Leonardo stood there dumbfounded. He had imagined many scenarios after hearing about Kuina; despite not being sure if it was truly her, he still pinned his hope that it must be the fox lady he knew. Then he just had to wait, he was not conceited enough to think she would come for him, but he was certain that after hearing that there was a lion beastman caught as a prisoner, she would visit them.
He would then be taken away together with Leon, but currently, it was not what happened. In none of the scenarios he was left behind, he thought they would be able to put their feud behind them and work together in a foreign land, normally it was should have happened.
Unable to take it anymore, Leonardo shouted.
''Kuina, what are you doing? Weren't from the same world? I'm your ally, but now you forsook me.''
Kuina, who was walking toward the exit, stopped; Leonardo was overjoyed while Leon massaged his temple, thinking what a fool.
There was one reason why Leonardo shouted those words; it was to force Kuina to help him; he was not going to sit and let her only save Leon. If the guards hear his words, Kuina would have no other choice but to save him. While he didn't know the real reason for her to end up as the prince's future wife, she wouldn't want anything to tarnish her reputation.
While from Leonardo's point of view, his strategy seemed brilliant, it was nothing but a foolish thought; he had forgotten who he was dealing with. To his horror, the guards didn't even turn in his direction, nor did they look at Kuina with strange gazes. It was then Leonardo remembered what kind of magic Kuina was good at, illusion magic.
Immediately upon realizing this truth, Leonardo swore she had them wrapped under her palms; maybe that prince, even the higher-ups were already under her control. Just this thought sent shivers down his spine; he shuddered and unconsciously stepped back.
Kuina slowly turned her face in his direction and smiled, a smile so beautiful that it was blossoming like a brilliant flower in bloom.
The guards were smitten; Leon sighed while Leonardo felt a chill run down his back. He dared not to look into Kuina's eyes, lowering his eyes. A grown man lowered his eyes like a child that done something bad and was afraid of being beaten.
''Guard," Kuina called out, and the head guards responded.
''Don't feed this human for three days and throw him in the isolation cell,'' Kuina ordered with a sweet smile.
''Certainly, my lady.'' the head guards responded before ordering his subordinates to move Leonardo out of his cell. In the blink of an eye, he disappeared, Leonardo's last words were.
''I'm going to kill you.''
''Feel free to try,'' Kuina responded before leaving the black building.
Outside, Leon breathed in a fresh air before asking.
''Why did you do that?"
Leon did not believe that Kuina did that out of enmity with Leonardo; to begin with, there was no enmity between them unless...
''You will know soon,'' Kuina responded, not adding anything more, however to Leon, those words were more than enough to arrive at a certain conclusion.
''He is coming, isn't he?"
The face of a certain handsome man flashed through his mind, the face of his friend.
Kuina giggled, not answering; instead, she dropped another hint.
''Let's hurry up; she must have finished by now.''
Leon said nothing but concluded that it was not only her who was here; there was another girl beside her, Alex's acquaintance, as for whom it was, he could not say, but there was no need to heat his brain as soon he would know anyway. Silently Leon followed Kuina; whenever they passed someone, gender didn't matter; they would bow, showing respect to Kuina.
Once again, Leon was reminded that this girl was dangerous; better not mess up with her. He could only pray his dear friend whose luck was good with women to manage to subdue this dangerous fox; endless benefits were awaiting him if he were to succeed, as for him he had never once considered making Kuina his woman, they were incompatible, being friends, rivals was enough.
He would leave the troublesome woman to his friend; he was a good friend after all.
At the same time, in another location, Alex, who had no idea that his good friend was pushing Kuina inside his arms, was slowly moving in the shadow; behind him were Eri and Eris silently following him.
Just then, Alex's sixth vanishing bullet happened to lose its effect; Eri was about to ask him to produce another one when she felt extreme danger.
Alex was faster; he pushed them to the side and blocked a deadly sword aimed at them.
Although he managed to block the blow, Alex was pushed a couple of steps. Alex disappeared, not giving the other the time to dodge as he executed a knife dance; just in a second, dozen of phantom knives surrounded the person in black, and yet she nimbly dodged all the phantom knives.
''What are you doing, Sera?" Alex stored his knives away and asked the masked figure before him.
Removing her mask, her beautiful brown hair fell on her shoulders as her brown eyes zeroed on Alex; both stared at each other for a moment before she opened her mouth and said.
''It's good to see you.''
''Indeed, I'm happy to see you, Sera; I missed you.''
Alex became emotional; he indeed missed her a lot.
Sera said nothing but disappeared, and the next moment she was hugging Alex; he was surprised at first but soon reciprocated; they hugged each other for a few seconds before getting separated.
''Girls, it's good to see you too.'' Sera waved at the girls who joined the two together the group left. They took a secret passage to arrive before a tall building.
''So, it is her?" Eris couldn't help but ask, knowing she would see her friend.
''Yes, you will see her soon. As always, she did whatever she wanted.'' Sera sighed and brought the group up.