The backdrop can also be propped up.

Maria Elisa and Ancadis watched quietly as Hewlett-Packard delivered a masterful performance of crying.

After a while, Hewlett-Packard felt he had cried enough, so he put away his handkerchief and then let Aralia, who was behind him, come out and say, "Everyone says that Aralia is having an episode and is in heat, and almost accidentally hurt Miss Ottoray, but actually it was all my fault."

As Hewlett-Packard spoke, he picked up his handkerchief again and continued wiping away his tears: "If I had known earlier that this child wanted to be a girl, I would never have let her suppress her feelings for so long."

"..." Ankadis still didn't give Alaria a pleasant look.

"..." Maria Elisa offered a polite, fake smile to ease the awkwardness.

Aralia, no, now it should be Ellaria, extended her left hand, her eyes still fixed on Maria Elisa, as if hoping to shake hands with her.

Out of courtesy, Maria Elisa extended her hand without hesitation to shake hands with Ellaria.

After the two let go of each other's hands, Hewlett-Packard chuckled and revealed his true purpose: "I see that Maria Elisa, Miss Ottoray, is not young anymore. I happen to have many talented young men among my children. I wonder if Miss Ottoray has the time to introduce them to you?"

Although Maria Elisa was smiling and not looking at Ancadis's face, she could already imagine what Ancadis's expression was. She then politely declined Hewlett-Packard's offer, saying that she was a non-marriage advocate and hoped that Mr. Alark would respect her wishes.

Unexpectedly, after listening to Maria Alyssa's words, Hewlett-Packard, as if he had expected it, calmly added, "Alaria wants to apologize to Miss Autolai for what happened before. I'm also glad that Alaria is finally able to face her own heart because of this. Miss Autolai also deserves credit for this. I wonder if Miss Autolai would be willing to put aside the misunderstanding and become friends with Alaria? If Miss Autolai is willing, then I would naturally be extremely grateful."

“And agreeing would also be an opportunity for Miss Autolai,” Whip Alark said with a grin. “After all, I’ve heard that Miss Autolai has a few friends at school, but not many people in our circle know them. Ellaria can help Miss Autolai build connections. After all, Miss Autolai is young and may not be familiar with our rules.”

"You old hag, you think I don't fit in with their group? Who wants to be in a relationship with you guys?" Maria Elisa smiled on the outside, but inwardly rolled her eyes.

“Honestly, I didn’t take that matter to heart.” Maria Alyssa had just glanced at Ancadis’s face; the smile on his lips was almost bursting out. Maria Alyssa wondered if she could smash her glass over the old man’s head if Hepburn Alarc said another word. “I’m glad I could help Miss Eralia find what she’s looking for. But I’ll be leaving soon and won’t be able to see Miss Eralia often. If you really want to thank me, then could you please hand over Anta Star to my brother?”

Anta is an industrial planet that Ankadis and Hewlett-Packard are currently vying for control of, as it has discovered a new substance. Whoever manages to reach Anta will gain control over the production of this new substance.

Sure enough, when Hewlett-Packard heard Maria Alyssa's request, the smile on his face froze.

"Liasa, go play over there." Ankadis knew Maria Elisa's purpose in saying this, so he went along with her and shooed her aside, giving her a smile that seemed like an apology but was actually smug: "I'm sorry, Mr. Alarc, Liasa doesn't pay attention to business matters, so she doesn't know much about this. She's just a child, so I apologize for offending you."

“It’s alright, it’s alright, the child is just a child.” Hewlett-Packard almost ground his dentures to powder.

"I'm glad you understand," Ankadis said with a smile.

The two of them tacitly skipped over the topic of Anta Star and started talking about other things.

Maria Elisa didn't chat with anyone else; instead, she picked up a small blue cake from the table and started eating it.

Seeing that Maria and Elisa weren't busy with anything anymore, Lu Renkui finally asked the question he'd been wanting to ask: "So, Aralia has become a female Alpha now?! Is that what you mean? What are they up to?"

“Hmm, not necessarily. It could also be a female Omega—if he still wants to get close to Pollalid, that would be the best gender, but not by nature.” Maria Elisa licked the cream off her spoon and said to Lu Renkui and the system WQBYRZM in her consciousness space.

“Although I feel it’s more likely to be a show, Alaria might actually use this identity to her advantage,” the system WQBYRZM said, expressing her speculation.

"So he agreed to be a mascot to decorate the storefront?" Lu Renkui asked.

“Well, based on what I know about them, Hewlett-Packard might use this to get Aralia into the army, and she might even become a high-ranking officer.” Maria Elisa was once again thankful that she hadn’t chosen to join the army but instead chose to inherit the family business—otherwise, she would definitely have been bullied to death by Aralia.

At that moment, the quantum computer in Maria Elisa's hand vibrated.

Maria Elisa opened her personal terminal and found that it was a long message from Pollard.

