Page 55
"Sora...it's like you're telling someone who has just been gifted with the gift of heavenly fire that fire is dangerous."
Esta still smiled: "Just giving you a piece of clothing and a boat is not enough for your share. In just two days, the profits from the Navigator's Potion alone have made my relatives unable to sit still. I believe that if we continue to cooperate, there will always be more profits rolling in."
She leaned forward and rested her hands on her knees.
"It's different when I'm with Ms. Black Tower... I can't make her interested in me myself - but I've confirmed that I can make you a little interested in me. Even if it's just a little bit, it will make this cooperation last a little longer."
"Have you really thought it through? I may leave at any time and may never come back."
The empty words still carried a hint of warning.
"Well, even if I have to take it one step at a time, I want to establish a relationship with you, tie you to my spaceship, and bring me closer to my dream."
Esta sat up straighter and stroked her chest gently: "Everything has a price. As someone who works in a company to make a living, I know very well that it was Ms. Black Tower who helped me block everything. But if I want to get closer to the stars, I must have someone who supports me. Even if gaining his support means I have to sacrifice myself, but at the same time I will gain unprecedented freedom."
Estelle's eyes were blazing. "Kong, my relatives will do everything they can to stop me in order to seize the exclusive agency rights of the potion. They will also send countless beautiful assassins to break up the relationship between you and me. I am betting that your bottom line is far beyond my imagination, that your care for Eula and the others is sincere, and that you will protect me because I can make money for you."
Is this the consciousness of the children of a monopoly family? No matter how many times I experience it, I find it terrifying...
"If you're just doing astronomical research, you don't have to do this, but if you're seeking protection... can you tell me specifically what threats you've faced?"
After seeing Esta's determination, Kong regrouped and chose to respond to her call for help and dedication.
This will be a completely political romance. There may be many things that attract Sora and Ester to each other, including appearance and body, but the decisive factor is still the conflict of interests.
We both know what's going on, so there's nothing to regret.
"Hahaha...that's too many. So many that I have to carefully choose a few representative ones for you."
Esta was finally able to express her true self without restraint. She stood up and took a traditional paper letter from the desk and showed it to Sora.
"This is a letter from my aunt, and this is a letter from my uncle. Can you tell what's wrong with it?"
"I invite you to be the supervisor of their territory. Don't work for the Black Tower anymore..."
Sora pushed up his glasses on the bridge of his nose and said, "There should be a sequel, right?"
"This is the letter I received after I sold the Navigator's Potion to the family network through the Development Department and the debt collectors in the past two days."
Estelle brought a new letter with an expression that said, "You really know everything."
"...Oh no, your uncle and aunt are really furious."
Sora shook out the paper... The letter was life-threatening, revealing jealousy and hysteria, and was not at all like something a relative should write.
81. Star Punk 2157
Before seeing the pile of letters from Esta's home, Kong thought that the methods of the various branches of the Interstellar Peace Company here could compete with the criminal enterprises in his memory, but he obviously overestimated them.
——Hey, brother, it is now the 2157th Amber Era! Let's see how humans fight business wars in the interstellar era!
Threats, assassinations, harmless acquisitions, the boss took the lead in attacking the enemy factory - well, there really is no progress!
When Ester's uncle failed to invite her, he directly abused Ester in the letter and even said that he would bring people to kill her... And her aunt, after pretending to be a gentle elder several times, showed her true colors when Ester publicly sold the potion, hoping that Ester could give up the empty channel so that other family members could benefit from it - mainly for her.
However, because they had no idea about the attitude of the new envoy Kong, they ended up not taking any action. If it were Kong's turn, they could only bark.
"Are there any people in the accountability team sent by you 'kind' elders?"
I threw the letter aside. It was really disgusting to see it empty.
It wasn't the content of the family struggle that made him unhappy, but the fact that these idiots, as a branch, actually showed their fangs to Ester before her direct elders had finished playing.
No matter how easy the young webmaster looks to be bullied, her last name is "Fleming", a direct descendant of the company's founder, and she is a blood relative and one of the major shareholders.
Not to mention in the Crime Enterprise, even if someone in Night City dared to threaten Arasaka's daughter like this, he would be dismantled and thrown into the data prison in a matter of minutes.
"No, they don't have that ability yet."
