"You... knew?" Leo asked hesitantly, his voice low as he began to understand what Hera was referring to.
"Was it because of the Avery intel departnt—Gerald’s team?" he added, glancing at her with a mixture of surprise and realization.
Around them, the others exchanged confused glances. They couldn’t quite follow what the two were talking about.
"Not exactly. I have other sources, too." Hera replied calmly.
She couldn’t exactly tell them the truth, not yet. How could she casually reveal that they were all living inside a novel, sothing Athena had told her? Everyone was already reeling from the shocking revelation about her and Leo’s identities. Dropping another, even bigger bombshell would only overwhelm them further. They needed ti to process what they had already learned.
Besides, Hera wasn’t sure if revealing the truth about their world would disrupt the law of causality or trigger another butterfly effect. That was sothing she had to carefully consider.
Athena’s help had already caused her to break free from the original storyline, and that alone had led to significant changes. Perhaps Athena was unaffected by the laws of this world because she wasn’t originally part of it, free to move and act without consequence.
But Hera wasn’t so sure the sa would apply to the male leads... or to the main villain. What if, upon learning the truth, they didn’t awaken like she did? What if the storyline fought back and erased their mories or forced events to realign just to preserve itself?
This uncertainty weighed heavily on her. It was the reason she was still holding back, still deciding whether telling them the truth was worth the risk.
"There’s no need for you to worry about it. I have my own plans," Leo said, his voice laced with a chilling intensity. "Rest assured, none of those who betrayed will have a good ending."
The coldness in his tone sent a quiet shiver through the room. It was sharp, dangerous, and unmistakably threatening. For the first ti, Hera was seeing a side of Leo she hadn’t seen before. In that mont, he truly resembled the villain from the novel, calculated, cruel, and unforgiving.
As if realizing he’d just let that darker part of himself slip, Leo froze. A buzzing sensation filled his head, and he blinked in surprise, as though snapping out of a trance. Then, he looked at Hera with visible worry, his fingers twitching slightly as he fidgeted nervously, and was unsure how Hera would see him now.
There was a silent question in his eyes, as if he feared she might now see him as ruthless... even monstrous.
After all, Black Puma was known for being rciless. And more than anything, he despised traitors. The ambush he had narrowly survived ant only one thing: soone on the inside had leaked his location. There was a traitor among his own people, and that betrayal had nearly cost him his life and his other close subordinates.
"Why handle everything on your own?" Hera asked, her brows furrowed in concern. "We can pool our resources and information, get to the bottom of this faster and more effectively. Why take the harder road when there’s another way?"
She had a point. With Dave, the Young Minister of the country, and Luke, the boss of the Eastern Mafia, they had powerful allies on both sides of the line. Together, they could share intelligence, coordinate their strengths, and corner their enemies with precision.
There was no need for Leo to carry the weight alone and suffer unnecessary losses when cooperation could lead to faster, cleaner results.
Besides, the longer they dragged this out, the more innocent civilians would be caught in the crossfire. This turf war, especially the war on drugs, wasn’t just a power struggle. It was costing lives. The sooner they ended it, the better for everyone.
And it wasn’t just Leo’s life at risk. The more desperate the opposing factions beca, the more reckless they might grow. What if they turned their sights on Luke or Dave, or worse, their families? These people had no morals. They didn’t care about rules or the damage left in their road. They only cared about the outco.
If they gave the enemy ti, there was no telling what they might do. And that was a risk Hera wasn’t willing to take.
Especially after going toe-to-toe with those syndicate mbers the last ti she ca to save Leo, Hera knew just how dangerous they truly were. Those people had access to high-end firearms and gear that could rival even military-grade weapons.
That alone proved one thing: they were prepared for war. If they were willing to point those weapons at civilians just to pressure the authorities into backing down... what kind of damage could they unleash on the country if left unchecked?
Dave seed to catch on to what Hera was implying. His expression froze as the weight of realization hit him like a truck. He turned to Leo, eyes wide, and raised a trembling hand to point at him.
"Y-You guys... you’re talking about the Southern and Western mafia factions. Don’t tell —you actually know sothing?"
Hera glanced at Leo, silently asking whether it was ti to tell them the truth. Leo t her gaze, but instead of answering, he simply waited, calm, unreadable, letting her decide.
After a mont, Leo spoke. "Alright... let’s see what these guys can even bring to the table."
Hera’s lips curled into a smile, her eyes crinkling with amusent. ’Good boy,’ her look seed to say.
Leo caught her expression and imdiately looked away, the tips of his ears turning a light shade of red. He puffed out his cheeks in mock annoyance and rolled his eyes. "Hmph!"
’Why do I feel like Leo’s turning into a tsundere ever since he got amnesia?’ Hera thought, amused by the contrast between his cold reaction and this unexpectedly cute contrast.
"What do you an by that?" Dave was the first to react, predictably, his voice sharp, as if soone had just stepped on his tail.
Hera turned to him calmly. "Well... Leo here is actually Black Puma, the true boss of the Northern Mafia faction."
The room tensed instantly, but Hera continued, her tone steady and clear.
"I believe the reason he was ambushed in the forest is because, the man who briefly took over the Northern faction after Leo initially declined the position was furious when Leo reclaid it."
"At first, Black Puma turned down the offer to lead, so that man was chosen as his replacent. But when Black Puma ca back and took back the reins, he didn’t just humiliate the newly crowned boss; he also disrupted the alliance that man had just ford with the Western and Southern factions."
She let that sink in before finishing, "The forr boss was planning to expand into more extre illegal trades, assassination, drugs, and human trafficking. Black Puma’s return and refusal to participate in any of it destroyed their montum. That’s why they want him gone. He’s standing in the way of everything they’re trying to build."
Dave gasped, and the room fell into stunned silence. Just when they thought they were starting to understand who Leo really was, another bombshell dropped. He wasn’t just anyone; he was ’Black Puma’. The elusive, feared boss of the Northern Mafia faction.
Even Luke, who was no stranger to the underworld, looked visibly shaken. Of all people, he hadn’t expected Black Puma to be soone who’d been right beside him all this ti.
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