When Leo finally got back to me after he was done playing with his preys, he seemed to notice that I was trying to avoid making eye contact with him. Those red eyes scanned my body from head to toe, then he let out a scoff, obviously not pleased with my reaction.
But... he didn't seem surprised, more like he had been expecting this.
"You know, Shrimpy Adel, back then when I was just a brat, I didn't even know how to control my power, I just burned stuff everywhere and called it 'fighting'..." As the ferocious lion said those words calmly, he had already walked two to three steps closer to me, and then he placed himself one foot apart from me, by one foot it actually meant 'within sniffing distance', thus I had no other choice but to lift my head up a bit and look at him in the eyes.
"Is that so...?" 'What are you even trying to tell me?' Deep in my mind, I wanted to reply with such fierce words, but something in me told me not to. ...It always told me not to.
"Tch! I know what you're thinking! You got scared of me!"
"..."
At first, I thought I was hearing things when I heard Leo say that since I didn't expect him to be considerate of other people's feelings, let alone mine.
"Is that so obvious?" Hence when I finally replied to him, I just had to take a good look at his expressions. That youthful face was packed with more than one emotion tangled together, somehow one of them seemed to be... the feeling of hurt.
Seriously?
"Adel, oh, Adel, you never knew anything... For an apex predator, the sweetest scent in the world is the scent of fear!"
God forbid, he didn't sound hurt at all.
"So you smelled my fear... I see. Yes, I'm scared." 'What're you going to do with it? Comfort me?' I almost had to restrain myself from speaking the latter sentences since Leo's face began to tense up and I couldn't risk pissing him off.
"Why?"
Because you acted like a psychopath, do I really need to explain myself further?
"Because I'm weak, Leo. Is it so weird for a mere human like me to fear a god?" Being a soft-spoken person as I was, somehow I always found a way to make my words sound softer than my thoughts; to make myself sound like a humble and lowly person. It was a special ability I'm proud of, or else I wouldn't have survived past high school.
"..." For some reason, Leo just went completely silent after that.
"..."
Then his entire body got all stiff. His eyes no longer fixated on my face, but lowered down to... my neck?
Umm, why my neck?
...
OH, SH*T.
"Well, you shouldn't... I hate it when... Ugh... What am I going to say again...?"
When Leo started to stutter on his own words, and his hand lifted up to hold his own head, that was when the realization hit me like a goddamn truck. That 'sweet scent' he talked about and him dead staring at my neck...
"I can't... think. I need..."
Yet again, I couldn't save myself being handcuffed like this. So I just gulped nervously and stared at him cautiously. Even worse, I felt my heart beating faster and faster. If I remembered correctly, last time this dude became weird, he did say something about my heart beating fast out of fear, and that... made ME smell sweeter.
"Adel, I need your blessing."
Oh God...
"Leo, please, no..." At that point, I knew I was f*cked, but I just had to move my body farther away from him to the edge of the seat, using my butt. I was in no way his BBQ skewer so that I could stay still and let him take a bite of me!
But f*ck me and my own stupidity, I misestimated the distance between my butt and the edge of the seat, the next second I blinked my eyes, my body then began falling backward onto nothingness - to the ground below.
Oh... My poor back... Not this again...
"A--?! Adel?!"
Nonetheless, it seemed that my luck hadn't run out yet. The moment I started falling, Leo's eyes immediately became widened and he literally gasped, as if he just returned to his senses. His body then moved so godly fast toward me, that I couldn't even get a glimpse of his action.
And just like that, I had been saved by Leo's arms.
...Well, he was carrying me in his arms, bridal style, to be precise.
"YOU IDIOT?! WHAT IN THE F*CKITY F*CK DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?!"
Despite him roaring at my face with such a thunderous voice, in his eyes, the look of worry was as clear as crystal. His arms holding me were shaking a bit as if they were hinting at his bubbling emotions. But please... An hour ago, you also slammed my back against a wall, why didn't you ask yourself what the frick you were doing...
Ah-- My bad. I should thank him for saving me, didn't I?
"Thank you, Leo..."
"...?!"
Somehow my gratitude seemed to be shocking for Leo, boy gasped even harder than before, or... I don't know, his face went all red right after hearing my thanks.
"Uh-- Umm... You're welcome...?"
Oh God...
Really? He felt embarrassed?
After all that touching, patting my head and trying to bite me? He felt his stomach flutter after he'd got to carry me bridal style?
"C-Can we stay like this for... a minute longer?"
