Seeing that his female friend had stopped hiding the contempt in her gaze, Lieutenant General Neali replied calmly, "Of course, this was Duke Bayres's idea."
Olivia Lowenthal continued, "I understand Duke Bayres's urgency. He represents the Privy Council's urgency, too. But this doesn't seem like the duke's usual style."
Lieutenant General Neali shrugged. "That's true, but His Grace is related to King Vellent, after all."
"You mean this clumsy trap was actually requested by His Majesty King Vellent?" Lowenthal's expression darkened.
She didn't seem inclined to hide her dislike of the king, either. Her own liege felt the same way, after all. Perhaps this would even make her loyalty seem more genuine.
The Imperial Guard general on the screen seemed to have only just realized that the woman he was speaking to belonged to King Su's faction. He hurriedly shook his head. "I never said that. This actually represents the wishes of the Wisdom Palace and the Celestial Academy."
He paused, then added, "And perhaps the Starwatch Pavilion's, too. That creature... well, perhaps it is a creature. It's the product of perfect genetic tuning. We don't know whether it was artificially engineered or arose naturally, but it represents the future of biological evolution, and it's extremely important to our own future."
Lowenthal let out a cold laugh, making no effort to hide her contempt.
"What's with that look? I may prefer to hang out with girls at the club—ah, no, play cards with them—but I have proper degrees in aeronautics and natural history. I buy every issue of the Wisdom Palace's academic journals, and I've even asked the embassy to collect the scientific magazines from the Alliance across the way."
Scientific magazines? Weren't those beginner's publications for children?
"Uh, I just wanted you to know that I have a solid