Nobody spoke for a mont.
Because every sentence had landed exactly where it should.
She had not mocked them.
She had not praised herself.
She had simply cut straight to the bone and laid the truth on the table.
The leader lowered his head slightly. "Lady Isabella is wise."
Zyran, standing nearby, nearly smiled.
Cyrus looked quietly pleased.
Osiris looked at Isabella with a strange light in his eyes.
To be honest, every ti she spoke like this, it felt a little unreal.
As if she sat there in warm fur looking beautiful and lazy, yet the mont she opened her mouth, she could make a whole room sit up straight.
Isabella did not soften just because he called her wise.
She continued, "The people you brought will be checked one by one. Not because I insult your sincerity, but because sincerity without caution is stupidity, and I do not like being stupid."
That sentence made even Luca, who stood at the side, want to nod.
Very true.
Painfully true.
The other side accepted at once.
They had no room to refuse anyway.
This was not their ground.
Then, near the end, they introduced another offering.
Healers.
Five won in total.
Each one veiled, each one quiet, each one presented as useful support for future integration and dical care.
At first, Isabella only listened casually.
Useful people were useful people.
However, the mont her eyes landed on one of the won, her gaze stopped.
The woman was very pretty.
Truly pretty.
But that was not what made Isabella pause.
She had never been the type to feel insecure in front of another woman’s face. Please. She looked at herself like a gift to the world. Other people being pretty had never been her problem.
No.
What caught her attention was the woman’s eyes.
Or more accurately, the way the woman glanced up when she thought Isabella was not looking.
Then their eyes t.
In that instant, Isabella’s heart gave a strange jump.
Because the look in that woman’s eyes was wrong.
Wrong in a very specific way.
It was not the look of a stranger seeing a ruler for the first ti.
It was not admiration.
It was not fear.
It was not envy either.
It was recognition.
A brief flash of recognition so sharp that Isabella’s mind went cold for one second.
What the hell?
She kept her face calm, but inside, she imdiately called out, "System."
The system appeared with its usual shaless speed.
{What now?}
"Check that woman."
{Background check costs one hundred points.}
Isabella almost cursed on the spot.
"One hundred points just to check one person? Are you sick?"
{You called . Why are you complaining to ? If you think it is expensive, you may remain confused for free.}
What a money-grabbing thing.
Truly hateful.
anwhile, the conversation outside continued as if nothing had happened, but inside Isabella’s head, she was already glaring at the system hard enough to kill it ten tis.
Then, after one second of internal suffering, she said through gritted teeth, "Take it."
{Points deducted.}
The system went quiet for a mont.
Then, while the alliance talk continued in front of her, lines of information began to appear in Isabella’s mind one after another.
{Na: Zara.}
The mont the na appeared, Isabella froze.
Her gaze locked directly onto the woman.
And almost as if sensing it, the woman lowered her eyes at once.
The hall was still full of voices.
People were still speaking.
The alliance was still being finalized.
But Isabella no longer heard any of it clearly.
Because that na had landed like a stone in deep water.
Zara.
Her fingers tightened slowly under the fur.
And for the first ti since these people had arrived, the smile on her face beca very, very still.
...
Bubu, who always sounded as though charging points gave it emotional satisfaction, replied in a tone that was far too pleased with itself. "The woman is Zara, and before you start screaming, please rember that background checks are nonrefundable."
Isabella almost smiled from pure disbelief, though inside she was already about to explode. "You really are a shaless little thief, because you charged one hundred points to tell a sentence that sounds like the beginning of a curse."
Bubu ignored her insult with the peace of sothing that had already been paid. Then it began to explain everything, and the more it explained, the colder Isabella’s heart beca, even though her face remained perfectly composed for the people in front of her.
According to Bubu, Zara had changed her face after going to a witch, because the black magic she had gotten involved with months ago had backfired in a deeply ugly way.
The blacka lash had caused the curse to spread across her original face, which had forced her to seek a way out, and the price for that new face had been her ability to bear children and even part of her soul itself.
For one shocking second, Isabella forgot to be angry.
That mont did not last long, but it still happened, because hearing that made even her feel a little strange inside.
Zara had almost gotten Shelia killed before and if Isabella had not been able to complete those tasks and go to the mountain, then Shelia would probably be dead by now.
And because of that Isabella had never planned to forgive that easily, yet this whole thing sounded so pathetic and miserable that she briefly felt sorry for her.
Then Isabella rembered who she was dealing with, and her pity quickly sat down in a corner and behaved itself.
Still, she could not help asking Bubu while she frowned, "Why is she here?"
Bubu answered imdiately, as if it had been waiting for that question like a cat waits beside a fish bowl. "She is here because of Kian."
Isabella brows raised and she nearly lost her mind right there in the middle of the alliance eting.
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