Upon hearing what Kara said, Linette watched this young woman in silence, feeling that although Ford's sister had her freedom, this was far beyond just one person's desires.
Her having sex with Minos was undoubtedly a tremendous betrayal for the family, a shame if it were to be discovered by outsiders.
It was as if, by doing this, Kara had said that she did not care about the sacrifices the Carline family had already made up to this point.
Hell, even Linette had faced the terror called Minos!
Therefore, she had not liked the way Kara was defending her freedom, her intimate affairs.
On the other hand, pushing the issue would get her nowhere. So, with her vast experience, Linette did not keep asking about it.
What had happened could not be undone. Now Linette had to accept that Kara had slept with the enemy, perhaps even being manipulated into speaking on his behalf.
This mature woman then took a deep breath, trying to relieve her stress so she would not have to teach a young adult a lesson.
"Sigh..."
"So, tell me what you two talked about... That's what you went to do with the enemy, right?" She asked, looking at the woman in front of her disappointedly. "You must have made quite a deal with him, huh? You even had some fun..."
Kara then looked down at the floor and took a calming breath. "Aunt Linette shouldn't have refused Minos' first offer."
"Oh?"
"He told me that he made an excellent offer to you before, but it was promptly refused."
"He told you, huh?" Linette then began pacing back and forth in that tent while looking sideways at Kara. "Speaking like that, it sounds like you agree with him..."
"Aunt Linette, the offer made by Minos was truly beneficial to the family."
"We would take no risk!"
"No risk?"
"So, you think it would be better to let the brat Minos become the strongest in the region and eventually march into our state and then enslave us?" She asked in an even angrier tone, to the point of almost shouting at Kara.
"He wouldn't do that!"
"Tsk!"
"Did he tell you that before or after he had sex with you?"
"Grow up, Kara!"
Kara then replied. "He wouldn't do such a thing, aunt Linette. Just look at his relationship with Stone Island. They are getting along very well, and both sides benefit from such an association."
"The Stone family has even done what Minos offered our family before discovering how strong he was."
"Why can't we do the same?"
"We still don't know what will happen to the Stones if Minos wins!" Linette shouted. "Currently, they are fine, but that brat might change his relationship with that place in the future!"
"Do you want your family to take that risk?"
Kara then increased her tone, annoyed at Linette's stubbornness. "The family is already taking that risk!"
"Just look at the situation we're in!"
"Auntie even fought Minos!"
"If it wasn't for him holding back, you might as well not be here anymore!"
"Humph!"
"I'm alive because I was strong enough to protect myself, and I was lucky that the brat targeted James!" Linette said angrily, feeling wronged by the lack of respect Kara was speaking to her.
But Kara insisted. "Do you believe that?"
"He could have given you a blow like the one that killed King Cromwell, but he just kicked you away!"
"Tsk!"
"Kara, wake up to reality. Minos is manipulating you!" That mature figure said this, a little shocked at how much this young woman was defending an enemy of her own family.
She then thought about it in awe. 'This brat is truthfully good at everything he does!'
'He turned a princess into a traitor to her own family!'
'Impressive!'
'All right, aunt Linette, believe what you want. But I looked into Minos' eyes and felt that only disaster awaits those who stand in his way."
"And even if I am wrong, how much do you think the family will have to suffer until he is stopped?"
"Does aunt Linette think we can get out of this unharmed? How long will it take for the family to accomplish that?"
"That..."
"All right, Kara, I admit that we will have to take a lot of risks and that we won't solve this in a short time, but it's all worth it."
"After all, we are fighting to ensure the region's freedom, to ensure that a monster, a dictator, does not take over our states."
"Who will do that for us if we don't stand up against him?" She said, indignant at Kara's position.
Linette was using the past logic of the big local organizations, which fought for power, trying to expand their states whenever they could.
Such a thing had only ended when a balance of power had been achieved over 200,000 years ago.
And with this in mind, she and other leaders considered that only fighting Minos would give them the chance to continue with their lives as before this young man.
They understood that if they wanted to keep their freedom, they would have to work hard for it.
Waiting for other people's help was an excuse for the lazy, negligent, and impassive people to do nothing about their problems.
Blaming others, or saying that nobody helped them, would not change reality!
The world was not fair, and things like charity were distant luxuries that only those in power could consider.
As for those at the bottom of the pyramid, poor things...
Who cares about them?
Who would help them when tragedy came knocking at their door?
In the Spiritual World, nobody!
If someone wanted to solve their problems, then such a person would have to get up, roll up their sleeves, and sweat drops of blood.
Just working, to the point of sometimes even fainting, would bring the chance for a mediocre individual to improve his position and solve his problems.
With this mentality, Linette and the regional leaders could not just wait for help from the Spiritual Church. Instead, they had to act, fighting with everything they had, hoping that they would get one to survive.
They were even seeking help, but in the first place, they were acting for themselves, for the sake of their own future!
"Tsk!" Kara made a tongue-tied sound, feeling frustrated that she could not talk sense into that experienced woman's head. "Whatever, aunt Linette."
"Anyway, Minos has made a new offer for our family, but..."
"But this time, his offer is more 'bitter' than the previous one."
Hearing Kara's change of tone, Linette took a calmer breath as she finally stopped walking around that place. "What did he say?"
"He said that we will have to give them all the people of our side who have killed people of the Dry City alliance. For those people, what awaits them is the destruction of their spiritual cultivation."
"What? How dare he?" She asked in anger.
"After that, he wants my father to bend the knee and give up the autonomy of the Kingdom of the End for the next 100 years."
"All nobles in our state will also lose the right to enter the Black Plain for the next 30 years." She said, finishing communicating that to the woman in front of her.
"What audacity!"
"How dare he demand such absurdity? What does he think we are?" Linette furiously asked this as the veins in her neck began to become apparent.
But Kara ignored Linette's anger and just said the last part of what she had heard from Minos. "He said that this offer will stay 'open' until he reaches level 54."
"After that..." She sighed, sensing the danger her family could eventually go through.
"After what?"
"After that, there will be no talking. Our family will have to bear the ultimate consequences!"
"Ahhhh!"
"Minos!"
"He thinks he's too good! What an insolent brat!" Linette roared in anger, alerting several people in the vicinity of that camp.
However, while Linette roared in anger, Kara was ready to leave this place since she had nothing more to talk about with that woman.
"Where do you think you are going?" Linette asked while she had an angry look on her face.
"I'm going home to talk to my mother and father."
"Maybe they will agree to this arrangement."
"What? Are you crazy?"
"Do you think your father will even listen to you? Plus, if he finds out what you've done, he'll probably have a nervous breakdown!"
"Aunt Linette, why is Minos so strong?" Kara then changed the subject while having a thoughtful look on her face.
"I've been thinking about that a lot in the last few hours..."
"We'd like to know that too, girl!"
"Aunt Linette, I have my theory about that..."
"I think Minos inherited that from his mother, or rather, his mother's side of the family."
"Did you know that at less than 100-years-old, Minos' mother is already at level 69?"
"What?"
Kara then finished her commentary. "And I heard that in the elder Maisie's family are some of the strongest people in the Flaming Empire!"
