UNTIL...

Aina laid on her side in the little spoon position, angling a hand back to rest her palm on Leonel's cheek and seemingly enjoying the kisses that trailed her neck and shoulder. The somewhat dazed look in her eye and the shaking of her legs painted a different sort of story, but unfortunately for her, Leonel had a firm grip on her one raised leg, leaving her no room to run away.

At this point, Leonel was certain that she only provoked him like this despite knowing the ending only because she liked it so much. In the end, it hardly felt like he was in control at all, but he still chuckled, finally letting her leg go.

The slight shift in position, albeit slow, hit her at a new angle and Aina shivered once more, apparently too tired to do much other than breathe hard.

Her twitching caused Leonel to release his own breath, a torrent he had been holding back for a long while rushing forward. C0pyright © 2024 Nôv)(elDrama.Org.

Leonel smiled with satisfaction, running a hand up and down Aina's thigh, before trailing up her toned belly and grabbing a nice and soft handful of breast. His hand seemed to have a mind of its own, finding its favorite position without any prompting from him.

"… Are you sure you don't have any work to do?"

Aina's voice might as well have been a whisper, it seemed that she didn't have much strength to even speak at a normal volume.

Leonel laughed. "What, are you trying to kick me out after you're done with me?"

"Well, it is a little hot," Aina joked. "Who asked you to give off so much heat?"

Leonel smiled and waved a hand. Suddenly, the two went from on their bed to within the cool waters of their personal bathhouse within the Segmented Cube. Almost instantly, the two felt refreshed and cleansed at the same time.

"Ah!"

Aina hopped up a bit, feeling a strong pinch to her butt. She had just been sitting comfortably, but now she could only glare back toward Leonel who was already laughing.

"A small punishment for doubting me, don't you know how amazing your husband is?"

Aina snorted before settling the back of her head onto Leonel's check again. "I still don't see a wedding ring. Plus, it's been almost a month now since we've left this place, I'm a bit worried about Earth and what retaliation it might face."

Leonel laughed again. "Those guys are too busy scrambling not to lose their lives to attack Earth."

"Really?" Aina asked.

Back then, when Aphestus was flustered and questioning Leonel, Aina could only roll her eyes. This man loved her almost more than anyone else in his life, and yet even for her it felt like pulling teeth to get him to explain anything. Compared to her, Aphestus was even more out of luck. The others could just cross their fingers and hope that Leonel was competent.

Leonel's teammates were already used to this, Leonel went off and did things on his own all too often. Sometimes he would even manipulate them without them being aware of doing exactly what he wanted them to do.

When most thought about it, it made little sense. The effort needed to manipulate your enemy and your allies at the same time should have been more than the effort needed just to manipulate the former, but for some reason Leonel almost always insisted on taking the more difficult route.

If it wasn't for the fact Leonel had grown up with his brothers since they were toddlers, ever since they were all given their assignment after the Gene Assessment Exam, many might have already felt dissatisfied to the point of never interacting with him again.

However, Leonel's teammates saw things differently.

The thing was… If Leonel wanted to manipulate a person and have them never find out, it was as easy as breathing. Even to this point, the Viola and "Graros" still had no idea who had put them in such a situation.

If Leonel manipulated you, and you knew about it, it was more than 99% likely that he gave you enough information to know about it, and in his own weird way, that meant he liked you and respected you.

That day during the championship game all those years ago, when James tried to throw the game for reasons Leonel had still yet to care enough to find out about, was a prime example. James thought he had succeeded in throwing the game, only for Leonel to manage to turn it around anyway. In fact, by that point, Leonel was already over 90% certain of James' intention, and yet he still threw him the ball on purpose.

This was all to say that at this point, Aina felt that Leonel was a lost cause, but her curiosity had gotten the best of her this time around. Although the Etching Metal Organization likely had the information she needed, if she went to ask, wouldn't that be like admitting Leonel didn't explain anything to her either?

Her gaze suddenly flashed. She really had to rein in this unruly boy some more.

"Really," Leonel laughed. "Would I lie to you?"

"Maybe, maybe not. But what you would definitely do is annoyingly hold back information," Aina slapped Leonel's hands away from her chest. "Tell me, what happened?"

"Well, I didn't really do much, they just shot themselves in the foot. Who asked them to be so stupid?"

Aina's lips twitched. She had been by Leonel's side all this time so she knew that he hadn't taken a step out, nor had he asked anyone for information about what had happened, but he was still so confidently calling those Patriarchs who ruled over trillions of people stupid.

"They're fighting each other?"

"Well, a little bit. But Shield Cross Stars is ironically a nice sword to use. There'll probably be news of the Chaotic Water Sector being annihilated soon."

"Annihilated?" Aina's brows raised. "Why's that? And by Shield Cross Stars? How'd you manage that?"

"Well, they are members of the Cloud Race, so Shield Cross Stars was probably just finally doing its job."

Aina blinked. Since when had the Chaotic Water Sector become members of the Cloud Race?

Leonel chuckled. "Remember when they somehow found us in the middle of nowhere and ruined our honeymoon? I've known since then. The Human Domain didn't have the capability to do that with the precautions I had taken. Also, trying to bait me into killing their Prince with a weapon of Shield Cross Stars was really weird, and I couldn't understand why they were so insistent, until…"

"Until?" Aina was very curious about where Leonel was going with this until she felt a pair of hands creeping back toward her chest.

Aina smiled and shook her head. It was almost like he was taking them as a reward, she would never understand why men were so obsessed with these things.

As far as she was concerned she would prefer her hair to be cut to ear length and her breasts to be about a quarter as large. If those two things happened, her combat prowess would probably rise by another 10%.

But so long as Leonel was happy, she would let it slide.

Leonel smiled triumphantly as he continued his story.