When Esta saw that Kong actually read it carefully and analyzed the tricks with her, she felt quite happy. She thought Kong would be impatient.
"Has anything happened to your immediate family members?" Kong immediately asked the question that concerned him a lot.
Although it was impolite, when asked, Estelle's gaze instantly changed from admiration to looking at a deity:
"Did you guess it? There is a letter that really concerns me. It is the focus of the recent letters."
Ester carefully took out the last letter from the biological lock safe, and her hands trembled slightly, as if the letter was covered with a deadly poison.
After handing it to Sora, she seemed to breathe a sigh of relief and fell back onto the sofa in an ungraceful manner.
"daughter:
I have contacted my dad, he was cut off for a while due to an electromagnetic storm. If you are not busy, you should come back. Things are not going well at home recently... Do you have enough money outside? Don't treat yourself badly in terms of food and accommodation just to save money. If you don't have enough money, remember to tell mom.
Love you mom. "
"Have you confirmed that this is a letter from your mother?" Sora frowned.
"I have deleted the original text. Only the paper version remains. This is the only copy... I am not sure."
Esta's face was very serious. She was always smiling. Except for the day when the Legion invaded her time and space and she looked as if she was facing a great enemy, she usually gave people a happy and confident impression.
"I also instinctively felt that something was wrong, but I don't know your mother, so I can't analyze anything."
Sora said bluntly.
Then he realized that it might be the "opportunity" of her father's loss of contact that fueled her relatives' ambitions, and the statement in the letter that her father had reconnected with the headquarters might not be true.
"I think the part that's wrong is 'Remember to tell mom if you don't have enough money.'"
Esta pointed at this paragraph of text and said confidently, "Mom usually gives me credit points directly when she receives a letter, without asking me if I need money. But this letter was indeed sent from home, using Mom's terminal number."
Esta's eyes were burning. "I suspect someone hacked into Mom's terminal and used her tone to deceive me, trying to trick me into going home, or maybe she was controlled..."
"Is this your analysis? Have you written to your mother to verify it?"
"Yes, but she is too far away from the Black Tower Space Station, almost four times farther than my uncle and aunt's jurisdiction, which means it will take a week. And if it was really a letter from my mother, she probably wouldn't persuade me to go home at this time."
"why?"
"Because what I did was enough to make many people at home jealous. Whether I was serving Madam Black Tower or you... Third Uncle and Fourth Aunt would definitely take things from me. They probably wanted to confront me face to face and force me to let you go, and contact the Traveler in the 'official name' of the Interstellar Peace Company..."
"I see. Then just don't go back." Kong's tone was casual, but the movement of leaning forward made it seem that he cared more about Ester's family affairs, which made Ester feel strangely conflicted.
"…I'm afraid I'm overthinking it. The letter says that my father encountered an electromagnetic storm, which might be true, but the reconnection might be false. If my father's connection with the company headquarters had not been disrupted by the electromagnetic storm, my relatives would never have jumped like that."
Since you have chosen to believe in Kong, you must believe it to the end. She said with some distress the conclusion that Kong had reached after a simple analysis.
"Mom has been at the headquarters. Even if someone got her terminal number or hacked into the messaging system through sneaky means, they can't touch her. They can only find a breakthrough from my side... It feels terrible."
As she said this, the little girl leaned closer to Sora as if seeking comfort.
Maybe she wasn't as insecure as she said, and was just giving Sora a chance to show off his masculinity - but after Sora let her lean on him, he didn't put his arm around her waist or shoulders, but continued to look through those boring documents.
His brows were furrowed, his eyes unwilling to miss any detail.
"..." Wanting to act coquettishly, Esta stared blankly at Kong busying himself with her personal affairs from the closest position, focusing all his attention on reading those 'junk' and even ignoring the sweet treats that were delivered to him.
She had already made up her mind to surrender her body to the atmosphere. Although it was not perfect, just like her life which was difficult for her to complain to outsiders, perhaps love would not get a perfect response. Giving herself to Sora was obviously the best choice among countless possibilities.
But Kong doesn't seem to care at all about the softness and warmth around him. He cares more about the "contract" and "promise" with Ester.
He wouldn't take Estelle down until he had dealt with her request for help.
Sora was planning to give Esta a chance to regret after helping her.