Pollalid expressed his gratitude to Maria Elisa for helping him and paying for his transportation and other expenses. He said he had arrived home safely. Below that long message was a picture showing Pollalid's temporary lodging; it was dilapidated but still habitable.

Maria Elisa replied with an OK and instructed Pollalid to lock the doors and windows that night to prevent anyone from coming in.

On the other end of the quantum computer, Pollard saw Maria Elisa's message, which was replied to almost instantly, and jumped out of bed excitedly. He had prepared himself for Maria Elisa to not reply to his message or to reply very late, but he did not expect Maria Elisa to reply so quickly.

She still cares about me. Pollalid thought happily.

The personal terminal vibrated again. Pollard glanced at it and received another message from Alaria—or rather, Alaria, since Alaria was now a woman.

Pollalid's smile vanished instantly, and his face fell.

Pollalid opened the message Alaria had sent him, which essentially said that he was now a girl, and Maria Elisa didn't seem to have much of a reaction to what "she" had done before. She hoped that Pollalid could give "her" another chance and that the two could reconcile.

Pollalid turned off his personal terminal and pretended he hadn't seen it.

The original Alaria, now Eralia, stared intently at the chat window between herself and Polalid on her personal terminal screen. No message had arrived for a long time. Eralia began to feel disappointed, angry, and confused.

Ellaria couldn't understand why Pollard, who used to joke around and blush easily, would become unwilling to see her or reply to her messages because of Maria and Elisa.

So Ellaria looked at Maria Elisa with eyes that seemed to pierce her like blades.

“I always feel like someone is watching us,” Lu Renkui said, adding that she felt a chill down her spine.

If Lu Renkui, an ordinary person, could sense it, then Maria Elisa, a professionally trained military academy student, would naturally have noticed it long ago.

Maria Elisa understood why Alaria (Elalia) looked at her so hostilely—because Pollalid was now on good terms with her, Alaria's file stated that he was extremely possessive, and she was the culprit who forced him to undergo gender reassignment surgery.

However, Maria Elisa wasn't interested in how much Eralia (Aralia) wanted to kill her; in the current situation, that person was probably just a figurehead. The Arak family's fortune would need to be inherited by someone else. After all, none of the sons were Arak's biological children. Giving it to Aralia or the other sons made little difference—it was all about letting someone with no blood relation inherit the family fortune.

Maria Elisa ate another small cake. It was almost time, and the guests at the banquet began to leave in twos and threes.

Maria Elisa and Ancadis sat on their spaceship on their way home. Maria Elisa rested her head on her hand, gazing at the starry sky outside the window. Ancadis was still working, occasionally glancing at Maria Elisa, who was intently watching the night sky.

Inside Arak's house, after all the guests had left, Hewlett-Packard removed his perfect smiling mask and turned to Ellaria (Aralia) seriously, saying, "Come here, I need to talk to you about something."

Ellaria, head down, stumbled along behind Hewlett-Packard in her high heels.

The two entered the study. Hewlett-Packard sat in a chair, slamming his cane heavily on the floor. Alaria lowered her head even further, trembling and unable to look at Hewlett-Packard.

Hewlett-Packard didn't speak. Instead, he picked up a piece of paper and looked at it for a while before calmly asking, "I saw that woman from the Autolais family earlier. How did you manage to get fundamentally injured by her even in your manic state?"

"Father, I..."

"Shut up!! You useless idiot!" Hewlett-Packard jabbed Ellaria's high-heeled foot hard with his cane. "You need to understand! The effort I've put into you over the past twenty-odd years is more than any of my other sons! Is this how you repay me?!"

Alaria endured the pain, gritting her teeth and daring not to utter a word—although "she" was now many times stronger than Hewlett-Packard, "she" was still afraid of being beaten by Hewlett-Packard, perhaps because Hewlett-Packard often beat her to the point of being unable to fight back when they were children.

"Useless trash! You'd better reflect on your actions!" Hewlett-Packard said angrily. "I've never lost face in front of anyone like this before. My most trusted son has turned out to be a transgender person at the last minute!"

At this point, Hewlett-Packard became even angrier and jabbed Alaria (Aralia) several more times with his cane.

Alaria remained silent. Finally, after venting his anger, Hewlett-Packard stomped his cane twice on the ground. Outside the door, a man with dyed green hair, known as A, entered.

“This is Grinn.” H.E. Alark took the tea from Grinn, nodded with satisfaction, and his anger subsided considerably. “From now on, you will assist him so that he can smoothly inherit my position.”

Seemingly noticing the unwilling look in Alaria's eyes, Hewlett-Packard frowned again. "Are you dissatisfied? It's no use if you're dissatisfied. You're useless now. At best, you're just a mascot representing our funding of that association, making them not to do useless work. That's what makes you seem somewhat useful."

"This is one of your many uses, so you'd better cherish it."

“I understand, Father.” Alaria’s voice sounded a little strange due to the estrogen injections she had received.

Grinn nodded to Alaria (Aralia): "Hello, brother... oh no, now I should say sister."