Chapter 19: Here to Restock from the Stellaron Hunters?
"Don't waste your energy. You can't hack your way in."
Leon's voice suddenly echoed through the quiet room, shattering the silence and startling Silver Wolf. She had been staring intently at her holographic screens, her fingers flying across the virtual keyboard in a blur of motion.
She snapped her head up. Leon's virtual avatar materialized out of thin air, hovering right in front of her console with a beaming, utterly punchable smile.
'When did this guy sneak into the network? How was there no data footprint at all?' Silver Wolf muttered inwardly, her brow furrowing. But the gamer in her refused to back down. "You're looking down on me," she scoffed, popping a bubble of her chewing gum. "Just you wait. Give me a little more time, and I'll definitely crack that phone of yours."
Crack a device personally forged by Aha, the Aeon of Elation? Now that was quite the ambitious little dream.
"I have high hopes for you~" Leon drawled, flashing her a bright, exaggerated thumbs-up.
To the universe's premier hacker, that gesture was nothing short of a blatant provocation. Silver Wolf's teeth ground together, her competitive pride itching with frustration.
"Just you wait! I'll tear through your firewalls sooner or later!" she declared defiantly, jabbing a finger at his projection.
"Alright, Wolfie. Let's talk business first." A slender, gloved hand gently pressed down on Silver Wolf's shoulder. Kafka stepped into the frame, her signature elegant coat draped over her shoulders. She turned her striking gaze toward Leon's avatar. "Are you interested in joining the Stellaron Hunters?"
Leon blinked. An invitation to join the universe's most wanted criminal faction? Now that was an interesting thought.
"Aren't you worried about me being a Masked Fool?" Leon asked, tilting his head with genuine curiosity.
The last time their paths crossed, these two had been incredibly guarded against him. Yet this time, even after Silver Wolf's completely failed attempt to breach his device, the atmosphere felt surprisingly relaxed.
"Is this Elio's grand idea?" He leaned forward, looking around the background of their feed with great interest. "Where is the boss hiding?"
"Elio said it is not yet time for the two of you to meet," Kafka explained, a soft, mysterious smile gracing her lips. "He believes you are an indispensable link in the Script. Joining us will make the entire story proceed much more smoothly."
Kafka gracefully opened her arms, a gesture of absolute welcome. Her voice dropped an octave, dripping with that signature, magnetic allure.
"So, will you join us?"
At that exact second, Kafka's sheer charm was completely off the charts. Leon's usually impenetrable thick skin actually wavered for a fraction of a heartbeat. A primal instinct urged him to just dive straight into that elegant embrace.
'No, no, stay steady,'he told himself.'Damn that Elio, actually deploying Kafka's seduction tactics right out of the gate...'
"I won't be tempted so easily..." Leon protested aloud, his tone filled with righteous indignation.
Yet, completely betraying his words, his virtual projection had already lunged forward, burying its face directly into Kafka's chest.
Silver Wolf watched this utterly hypocritical display, a visible twitch developing in her left eye. "If you're going to say those words, could you peel yourself off Kafka first?"
"What?" Leon gasped, stepping back and clutching his chest in mock horror. "When did I hug Kafka? Could this be Spirit Whisper? That's truly terrifying!"
"When did Kafka ever use Spirit Whisper on you?! You bastard, you're just a pervert!"
Silver Wolf's expression dropped into a deadpan ᗜ‸ᗜ glare. She was completely speechless. Who the hell uses a digital hologram just to cop a feel?
"Damn it! So I was only using a projection?" Leon suddenly realized, beating his chest and stomping his feet in exaggerated agony. "If I had known, I would have teleported over in person!"
A tragic miscalculation. He really should have swapped his physical body over just now. A genuine embrace from Kafka was a rare commodity—who knew if he would ever get another chance like that?
"Alright, stop fooling around." Kafka gently pushed his glitching avatar away, though her tone remained as smooth as velvet. "So, are you interested in joining the Stellaron Hunters?"
Even though it was just a projection, when Leon had lunged over, her heart had inexplicably skipped a beat. It was an incredibly unfamiliar sensation. Kafka, who lacked the ability to feel true fear, rarely felt such sudden spikes of emotion.
But it hardly mattered. After all, Elio's instructions were clear: as long as she accepted Leon with the same unconditional warmth she would offer Stelle or Caelus, everything would fall into place. Kafka looked at the Masked Fool with a tender, maternal gaze.
