Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 683 - 676: Playing to the Gallery

Chapter 683: Chapter 676: Playing to the Gallery

After happily residing in her joy, Melia finally had an opportunity to examine the members of the Advance Team seriously. It was then she noticed that a little girl, a short-haired girl as short as Tangmo, had joined the team at some unknown time.

"Luoer, do you have a particular fondness for little girls like this?" Melia’s smile gradually faded, and she looked at Luoer with an inscrutable expression as she asked.

"Eh," Luoer was staggered for a moment, then hurriedly explained, "Err, this, ah, this is Feng, a new member of our Advance Team, a... a prime part of our Advance Team."

"Prime? Is such a young girl considered to be prime?" Melia evaluated Feng from top to bottom, and then continued to interrogate Luoer.

"Don’t misunderstand, I truly value her capabilities..." Luoer hastily explained.

"Oh, I’m not misunderstanding." Melia said, a crafty smile appearing on her face. Looking at her smile, Luoer only then realized she had been teasing him.

"You really give me headaches; no wonder Moumou is always mad at you." After a pause, Melia averted her gaze and spoke in a subdued tone.

"I’m not angry at all..." Tangmo murmured. Of course, she didn’t dare to disclose about her alternate persona to Melia and could only bear the brunt of the blame herself.

"Melia..." After an awkward silence that lasted a while, Luoer couldn’t help but call Melia by her name.

However, before he could say any more, Melia turned her back on them and blandly said, "Let’s get moving, there is no point standing around like fools here. Whatever it is, it can be discussed when we get to the mansion."

Upon receiving Melia’s instruction, the soldiers who had surrounded them dispersed under the officer’s urging. As everyone resumed their own business, the Advance Team, led by Melia, traversed through the training ground and arrived at Melia’s mansion.

The path was quite muddy, and Melia, not bothering to hold up her trailing skirt, allowed it to drag on the ground. As a result, a good amount of mud soon smeared her hem and thick mud accumulated on the soles of her shoes.

Upon their arrival at Melia’s mansion, Melia asked the housekeeper to entertain the guests while she went to change her muddy clothes and shoes.

Hu Daoke, completely nonchalant, made himself comfortable on the living room sofa. He moaned for a while and then asked the others, "When was the first time we came here?"

"Around a year ago," answered Luoer, gesturing for the reserved Feng to take a seat on the sofa.

"And why did we come then?" Hu Daoke asked, blinking.

Cheng Ziang moved next to him, smacked his thigh to make him move over a bit, chased by sitting down himself. He responded nonchalantly, "We came for Lipei’s Otherworld Gate."

"Oh, right, right, right!" Hu Daoke nodded emphatically, raising his index finger.

Cheng Ziang sighed, resting against the sofa, and after glancing at Tangmo and Baiyue across from him, he couldn’t help but lower his voice and whisper to Hu Daoke, "I have a feeling that we shouldn’t have brought those two, just the three of us plus Feng would have sufficed."

"Why?" Having heard Cheng Ziang lower his tone, Hu Daoke glanced at Tangmo and then shifted to sit upright, before also lowering his voice to ask.

"With them around, Luoer is too restrained to flirt with Melia comfortably," Cheng Ziang said gleefully.

"Is that appropriate? After all, the boss and Sister Moumou..." Hu Daoke asked hesitantly.

"What’s inappropriate about it? It’s all part of the performance," Cheng Ziang shrugged.

"Isn’t that acting like a lousy guy?" Hu Daoke questioned.

"So you mean you want Luoer and Melia to get together?" Cheng Ziang raised an eyebrow at him and asked.

"I didn’t say that, I’m still hoping that the boss can become my brother-in-law," Hu Daoke seriously said.

Before long, the mansion’s housekeeper brought food and tea for everyone. Tea is tightly controlled by the people of Earth, the people of Otherworld couldn’t get the seeds to grow themselves, so they could only import it from Earth, which is why it has always been a luxury item.

About the time it took for a cup of tea, Melia finally arrived again, fashionably late. Her appearance was totally different from before; it was refreshingly new to all.

Her hair had obviously been washed and combed, decorated with elaborate hair accessories, while the faint scent of shampoo wafted from her not quite dry hair.

She had also changed her outfit, replacing it with a more exquisite and gorgeous dress, along with delicate high heels. This was a trend from Earth and had rapidly influenced the entire nobility circle in Otherworld over the past thirty years.

Melia’s face also seemed to be lightly made up, making her look less haggard and more soft and competent. Her original aristocratic aura completely returned.

Cheng Ziang didn’t know if Melia had gone to such great lengths to dress up to receive Luoer, or if it was standard protocol to receive guests, but he was leaning more towards the first reason.

Just like he had previously stated, although Luoer had privately expressed that he was unworthy of Melia, Melia didn’t seem to think so. Clearly, she had feelings for Luoer; otherwise, she wouldn’t be willing to do all this for him.

Although the contact between the headquarters and Melia was essentially a mutual exploitation, it should be noted that Melia’s attitude towards Luoer was different from her attitude towards the others at the base. She seemed genuinely happy to have Luoer come to see her.

Seeing Melia’s arrival, Cheng Ziang picked up a cookie and threw it at Luoer, winking at him continuously when Luoer turned and looked at him. Luoer was stunned for a while before figuring out what Cheng Ziang meant, and he nodded hesitantly.

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Melia said coolly, but then she looked at Luoer and asked playfully, "Do I look good?"

"Good... you look good," Luoer hesitated for a moment, before nodding his head vigorously and said, "Very good, totally amazing."

Receiving Luoer’s compliment, a bright smile appeared again on Melia’s face. It was clear that she really appreciated Luoer’s compliment, so the heads up Cheng Ziang had given Luoer earlier was to remind him not to be distracted by people like Tangmo and to wholeheartedly flatter Melia.

"Can we talk business now?" Seeing the flirtation between the two, Tangmo frowned, reminding them unhappily.

She didn’t like Melia because her existence brought too much pressure to her. But given the current situation, she couldn’t vent her anger, so she could only bite the bullet and remind them.

"Oh, sorry." Hearing Tangmo’s warning, Luoer coughed and then showed an embarrassed smile.

"So you’re looking for me because there’s important business, right?" Melia was not concerned about Tangmo’s jealousy; she gracefully took a seat opposite them and asked with a poised manner.

"Uh," Luoer and Cheng Ziang looked at each other, then earnestly said to Melia, "We are facing a manpower shortage for our current task, so we were wondering if Princess Melia could lend us some assistance to accomplish this task?"

"Aren’t you supposed to be on a mission in the quarantine zone?" Melia asked as she looked at them.

Upon hearing her question, Luoer became hesitant. He turned his head and glanced at Cheng Ziang, and after receiving his approval, he coughed and said, "We are currently investigating a mission that will decide the success or failure of the headquarters, so we can’t afford any error. However, we have been facing manpower shortages, and we are desperately needing Princess Melia’s help."

"You have Ronisca’s airship fleet and Blaiqi’s mercenaries, why are you always facing manpower shortages?" Melia couldn’t help but ask.

"Uh," Luoer hesitated for a moment, then explained, "We mainly lack manpower in our direct troops. The top-secret missions of the headquarters in Otherworld should only be handled by the direct troops, or the Advance Team. If mercenaries could handle such missions, the headquarters wouldn’t have set up the Advance Team in the first place."

"I see!" Hearing his explanation, Melia nodded understandingly.

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