him spoke first, her voice still soft and sweet, "Someone like you who dares to be two-faced has no right to talk to me."
"They wear the guise of respected elders, yet they're all doing petty theft and other despicable things."
"And don't call me a slave one bite at a time. If I were a born slave, I wouldn't be here."
"This is a special area for certifying people with superpowers."
If she didn't have superpowers, why would Hughes have brought her here?
This is monitored by a state-of-the-art intelligent robot system; cheating is impossible.
These elders never considered why Hughes brought her here to verify her superhuman status.
If she doesn't have superpowers, why would she come here?
Elder Zuo seemed not to have even considered this point, only feeling that Hughes was protecting her.
The more I thought about it, the angrier I got. And it seemed that what she said just now wasn't tough enough. She needed to be tougher!
Xia Qian was about to speak again when Hughes's voice fell softly in her ear, "Great."
Xia Qian was taken aback.
At the same time, Elder Zuo looked at Hughes in disbelief, "Your Highness..."
Even after all this, Hughes still protects this ignorant and arrogant little slave.
I'm completely captivated.
He was about to feign heartbreak and try to sway the other elders into opposing him again when Hughes's cold gaze fell upon him.
As if knowing all the filth in his mind, Hughes's eyes showed no warmth whatsoever. "Xiaxia is a princess!"
As soon as he finished speaking, the atmosphere in the room fell silent, as if time had stood still for a second.
It wasn't until Hughes spoke again, "She is a real princess, and the elder is the one who is not worthy to speak to her."
Hughes's words were forceful and clear, and he was not lying.
In an instant, the others who had been looking at Xia Qian with strange eyes were all shocked.
It seemed that even the look in their eyes couldn't be concealed, and they all started whispering among themselves.
They never imagined that the girl they had always thought was a slave was actually a princess!
This is shocking!
Their crown prince looked at the other party with a warning, the dangerous aura emanating from his eyes clear and powerful, "According to the laws of the star system, insulting another country's princess can lead to the other country requesting a duel and war."
But Elder Zuo still refused to believe it, "Impossible!"
"I don't believe it! She's a princess from some kingdom."
He had never heard of any princess from any kingdom being separated from her family and living among commoners. It was impossible! It must be a lie!
However, the boy's gaze remained firm as he looked at him, each word clear and powerful: "The source of life."
"She comes from the source of life."
The source of life?!
Before Elder Zuo could react, Hughes's eyes had already turned mocking. He looked at him with pity, as if he had already foreseen his fate.
Hughes said, "There are many allied countries behind the Source of Life. If it mobilizes, those countries behind it will also have to mobilize."
"Elder Zuo, please continue."
If you're not afraid of dying a horrible death.
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