"What else did Elio say? I'm quite curious," Leon asked, stroking his chin thoughtfully.
Since Destiny's Slave was famous for peering into the future, Leon genuinely wondered what kind of chaotic timeline Elio saw with a fun-seeking anomaly like him thrown into the mix.
"Elio said that if you join the Stellaron Hunters, we'll provide an arranged marriage," Silver Wolf added crossly, blowing a massive pink bubble with her gum until it popped. "You know Firefly, right? She's a very cute girl. We can introduce her to you."
"Silver Wolf, you know me." A brilliant, utterly shameless smile blossomed across Leon's face. "Wife or no wife, it doesn't matter. I mainly just love the warm, wholesome atmosphere of the Stellaron Hunters family."
Kafka let out a soft, breathy chuckle, while Silver Wolf simply rolled her eyes so hard they nearly stuck to the ceiling.
"So you're saying yes."
"Of course..." Leon paused dramatically, clearing his throat. "...not yet. This level of sincerity simply isn't enough."
"Huh? Still not enough?" Silver Wolf stared at her screen incredulously. "Then what else do you want?"
"Fire-Wolf together, of course." Leon nodded naturally, as if he were stating the most universally accepted truth in the cosmos.
"Me?! Then what about Firefly?" Silver Wolf's brain short-circuited for a second, instinctively following his twisted logic.
"No, no," Leon raised his index finger, shaking it back and forth like a metronome. "It's the 'Fire'from Firefly, and the'Wolf' from Silver Wolf."
He leaned closer to the camera, his smile widening into a pleasant, predatory curve. "And of course, Kafka too."
"What I mean is—" He deliberately drawled the words out, his eyes curving into happy little crescents. "I want them all."
"Heh. You really are greedy." Silver Wolf slumped back in her gaming chair, suddenly too exhausted to even yell at him.
Sometimes she genuinely couldn't tell if this guy was naturally this deranged, or if he was just purely looking for a reaction. Who actually says 'I want them all' straight to a girl's face?!
"On my end... it's not completely impossible." Silver Wolf remembered Elio's strict instructions about securing his cooperation and forced herself to play along, her cheeks dusting with a faint pink. "But we have to develop feelings first..."
"That's fine," Leon waved his hand nonchalantly, dismissing the concept of romance entirely. "I follow my hormones, not my heart."
Silver Wolf's expression flatlined again. ᗜ‸ᗜ.
"A forced melon isn't sweet," she muttered, trying to make one final, desperate stand for common sense.
"It doesn't matter!" Leon retorted with absolute, righteous conviction. "A forced melon might not be sweet, but it certainly quenches thirst!"
"I think you're just truly starved." Silver Wolf actually let out a short, breathy laugh, completely defeated by his twisted, shameless logic.
"Didn't you Stellaron Hunters bring up the arranged marriage first?" Leon raised an eyebrow, crossing his arms in mock dissatisfaction. "How come now it's 'this won't work'and'that won't work'?"
"Ugh, no," Silver Wolf groaned, rubbing her temples as if she were about to go crazy. "Are you seriously planning to catch the entire female roster of the Stellaron Hunters in one net?"
"That is not entirely impossible either~"
Kafka suddenly spoke up. Her voice was soft, a deeply meaningful smile playing on her painted lips.
"Huh? Kafka, what are you saying?!" Silver Wolf whipped her head around in sheer disbelief, her eyes wide enough to drop out of their sockets.
"I mean exactly what I said. I can agree to this proposal." Kafka's tone remained as gentle as a summer breeze, but her piercing gaze locked directly onto Leon's avatar. "As long as you can convince Silver Wolf and Firefly... I have no problem on my end."
For a brief second, Leon almost suspected Kafka was actively using Spirit Whisper. Either she had just hypnotized him, or she had somehow hypnotized herself.
Was she really treating him with the same boundless tolerance she reserved for Stelle? Good grief. To agree to such outrageous conditions just to recruit him? Whatever Elio was plotting, it was clearly no small matter.
"I... I have no problem either!" Silver Wolf gritted her teeth, her fists clenching as if she had just made some sort of life-altering resolution.
"Really?" Leon's eyes lit up like supernovas. He leaned in, suddenly calling out in a cloyingly sweet, utterly shameless voice: "Kafka darling~ Wolfie~"
...
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