As for the woman on the television, Ms. Leia was undeniably an extremely elegant beauty. It was just that she had two very different sides to her, one in public and one in private. Mr. Qi couldn't help giving a wry smile as he rubbed his neck. He closed his electronic notebook, leaned back against the sofa, picked up his coffee, and prepared to take a break.
Mr. Qi was the recently retired Commonwealth ambassador to the Empire, and one of the delegates the Earth government had temporarily invited to the conference. Of course, he knew the woman was named Leia Moen. She was fifty years old, the Alliance's chief representative to the Galactic Civilization Council, and a member of the Moen family, one of the Alliance's famed Seventeen Families.
She was also the very person who had dug a huge pit for the Empire—and, as a side effect, the Commonwealth—at the emergency meeting.
Naturally, the Alliance was a beacon of republican democracy throughout the galaxy. It had no powerful families ruling over everyone, of course. Please, don't make any baseless associations.
The Moen family had indeed produced its share of famous figures and senior officials. But the family's roots reached back to the Alliance's homeworld era; producing a few prominent people was only a matter of probability.
Though the woman was already fifty, she had taken excellent care of herself and was still a dazzling beauty. Add in her graceful manner and broad knowledge, and it was no surprise that she had a strong media image. Of course, she was also exceptionally skilled at cultivating that image—and devoted to doing so.
For instance, even though the second emergency meeting was scheduled for the very next day, she still had time to appear on a political talk show. Facing the