Chapter 342: Accusations
"No," Harper refused instantly, leaning in even closer until her face was mere inches from his.
She offered him a seductive and incredibly demanding smile. "Are you up for it right now?"
"Up for what?!" Silas demanded, he was confused.
"A date!" Harper declared shamelessly, practically vibrating with excitement. "I want you to take me on a date right now, Silas!"
Before Silas could ruthlessly reject her sudden aggressive romantic ambush, the sound of slow hesitant footsteps echoed from the dining room archway.
"Big Sister...?"
A small incredibly shaky voice cut through the tense atmosphere of the hallway.
Harper completely paused.
Her seductive smile instantly froze on her face and her glowing purple eyes widened in panic as she recognized the voice.
Harper slowly turned her head over her shoulder, looking toward the dining room.
Standing in the archway, holding her leather academy notebook against her chest, was Penelope.
The haughty violet-eyed noble girl was staring directly at the incredibly compromising position on the floor.
She saw her ruthless corporate-mogul older sister actively straddling the bare muscular hips of her best friend’s brother.
Penelope’s face was completely flushed.
She blushed heavily at her sister’s embarrassing attitude, biting her lower lip in shock.
A violently bright red hue instantly shot straight up Harper’s neck, completely taking over her entire face.
The ruthless Lord of Valoria City looked absolutely terrified.
Penelope adjusted her grip on her notebook, staring down at her older sister with a critical deadpan expression.
"S-So..." Penelope stuttered out. "...this is the highly important ’business meeting’ you told me you were going to after school, huh?"
Harper slowly pushed herself off the polished hardwood floor of the entryway.
She rested her manicured hands flat against Silas’s broad bare chest for just a second longer than was strictly necessary, feeling the steady powerful rhythm of his heartbeat thudding beneath her palms.
The thudding of his Core radiated a comforting physical heat that made her fingertips tingle with residual static.
"I was just made aware of Silas’s return to Earth not too long ago," Harper admitted with her voice uncharacteristically soft and slightly breathless.
She looked down at Silas as he began to push himself up from the ground.
As the Lord shifted his weight, the deep chiseled ridges of his abdominal muscles flexed beautifully under the dim hallway lighting.
For some strange and intensely overwhelming reason, Harper felt a sudden burning urge to lean forward and press her lips directly against his stomach.
’Hehehe~’
She quickly shook her head, forcing the inappropriate degenerate thought to the back of her mind before her face could flush any redder.
"You left your network location tracker on," Harper pointed out, brushing a stray lock of vibrant purple hair behind her ear to regain her corporate composure. "I saw the ping register on my private datapad and came over here immediately."
"Yes, I did," Silas replied, finally getting to his feet and brushing invisible dust off his dark trousers.
He didn’t bother elaborating on the fact that he had actually turned the digital tracker on for Evelyn, not her.
Silas simply rolled his stiff shoulders with the joints popping loudly in the quiet hallway, and gestured back toward the warm inviting light spilling from the dining room archway.
"I am waiting on someone to arrive for a business meeting," Silas informed her casually as he began walking back down the corridor. "Come on in. Martha made enough food to feed an entire Vanguard garrison, and I doubt I can finish it all myself."
Harper tilted her head, her curiosity instantly piqued.
She wondered who on earth Silas was expecting this late in the afternoon, especially since he had just returned from the Sovereign Realm, who was so important?
She quickly smoothed down the wrinkles in her tailored black corporate suit and hurried after him, following his towering frame toward the kitchen.
As they walked past the kitchen boundary, Martha was standing near the doorway, gently closing the heavy front door that Harper had left wide open in her frantic rush.
The dedicated housekeeper paused, her experienced eyes scanning the beautiful purple-haired woman trailing closely behind her Master.
’Wait a minute...’ Martha thought, her eyes widening in sudden realization. ’Isn’t that Penelope’s big sister?’
Martha actively kept up with the Valoria City corporate news networks.
It was impossible not to know who Harper Valeriana Whitmore was at this current point in time.
The young woman was pretty much the brand-new, undisputed owner of several massive Lord Association Buildings located directly in the commercial district.
She had inherited a sprawling unfathomable financial empire overnight after her father’s tragic demise, meaning the girl currently staring longingly at her Master’s back was seriously rich.
’Is this Master Silas’s actual girlfriend?’ Martha pondered internally, tapping her chin thoughtfully with a crisp white kitchen towel.
Given how fiercely clingy the woman had been in the hallway, literally throwing herself onto the floor without a single second of hesitation for her expensive suit, it certainly looked like a committed romantic relationship.
Martha nodded to herself in profound, undeniable approval.
This wasn’t bad taste at all... In fact, Harper was a very strong, beautiful woman with a top-tier core and a booming real estate portfolio.
’It is clear that they would have wonderfully strong children,’ Martha concluded, her instincts running completely wild with future generational planning.
She was already mentally measuring the guest room for a nursery.
Silas walked into the dining room and immediately sat back down at the head of the heavy oak table.
Without missing a single beat, he picked up his fork and knife, digging right back into the massive sizzling basilisk steak Martha had prepared.
He ate with the focused efficiency of a starved beast, consuming the dense magical meat to replenish his drained reserves.
Harper walked into the room right behind him.
The three young girls sitting around the holographic projector instantly looked up from their digital notes, their eyes wide with genuine surprise.
Penelope nearly dropped her expensive fountain pen.
She stared at her older sister in disbelief, still reeling from the deeply compromising scene she had just witnessed out in the hallway.
