Chapter 017: The Belinger Family

Emily glanced at Du Fan and sneered, “So what if that’s the case? Don’t forget—it’s you who’s begging me now! Begging me to give you back your so-called evidence of your crimes. It’s already very kind of me not holding you accountable for eavesdropping. Do you really expect me to give you that evidence right now?”
Du Fan snorted. Who cared about that so-called evidence? If it weren’t for another matter, even if you made a fuss about this, it wouldn’t affect me at all. But now, since you’re alone with me, I guess you won’t have that chance anymore.
With that thought, Du Fan’s gaze swept over Emily’s delicate neck, and he felt a hint of pity: Such a fair and soft neck—would flowing crimson blood ruin its perfection?
Feeling Du Fan’s gaze, which seemed like he was looking at a corpse, Emily couldn’t help but shiver. Her body weakened slightly. God knew why that seemingly serious fool’s flickering eyes could convey such a murderous intent.
To dispel this unpleasant feeling, Emily awkwardly moved slightly before continuing, “Well? Will you agree or not? If you help our family obtain the Milak potion today, maybe I’ll happily give you back your gloves.”
“Are you that kind?” Du Fan asked mockingly, looking at Emily indifferently. “You keep talking about your family. Shouldn’t you also tell me which prominent family in the capital holds the evidence against me?”
Emily gave Du Fan a strange look, feeling frustrated. “Don’t you know which family I, Emily, belong to?”
Du Fan honestly shook his head. “To be honest, I don’t. For example, those useless people in the hall right now—aside from a few who came to flatter me at my house, I don’t recognize any of them, let alone their backgrounds. As for you, miss, I hadn’t had any interest in investigating your background before. Although you’re pretty, it’s just ‘pretty’.”
When saying the word “pretty,” he emphasized it clearly, his gaze fixed on Emily’s chest, as if truly impressed by its size.

Feeling Du Fan’s gaze that seemed tangible, Emily felt goosebumps cover her entire body. Under his stare, she felt like a naked lamb. For the first time, Emily began to regret coming here to meet this jerk in secret. Although her plan was to help her family gain some advantage and also teach this scoundrel a lesson, it seemed that from the moment she arrived, he had held all the initiative. Especially that faint smile on his face made her want to kick him and stuff him into a flower bed as fertilizer. Yet, somehow, that expression carried a hint of sanctity, making her feel reluctant to desecrate it—which infuriated her even more.

Gritting her teeth in anger, Emily glared at Du Fan and said slowly, “I am the daughter of Duke Belinger.”

Seemingly very proud of her identity, Emily puffed out her chest as she spoke.

“Oh, so you’re the daughter of the Finance Minister…” Du Fan glanced at her chest and shrugged indifferently.

Although Du Fan didn’t care much about imperial affairs, he at least knew that aside from the royal family, there were a few families in the Gavin Empire that couldn’t be easily offended, and the Belinger family was one of them.

The Belinger family had deep roots in the Gavin Empire, with each generation of patriarchs holding control over the empire’s finances. This should have been impossible in any country, but it was said that since ancient times, the Belinger family had had close ties with the imperial royal family, allowing them to retain the position of Finance Minister.

Of course, to maintain such a position in the empire, every generation of the Belinger family produced talented individuals. If Du Fan remembered correctly, this generation had produced an extraordinary person named Aldas.

Unlike herself, Aldas had been known as a genius since childhood in the imperial capital. Though he was only a few years older than Du Fan, he was already a level-six knight. His father, Duke Belinger, seemed determined to send this rare genius into the military. So over the past few years, Aldas had been stationed at the front lines. With strong family support, he easily achieved a series of military accomplishments, rising from an ordinary soldier to a major in just a few years. For a family like the Belinger family, which had little influence in the military, this was already quite remarkable.

Of course, whether the military elders helped to smooth things over and promote the future heir of the Belinger family at the same time is something no one knows.
In any case, given the status of the Belinger family, if they wanted to obtain the Milak potion, there really weren’t many people in the entire imperial capital who could compete with them.
But it’s not entirely impossible—for example, if the empire’s prime minister wanted to help his useless grandsons, or if the military minister wanted to turn his granddaughter into a strong woman, then the Belinger family might not be able to guarantee success.
Of course, to some extent, the Green family also had a chance of getting the Milak potion, after all, with the old Duke Green’s hundreds of thousands of troops at hand, the second-most powerful figure in the military couldn’t be ignored so easily.
But for Du Fan, he wasn’t thinking about such complex issues right now. He rubbed his forehead in pain, feeling extremely frustrated.
Obviously, since Miss Emily was here now, Du Fan couldn’t possibly believe that Duke Belinger was completely unaware of this matter.
Of course, Duke Belinger must also be aware that even if Du Fan obeyed under Emily’s threat, it probably wouldn’t bring any benefits to the Belinger family. After all, given Du Fan’s status—as the weakest third son of the Green family and just one of the many White Robed Priests—such a person might be of some use to other minor nobles, but for the Belinger family, even if there was some use, it would be minimal.
Moreover, offending the Green family over such a trivial matter wouldn’t serve the Belinger family’s interests. So this time, Duke Belinger probably tried it out, letting Miss Emily carry out this act of extortion. After all, if she succeeded, there was nothing more to say—at least the combined forces of the two families could easily obtain the Milak potion provided by the royal family. If she failed, they could simply explain it as the capricious behavior of a young girl, which wouldn’t greatly affect their relationship.
In less than a moment, Du Fan analyzed the situation thoroughly and identified the core issue: as long as they dealt with Miss Emily, the Belinger family would definitely stop pestering him about this matter.
But after figuring out Emily’s identity, Du Fan started to feel headaches.

Originally, according to his plan, if Emily was just a lady from an ordinary noble family, he could simply kill her here using speech magic, retrieve the glove, and make up some excuse to cover up her death. But now that he knew Emily’s identity, Du Fan realized he absolutely couldn’t do that. If he really killed Lady Emily, the Belinger family would never let it go. With that in mind, Du Fan glanced at Emily and sighed helplessly, “Let me put it this way, Lady. There’s no way I’ll help you get the Milak potion. But if it’s something else, I might consider it. After all, I’m determined to get that Milak potion today. I doubt you think I’d give it up just because you have this little hold over me. So, Lady, although your family might not have taught you this when you left home, I have to tell you one thing: it’s better to pretend you didn’t see anything… Making things worse won’t benefit either of us. That’s all for today. You should think carefully about what to do.” With that, Du Fan tapped the table and stood up, already thinking of another way to get Emily to hand over the glove—of course, on the condition that she didn’t spread the news. Emily stared at Du Fan in shock and said, “Du Fan, aren’t you really afraid that I’ll spread this?” “Why should I be afraid?” Du Fan shook his head. “I might have been afraid before I knew your identity, but now that I do, I understand clearly. Even if you wanted to expose this, your father probably wouldn’t stupidly allow you to do so. He knows better than you that although I’m nominally just a White Robe Priest, don’t forget—I’m also the third young master of the Green family! No matter how low my status is in the family, my father won’t let his son’s reputation be ruined by a woman, right?” As if still unsatisfied, Du Fan smiled lightly again, his gaze sweeping over Emily’s chest. “As expected, big breasts mean no brains… The ancients were right…” With that, Du Fan turned sharply and walked toward the door.