16. Scorpio

1.

Everyone reacts differently to an unexpected situation. Someone may fall into a panic as it is, but someone else may keep as cool as possible and prepare for the next situation.

Fortunately, Adele didn’t panic, but that doesn’t mean she was fine. Her thinking stopped the moment her tablet disappeared.

Adele staring blankly at her hands, which were holding the scriptures of the zodiac just a moment ago, in her stunned state, her appearance was truly miserable.

However, her party had no intention of just watching her.

“Adele, wake up!”

Before she knew it, it was Luke who came right up to her and grabbed both of her shoulders, but Adele didn’t even recognize it properly.

Even when her rook shakes her lightly, she just moves along like a doll with her thread cut. As if he had just witnessed the world perish right before his eyes, Luke glanced at Adele’s face, whose complexion had turned pale, and let go of her hand holding her shoulder, frowning at her.

“What are you doing?”

As the hands wrapped around her cheeks forcibly lift and fix Adele’s face, her unfocused eyes face a pale green color that has gone from their usual warmth. After that, a bitter sound hit her ears.

“What exactly happened and what the hell is this doing now that we still don’t have a proper grasp of the situation. You asked me to help prevent destruction, didn’t you? I scolded you once last time, are you doing this again?”

“Ah…”

“Stop calming down and answer my one question. If, by any chance, the original scriptures fall into the hands of the Zodiac, is the situation serious enough to give up?”

“That, that’s not it.”

Her Luke, hearing Adele’s answer, let out a sigh, then looked at her with her softer eyes and said,

“Is it because there is another variable that Adele doesn’t know about?”

“…Yes.”

Luke had to hold back a sigh that was about to pop out again at Adele’s reply as he lowered her gaze to avoid making eye contact with her.

“Don’t keep avoiding me and look me in the eye, Adele.”

“I don’t like…”

“Will someone old enough to act like a child like that? Quickly.”

“I haven’t aged…!”

As soon as Adele raised her eyes in a fit of heat, she saw Luke smiling mischievously. He belatedly realized that he had been tricked into an obvious trick, but things were already going the way he wanted. After contemplating for a moment whether or not to avoid her gaze again, she made her decision.

“Haa… I won’t avoid it. OK?”

“Yes.”

Luke nodded his head in satisfaction, wet his lower lip with saliva, and spoke.

“Don’t give up so easily, even for the sake of those around you. You don’t want to let your family meet the same end as before, do you?”

“That’s… yes, Luke is right.”

“This is the last time I say this. If something like this happens in the future, then I’ll just leave it to myself to come to my senses. You know?”

At first glance, it was just a cold and heartless remark, but Adele, who was looking into Luke’s eyes, could vaguely feel the warmth contained in it.

If this situation happened again, it was clear that Luke would do everything he could to help Adele, regardless of what he said. It was such a blatant lie.

“…Yes.”

All the more so, Adele did not intend to take lightly the kindness he showed her. No, I couldn’t. How could she dare?

“Rather than that, can you please stop looking at my face?”

Adele’s expression, avoiding her eyes, had fatal cuteness enough to lightly grab and shake the hearts of many men. Luke was no exception.

But Luke didn’t seem to want to let her go yet. It was enough to embarrass Adele to say what she had to say while trying to ignore the hot sensation covering her face.

“If you promise me you won’t be so pathetic again.”

“Uh, huh?”

“Quickly. I promise you right here, right here.”

Adele’s eyes shake violently as she lost sight of Luke’s unreasonable coercion. In the first place, this situation was so embarrassing that it was difficult for her to come to her senses easily, so it was understandable.

How many people can maintain their sanity in a situation where they are forced to make eye contact with someone who has feelings close to romance and receive consolation under the guise of reprimand? She didn’t fit that, at least not as much as Adele’s body, which was in the prime of blooming at the age of twenty-one.

“…”

“Aren’t you going to promise me?”

“I promise… I will.”

It wasn’t until she answered that that Adele thought that she looked like a child who had been scolded for not listening to her.

So ashamed of the whole situation, as soon as Luke removes her hand, she turns around so quickly that her hair, tied behind her, blows away, covering her face with her hands.

“But, what if a man touches her lady body like that…!”

Her grumbling voice lacked strength. It was because she was busy calming her beating heart like a runaway locomotive without any thought of stopping her while hiding her face that was about to ripen so that she would not be seen by the object of her love.

“Then you should have come to your senses when I first called you.”

“Yeah, but…”

“Okay. Next time, I will be careful not to touch her carelessly.”

Luke shook his head as if he couldn’t help it, and she staggered in surprise at the sudden stabbing pain in her chest. Her legs gave out and she collapsed. Adele, confirming this with her sense of humor, hurriedly turned behind her and asked him while holding him with her body.

“Luke! Are you okay?”

Because of the height difference between them, Luke makes Adele laugh by covering Adele with his body. At first glance, her worried expression tickled her heart.

“Aww… I’m fine, so don’t worry too much. It’s just because I used too much magic power. Thanks for catching me though.”

After straightening his body, Luke took a light deep breath, and after the barrier was restored, he glanced at the bookshelf where the books on the other side were once again hidden. There was no way that the lost scriptures of the zodiac would come back.

“For now, let’s get out of here. Even if there is still a lot of time left before the library opens, it won’t do you any good to stay here for long.”

“Ha, yes. It’s already happened, but if you keep doing this here, it won’t be something that didn’t exist.”

