Remembering the hairpin/hidden dagger he had bought off that shopkeeper in Orsini, Leon reached inside his armor and found the pocket where he kept the locket and hairpin. He took it out and put it in front of Emilia, but didn't know what to say so he kept silent and hoped Emilia would accept.
Although from an outsides glance, Leon and Emilia seemed to be completely different people. One was an energetic low ranking adventurer who enjoyed adventuring and loved interacting with people, while the other one was lauded as a prodigy who usually showed no emotion and didn't seem interested in people. However, in reality, they were quite similar, it's just the fact that no one knew it yet.
Looking at the hairpin, Emilia looked surprised and gently took the item from Leon's hands.
"Is this for me?"
Leon simply nodded as he was too nervous and felt like words would not come out of his throat if he tried to speak.
Emilia astutely noticed the hairpin could be unsheathed via a locking mechanism on one of the gems and unsheathed the dagger from the hairpin. She was impressed by the hairpin/hidden dagger as it was very decorative and pretty. The hairpin itself had a big sapphire in the middle of the handle that gave off a sort of mysterious aura and the carvings on the hairpin were intricate and had many carvings on it that depicted a variety of things.
Seeing such a splendid gift that would normally cost a lot of money, Emilia appreciative the hairpin, but more importantly enjoyed who had gifted her the gift. She was surprised and a little bit happy that Leon had gotten her a gift.
So Emilia tied up her normally luscious, long, wavy hair in a messy bun and put the decorative hairpin in the middle of the bun. Emilia had actually never changed her hair from the natural wavy and long style she had, but with her dexterous and skilled hands, she easily got it on the first try.
Giving a smile that could kill a man with cuteness, Emilia turned to Leon.
"How do I look?"
At this point, Leon was bewitched and beguiled. The new hairstyle was something that dealt the finishing blow to an already stunned Leon who was barely keeping his emotions from displaying. Seeing how Emilia looked right now with her messy bun with a decorative hairpin that provided a blue contrast to the silk silver hair, with a smile and slight pinkish tinge on her cheeks that no other person had seen on Emilia's face.
His brain had turned off and his knees were on the verge of giving out from just Emilia.
Seeing all this happen, Emilia didn't exactly know what was going on as she was as inexperienced as Leon was when it came to matters of love and the heart.
So she decided to take her leave and head back to the guildhall.
"Anyways, it was nice seeing you!"
After wiping off the smile and pink blush that had crept on her face with difficulty she took her normal stoic expression and started to walk towards the Phantom guildhall. The rest of her group kept trying to pinch themselves to see if they were dreaming or perhaps hallucinating from poison or chemicals.
Realizing Emilia wasn't stopping for them, they all ran after Emilia. Mackenzie was the most afraid of being left behind and yelled after her.
"Sis don't leave without us!"
Eventually, the group had left the vision of Leon and his group. The moment they left his sight, Leon sat on his knees for a couple of seconds.
The rest of his friends walked over and they were still bewildered but Tomoe still managed to voice out her thoughts.
"Are you okay Leon?"
Leon stood up by using Ensis as a support, to which he protested.
「You are using me as support because you can't stand a little bit of cuteness? -.-」
Leon ignored Ensis's complaints and finally got up.
"I'm fine."
Seeing that he was fine, Tomoe was impressed with the hairpin and wanted to ask where Leon had bought it to perhaps get one herself.
"Where'd you buy it, Leon? It was quite pretty and I wouldn't mind getting a good hairpin."
Looking a bit awkward, Leon responded.
"I found it from a vendor in Orsini, although it was quite expensive and originally cost 10 gold."
Hearing the price Tomoe had to make sure she heard correctly.
"10 gold?!"
Leon chuckled a little bit but looked out towards where Emilia had left.
"I managed to get it for free as a gift by the seller!"
Tomoe fainted from hearing his last sentence.
-Somewhere in a fortress half a mile underground in Partha-
In the vast maze that was the layout of the fortress, streams, and groups of black-cloaked people with the arrow design that was seen on the attackers in Orisini was visible on each of their cloaks. Most of them had white arrows, while a decent amount of bronze-colored arrows could be seen. With a rare silver arrow appearing now and then.
A group of white-colored arrow people spoke to each other.
"Did you hear apparently one of the operations went awry? Apparently, the branch leader is quite mad and even summoned some gold folks to the HQ."
"Really? I haven't seen the branch leader come out since I joined."
Suddenly a pair of bronze-colored folks approached the group and whispered.
"Shhhh, keep your voices down. Do you want to be punished and reprimanded?"
As soon as he finished saying this gasps could be heard from the hallway around the corner of the folks talking. Suddenly two mysterious people showed up walking from the hallway, everyone gasped in astonishment because the duo each had gold-colored arrows meaning they held the second-highest rank that could be found at this branch.
The two golden folks had heard some parts of the conversation but decided to ignore it as underneath the hoods the two of them were nervous.
One of the golden cloaked folks was obviously a woman as her curves stuck out very noticeable compared to the other golden cloaked person and if you could see behind the hood, Leon would've exclaimed the person was Lillith!
Soon the two golden folks were by themselves in a more grand and larger hallway than the rest of the fortress which were restricted unless you had golden arrows or summoned by the branch leader.
Lilith kept walking but it was obvious from her expression and voice that she was somewhat nervous.
"What do you think is going to happen?"
The other golden arrow talked and his voice was the exact same as the one who had talked to Lillith in Orsini.
"Well, I assume the failed attack and dagger spells bad news for us."
They approached a set of doors that was huge and looked like it was an entrance to a dungeon. The moment they got close they both became deathly silent and knocked on the huge doors then channeled magic power through the door.
After a minute, which felt like an hour to the two golden folks, the doors opened and a voice that sounded like it had existed for quite a while and seen much bloodshed erupted from the open doors.
"Come in."