MAD WOMAN
Leonel looked at the old woman for a long time. Or more accurately, the tablet. He didn't seem to register anything else that was happening around him and he was completely focused on what he was seeing.Exclusive content © by Nô(v)el/Dr/ama.Org.
At first, his initial reaction to a Black Tablet was just what maybe anyone else would think. His Silver Tablet seemed to be inclined toward the Light Side of the Northern Star Lineage Factor, so what if he had just run into someone with access to the Dark Side?
But he threw that idea away almost the instant he thought of it. It was too ridiculous.
There was simply no way that there would be someone stupid enough to body present themselves as an Envoy of Destruction. In addition, her aura wasn't like that in the slightest. She was for sure a wrinkly old woman, but more in the Mother Theresa sense rather than an ancient witch sense.
That was when Leonel remembered. The rankings for Contributions were Common, Black, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Life. He had always assumed that Bronze was the lowest-ranked tablet, but what if it wasn't? What if there was a Black Tablet below Bronze? And what if below that there was a Common Tablet, maybe carved of wood or concrete, or something else "inferior".
Leonel thought of his Silver Tablet again. Although he had never put it in so many words, he thought it was a shame that it wasn't Golden, and he felt even worse about it after he learned there was something even about Gold.
But what if he was luckier than he had initially thought?
A flashbang seemed to go off in Leonel's mind as the old woman opened her eyes. She looked weak and frail but her eyes were as pieces as a curious child's, large, bright and carrying a hint of imposingness that was entirely unlike their child-like size.
Leonel blinked once before recovering. He looked at the woman curiously; she didn't seem to be targeting him on purpose. But she had clearly sensed his gaze and reacted.
That was odd, though. The reason Leonel was looking so openly was that there were millions of participants here and only a dozen or so observers. Even if everyone's attention was split evenly, this old woman should have millions of eyes on her.
Plus, he wasn't stupid enough to observe her from the Dream Plane. For one, while the first round's world still seemed to be within an Incomplete World, this one was not. So even if he wanted to, he couldn't.
And secondly, he knew about the taboos already. He wouldn't try something like that on someone he suspected might also be a Wise Star Order-a Wise Star Order with far more experience than himself, at that.
And yet, she was still obviously looking at him.
Though another person would find it hard to tell considering the distance and the sea of people around him, there was no way Leonel would make such a mistake.
In the end, he just gave the old woman a smile. At the very least, she didn't seem to be affiliated with those he hated, plus bonus points for being an adorable old lady, and he thought this was the most apt response.
He didn't seem to realize that under the influence of his Scarlet Star Force, this most definitely wouldn't have been his reaction. At the moment, he was far more like the Leonel of Royal Blue Academy.
The old lady was startled for a moment, but by the time she reacted, Leonel had already looked away and began to observe the others, taking note of each one of them. In the end, he turned his attention to Aina and Blackstar as though there was no one else in the world.
"Did that brat just smile at me?" She muttered under breath.
She could feel much more than Leonel thought, and what she sensed wasn't just his smile, but the intent behind it.
Suddenly, she began to laugh.
"Adorable old lady"? She had never been called such a thing in her life. She didn't know if she should have Leonel whipped to death on the spot or treat him like her own grandson.
Among the dozen or so near her, not a single one managed to remain unfazed by this laughter. One of the experts of the Dream Pavilion who had been preparing to speak was startled into silence.
The problem wasn't the woman's power. All of them here had their own shocking methods and the internal politics of the Human Race was only so complicated because there was no "top dog," so to speak. They could all be said to be of equivalent power.
However, that didn't mean that there weren't certain people to be wary of, especially when one of them was the mad woman, Mo''Lexi.
Even her name was eccentric. It was spelled with not one, but two apostrophes because they represented not syllables, but rather a pulse of Force-namely Dream Force.
Not only did she want you to say her name, but you had to convey a pulse of Dream Force or Soul Force that would be in line with the image she wanted to portray.
As for what that image was, well...
She picked a particularly famous painting, one created by a figure even more famous... Northern Star Van''Wellia.
It depicted the last bloody war of the Envoys of Destruction and Creation, a sea of blood, corpses and strewn flesh.
Van''Wellia, in an irony of ironies, had her own pulse of Dream Force to go along with her name. The difference was that her own was a beautiful tapestry of a special Force flower known as the Dream Lotus.
It was hard to tell if Mo''Lexi was mocking Van''Wellia or not, and quite frankly, no one dared to ask this mad woman. Maybe only she and few others knew the truth.
And now, for some incomprehensible reason, this mad woman was laughing.