"Don't waste your strength on saying stupid things!"
The woman scrolled him in a hushed voice and glanced down at the blond-haired girl in her arms.
"Hey... Hey...? Young miss... we need your help..."
She whispered softly, trying to shake Buruhi awake.
"Hngh...? eh...? My... help...?"
As if that was the keyword that got to her, the blond-haired girl trembled and groaned while still half-asleep.
She stretched in the black-haired woman's arms and...
*CRUSH*
"KYAAAAH?!"
"?!?!?!"
*WHAM*
"!!!!"
The window of the room suddenly shattered apart as a beastly figure of something akin to a hairless humanoid wolf barged inside with no regard for how many things it was breaking.
While Burushi let out a panicked scream, the figure already was by the armless darkness magician, grabbing the side of his head and slamming him against the wall as if he was a ragdoll.
"GRAUGH!"
"BURUSHI! I HEARD A LOUD NOISE AND... WHAT IN THE....?!"
Within seconds, the room got really full because the humanoid monster was almost immediately followed by a furious armored wolf and at the same time the door was kicked open and a white-as-snow girl wearing a full-body fluffy bunny-shaped pajama barged into the room and called out before freezing in shock.
"Nh... nhnhnhnhn...! Ahahaha~! Full mastery of basic star levels of the law of Capricorn~!"
The monster responsible for most noise and taking down one of the two darkness magicians in the room giggled before bursting out into a peal of laughter, raising its clawed hands up in a triumphant pose.
"HACHIKO, TAKE CARE OF THAT THING! AND YOU! RELEASE BURUSHI OR I WILL FREEZE YOUR INNARDS FIRST!"
Metavicero didn't dwell on the questions and moved on to solutions – she commanded the armored wolf before rushing at the female darkness magician who was backed up against a wall with Burushi in her arms.
And yet, even though she moved, the wolf ended up staying in the same spot – what's more, it started wagging its tail as if it was some friendly dog... even though its master was clearly in danger!
"Miss magician. If you try to run away now, I will relieve you of your mana, and you should already know how those things go for darkness magicians."
The humanoid monster bellowed while straightening its back.
"As if! That's my line! I will...!"
"Metavicero, I am not talking to you, so... Shut. Up."
The white-as-snow girl scoffed furiously but one glare of obsidian eyes filled with an unearthly glow forced the words right back into he throat.
"Wait...! You... Aren't you our previous target?! But you were in the Perserios territory just a few hours ago!"
"...?!"
The woman holding securely Burushi's face trembled as her eyes widened while she took a closer look at the beast.
Because the beast was no beast at all – it was Zoemi, although that could only be confirmed since a few seconds earlier when he recalled the law of Cancer transformation and his body returned to normal.
"I am. And the answer to the question that bothers you is simple – I ran over here for a chance to talk without being followed. It was a big risk and it had little to no chance of success, but hey. Can't argue with a result~"
Zoemi smirked devilishly and declared shortly before picking up the armless darkness magician and shaking him a bit so that the female darkness magician would turn her attention there.
"Release my friend and we can discuss the conditions of healing him up. Metavicero, go tell Burushi's mother that everything is okay – she is bracing herself to go up here with a knife."
"Eh...? Oh! O-okay...!"
The black-haired boy tilted his head and said in a flat voice before furrowing his brows and motioning at the snow-white girl, who flinched and nodded before leaving the room in a hurry.
"...you are a scary kid..."
The darkness magician holding Burushi muttered through her teeth.
"Yeah, your fourth colleague who is absent right now said the same thing. You really should think twice before accepting contracts on the heads of children. A warning light should automatically start flashing in your head. Now let Burushi go or I will pop his head like a ripe watermelon."
Zoemi shrugged his shoulders unaffected by her words and change his grip on the woman's comrade.
"Just so you know, I was about to cause your body to shut down."
The released blond-haired girl didn't even run away, she merely glared at the darkness magician over her shoulder and declared coldly before slowly and confidently walking over to the black-haired boy.
"Did you seriously send some unknown Ghosts-wannabes to my house?!"
Burushi put her hands on her hips and began scolding Zoemi while leaning forward to look up at his face.
"I scratch your back, you scratch mine."
"Tsk. Show me him. I just need to reattach his arms, right?"
Zoemi smiled brilliantly to which Burushi clicked her tongue and turned her attention to the armless darkness magician, doing her best to ignore her own blushing face reflecting in her closet's mirror.
"Now then. Since your friend's health is set on the road of improvement, why not have a nice talk, Miss magician."
The black-haired boy left the patient in the capable hands of the healing magician and sat on the edge of the bed, tapping the mattress next to him to invite the darkness magician.
"What do you want to know...?"
Still, the woman didn't move from her spot and asked, squinting her eyes suspiciously.
"Who hired you all to get rid of me? Victureos or Espines?"
Zoemi wasn't too pleased with the woman keeping her distance but ended up asking anyway.
Interestingly, the reaction he saw wasn't one that he expected...
"Victureos or E... Espines...? What sort of enemies do you have, kid?! Our contractor is the Efemare family! Originally we were supposed to kidnap you so your freedom could be exchanged for the missing daughter of the Efemare family!"
The woman stuttered before shaking her head in disbelief and explaining.
"Oh? Oohh... that is a lot less dramatic turn of events than I thought."
Zoemi raised his brows and leaned back taken by surprise.
"...is what I would say if your other, deceased, companion wasn't trying to turn that kidnapping into a murder when he realized he cannot pull me into the shadow gate..."
The black-haired boy was about to lie down on the bed but his torso stopped above the mattress as his head bounced up and he started glaring at the darkness magician.