Harper completely ignored her younger sister’s intensely judgmental stare and gracefully took an empty wooden chair next to Silas.
She crossed her long legs, resting her elbow on the table as she took a look at the massive, glowing blue hologram hovering over their leather notebooks.
"Territory Logistics?" Harper read the title of the projection with a confident knowing smile touching her lips. "If you girls have any specific questions about supply chains, tax brackets, or resource management, you should just ask me. I literally run four separate guild hubs."
Penelope immediately puffed out her cheeks, crossing her arms over her chest with a fierce pout.
She didn’t want her older sister crashing her private study session and showing off her wealth in front of her academy friends.
"We are doing just fine on our own, Harper," Penelope grumbled defensively, her violet eyes narrowing into a sharp glare.
Harper laughed softly, reaching across the table and gently pinching Penelope’s pouting cheek.
"You are so incredibly cute when you try to act tough, Pen."
Harper then turned her vibrant purple eyes toward Lia and Kaede, offering them a bright genuine smile that lacked any of her usual cutthroat CEO edge.
"Thank you both for being such good friends with her," Harper said sincerely. "Penelope can be quite a strange stubborn girl sometimes, so I appreciate you dealing with her eccentricities."
Penelope’s face instantly flushed a brilliant burning shade of crimson.
She swatted her sister’s hand away, completely mortified by the sudden display of familial affection in front of her peers.
"Move away, you are embarrassing me!" Penelope hissed quietly, shrinking down into her wooden chair and trying to hide behind her textbook.
Harper just smiled wider, affectionately patting her younger sister on the top of the head.
Usually, the relationship between the two Whitmore sisters was not that good.
They had been raised in a toxic cutthroat environment by a ruthless father who constantly pitted them against each other for his approval.
But after Harper inherited the empire and secured their ultimate freedom, something fundamental changed.
Even though she was currently drowning in endless corporate paperwork and didn’t have much free time, Harper made a genuine concerted attempt to be a better big sister.
Penelope would rather swallow a live grenade than ever admit it to Harper’s face, but deep down, the younger girl actually really liked the attention.
Harper sat back in her chair and finally reached for the lapels of the dark, heavy garment draped over her shoulders.
She smoothly slipped her arms out of the sleeves, pulling off the trench coat she had worn to the apartment to shield against the chill.
Harper leaned over the table, handing the heavy fabric directly over to Silas.
"Here," Harper said, winking playfully at the Lord as she passed it over. "I brought it back in one piece. And just so you know, it smells completely like me now."
Silas paused his aggressive eating.
He put his fork down and took the heavy trench coat from her hands as he looked at the flawless runic stitching, the reinforced defensive seams, and the pristine dark leather, letting out a soft tired sigh.
"Thank you, Harper," Silas told her honestly. "I genuinely wasn’t sure you were ever going to return this. People tend to keep gear when one lends it out."
Harper gasped, placing a hand over her chest in feigned dramatic offense.
"What kind of thief do you take me for?" Harper teased, her purple eyes sparkling with pure mischief. "Of course I will return it... A Whitmore always pays her debts, especially to the man who saved her life."
’Whitmore, huh? Did she get a surname or what...?’
Well Silas hadn’t known much about her originally so he couldn’t be sure.
Kaede, who had been watching the entire exchange with the focused, unblinking intensity of a hawk, suddenly leaned forward.
The ten-year-old girl rested her chin on her hands, her bright purple eyes completely filled with burning curiosity.
She desperately wanted the gossip.
"So..." Kaede dragged out the word, looking back and forth between the billionaire CEO and the shirtless man sitting at the head of the table. "Are you perhaps very, very close with Lia’s big brother?"
A soft incredibly dreamy smile appeared on Harper’s beautiful face.
She leaned back in her chair, staring at Silas with an expression of pure affection that made the Lord’s spine tingle with incoming dread.
"Close doesn’t even begin to cover it," Harper answered in a sultry dramatic whisper, making sure all the girls could hear her perfectly. "You see, girls... he has seen me naked."
"Gah!"
Silas violently choked on a piece of basilisk steak.
He slammed his fist against his chest, grabbing his glass of water and chugging it desperately to clear his airway.
"That was completely unintentional!" Silas defended himself loudly, his face flushing with embarrassment. "I was just trying to keep you alive!"
Harper simply shrugged her shoulders with an undeniably bright blush spreading across her own cheeks despite her bold confident words.
"I don’t mind," Harper admitted softly, tracing the smooth edge of the wooden table with her index finger. "But he did see everything, and he didn’t even try to take responsibility for it afterward. The fact that it already happened is proof enough of our deep bond..."
The dining room instantly erupted into chaos.
"I need more sauce! Tell me everything!" Kaede demanded excitedly, practically vibrating in her chair as she demanded the full romantic backstory of the dungeon dive.
"You are a massive pervert, Big Brother!" Lia yelled accusingly, pointing her expensive fountain pen at Silas with a look of disgust. "I can’t believe you did that!"
Penelope simply groaned, burying her flushing face entirely in her hands as she prayed for the wooden floorboards to open up and swallow her whole.
Her older sister was undeniably shameless.
Over by the kitchen archway, Martha was watching the scene unfold with wide panicked eyes.
The housekeeper was actively giving Silas complex, frantic hand signals from across the room, demanding an explanation.
’Ah! Master Silas saw the billionaire CEO naked in a dungeon?!’ Martha thought with her mind spinning wildly with the dramatic implications. ’And he doesn’t want to take responsibility for compromising a maiden’s honor? Did I perhaps make a wrong choice in believing my Master was a pure chivalrous gentleman?’