He handed it over with shaking hands. "That's all I know about the mission. The reason I took the mission was the high pay and the wrong info about you."
Leo glanced at the picture, blocking out Ijero's presence. He recognised the object instantly; it was his late mother's necklace. Still, the final part of Ijero's explanation caught his attention.
"What info?" Leo asked with interest.
"That..." Ejiro hesitated to talk, but one eyebrow rise from Leo was enough to push the right button. "It circulated that you're just hiding, and the fact that you're safe is purely because of your ancestors' home protection."
Ejiro stopped there as Leo's current face was not a good sign.
As a matter of fact, that was incorrect information specifically provided to them to take action.
And giving this info to Leo was the breaking point of Leo's tough line of action from now on.
Standing, Leo extended his claws to their full length, ready to finish Ijero.
It wasn't about what he'd just told him; the man had targeted his life, and Leo wouldn't risk leaving him alive.
"Wait! Wait!" Ijero trailed back, realising what Leo was about to do. "I had something else, but I want your word that I will be spared."
"Talk!" Leo said.
"I know for a fact that the guild master had some info about the Winged Kings," Ijero said as the last rope of hope. "It's a known fact inside the guild that he had a relation to the whole accident."
"And who is this supposed to be?" Leo said with a tilted head.
That almost let the ladies fall from the surprise they felt.
"It's what your parents know as 'Couple'," Yoruishi said, massaging her forehead.
Leo kept his silence for a couple of minutes. His claw retreated back to the knuckle. turning around to the house.
"Run, I want you out of this town perimeter in 3 minutes," Leo said, already about to open the door.
"Was it really ok to let him go?" Onohana asked, finding it weird that he let him go, and somehow her words revealed an unapproved tone.
"I did let him go," Leo said before looking back. "But I was only talking about myself. I will be checking something in the lab real quick. See you guys in the living room."
By the time Leo entered the house, Onohana, who had been tracking the man, suddenly lost his signal—and apparently Yoruishi did too.
For a moment, they thought he was hiding, but then a few signals appeared near the last place they had detected him. With Leo's words and remembering the beasts he had around, it clicked. The beast probably lay in ambush for him, and he wasn't hiding; he simply died.
"What's wrong?" Rosalia said, sensing a disconnect between their emotions and the situation: Yoruishi seemed relieved, Onohana visibly excited, so she couldn't hold back her question.
Smiling, Onohana started to recount how Leo's subordinate had taken care of the man. Rose felt relieved that she wasn't on Leo's bad side, considering the extent of his ruthlessness.
Still, she liked it!
But that didn't answer her confusion about why Yoruishi felt relieved.
Maybe thanks to her long experience, Onohana knew what little Rose was thinking and smiled at Yoruishi with a smirk.
"Someone really lucky Leo didn't go full hunting mode on them," Onohana said before heading to the room. "Good night, girls."
Rose didn't understand at first what she meant, but seeing the frozen Yoruishi and sensing her mix of irritation and genuine relief, she began to understand why, remembering what this woman had done over the past few days.
Rose saw Yoruishi differently now, and there was something cute about the way she tried to rebuke yet failed to find a cause.
Rose started to laugh, to Yoruishi's misery.
"Yeah, laugh it out," Yoruishi said before crossing her hands and looking away. Thankfully, it's the night or else even with her dark skin, the blush would be visible.
But that's another story for Rose with her high-spec eyes, as seeing this made her laugh even more.
"Sorry, but you can't refute that it was funny." After calming down, Rose got in front of her and extended her hand for a shake. "My name is Rosalia Hale, a Highbeast Leopard. Nice to meet you."
Her tone meant nothing but pure introduction, and Yoruishi could tell just from the look in those eyes. This made her feel stupid with all her stunts the whole night. Let her feel like she was acting bratty... well, more than her usual bratty.
"Nice to meet you, Yoruishi Shihoin, just call me Yoruishi," she said, shaking her hand.
What they didn't expect was that both of them felt an electric current pass through their bodies on contact, leaving them confused for a moment.
After moments of nothing happening, they brushed it off. With Rose dragging Yoruishi to the house.
...Back to Leo, reaching the workshop, he hardwired the phone to his server, giving Alfre full command to scan and retrieve the history of the software and the systems within it.
Additionally, he tasked him with gathering information on the master Ejiro talked about.
Then he headed back, preferring to resolve his relationship problem first.
Surprisingly, he found a scene not expected. Rosalia and Yoruishi were chatting and laughing like they were friends for life.
'Women are scary, ' Leo thought while getting closer, and he had the right to. He stepped out for 15 minutes to get back to find a technically 'rivals' chatting homely. Was he complaining? No! That's a win anyone will take.
"Looks like you're having fun," Leo exclaimed, trying to get their attention. But unfortunately, he received the exact opposite reaction he had expected.
First, they frowned, then Yoruishi stood abruptly and ran out of the house for some reason.
Leo felt like he stepped on a landmine somehow.
Rose looked at Leo for a second before letting a small smile.
Standing in front of him, close enough to smell his natural scent and each other.
"You know... You still owe me the lesson of the supernatural thing?" Lying her hands around his neck. And that was enough for Leo to understand.
"Oh, really? How about we take this lesson somewhere private?" Leo answered, his voice finding a wild edge to it. His hand is already lifting her up a little from the ground.
"Oh, where is that, teacher?" Rose said, voice literally sounding like a purr. Playing quite the strings in Leo's heart.
Without a second word, Leo picked the surprised yet excited Rosalia and slipped to his room, closing the door behind him.
___________________________________
AAAAnd the rest is to your imagination. good night!!
Don't forget to have a look at: Ko*fi.c**/brain_n_clouds.