Chapter 374: Everyone’s goals
After hearing Selera’s words, everyone fell silent for a moment. Andreas looked the most confused of all, not knowing how he should react.
He was well aware of his sister’s personality, but for her to openly try to steal Daniel right in front of him? That was a completely new level of shamelessness. He hadn’t even thought it possible for a person to be this brazen.
Even so, he didn’t say anything or interfere. The question had been asked of Daniel, and only he could give an answer.
"Thank you very much for your offer, but I’ll have to refuse," Daniel said with a smile.
Selera didn’t respond immediately. Instead, she hesitated, then gave Daniel a slow look from head to toe, as if she was scanning him.
Andreas let out a sigh. He knew his sister wouldn’t back down that easily; she would definitely throw out another suggestion right now.
"Well, if that’s how it is, there’s nothing I can do. But I’ll definitely try again another time, when I have a better offer to give you." She sighed and seemed to accept defeat.
She turned around, said her goodbyes, and left, as if she no longer had the patience to talk with them.
"That’s not like her at all," Andreas frowned as he watched her leave. He knew his sister. While he had been surprised by her shamelessness, he also knew that if she wanted something, she always found a way to obtain it.
But now she had given up this easily? He felt like a scheme was in motion.
"She wants to see how I perform in the Stairway," Daniel suddenly said.
"Huh?"
"You heard me. She’s waiting to see how I perform in the Stairway. If I do really well, she’ll definitely come after me again and try to recruit me, maybe even use me to restore her reputation."
"I see. That explains why I was confused about why she suddenly gave up on recruiting you," Andreas laughed.
"Their reputations have taken a serious hit. In the past, wherever they went, crowds would gather around them and flatter them constantly," Ilaris said mockingly.
Andreas nodded. He hadn’t noticed it at first, but now that he paid attention, he realized she was right.
No one was coming close to them anymore to flatter them. People only greeted them briefly, or avoided them altogether.
"No one comes to flatter you either?" Daniel looked around and saw that no one was approaching them at all.
"Well, they used to. But once I got angry and told them if anyone approached me again, I’d kill them," Andreas admitted with a bit of embarrassment.
Daniel let out a sigh. His opinion of Andreas changed once more — this guy was truly brainless.
At the same time, a short distance away, a group of people was staring at them with cold eyes and sinister plans.
"Young Lord, why did you let him go? Wouldn’t it have been better to teach him a lesson right there?" Lorak asked Tormyn.
"Are you stupid? You want me to make things difficult for a subordinate in front of all these people? Do you want me to destroy what little reputation I have left?" Tormyn shouted harshly and slapped Lorak hard across the face.
"I-I apologize, Young Lord! I was wrong!" Lorak immediately fell to his knees and begged for forgiveness.
Tormyn ignored him and sighed. Ever since he had been defeated by those assassins who came to beat him down, his reputation had been badly damaged.
Even the Elders who had supported him became disappointed and withdrew much of their backing. Things had gotten so bad that even his foreign supporters wanted to abandon him.
He had only managed to convince them to give him one more chance after much begging and difficulty. Otherwise, by now he would have been completely ruined.
"When we enter the Stairway, go after that boy and make sure he doesn’t even reach the tenth step. If you can kill him, good. If not, just cripple him," Tormyn ordered his subordinates with a cold look.
Fighting on the Stairway wasn’t forbidden; it was completely allowed. But since it was time-consuming and cost a lot of energy, most people didn’t waste their effort on such things.
That was why Tormyn himself wouldn’t go after Daniel. Instead, he planned to send his subordinates. Aside from getting revenge, he also needed to rebuild his reputation.
As long as he could achieve a much better result in the Stairway than Andreas and Selera, he would surely attract attention again.
"Understood, Young Lord," his subordinates nodded respectfully.
Tormyn’s gaze then shifted toward Andreas, and a dark light flashed in his eyes. He had his own plans to deal with his cheap brother at the right time.
Meanwhile, on the other side, another conversation was taking place.
"Young Lady, do you really want to recruit him?" Olivia asked Selera hesitantly.
"What? You don’t want me to? Do you dislike him?" Selera asked impatiently.
This was the same girl who had spent the entire night before praising that boy nonstop, and now she was questioning why Selera wanted to recruit him?
"No... it’s just that I feel like recruiting him is impossible. I mean, it’s impossible for him to agree to be anyone’s subordinate," Olivia said shyly.
She didn’t have a problem being on the same side as Daniel. In fact, having someone that strong as a teammate was actually a good thing.
"Oh? Then how do you explain him agreeing to be Andreas’s subordinate?" Selera asked curiously.
"I don’t think their relationship is one of master and subordinate. It’s more like friendship and mutual benefit," Olivia replied.
Selera didn’t answer right away and instead fell into thought. In truth, she had also noticed the same thing. Even though she had only met him once, she could already see a very unique pride in his eyes.
With that kind of pride, it was impossible for him to ever accept being someone’s subordinate. Which meant Andreas must have offered him something in return and turned him into an ally instead.
That actually made things easier for her. For now, she just wanted to wait and see how this boy performed in the Stairway. If he proved to be exceptional, she would do whatever it took to turn him into her ally.
If not... then she would simply give up. She needed to rebuild her reputation, not waste time here and there.
Still, her intuition told her that this handsome boy wouldn’t disappoint her.
Olivia sighed when she saw that the idiot in front of her wasn’t answering and turned away. Her gaze fell upon the Stairway.
One of the reasons she had agreed to work under this woman for a time was precisely because of the Stairway. With it, she should be able to grow much stronger. At that time, maybe she could defeat Daniel.
That’s right — she had chosen Daniel as her goal, the target she wanted to reach and even surpass.
At that very moment, a figure suddenly appeared high above all of them. Naturally, it was none other than one of the Elders of the Lionheart family.
"It seems everyone who wishes to challenge the Stairway has gathered here... shall we begin?"