Adele, who showed her wry smile, led her up the stairs before stopping and pondering for a moment, then turned her head behind her and asked Luke.

“You don’t fall down on the way up, do you? Should I help out at least?”

“…There is no such thing, so I just go up.”

She looked at Luke who smiled stiffly, and Adele, who burst into a clear smile, took the lead again and she whispered so softly that he couldn’t hear her.

Thank you.

2.

No additional unexpected problems occurred while the two climbed all the stairs and put the stone statue at the entrance back to its original position. In the first place, the work at the library didn’t even take that long.

It was barely past midnight, and the front door of the library was locked. If Luke hadn’t been a fairly skilled wizard, he would have had to hide and wait until the librarian left for work in the morning.

“It’s fortunate that I’m overflowing with the mana I still have at least to get out of here.”

However, Luke, who was in an unpleasantly sluggish state after sleeping on his stomach on the library table, desperately needed a soft bed in the mansion more than anything else. Adele also preferred to relax in her mansion rather than waiting for dawn in the library.

Luke took Adele to the back alley near the library and used the teleportation magic. What caught Luke’s eyes was the image of a skinny wrestler beating up a young boy who looked to be only ten years old.

“Mi, crazy! Suddenly, a wizard…!”

Unfortunately or fortunately, the man possessed enough insight to recognize that one of the two men and women who appeared across the space right in front of him was a wizard he could not even dare to face.

“Sheesh! Good luck, kid!”

As she says that to the child she beat, her man, who runs deeper into her back alley, suddenly trips over something on her and falls down. That something is none other than Adele’s feet. Adele, who had moved by Luke’s side before he knew it, tripped and tripped him.

“Are you feeling superior while bullying such a child? Or let me beg for money for you…”

“Ah, great. Please stop for a moment.”

Luke, who had almost called Adele by her first name without realizing it, reprimanded himself inwardly.

“Yes?”

“That kid is a pickpocket.”

“…Huh?!”

Adele, who expressed her bewilderment at her Luke’s words, looked at the man who had collapsed in front of her with a worried look on her face, and at her child, who did not move with her body curled up.

“The little finger on my left hand is missing. You know that’s the punishment a pickpocket receives when caught trying to pickpocket a nobleman, right?”

Without denying or affirming Luke’s words, Adele exclaimed as she observed the child crouching over her body while still holding her breath.

“Ah…! I see. I made this mistake…”

“Kuuugh… Damn you! Why would you f*ck with a stupid person!”

The man who raised her body gets angry as he grabs her nose, where her nosebleeds are flowing. Luke and Adele know that she is strong enough to be unmatched, but she can’t help but feel resentful.

“Sorry! He ran away as soon as he saw me, so I stopped without even knowing…”

“I did it because it was obvious that I would look like a bad guy no matter what the circumstances were! If I don’t have the money he stole, I’ll be killed by my brother! And if you’re sorry for making a person’s face like this…!”

The moment the man’s eyes, which had been shouting and raising her blood vessels, touched the sheath of her sword hanging from Adele’s waist, the startled man stopped her even chewing her tongue. And subsequent attitude change.

“Mi, if you’re sorry, everything is right! That’s right, cancer. Well, if the misunderstanding is cleared up, can I go now…?”

After confirming that the woman in front of her was holding a sword, the man’s head rotated at the same speed as light. Her conclusion was that she should immediately lower her head and get out of her seat. It was crazy to raise your voice to those who were obviously much stronger than you in these dark alleys before arguing right or wrong.

“That, I’m really sorry! It’s not like it’s a substitute, but I want you to take this and relax your mind.”

After saying that, Adele handed out a 5,000 peon note. The empire’s currency, peon, had a value of about 100 Korean won, so it could be said that it was excessive because it was not overflowing at the price.

“That’s great. Anyway, this is too much.”

To say it was her man’s last conscience, she kept glancing at the banknotes.

“It’s okay, so go ahead and get it.”

After the man she had no intention of refusing twice accepts her bill, she hurriedly disappears deep into her back alley, and only then the eyes of the two men and women converge on the spot where her boy was crouching. .

“…Isn’t it?”

“While I was apologizing, he ran away. After contemplating whether or not to catch it, I just let it go.”

Luke shook his head after pondering for a moment about the missing boy. She must have had a reason for the boy to pickpocket her. After seeing her pickpocketing a nobleman and cutting off her little finger, she continues to do so.

She probably would have done what she could to help after hearing what had happened had her child not disappeared, but this too was in the past.

“It’s getting late, so I’d better go back.”

After Adele, who was lost in thought about what was going on, replied that she knew it in surprise, the fruitless deviation came to an end.

3.

“The following is the report of Issue 18. As if it contained important information, it was passed on directly, ignoring the procedures.”

A man wearing a hooded shirt receives and reads a small piece of paper handed to him by his subordinate.

“…Whoa. It is the heart of the empire. Indeed, the phrase “It is dark under the lamp” Is an appropriate situation.”

“Then, shall we take care of #18?”

“No, it did. Certainly, the information was so important that it had to be delivered directly. This is enough to give No. 18 The prize he so desperately wants.”

“Then, I will take care of Unit 18’s work as instructed.”

“So be it.”

The master of the Assassination Brigade, the 8th Apostle Scorpio, smiled grotesquely through his mask and thought.

Finally, the whereabouts of the last puzzle piece has been revealed.

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