Ever since Mr. White directly interfered with the hero's father to rescue the boy he had already sentenced to death, the two of them had been going at it head to head at almost every opportunity they got.
Be it a project bid, an auction, or even a risky new venture, neither seemed to care of potential losses as they sought to deny any opportunity that they could to their opponent.
Their resources stretched, facilities overworked, meetings constantly scheduled and canceled. Anyone in the top echelons of the two corporations could count on one hand the number of days they had managed to sleep more than four hours in a day since this 'war' started.
Meanwhile, the media ended up opening an entirely new can of worms. Something that neither of the two 'giants' had expected at all. And those who saw it felt their visions turning dark, wondering how much more ferocious their leaders would be now, if that was even possible.
"Breaking News! The harassment of Emilia White for missing students has a shocking turn! Amos Black's abusive love triangle leads to tragedy?!"
"Miss Emilia White is spotted entering the Downtown Police Station! Black Tiger Corporation continues to abuse the law to harass underage girls?"
Emilia was still in Crystal's home when the girl's mom screamed. "Crystal! Your friend's on TV again!"
The middle-aged lady looked a little embarrassed when she realized that Emilia was also there with them, having never noticed the girl entering, but quickly got over it as the three of them focused once more on the news.
Emilia soon realized that it was just old footage, one from the night of the party when she went to bail out Dixie's friends.
Cynthia couldn't help but be worried. "What do you think they're planning?"
Emilia felt a little disturbed as well, but no matter how she thought about it, the hero's father had more to lose by bringing up such a topic at this time than anyone else. "I have absolutely no idea, if it's really the hero or his father's doing at all. At least Amos didn't seem to know about it either, right?"
Her partner could only shrug. "I guess that's true."
Meanwhile, Crystal couldn't help but squeeze Emilia's palm worriedly. "W-Why were you at the station, are you okay? Why didn't you tell me?"
Emilia suppressed her smile as she blinked at the heroine. "Will you help me out?"
The heroine nodded without a second thought. "Of course! What do you need? Just tell me!"
Emilia tapped her cheek with a smile. "Um, I think I'm not feeling so good, how about you give me a kiss here?"
Crystal's serious expression collapsed instantly as a furious blush lit up her face. "And I was so worried about you too. Can't you be serious?!"
Emilia chuckled. Unfortunately, she couldn't really do much more to tease the girl with the heroine's mother still being there. "Don't worry. I just went there to bail out some friends."
Not to mention Crystal, even her mother looked concerned almost immediately after hearing Emilia's words. "You shouldn't associate with these types, Emilia! Just look, because of them, you're also in this mess. In the future, you should keep your distance."
Crystal also nodded at her mother's words, though she didn't want to say anything when considering she wasn't really familiar with the situation herself. After all, just being called at the station didn't mean anything. It could even be for a witness testimony, who knew?
Regardless, she would rather not have Emilia associate with anyone who tended to get on the wrong side of the law.
Emilia didn't feel like explaining things to the heroine's mother and convincing her otherwise when there was no point, so she just nodded obediently. "Don't worry, aunty. I'll be careful."
Both Crystal and her mother let out a sigh of relief. At this time, however, their expressions couldn't help but turn weird as the news report shifted from the footage to a live feed, with the camera shakily chasing after a young lady officer.
"I knew this was going to happen! I knew it!"
"Officer Justine! We heard that you—"
Even as she jumped past another table, the girl didn't forget to scream back. "Who?! You got the wrong person! Look for someone else!"
The cameraman finally got stopped by another couple of officers as they could only watch the young lady run away.
All of this stemmed from an officer unknowingly responding "Ah, wasn't Justine the one handling that?" when the reporters questioned him about the case involving Emilia White.
Unfortunately, Justine's almost comedic escape only made the news far more sensational than it should have been.
==========
Meanwhile, the three girls who had been responsible for the entire thing that day were currently receiving a very severe scolding from an enraged Dixie.
For Emma, Jenna, and Lara, it was their greatest misfortune to have arrived just in time for the news report to air, and it was already too late to escape.
Their ears were already red and swollen just from listening to Dixie's complaints. The words 'Princess', 'Image' and 'Unforgiveable' were already deeply rooted in their head.
"You have to apologize to her today, and clarify this matter!"
Jenna nodded hurriedly, as long as Dixie stopped nagging, she was almost ready to do anything at this point. "O-Of course, Dixie, we'll do it right away!"
Before they could really do anything, however, Dixie received Emilia's call to not be hasty and wait for her instructions, perhaps already knowing how sensitive her knight was to such matters.
"I understand, princess."
Unfortunately, Emilia failed to realize a very important thing when she made the call.
With Dixie's fully focused sharp ears, how could she fail to notice that the ambient noise from Emilia's side wasn't quite what her quiet and cozy room should be like?
Something definitely wasn't right! Dixie had clearly dropped her princess off at the White family's mansion, and she had happily waved her goodbye with a smile, right? So what was going on?!
"Princess… where are you right now?"