That night, Elara, Prince Yu, and Prince Leland's Mr. Rong disguised themselves as ordinary merchants and entered the territory of Gerbera Kingdom.
The imperial city of Gerbera Kingdom was very close, located in its westernmost region, only one district away from Bluestar City in Gladiolus Kingdom, which was surrounded by several other nations.
According to private intelligence from Prince Leland, the secret meeting among the three countries was happening inside the imperial city of Gerbera Kingdom, so Elara and the others headed straight there.
Gerbera Kingdom, a second-tier top-ranking matriarchal nation, was not only a dominant power in the Central Continent filled with various countries, it was also the most prosperous and powerful matriarchal nation Elara had visited so far.
In Gerbera Kingdom, the customs of female dominance and male inferiority were deeper and stricter than elsewhere.
Men were strictly forbidden from going out alone without their wife-lord's permission.
Even if a favored husband had his wife-lord with him, he still had to wear a veil and curtain, follow her closely, maintain proper distance from others, and avoid physical contact.
If he wanted to buy anything, he needed the wife-lord's approval first and had to let the servant make the purchase. If a man tried to buy something by himself, merchants would refuse to sell and might even insult him.
These rules did not just apply to local men born in Gerbera Kingdom, they applied to every man within its borders.
That meant no matter which country a man came from, whether patriarchal or matriarchal, once he entered Gerbera Kingdom, all dealings and transactions had to be handled by women. The Gerbera Kingdom only recognized the authority and status of women.
Even among other matriarchal nations, this rule stood out as extremely strict.
But Gerbera Kingdom was simply too powerful to resist.
As a top-tier second-class power, it ranked just below the three first-tier nations in the Central Continent, and it had deep and complex ties to Freesia Kingdom, a first-tier matriarchal superpower.
With strong national power and even stronger backing, no matter how other nations complained or objected, if they wanted to enter Gerbera Kingdom, they had no choice but to follow the rules.
It was said that Freesia Kingdom's rules were even more extreme and absurd than Gerbera's. Men from neighboring patriarchal nations who wanted to trade in the prosperous Gerbera Kingdom had to switch roles with their wives beforehand and explain how things would work. Once there, they stepped aside and let their wives take over all dealings.
Because of these rules, once Elara entered Gerbera Kingdom, Prince Yu and Prince Leland naturally became her "husbands."
Without her acting as their "wife-lord," the two would not have been allowed into the city. Even if they managed to enter, they could not stay at an inn or book a room.
Fortunately, Gareth and Giles stayed behind in Bluestar City to guard the area and did not come along. Otherwise, Elara would have truly become a "wife-lord" with three husbands and four attendants.
After some effort, Elara brought the two, now wearing veils and curtains, into the imperial city of Gerbera and booked a room.
The room was not chosen at random. It was selected based on secret intel from Prince Leland, located near the most likely meeting location, the Nan Shui Flower Tower.
The intel proved to be highly accurate.
That same night, the entire area above the third floor of the Nan Shui Flower Tower, not far from their inn, was completely booked by mysterious figures.
Elara took Prince Yu and Prince Leland to the second floor of the tower to drink and watch performances. She summoned several Puppet Soldiers to go scout the third floor.
But as soon as the Puppet Soldiers reached the stairs to the third floor, Elara immediately sensed a strange and intense danger through their feedback.
But just as the Puppet Soldiers reached the third floor entrance, Elara sharply sensed an extremely strange and dangerous feeling from the feedback they gave her.
It wasn't the kind of creepy sensation that came from those weird soldier-insect eggs she had encountered recently, but rather a vague and hard-to-describe feeling she had once sensed from Sindri's bizarre body.
The feeling from the third floor entrance was faint, but the danger it held was incredibly strong.
It was obvious that whoever occupied the floors above the third was also skilled in the ways of Gu insects. The eggs inside the Puppet Soldiers sensed a threat, which was why they kept sending her this kind of warning-like feedback.
This was also the first time Elara had felt such a strong threat through her connection with the Gu insects after gaining control over the puppets.
Thinking of that barely noticeable but familiar sensation, then thinking of Sindri's strange body, Elara's mind automatically recalled the Lianhuang Sect she had encountered in Plumera City.
Sindri used to be part of the Lianhuang Sect, and considering how odd and disturbing his body and internal Gu insects were, it was clear those were all the result of the sect's work.
"If they could turn Sindri into that," Elara thought, "then the Lianhuang Sect must be extremely skilled in Gu poison techniques."
"So were the people above the third floor part of the Lianhuang Sect too?"
"Were they the ones behind this sudden move against Gladiolus Kingdom?"
"But what was the reason? Was there something hidden in Gladiolus that the Lianhuang Sect desired?"
Coming to Gladiolus unexpectedly brought news of the Lianhuang Sect. Thinking about how the sect had once sent Sindri to infiltrate Plumera Kingdom for some unknown purpose, Elara became even more serious about this matter.
But with Gu poison experts guarding the third floor, the Puppet Soldiers couldn't get through. Then how could they gather information without alerting the enemy?
Just as Elara and the others were frowning and thinking about how to go upstairs, a sudden whip crack came from a private room near the second floor stairs.
"Zhu Meiying! You coward who only dares to gossip behind people's backs! You filthy rat! Come out here now!"
A slightly familiar but completely different male voice, filled with fury and harshness, rang out clearly from the room.
The next moment, a man dressed flamboyantly and seductively, wearing the flower mark unique to men of the Carnation Kingdom on his forehead, dripping in gold and silver, basically as gaudy as a modern Thai drag queen in Elara's eyes, was kicked out of the room by a young man wearing luxurious robes, with the same kind of flower mark on his forehead.
The young man held a whip in his hand, his refined and beautiful face glaring fiercely at the man he had kicked to the ground.
"You dare say I, His Highness, am cruel and wild? That I don't have the grace a man should have, huh? Today I'll show you what real wild and cruel looks like!"
The handsome youth raised the whip, ready to strike the man.
Everyone on the second floor who heard the commotion turned to look at them.
Naturally Elara looked too, and the moment she saw the youth's face, her hand holding the teacup froze. She instinctively glanced at Prince Yu, who was wearing a veiled mask.
Under the veil, Prince Yu also turned his surprised gaze toward her.
The moment their eyes met, both of them clearly understood the meaning in each other's eyes.
"That youth," Elara thought, "whether it was the voice or the appearance, he looked too much like Leif."
If it weren't for the fact that Leif's personality was always gentle, calm and distant, and that he would never whip someone in public like that, Elara would've thought he had suddenly shown up here.