"..."
I swore this boy was the most hopeless motherf*cker I've ever met. His face was as red as a cherry when he asked that question. His eyes even flickered back and forth from my face to his own arms still holding me. It almost felt like... he'd become a totally different person.
For real, I couldn't help but giggle. What was he on? Catnip?
"Hey, is that a no...?" Oh--
"What? No! It's just--" Anyhow, in that second, when even I started to feel a bit weird about the whole situation myself...
[Attention. Attention.]
All of a sudden, some kind of a robotic voice came out of nowhere and interrupted my words midway.
And it also caused Leo to freeze.
[Hunter Leonardo Rhys, you have violated the oath.]
As my eyes immediately began to look around, searching for the source of that voice, I could feel the kitty boy's whole body tensed up at its second speech, which I wasn't so sure if it was because of the speech or the voice itself.
[Let go of Adel Ozwald at once, or you will be subjected to severe punishment.]
Then my eyes did have to stop in their own track, because of the speech.
Out of instinct, I promptly looked at Leo, only to find him already looking at me, and so our eyes met.
"No..." The boy muttered the word while he was still staring at my face, somehow it felt like a half-hearted reply...
"STOP TELLING ME WHAT TO DO, YOU BLUE SNAK--!!!"
Right after he yelled those words, a gunshot was heard. And then the ground beside us got a hole as big as a golf ball in it.
"..."
Many seconds passed and I found myself frozen like a statue, for I had been enlightened about what that 'severe punishment' could be.
"Leo...?" In no way would I be able to hide the trace of fear in my voice in that second I called Leo's name, it was just... not possible.
"No, Adel! For once...! For us, I have to--!"
The boy didn't even get to finish his sentence, another gunshot was delivered to the ground beside us as soon as he opened his mouth. Although this time, the hole didn't appear near Leo's feet at all. Instead, the shot got close to the front wheel of the airbike, like inches apart.
"What the--?"
How strange... To aim at the front wheel of a vehicle or the ground despite having hidden themselves so well to the point that Leo couldn't even seem to smell or hear their presence, could it be that this person...
"No, no, no, not the tires?! ADEL, WE GOTTA RUN! FAST!!!"
Could it be that this person didn't really want to hurt Leo--?
As soon as I had that thought, multiple gunshots were almost immediately served, as if those two were just appetizers, well, since this time, it seemed that the whole magazine flew toward us and not just the ground or the wheels anymore. I heard myself scream "HOLY F*CK???!!!" at the top of my lungs as Leo was scurrying to his bike, and then frantically placed my ass back on the seat.
"LEO, WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PERSON???!!!"
"I DON'T KNOW! SHE THINKS SHE'S THE RULER OF JUSTICE OR SOMETHING!!!"
[I am not the rules. You just always break the rules.]
Having said that with the same emotionless voice, this SHE Leo was talking about didn't even hesitate to serve us 20 - 30 more shots, driving Leo extremely desperate, his fingers danced on the holographic dashboard of the airbike like crazy. It took us almost 10 seconds to finally hit the road, or the sky, whatever!
And even when we had elevated from the ground, already headed toward the night sky, the gunshots hadn't even ceased in the slightest, I had to turn back to see how the f*ck we were still being fired at at this distance.
That was when I got a glimpse of the thing that kept shooting at us, and it was far from being human... It was just a drone, equipped with a huge ass Paralyzer.
Oh, goodness gracious, a Paralyzer?
That same Paralyzer the Peacekeepers use? The shots wouldn't be fatal then!
"So she's a Peacekeeper or what?!" When I yelled that question, I couldn't deny having a sense of relief. At the very least, we wouldn't die! That was indeed good news!
"DUDE, EVEN WORSE THAN A COP!!! SHE'S THE SUPREME LAW ENFORCER!!!"
[Stop adding the word 'supreme' in front of my position, or you will face even more severe punishment.]
"SEE?! SHE THINKS SHE'S OUR F*CKING ABSOLUTE RULER!!!"
[This conversation doesn't make any sense.]
O, lady of mercy, but this playful (?) banter had given me hope.
Assuming that this person was one of the Hunters, I could put myself at ease by telling my own subconscious repeatedly that this was just how the Hunters normally interact with each other. The way of gods was always peculiar to man, right?
Hahaha, of course, it was~
Please, let me just put myself back to sleep on this kitty's back again, so that I could wake up on my bed and go on about my ordinary days the next morning...