Laughter

Leonel had no choice in the matter, he could only take evasive maneuvers…

Escape.

Laughter rang out toward his back but he scurried away on a beam of light.

His useless accomplice, Joel, still clung onto him for dear life, so he had to do the only thing he could and get rid of dead weight. Joel finally woke up when he hit the ground, looking around in confusion to figure out what was going on, a chorus of laughter becoming his only backdrop. Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.

As for Leonel, he had already vanished into the distance and down the mountain.

"Fuck you guys!"

Those words echoed from Leonel, but that only made them all laugh harder.

**

A laughter rang out in the middle of nowhere. Leonel laughed harder than he had in a long time, his eyes finally finding the tears it needed.

He wiped them away with a forearm, but the smile on his face didn't seem to have any intention of fading.

"Hey old bastard, you did that, huh? You're already so ancient but like pulling these kind of pranks on kids, you're one sick individual."

Leonel held the necklace pendant around his neck up to his face.

After that day, his mother ended up sealing both halves of Wise Star Order into this pendant. Of course, his mother didn't allow their Ancestor to fuse back into one, forcing him to remained in a weaken state with both his halves unable to communicate with the other. And yet, both halves were also now subservient to Leonel.

That said, Leonel had learned his lesson already. He would never be too comfortable around this old man, no matter how chains and weights were holding him down. For all he knew, this old man had yet another layer of plans.

"I have no idea what you're talking about. If you have certain proclivities, don't blame it on me." Wise Star Order spoke indifferently.

"Yea, yea, yea. I know it was you. You can't do anything to me, but you can definitely do something to Joel since I never explicitly said anything other than not harming them. Either way, from now on, no more schemes against my friends."

"I still have no idea what you're talking about, young one."

"Mhm. Anyway, point me toward that treasure trove. I need to drown out this headache with riches."

The lip of Wise Star Order twitched. He knew that Leonel was doing this on purpose, but there was nothing he could do about it.

…

The location of the treasure trove was indeed close, Wise Star Order hadn't lied about that. But it was extremely well hidden, so much so that Leonel wasn't surprised that it had never been found.

As shameless as Wise Star Order was, he used his own burial ground, taking advantage of the esteem and respect the Luxnix had for him to protect his things. Luckily, Leonel now had just as much free reign in the Luxnix estate as Myghell did.

Now that Leonel thought about it, the second day of the Selction had probably already ended and Myghell had likely returned, but the latter hadn't tried to find him. But, as far as Leonel was concerned, it didn't matter.

There was only one place he could be come the third day.

Leonel had his own war to fight, and that he did. Entering the treasure trove Wise Star Order was like entering a field of mines. Every corner had danger and Leonel felt a close shave with death at least three separate times, and at least eleven other times, he was almost severely injured and managed to escape by the skin of his teeth.

Leonel knew how dangerous it would be and he had even purposely not used the link between himself and Wise Star Order, making it a true game of back and forth. The fact he was also hung over only made it all the more difficult, but the smile on Leonel's face didn't fade even once.

'This damned brat, he's a masochist.'

Wise Star Order could feel that Leonel was already getting used to his type of thought process. He wasn't outsmarting Wise Star Order, rather he had done a psychological evaluation on his Ancestor just based on the small amount of time they had known each other. Leonel then used his conclusions about Wise Star Order's disposition to guess what he would do next and how he would have acted.

When Wise Star Order realized this, a cheeky smirk spread across his face.

'Little bastard, you want to get a read on me? I've spent thousands of years reforming and reshaping my character time and time again. If you think that this is enough to thwart me, you've got another thing coming.'

Wise Star Order didn't seem to realize that he had begun to have fun as well. It could only be said that the two men were weird individuals.

One was smiling while his life was on the line and the other was grinning as he tried to take the former's life. There was no way anyone could look at such a situation and conclude anything but the fact that they were a pair of madmen.

…

On Planet Montex, a familiar young woman sat in the same spot she always had, looking off into the distance as though Leonel's mother was still there. Those around her were a bit worried as she had yet to move since those matters of several days ago, but Savahn had also convinced them not to bother her.

Things were better like this. After all, between being able to catch a glimpse of her through the terrace window and her locking herself up in her room, this was much better. At least this way, they could ensure that she didn't do anything stupid.

The days ticked by like this and on the night before the third selection, something seemed to click.

Aina's gaze regained its focus, the moons seeming just a bit brighter and a light smile spreading across her face.

She rose to her feet, her hand still clutching onto the Amethyst Token. Her gaze seemed to radiate a meaningful 'thank you'. As to who it was for, it was, of course, Leonel's mother.

She entered the home on the mountain and vanished into the bathroom, leaving Miel, Savahn and Yuri a bit at a loss.