Just as Leonard was wondering how to arrange things so that Harry Potter could legally beat up Snape without Sirius Black getting involved, the wizards cleaning up the scene suddenly straightened at once, all of them staring in the same direction.
On that patch of open ground, a pair of wizards carrying suitcases had just appeared. The moment they arrived, they were startled by their companions standing in a ring and staring straight at them.
"What are you all doing? Some kind of weird ritual?" one of the wizards asked. His familiar companions suddenly felt strangely unfamiliar, especially with those fixed stares that made his skin crawl.
Imagine arriving somewhere and finding everyone there doing nothing at all except staring at you with eerie eyes.
That was the feeling.
In any case, the suitcase-carrying wizards were badly frightened.
The people controlled by the Blood Grapes stared at them, then suddenly smiled.
"No. Nothing happened," one of the controlled wizards said in a pale voice, wearing a bright smile.
At the same moment, all the controlled people showed the exact same smile, then bent over again and continued cleaning up the scene.
A shiver ran through the newly arrived wizards. They all felt that their companions had become a little strange, but for the moment none of them could pinpoint exactly what was wrong.
Something must have happened that they did not know about. Looking over there, the boss and the target were sitting together chatting amiably. Maybe the ambush had failed, the others had been lectured, and now they were just too embarrassed about it?
The wizards from the smuggling crew watched those people picking up the broken vines from the ground, discussing whether they had been punished for failing the ambush and getting taught a lesson instead.
Londo was also frozen for a long moment, but very quickly he spotted Leonard sitting alone amid the busy crowd.
At that moment, Leonard had already put on a spare black robe and looked no different from before. He was even chatting and laughing pleasantly with his boss, Schneider.
Strange. Hadn't the boss planned to make a move on this man? Had he misunderstood?
Londo looked utterly baffled.
"Go sit over there. We'll leave once we're done cleaning up," one of Theodore's men walked over and said to Schneider's people.
"Oh? You don't need our help?" someone asked.
"No need. It'll be cleaned up very quickly," the wizard replied.
Londo stared blankly at that wizard, feeling puzzled. Under normal circumstances, Theodore's people were never this friendly toward smugglers like them. What was going on today?
Just as he was still wondering, that wizard walked right up to Londo and offered him a calm smile.
"The boss wants you over there."
Londo's heart gave a violent jolt. The wizard in front of him looked approachable enough, and that smile did not seem fake in the slightest, but for some reason, that flawless smile made his heart pound with unease.
"O... okay." Londo answered, then glanced behind him. His companions had already gathered together to rest, and he felt too awkward to ask someone to come with him, so he walked toward Leonard alone.
On the way there, Londo passed more than one wizard.
Without exception, every one of them looked up and gave him that same perfect smile.
Something was wrong. Something was very wrong here.
Cold sweat appeared on Londo's forehead, and his pupils trembled slightly.
He could feel that something was terribly off, but he could not say exactly what.
Heavy-hearted, Londo finally made his way over to Schneider and Leonard. At that moment, Schneider looked at him and smiled.
Fear stabbed into Londo's brain like icy needles. He stared at Schneider in horror, his body trembling slightly.
At last, he realized what was wrong. He had not noticed anything specific with the others, but on Schneider, who had never smiled like this in his life, he finally found the source of the problem.
Everyone here, except for that guest whose face could not be seen, had exactly the same smile.
That standard smile, as if stamped out from a single mold, was absolutely not an expression Schneider, that harsh and vicious merchant, would ever wear.
"Oh? Looks like you noticed," Schneider said slowly.
"Wh... what?" Londo looked at Schneider, then his eyes suddenly widened.
He saw a thin vine, like a tiny snake, slither out of Schneider's eyeball.
It playfully circled once around the surface of the eye, then slipped back inside.
"Looks like you noticed."
The exact same words were spoken again, only this time by the mysterious guest.
Londo's neck turned stiffly toward Leonard. His mind had gone completely blank. He opened his mouth, but had no idea what to say.
Then, all at once, a scream came from behind him.
"What are you? Stay back... aaaah!"
The shrill scream nearly made the already tense Londo jump straight out of his skin. He whipped his head around and discovered that at some point, the wizards who had been clearing up the broken vines had already surrounded his companions.
They moved in slowly, and just before they made contact, something horrifying happened.
Like walking corpses, they raised their hands. Their palms had been pierced through by tiny emerald vines, writhing at the tips like tentacles.
And the moment they caught hold of his companions, those vines stabbed into their mouths and noses. Before long, the victims would convulse and collapse.
But not much later, the companions who had fallen twitching to the ground would stagger back to their feet, green branches and leaves sprouting from their bodies, and begin assimilating the others in turn.
That horrific scene shattered Londo's composure completely. He no longer dared look at the one-sided slaughter unfolding behind him and instead turned back toward Leonard with a shaking gaze.
What was he supposed to say now? Beg for mercy? Ask forgiveness?
Should he say, "I had nothing to do with any of this. It wasn't me. I even warned you about the ambush"?
That sounded reasonable enough, but who knew what the thing in front of him was thinking?
He did not even know whether the figure under the black robe was human.
Could it be some terrifying monster disguised as a wizard, using money as bait to lure wizards in and devour them?
Right.
No wonder it had not been worried about the ambush at all, because in its eyes, it was the hunter, while Boss Schneider and all the rest of them were the true prey.
Just then, Leonard stood up. He merely raised one hand, and the next thing he heard was Londo letting out a scream like a pig being slaughtered.
"I'm sorry, please spare me!" Londo cried out, collapsing to the ground, completely failing to notice the helpless look in Leonard's eyes beneath the robe.
"Get up. I'm not planning to kill you," Leonard said unhurriedly.