When Zella finally recovered, Leo kept on asking, "Are you alright?"
Zella nodded. She had to be certain she's okay or else Leo would be worried sick to death. He looked through her eyes, and Zella just had to lean in, giving him an embrace. It was the only thing closest to home.
The warmth it radiated, her delicate palms on his back, like it's the most comfortable thing that has happened in his entire life. Leo had to wrap his hands around her neck to be sure of this feeling. He sniffed in her body scent, and it's the most fragrant thing in the world.
"I liked your smell, Laina. Until now, I'm under its fragrance," Leo whispered.
Zella chuckled. With the sound of crashing gates and screeching bars gone, her mind fleeted away from the ones she heard at most. She doesn't know where it came from, but in order to find out, Zella had to make sure her memory can come back in a few months.
"I want to find out your hobbies, Leo. Should we go?" she murmured close to his ear.
Leo unclasped his grasp from her neck, and peeked right at her face. She's all good. Not pale and frightened anymore. Leo touched her cheek, and looked down the hallway, towards the light of the hidden den.
"I have to introduce you to my secret training room."
Leo held her hand as they walked. Zella tucked in her hair behind her ear. With the way Leo's hands touched her palms, it felt like the first time. Nothing can eradicate the fact Leo's love was more honest than she should have expected to be.
The rules she made weren't all at used. Zella expected it to reach the fifth, but Leo prevented it to come. He must be afraid of losing her.
As they reached the hidden den, Zella got mesmerized by the Vikings design. Almost all of the tables holding the weapons had an encrypted helmet accompanied with an ivory horn. Zella doesn't know anything about Vikings, so…
"Vikings are also called Norseman or Northman, if you are curious about the design. We just like to keep the training room as a hobby, and to reflect how we deal in business world," Leo described. Zella darted her eyes everywhere.
Set of long and sharp knives, the samurai, sakura, and even those long, bent swords that can cut you in half. Zella didn't dare to pick up any of those. She observed them for a while, upon how they glint through the reflection of the light. The whole room giving off an air of a medieval museum, and Leo honestly liked it.
"Why are the Vikings you chose?"
Leo picked up one of the dagger sheath and rolled it around his thumb. He successfully rotated it after years of training. He answered, "They liked to negotiate through the sea."
Zella didn't know the connection at all. She stayed silent as Leo turned around, smiling at her confused eyes. He motioned for her to come around to the shooting range, distance of about 5 meters from the lane, and bulls' eye targets were propped up in the front.
"What's in the sea? What's like to be in the water?"
Leo leaned upon the counter of the bullet magazines, stating, "It's not about being in the water, Laina. It's about trading using galleons and ships. Vikings are seafaring people. They're also in line with Norse, lived in Scandinavia in the medieval ages. They're traders, negotiating with other countries when it's still not civilized. If you don't want to get a trade, then we'll hop on the boat and sail away, never returning back."
Zella couldn't connect the dots. Leo chuckled, knowing it's hard to discuss at just a short span. Still, Leo continued, "When you're having a trade in the sea, it's the life blood of an economy, Laina."
Zella leveled her head the same as Leo's, inquiring, "Why?"
"Because you can't transfer bulk goods by land, you have to travel by sea."
It caught Zella's wit on a limp. She parted her lips slightly, and it's enough to make her say Leo's discussion made sense. In fact, it's a mind of a businessman, and nothing can actually change the way he thinks.
"By then, norsemen also traveled around the world, finding enough time to explore at the same time, to trade goods. That's why we're using that kind of strategy in our company, the Luciano Corp.," Leo concluded. Zella nodded repeatedly, admiring his intelligence.
She looked around the weapon containers and how the cartridges of the weapons are separated from the body of the pistol itself. Zella wondered, "You have such a big mind, Leo. And to think that, shooting and throwing knives is your hobbies, I know for a fact you wouldn't use these weapons for violence, am I right?"
He prepared every single bit of what Zella could question. Leo had enough time to listen to every word she had to say, and found an immersive pattern inside of it. Zella turned back to him, screening off the lies, and expected an honest response.
"Violence? What should I use when I'm violent?" Leo fired back a question.
Zella smiled obviously, and asked, "You all have those weapons in this secret room of yours. Do Randall and Vincent can come inside this den?"
"They do, Laina. We have a day to train with knives and guns. Do you want to come and see that?" Leo didn't even stutter. Zella tried to uncover the lies, but he's transparent enough to be one. She relaxed her shoulders, and turned to the counter, holding onto it, and observed the goggles and muffled earphones.
"Does no one hear any gun shots whenever you're training? As you said, it's a hobby."
She scrutinized every corner of the den and there's no surveillance camera around. No windows, no exit, or any trapdoor to hide of when they're got busted. Leo must have kept it hidden and safe for a while.
"No one can hear that because the walls are soundproof. The noise in here shouldn't be figured out by the maids downstairs or else they're going to get scared. We just have to be careful whenever we're disappearing," Leo revealed. Zella had to know it, and it doesn't make him worry about what her reaction would be.
Zella turned to him, asking, "Are you afraid they might talk if you fire them and they know about this secret training room?"
Suspicions have grown hard once again. It's just a matter of fact before Leo wore off her mask, and it's time for her to pry eyes to someone who lied to her. Besides, Zella can feel how much Leo has been lying. Some of them are truths, but some of them are lies.
"You all know how people talk behind your back recklessly. They're doing it unknowingly, without your ears on the radar, and those words can ruin you for life. So for the safety of my colleagues, and the one handling the company, we decided to hide it away from the workers in this mansion."
Zella had caught up about Ms. Lavender's secret about this.
"Ms. Lavender knew because she's one of the few people who saw how the mansion got renovated. She's the one who took care of this room," Leo added.
Zella didn't want to ask anything besides those, and he answered them pretty fairly.
Leo knew the tension died down, and he had to shift it suddenly.
"You want to train knives?" he offered.