Under The Veil of Night

"Sheila Nali, what do you want to say?" the elder frowned. Towards this show off woman, he didn’t have too well of an opinion.

Sheila smiled and stepped forwards. Her perfectly sculpted body could be seen as she wore minimal clothes, making several male youngsters looked towards her with lustful eyes.

"As a young person, Laura didn’t have many experiences in the world about how things work. Shouldn’t someone who has more experience and capabilities be the one to inherit the family?"

Laura looked towards Sheila calmly. She knew that this woman was a real seductress from their previous meeting before. Besides, Kanae already warned her a lot of times to be careful around Sheila. This woman would use her words to goad her doing something that she didn’t mean to.

She wanted Laura to speak up, but that girl instead stayed silent. Because of that, Sheila chose to continue speaking. "I have a better candidate for the position."

"Who is it?"

Sheila spread her arms. "Me."

The people suddenly spoke out with each other as the reaction of Sheila’s outrageous claim. Even though Sheila was indeed beautiful, she was not that capable in terms of business. She was just lucky that so far, her scheme succeeded.

The elder frowned. "What makes you so sure about that, Sheila Nali?"

Sheila smirked. "Shall we have a test?"

"What test?"

"Test the people about who will support me should I be picked as the future successor," Sheila answered confidently. It was apparent that she was already prepared for this event from a long time ago.

Laura looked towards Sheila with a frown. Could it be that this woman was the one behind Sakura’s death? She seemed to be so prepared to be the next future successor of the Nali Family while the thought was never appeared in hers. For her, the one who should inherit was Sakura, so she didn’t care much.

"How do you want to conduct the test?" the other elder asked.

"It’s easy," Sheila laughed. "Let’s just do it the normal way, which is by voting the sound of people here."

"You’re awfully confident, Miss Sheila," the first elder remarked.

"I am."

The elder stayed silent for a moment before nodding his head. "Let’s do that. Those who agree about Sheila being the future successor, please raise your hand."

Almost immediately, numerous people lifted their hand. They were all representative of their family when coming here, yet the number of people who raised their hand was numerous. If one counted, it should be around 30% of the entire people in this room.

See that? Sheila was extremely proud internally.

’I’m the most perfect successor!’

She has been spending a lot of money lately to buy their opinion in the gathering because she wanted to be the next successor, replacing Sakura. Her plan has started ever since she decided to marry a member of the Nali Family as she slowly built her connection and power.

Months passed and her hard work was not in vain. She had managed to gather a lot of people who agreed with her. With money and all, it was extremely easy to push these people to her side.

Many people whom she picked as targets were those who didn’t have good connection or economic. Because they were having trouble, the help from Sheila made them able to move on faster. This caused them to feel grateful and decided to help during the gathering.

Originally, Sheila planned to do this to go against Sakura in the future. Who would have thought that Sakura would die so quickly, making her sped up her plan? This caused her to be only able to gather around 30% of the entire branches families in the Nali Family.

’It didn’t really matter.’

Laura barely appeared in the important event of the Nali Family because of Frank intervention. This middle-aged man was hell bent on making Laura unable to make connection with the others in the Nali Family. His action slowly drove Laura and Kanae further away from the matter of the family and everything related to them.

Because of that, Sheila was confident that she would win.

Laura looked towards the farce in front of her as she slowly stood up. Seeing the mocking look from Sheila, she sneered. "Towards the people who stand up, I truly want to thank you all for opening my eyes about how money works. The bloodline of the Nali Family must be very thin that we have to rely on outsider to be the future successor of the family. I’m very thankful that you all allow me to see the truth of the matter. That’s all I have to say."

Sheila wanted to mock Laura when she saw that several people started to put their hand down. What happen? She was shocked when she saw that more than half of the people who previously raised their hand suddenly turned it down again.

She turned her head towards Laura with expression of hate and disbelief. What kind of witchcraft did this woman use?

How could a few sentences change their decision so quickly?

Laura stayed calm as she sat down on her chair. Confused? She was quite happy internally to see Sheila’s bewildered face. As an outsider of the family, Sheila hasn’t been here for a long time, so she didn’t know that the Nali Family had a long history.

In the past, there was an event where the Nali Family was almost destroyed because of an outsider. This outsider was given important place in the family, but this man unable to use it well. In the end, he nearly caused the entire destruction of the family, wiping off most of the people who held the bloodline of Nali Family.

This was a story that children of the Nali Family heard from their youth. It was short but very meaningful, which embedded deeply in their heart. Between someone from the inner member and an outsider, they have to pick the inner member, especially when they recalled this story.

Right now, Laura was thankful that her sister forced her to study the history of Nali Family a few times in the past. Thanks to that, she was able to act appropriately for this event.

The elders were looking towards Laura with approval. This little girl was not simple and knew how to use her brain. They liked this girl very much because of what she said.

However, now they couldn’t say anything.

"Let’s postpone the hearing," the first elder suddenly said. "It seems that the atmosphere is quite unfavorable."

The people who still raised their hand looked towards each other with confusion. Most of them belonged to the young generation. Inside their heart, they vowed that they would ask their parents about the meaning of the sentence and the reaction.

Laura stood up. "This one bids my farewell first. Thank you for your time, elders."

Walking out of the room calmly, she pictured the perfect leader in front of many people inside. Despite her young age, she was calm and able to turn the situation with short sentences.

Sheila was looking towards Laura’s back with hatred. She would surely take the position! No one should stand on her way.