He squinted his eyes and tilted his head, flummoxed and flabbergasted.
"Uh… huh, sure. Ummm… nice to meet you as well, fellow teen. H—how do you fare?"
The young girl's vibrant blue eyes shimmered with a joyous glint of innocence and wonder… with just the familiar shine of mischief.
Her smile grew wilder as she chuckled devilishly, her soft giggles resonating. Clearing her throat, she gazed straight into his eyes and muttered with her peaking voice:
"This is amazing! I knew you were the one, you even share the same d—disadvantage as me. My eyes never lie!"
Skipping lightly, the girl trotted around Lieren, her smile somehow growing wider and wider with each second.
It was… impressive, in a certain, ridiculous way.
"Young mistress. Please, behave yourself. This is very ill-fitting of the mighty Exousia Famiglia, especially its future leader and current head advisor. I implore you to calm down, young mistress."
"…What?"
Hearing the unfamiliar voice, Lieren took one big leap back. As his mana was currently exhausted, he could not augment his body with magic, and was thus significantly slower than usual.
The owner of the voice, a woman wearing a perfectly-fitted black suit stood attentively and perfectly in front of him, her brows furrowed and her eyes trained on the "young mistress." Her gaze was as sharp as steel, while her posture seemed animated, to the point where, paired with her ivory skin and tidy disposition, made her look like a perfect doll.
Or a puppet, which, in account of being much creepier and harrowing, also left a bitter taste on his tongue. The woman's hair was fiery-red, creating an intriguing contrast with her cool attitude.
…Or not. Despite just meeting the woman, he suspected that she was much less cool than her image suggested.
As for the young lady herself, on account of her vibrant blue eyes, she looked more alive than ever. Her face was very well-animated with her expressions growing brighter and brighter by the second. With her ghostly-pale skin and somewhat thin frame told him that on top of not going out much, the young mistress had skipped a few meals every now and then.
…Though, judging from her elegant and finely-crafted clothing, this was more of a conscious choice than anything. The young mistress' hair was a shade of white that reminded him of the Witch of Envy's illusory form, except much, much less lustrous and eye-catching.
Lieren raised a brow when the young mistress stomped her scrawny foot on the ground, wreaking cracks like spiderwebs on it.
'Curious.'
She pouted, glaring at the woman with annoyance.
"But, but, Mysta… You said I could talk to him. You promised!"
Mysta — that was apparently her name — nodded sternly, her cold indifference holding still…
'For now.'
Taking a deep breath, the stern woman clasped her hind behind her back, accentuating her modest breasts, and lingered for a second before respond:
"With all due respect, young mistress. I do not, in my recent memory, remember making such frivolous remarks. Let alone any promises of the kind, young mistress. I am fully aware that it is beyond my stature to say such things, but I would still ask, in all your merciful patience, that you review yourself before verbalizing such thoughts."
Her hazel eyes towered like meteorites over the young lady, looking down at her.
"With all due respect, of course."
Lieren swallowed.
This was bad, really bad. If what he's heard is right, then this girl, this innocent and vibrant young girl, was none other than the prodigious scion of the Exousia Famiglia, the so called one-in-a-million genius that have been spreading its influence across the city using the Exousia-Silata-Mocný League's connections, using that newly-gained influence to gain even more connections and resources, then repeating the entire cycle.
To loll down on such an important person, especially while being fully aware of one's own status took guts and courage multiplied by ten.
What would happen if such a vicious atrocity were to occur?
"Is that so? Well, I've just checked… And it turns out you are right."
The young scion hung her head.
"S—sorry, ma'am."
…As it turns out, it was nothing. The answer to such an important situation was nothing.
Taking a step back, Lieren tried to keep his surprise and unease a secret, surreptitiously glancing from one direction to another.
How did these two get in here?
With his mana reserves exhausted from practicing Detachment, he didn't even have any wild mana to spare for Manavision, restricting what he could see and feel by himself.
However, that did not mean he did not have anything to bring into this scuffle.
His temporary landowner, Bian, was no fool. Far from it, actually. Having a base such as this, especially one as big as this, required the highest of care and the most precise of spells to properly hide from view.
Lieren guessed that the only reason she would ever pick such an obvious building as her base of operations was because of some kind of enchantment or even her own spell that allowed for some kind of beneficial effect for her, either through presence detection or magical incognito. In fact, a couple of times, he has actually felt this effect interfering with his Resistance to some degree, as though he was not welcome to be a part of this group any longer.
And that's why he was baffled beyond belief right now.
These two seemingly innocent young ladies have basically not only set off any kind of alarm, but remained silent the whole time, even through their loud arguments and accusations, and have not in any way alerted the strongest people that Lieren knows, even as he thought this.
…Which was weird, very weird. If that were really the case, then he might as well have been six feet under already, his life having been sapped out of him like some kind of Wraith.
And yet, he wasn't. Which made the situation all the more complicated.
"You're probably thinking why we haven't killed you yet, aren't you?"
Lieren's eyes opened wide in initial horror replaced immediately by shock and dread.
"How…"
The young scion sighed exaggeratedly and rolled her shoulders. Her voice was still chipper, but less… lively, though she still had the same level of positivity from earlier.
"How? That's easy, fellow teen. We need only look at your face, and the answer shall be there for all the world to see. It's not that hard to figure out, really. Especially somebody as honest as you are."