Ten minutes later.
At the entrance of an open-air afternoon tea shop in Warm Fire City, Barbara, Leia, and Andrew sat down.
Across the street at a pastry shop, Ivan also sat down, eyes vigilant.
The afternoon sunlight poured down, warm but not glaring.
On the street paved with light gray bricks, pedestrians ca and went, occasionally with mischievous children riding aerial devices above, followed by their parents shouting, "Stop! Stop, did you hear? This is not ant for kids your age to ride!"
The waiter of the afternoon tea shop approached enthusiastically and asked, "May I take your order?"
—— Such peaceful scenes, Andrew had never imagined seeing them in other parts of this Fla Realm!
If places like Shield of Flowing Fire and Qi Lan City, the larger cities, were still under the shadow of the Dual Fla War, "maintaining normal city operations," then Warm Fire City seed like an idyllic paradise, completely unaffected by war!
Andrew couldn't help but frown. He realized, just as Leia and Barbara had said, sothing was indeed wrong.
Ivan, at the pastry shop across the street, also had a vigilant gaze, like a human-shaped tiger.
Though Barbara and Leia hadn't specified what the issue was, Andrew and Ivan both sensed the atmosphere was off.
The city was bustling, peaceful, full of life.
But, no one talked to Barbara.
Andrew thought it was normal that no one knew him.
But for no one to acknowledge Barbara, that was unusual.
Especially the waiter at the afternoon tea shop, he clearly saw Barbara, but his face changed slightly upon seeing her, and when he said, "May I take your order," he only looked at Leia, who made all the orders. Despite serving Barbara a drink, he never made eye contact with her again.
"Which ans, the waiter recognized Barbara—precisely because he recognized who Barbara was, he didn't dare to speak to her?"
Andrew observed this scene.
He couldn't help but think: What's going on? What on earth is happening?
As the third lady of Warm Fire City, why was Barbara being treated like this upon returning to her ho ground, going ho?
With thoughts swirling, the recently boosted tenfold power of Tier Three Water Magic quietly started to operate, activating "Water Spirit Sensing" to extend invisible sensory tendrils outward. At the sa ti, Andrew added two perception-related Water Magic spells as supplents.
One was Tier One "Water Sensitivity," which temporarily heightened sensitivity to external information and enhanced the ability to analyze received information.
The other, a rather niche spell from Tier Three, was "Emotion Rendering," capable of using "Magic Rendering" to color the emotions emanating from people, making those emotions more noticeable from Andrew's perspective.
These two spells were both attached with "Enchanting Finger" to "Water Spirit Sensing."
After the battle with the female assassin, Andrew had silently stepped up a major notch in combat and magic usage. Using Enchanting Finger to combine different Tier and even series of magic was becoming more adept, and he was increasingly confident with his maneuvers.
Thus, through the combination and execution of three different perception Water Magic spells, Andrew eventually detected more easily overlooked details in the seemingly peaceful scene—
Not just the waiter; many others on the street probably recognized Barbara as well, yet none dared to converse with her.
Barbara herself seed aware of this; outwardly her expression was normal, but deep in her eyes, there was a hint of desolation.
"This really feels off." Ivan transmitted the thought. He too had only woken from his injury-induced coma shortly ago and didn't know much more than Andrew, who had been unconscious for three days.
"Don't rush, let's first hear what Barbara and Leia have to say." Andrew transmitted back.
anwhile, he reached his hand under the table to hold Barbara's hand.
If from Barbara's perspective, during the past three days, while Andrew was comatose, she seed to be suffering from so form of silent treatnt from everyone in Warm Fire City.
Andrew thought those in Warm Fire City who had the courage and capability to treat Barbara this way were few—only one of Barbara's own parents might be capable of doing so, right? Observing Barbara's slightly pale and delicate face at this mont, Andrew felt a slight pang of heartache!
However, Water Magic excelled at calming people but couldn't warm hearts as Barbara's own practice of Warm Fire Magic could.
Andrew didn't want to overdo it, so he opted to offer comfort simply by holding Barbara's hand.
"Thank you, I'm fine."
Barbara squeezed out a faint smile, steadied herself, and slowly began, "Here's the thing: After my elder sister's untily birth, the relationship between my father and mother cooled rapidly, and the comrce association internally split into two factions from then on—about this, Andrew, you might have known or heard a bit on your way here."
Andrew kept his cool and nodded, "I've heard a bit about it."
In fact, he first heard Barbara ntion it the night before they left for the Wildfire Territory: She said her eldest sister and her husband had an accident, leaving behind little Havier, and at that ti Barbara, still young, seed sohow connected to the incident.
