The two locked eyes, Herta staring at him with an unwavering, laser-focused gaze.
"Whatever I say it is — can it be that?" she asked.
Facing her stare head-on, Leon didn't flinch or look away. His gaze t hers dead center, steady and unhurried.
"Of course." The corner of Herta's lips curved upward. "Be my lover, and never leave again?"
Leon tested the waters with his reply.
[Quest Progress: 19/24]
"Oh my — did the sun just rise from the west?"
Herta didn't refuse. She simply settled back into her chair.
"To think soone like you would actually say sweet nothings to make a girl happy."
She folded her arms and watched him with an air of entertained curiosity.
"It was nothing," Leon said.
"That's it? Just like that?"
"What do you an?"
Leon didn't follow.
"What do you an 'just like that' — do you actually want to hear say I like you too?"
"Who said anything about that?"
Not that Herta didn't want to hear it, of course. She very much did.
By any asure, getting soone as proud as Leon to kneel at her feet — there was sothing enormously satisfying about that, no matter how you looked at it.
"Don't tell you went through all this elaborate effort just to et with for a few lines of sweet talk."
"Tell sothing nobody else knows."
And Leon's answer? That was exactly it.
"...What exactly do you think I should be saying right now?"
Herta let out a small sigh. She was long used to it by now — the man before her was simply that kind of free-spirited existence.
He did whatever he wanted. Simple as that.
"Just say whatever's on your mind. I don't mind."
"I'm not the only one you've called in today, am I?"
This wasn't even a matter of feminine intuition — it was simply obvious.
You had to understand how long Herta had waited for him to finally show up.
Leon was the kind of person who got things done efficiently. That he had co to find her this late in the day ant he'd clearly been busy with other things first. And from the nature of this sudden, out-of-nowhere confession, it wasn't hard to piece together what exactly he'd been busy with.
"Yes," he nodded.
"Tell — what number am I?"
Herta looked like she cared quite a bit about the answer to this question.
How many others he'd called in didn't really matter to her — he had plenty of won in his life, that much had been clear for a long ti. What mattered was her own ranking.
"Nineteenth."
Leon glanced at the quest progress counter and told her straight, without trying to hide it.
"I'm what number?!"
The mont the number nineteen left his mouth, Herta slamd both palms on the table and shot to her feet, eyes wide.
She knew he had many won in his life — but she hadn't expected him to actually have the audacity to rope in this many.
Nineteen. You're telling you're a poet now, Leon?!
"...Phew."
Herta caught herself, realizing her reaction had been a little too intense, and took a breath to bring her emotions back down to a manageable level.
"Is there anyone after ?"
She steadied herself and fixed him with a long, searching look as she asked.
First and last — both held a certain special significance.
If she were the last, Herta could live with that. But being buried sowhere in the middle? Then she'd genuinely have to find so new and creative way to love Leon.
"Five more."
Leon gave a straightforward nod. Honest as always.
"How many?!"
The number of people who could leave a genius like Herta genuinely stunned was vanishingly small. Leon was one of the rare few.
Nineteenth herself, and five more on top of that?
Five!
"Are you trying to cosplay as a twenty-four-winged angel?"
Twenty-four, Leon. You're genuinely unbeatable.
"You wouldn't understand."
Twenty-four carries a very special aning for us on the Astral Express — a tribute to the legendary grandmaster's final dance!
Herta drew a deep breath and asked in a low, deliberate voice:
"Tell — is Ruan i on the list?"
She knew she had no real power over Leon's decisions. Once he made up his mind, nothing changed. So she settled for the next best thing — using the rankings of people she knew to chase down whatever scrap of comparative satisfaction she could manage.
"She is."
"What number is she?"
"Eighteenth."
"Leon. You had better have deliberately placed at nineteenth for a very specific reason."
The mont she heard Ruan i was eighteenth, Herta couldn't hold herself back. She reached out and grabbed him by the collar, bringing her face inches from his, and enunciated every single word with pointed precision.
"If I'm simply nineteenth by coincidence — with no ulterior motive behind it — then you had better have a damn good explanation for why I'm not first. And your answer had better convince ."
Herta let out a low, humorless chuckle and said nothing further.
But the unspoken ssage hanging in the air was crystal clear: You know what I'm capable of.
TL;DR: Figure it out yourself.
"Don't get worked up."
You couldn't just look at the surface of this.
"Strictly speaking, you're actually the third."
Herta stared at him. Hard. For a long mont.
"I'm telling the truth — don't bla . The room assignnts were random. I had no idea where you were, so I had to go door by door, one at a ti."
"I didn't put you at nineteen on purpose. You just happened to be in room nineteen."
Herta stared at him for another long beat. Then, slowly, she released her grip on his collar.
As if she'd decided to accept his explanation.
"You know I've never once said a single bad thing about the great and magnificent Lady Herta."
Never mind that Leon had a yellow card on HertaTV, and that by any objective asure, he was the single most prolific offender when it ca to insulting roadside Herta puppets — he was still, fundantally, a good boy who was deeply loyal to Lady Herta herself.
"You had better not have."
Believe that if you could.
"I like you."
One denial of any wrongdoing — one 'I like you' the mont she pushes. Classic.
"I'm the kind of person who, once I've set my sights on sothing, doesn't easily change course."
Herta let out a quiet hmph.
"That just makes this whole exercise feel rather redundant, doesn't it."
Did Leon really need to confess?
Obviously not.
The nature of their relationship had already been settled — back during the Swarm Disaster, if you wanted to be precise.
"Hearing you say that, I'm relieved."
Relieved to move on to the next room, that is.
"Alright — see you later."
Leon rose from his chair, turned, and took a step toward the exit.
"Though fair warning — that's purely instinct talking. I have no idea where exactly 'later' is going to be."
Back still turned to her, Leon raised a hand in a casual wave as he stepped out of Room Nineteen.
——
Room Twenty.
Also 「Herta」.
"Ciallo~(∠·ω
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