Ester had guessed wrong about Kong's arrogance. He had already acted like a sucker many times and let Ester take advantage of him. This was her last chance to get away from Kong. If she still wanted to feed the tiger with herself, Kong would not care whether she was the most troublesome type of young lady or not and would definitely take her down.
82. Heita is not at home today
"As long as your mother is not in danger, what we should do is to stay at the Black Tower Space Station and not go out."
After confirming all the possible threats that Esta might face, Sora chose a very "protective" approach.
"That's what I thought...but will this make those guys take advantage of it?"
Esta's face was rosy and her voice was trembling a little when she spoke. Although she had practiced it countless times in her mind and had received guidance from the maid and her mother at home, she was well prepared. However, after completely fitting into Sora's left half, the warm and solid feeling still made her body temperature rise...
But she was holding back her determination to make Sora respond to her coquetry—her eyes were so watery that it seemed as if they could melt Sora.
"Esther, your advantage now is that you have two messengers backing you up. Even if your father really gets into an accident, your mother can avoid being persecuted by those relatives by simply mentioning her daughter's good relationship with the messengers."
Kong let out a sigh of relief, with a strange sense of satisfaction. He didn't know if it was because he was hugged by Esta, but he felt a little dizzy. "This is the advantage of the high-level martial arts world... Sometimes you don't have to reason with idiots."
He then lowered his head and looked at Esta, who was deliberately acting like a little bird - the latter was already a little upset, because no matter how hard she squeezed Sora, she couldn't make him blush like her.
But Kong couldn't completely ignore the softness in his arm. Only he knew how bad this body was. If all his energy had not been used to awaken the new system, he would definitely have to spare some strength to remove Aha's "curse".
As Ester's purpose changed from acting, pretending to be emotional, and pretending to be coquettish to being sincere and rubbing Sora's arms back and forth through the dumpling, Sora's face finally heated up and began to turn red.
"Hehe... I didn't know you could have such a cute expression~"
Ester was able to see Kong's confused look, laughing like a little devil, as if the melancholy just now was just a passing cloud, and the relatives and worrying about her mother were just her excuses.
But this is just a transformation of emotions, and Kong sees it very clearly.
"I'm not planning on collecting your balance yet, but if you keep doing this, I'm not going to be able to say anything."
The blush on Sora's face continued to grow. "I'm actually quite familiar with the dirty things between men and women... so familiar that you might think I'm dirty, but Aha's curse made me more sensitive than the average man, which makes me look like a virgin... Stop pushing, or I'll really stand up if you keep pushing."
"Then let's stand there and see. I know this, right? Many of the staff and the children I've helped have used me as a source of anger. If Sora doesn't ask Miss Eula and Miss Haiya to help relieve their stress, won't it be hard to get through the night if they leave my place?"
The devil-like Esta revealed the news without any concern, and coupled with her seemingly innocent and pure gaze, it made Kong a little overwhelmed.
Pretty and smart girls are often very aware of the gazes of the people around them, but they will take pleasure in this and use their own advantages to achieve certain goals - even the best-protected young ladies are not easy to deal with, let alone someone like Ester who fights with her relatives every day.
"The last person who dared to speak to me like that gained more than a pound in one day."
Sora patted the little rich woman's head with an unfriendly tone.
"Sorry, I was too arrogant!"
Having achieved a partial victory, Esther, who knew very well that it was better not to pursue a desperate enemy, immediately stuck out her tongue and bowed cutely to admit defeat.
As long as she knew that Kong could stand up for her, things would be much easier and she would have a lot to look forward to in the days ahead.
She even kind of looked forward to it, if Sora hadn't been able to hold back and rip her shirt open with his teeth in the office -
But this romantic fantasy didn't last long, and Kong continued to talk about his plan: "On the day of the celebration, when the accountability team and your other relatives come over, I will convince Heita to show up as well. I will ask her to set her puppet to automatic mode and sit at the same table with you and me to pretend to have a conversation. Then, I will deal with the toasts from those malicious guys. Just remember to hold my arm. I will often leave space for your armband, which should prevent them from getting angry in front of me."
Sora thought for a while, and seeing that Esta was no longer playing tricks, he asked a rather fatal question while the atmosphere was still there: "Come to think of it, don't you have any collateral relatives who are a bit more related?"
"Uh hehe... Of course... No."