After that incident, Barbara's mother always blad her, whereas Barbara's father believed it wasn't right to bla a child for the death of their eldest daughter. This disagreent led to countless argunts, eventually resulting in a cold war, and the comrce association beca divided into two factions: the chairman and the lady.
"So, the cold treatnt Barbara is receiving now is because of her mother...?" Andrew pondered.
Indeed, Barbara softly muttered, "Currently, my mother is in charge of most city affairs. But Mother... she's sowhat difficult to deal with."
Perhaps unwilling to criticize her mother, Barbara's words were delicate, lightly brushing over her as rely "difficult to deal with."
But Andrew was clear-headed: this so-called "difficult to deal with" might indeed be extrely difficult, extrely difficult, extrely difficult to the highest degree!
The proof was that when Barbara said, "Mother is difficult to deal with," Leia subconsciously shrank her neck, involuntarily showing a hint of fear in her eyes!
Barbara continued, "In fact, over the past three days, I haven't even had the chance to see Mother. She's... she's refusing to see . And Andrew, since you saved , you ca with to Warm Fire City, you're considered introduced by to our comrce association's high-ups. My mother has been resenting for years, including you, who I introduced as the Wildfire Lord, she... she also..."
She didn't finish her sentence.
But Andrew understood most of it.
"So the unfriendly faction I feel within the Warm Fire Comrce Association—be it Havier or the woman Jimmy sent to monitor from the Shield of Flowing Fire—all of them are actually from Barbara's mother's faction?"
Andrew realized he had oversimplified matters.
He initially thought this faction's hostility stemd mainly from a business-related stance towards his Wildfire Territory, with a desire to take over and assimilate him, thus adopting a strong posture.
Now it seed, after all, the Warm Fire Comrce Association is a family-oriented power, with much more internal "personal connections" than he had anticipated.
The reason Lady President, Barbara's mother, did not look favorably upon him was not solely due to "official matters" concerning Wildfire Territory but also personal gripes!
"The problem is, Barbara is her daughter, after all. Her daughter was in life-threatening situations outside, finally made it ho, and not only does she refuse to see her, but also allows the whole city to treat Barbara coldly. What... what kind of sense does this make? Is this necessary?!"
Andrew restrained himself from expressing these thoughts.
He asked, "What about your father?"
Thinking, even if the mother is unloving, surely the father would be affectionate.
If the mother is difficult to speak with, surely I can negotiate with the father!
But Barbara replied, "Father sustained severe injuries during the Twin Flas War and had to retreat for recovery.
Three days ago, that female assassin suddenly attacked the Shield of Flowing Fire. Father awakened early from his slumber and struck a blow against the female assassin. Though he severely injured her, Father also had to retreat back into rest and may take even longer to heal this ti."
Andrew felt a sense of frustration yet also slight relief.
It seed the father still stood by his daughter, which was sowhat comforting.
The extre coldness from Barbara's mother likely had sothing to do with the father's temporary incapacity to handle the situation.
"Then... what about the Spear Knight, Peter?"
On the way here, Andrew had heard of Warm Fire Comrce Association's First Knight, also the second strongest, Peter, multiple tis, "Your comrce association's best defensive knight, Jimmy being the fastest knight when alive, the strongest offensive knight, and also your father's right-hand man must be Peter, right? I could talk with him."
This ti it was Leia who shook her head: "Uncle Peter is on the front lines and can't leave his post. Especially since Uncle Jimmy was assassinated three days ago, leading to instability in the rear, the frontline situation, as it's said, beca more severe. Uncle Peter is under trendous pressure right now."
Andrew thought for a mont, unwilling to give up, "What about Grandpa Falk?"
Leia still shook her head, "Like the chairman, he's also in seclusion for recovery. Plus, Grandpa Falk actually doesn't openly involve himself in the conflict between the chairman and lady, although secretly he's on the chairman's side..."
"Then... what about Barbara's second sister?" Andrew suddenly thought, "Which side is she on?"
"Second sister is a peacemaker." Barbara ntioned her second sister with a rare smile, "In fact, my parents have managed to maintain a superficial peace throughout the years thanks to second sister's diation and nice words between them. If she were here, she could definitely help.
But second sister is now a consort at the Royal Court, and the king is not a very capable person.
Second sister ssaged this morning, saying she's swamped and told to refrain from bothering her for the ti being. During the last Twin Flas War, she managed a lot of Royal Court affairs and secretly took on a great deal of pressure from the Magic Guild for our comrce association.
Now that the war is over, second sister is busy organizing post-war negotiations between our comrce association and the Magic Guild, hoping both sides will sit and discuss things properly, the venue being the Royal Court."
Listening to this, Andrew couldn't help the slight twitch of his mouth.
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