“Why did you change your mind?” Planos asked Aurelie as they sat down to have a simple dinner.

The teenager had scrubbed off all the blood and then changed, so she looked very clean, her skin once again it’s radiant pearly white. She looked rather enticing, sitting there with her silky crimson hair falling halfway down her back, her sapphire eyes twinkling, her skin appearing so soft. She wore a gray nightdress that fit her more like a t-shirt large enough to fall to her knees. The way she huddled closer to the fire and wrapped her hands around her bowl of gently steaming broth seemed endearing. Even the “Hm?” she had given in response to his question sounded cute.

Despite knowing that the girl across from him was anything but innocent, it still took Planos a few moments to gather his thoughts, and a couple more to elaborate on his question.

“Why are you here now, when you refused to join me at the start?” He asked, his voice shaking. After speaking, he immediately blushed.

Aurelie smiled at the endearing reaction. Deciding to have fun with this, Aurelie let the highschool girl out to play. Flirting, she decided, would be quite interesting. Assassin Aurelie also knew how to flirt, of course. The best way to get close to male targets without arousing their suspicions was to arouse their bodies. But, though she was still a virgin, the assassin’s flirting was more seductive, more provocative, than the high school girl’s flirting. And a boy as funny and as cute as this should be teased, not lead astray.

Besides, she never left a single man who touched her alive, and killing Planos would be a shame.

She didn’t consider this a betrayal to Zane. As far as she was concerned, the only way she could possibly betray Zane was by falling for, or dating, somebody else. This was harmless fun. Even she didn’t get jealous on the rare occasions Zane flirted. It was more like amusement. The problem started when he dated someone, or slept with them.

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Putting all that out of her mind, Aurelie leaned forward slightly, smiling warmly as Planos mirrored her movements.

“You see,” she whispered, as though they were sharing a huge secret, “I’m a very cautious person. I prefer for all my alliances to be secrets. So I couldn’t very well accept your request right  then and there, right?”

“Right.” Planos nodded his head vigorously to show his absolute agreement with her words. Seeing this, Aurelie giggled. The silvery sound made Planos’ pink cheeks grow incarnadined.

However, at that moment, a roar sounded out. “Nephew! How could you let your guard down so far in front of an enemy?”

Out of nowhere, a musclebound giant landed on the ground in front of Planos. He was huge, easily surpassing seven and a half feet, but he held a clear resemblance with Planos.

“Enemy?” Aurelie asked numbly, looking incredibly shocked.

“That’s right!” The new man roared. “I am here to take your life, Aurelie Kanos.”

At the same time that he spoke, his aura rushed out of him. Unexpectedly, he was a  second stage Elemental Apprentice, the same level as Mrs. Dreslin.

Aurelie backed away, discreetly brushing her thumb against her ring to withdraw her weapons. But instead of meeting the cool stone of her ring, her thumb instead brushed against the warm flesh of her ring finger. Jerking in shock, Aurelie looked at her hand. Her ring was gone! But how… suddenly she remembered that she had put it in her bag before wiping herself down. Running full out to the bag, Aurelie desperately searched for the ring.

After about a minute, an amused voice asked, “Looking for this?”

Aurlelie paused, then slowly turned around. Between the the thumb and the index finger of Planos’ uncle’s right hand was a small jade green ring that Aurelie recognized as hers.

With a sinking feeling, Aurelie turned to face the two men. Her guns, the only hope she had of defeating this man on her own, were in that ring.

This time she was in huge trouble.