Chapter 352: Meeting Bernice Again

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After half a day of relentless travel, Drake arrived at the Dark Clan's headquarters. Wasting no time on formalities, he bypassed the corridors entirely and teleported straight into Bernice's private office.

He didn't even bother opening the door, executing an instantaneous spatial warp directly inside.

And stepped squarely into a scene of absolute, horrifying embarrassment.

Bernice was in the middle of taking a bath right inside her office!

"You—!"

Before Drake could finish his syllable, Bernice vaulted straight out of the bathtub in an explosion of water, crimson rose petals swirling through the air around her.

A long, porcelain-white leg whipped toward Drake's face in a fierce, sweeping high kick—the whistling gale of the strike arriving before the blow itself.

Instinctively raising both arms, Drake blocked the strike and seized the dripping, slender calf in his grip.

Their eyes locked. The atmosphere froze solid in a single instant.

When leaping from the water, Bernice had snatched up a large bath towel prepared by the tub, wrapping it securely around her stunning, voluptuous bust.

The towel was undeniably massive—more than large enough to cover her entire body. The issue was that she was currently frozen in a high-kick posture.

In such a position, believing that nothing was exposed was a lie she couldn't even sell to herself!

"Still staring?!" Bernice's face flushed a furious, vibrant crimson, her eyes glaring daggers at Drake.

"Gah!" Drake yelped in panic, dropping the dripping leg as if it were a scorching iron.

Watching Bernice scramble to adjust her towel in a frantic flurry, Drake couldn't stop himself from blurting out an explanation: "Uh... I didn't see anything... Really!"

He even added an overly emphatic tone at the end to make it sound convincing.

Tightly wrapping the towel around her curves, Bernice walked straight to her executive chair without looking back and sat down, casually crossing her legs.

Her fair, shapely calf was left bare to the air, swaying gently back and forth.

Granted, everything critical was concealed now, but the woman had literally just stepped out of the bath.

Isn't she going to change into actual clothes?

Drake kept his mouth shut. Though he was thoroughly bewildered as to why Bernice would install a bathtub inside her office, that was hardly the main issue right now.

He had undeniably been the reckless one.

She was a woman, after all!

Even if... he hadn't seen anything.

Right!

I didn't see a single thing!

Little did he know that it wasn't that Bernice didn't want to change; there simply weren't any spare clothes in the room. Before her bath, she had sent her previous outfit away to be laundered, and the maid sent to fetch a fresh wardrobe hadn't returned yet.

And so, their gazes remained locked in silence. Bernice maintained a cool, unreadable expression, staring at Drake with an unblinking gaze that filled him with an overwhelming sense of guilt.

In the end, Drake broke the silence first. "My apologies! I... I really didn't expect you to be bathing in a place like this."

"You saw, didn't you?" Bernice asked flatly.

"Ah!" Drake flinched. "Uh... I really didn't—"

Catching the unchanging, piercing stare in her eyes, Drake swiftly corrected himself: "I didn't see clearly."

"Which means you saw something, right?" Bernice countered.

Cold sweat trickled down Drake's forehead. He felt thoroughly humiliated and backed into a corner—who could have predicted a disaster like this?

At the same time, genuine guilt weighed on his chest; he had truly compromised her modesty.

He had no choice but to bite the bullet and confess: "Yes!"

Then he scrambled to soften the blow: "Really... it was just a blur..."

Damn it all!

I'm her supreme boss, so why am I the one sweating bullets like a cornered criminal?!

He had indeed caught a glimpse. Given the angle of her high kick, how could he have missed it? Even if it was only a split-second glance...

"Then... aren't you going to take responsibility for me?" Bernice's face remained entirely expressionless, her voice masking any trace of emotion.

Drake stood utterly dumbfounded. Was it... truly that serious?!

"This..." Drake's expression grew heavy.

Logically speaking, being presented with such an offer should have delighted any man. Bernice had exquisite beauty and an intoxicating figure—she was a peerless goddess among millions.

But... what about Weitian?!

He was already engaged to Weitian. Perhaps in the past it had merely been a childhood arrangement that either of them could dissolve without hard feelings.

Yet through their recent shared trials, both of them had tacitly embraced that bond. The letter Weitian had handed him before his departure was the ultimate proof.

Under these circumstances, accepting Bernice's proposal would be nothing short of betrayal!

Could his conscience bear such a line?

Yet he had undeniably seen things he had no business seeing...

Pfft... Hahaha!

Bernice suddenly burst into a fit of melodious, ringing laughter. "I was just teasing you—did you actually take it seriously?! I have no intention of getting married anytime soon."

Seeing Bernice laughing so heartily, Drake's face burned bright red. That had been thoroughly embarrassing.

Still, it was for the best.

Drake let out a deep, internal sigh of relief. He had genuinely been backed into a corner just now; untangling that mess would have been agonizing.

He steeled his resolve on the spot: from this moment on, he had seen nothing. No matter who asked or what came to pass, he had seen absolute nothingness.

This concerned the pure reputation of a peerless beauty like Bernice, and he harbored no untoward intentions anyway.

Unbeknownst to him, a flicker of quiet melancholy brushed through Bernice's eyes before vanishing behind her usual composed facade.

Just then, a knock sounded at the office door, followed by a voice from the hallway: "Chief, I've brought your fresh change of clothes. Is it convenient for me to enter?"

"Come in," Bernice said, casting an awkward glance at Drake.

"Yes, ma'am!"

The person who entered was a woman in her thirties dressed in a maid's uniform, responsible for managing Bernice's daily living arrangements.

Drake was well acquainted with her.

"Chief, I'll place the clothes on the—" The maid froze mid-sentence, her jaw practically hitting the floor.

Water splashed all over the floorboards, Chief Bernice wrapped only in a bath towel, and... Lord Drake standing right beside her?!

What on earth just happened in here?!

A sudden realization struck the maid. Setting the garments down on a nearby table with trembling hands, she stammered in sheer panic, "I am so terribly sorry, Chief... and Lord Drake! Forgive my intrusion!"

With that, she spun on her heel and fled the room as if escaping a warzone.

Drake and Bernice stood frozen in mutual awkwardness. The tension that had just eased instantly turned profoundly strange once more.

By now, Drake had no bandwidth to worry about social blunders; pressing matters demanded immediate attention. "Bernice, regarding the fifty billion Berries I requested—how are the preparations coming along? I need it urgently. The lives of everyone in the Dragon Flag Pirates depend on it."

Hearing that, Bernice's eyes widened in genuine surprise. "Is the situation that critical?! I'll take you to the Dark Clan's main vault right away. Though... Lord Drake, wouldn't it be better if you stepped outside for a moment?"

"Step outside?" Drake asked, puzzled.

"Do you expect me to guide you to the vault dressed like this?" Bernice shot him a deeply exasperated, sultry glare.

"Ah... Hahaha..." Drake laughed awkwardly, vanishing from the office in a blur.

Seeing that Bernice was entirely unaffected, Drake exhaled a massive breath of relief.

As expected, taking responsibility over a stray glance was an absurd notion in this world—he had simply overthought the entire ordeal. Besides, did someone like Bernice even need him to take responsibility?

Obviously not!

As the supreme sovereign of the Dark Clan, what kind of man couldn't she have if she desired?

Drake finally cast the matter completely out of his mind.

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