"Me?"
Hera's lips couldn't help but curl upward, a smile spreading across her face, clearly indicating that Xia Nan's words were quite agreeable to her.
"You do seem to think highly of me."
"To be frank, although I did receive their invitation many years ago, you know that I couldn't possibly attend."
"And since then, I've been excluded from their 'Moon Tide Banquet' guest list."
Hera's identity was the owner of the "Three-legged Sea Dog" tavern, one of the largest information brokers in Suo Yu Bay, passed down from the channels her parents left and augmented by her years of diligent management, giving her significant relationships with many factions in the Southern Islands.
Under such circumstances, albeit secretly, publicly the complex interrelations of these forces required her to maintain an absolutely neutral stance.
Any inclination could easily result in severed channels or even animosity with the forces behind those channels.
