NoGift

He hugged his brother"s arm.  "Brother, is it really okay to leave just like that?"

"Yes.  There"s nothing we could do there anyway," Luna said calmly.

"But doesn"t it just make you angry?  We"re the ones who found Argent Blackbourne first but Kazumi was the one who got all the fun.  It"s unfair!"

"Let him."  

It"s better if he ended up hurting Argent Blackbourne.  That way, he would definitely be punished by Luc.  Seeing how Luc gave special attention to that Albion duke, he"d definitely be mad if Kazumi hurt him.  Luna was actually hoping he"d kill the duke.  Because if he did, Luc would probably not only punish him, he might even kill him.  Wouldn"t that be nice?

Truthfully, Luna was a bit grateful that Kazumi appeared.  Because of him, his brother"s attention was diverted.  When he recognized Argent Blackbourse, he was already thinking on how to transfer his brother"s attention from the duke.  Since he knew that once Solis found something that he considered truly interesting, it would be hard to dissuade him.  And that Argent Blackbourne being the creator of sPhones perfectly fit the bill.

But then, Kazumi came and Luna didn"t need to do anything more.  If Solis continued, they might be the one ending up being punished.  

Solis leaned his head on his brother"s thin shoulder.  He"s still dissatisfied.  But since they already left, he couldn"t do anything about it anymore.  "Then should we look for something more fun?"

"No.  The envoys from Anatolia would be back today.  You should stay at the Apostolic Palace just to be sure."

Solis pouted.  He almost forgot about those guys.  Their arrival meant that he had to return to Anatolia tomorrow.  "I don"t want to go back to the Sun Palace."

Luna raised his hand and ruffled his brother"s soft hair.  "You can always sneak inside my tower."

"That"s still not enough.  I hope the two of us could always stay together," Solis said, his voice tinged with sadness.  Then he was suddenly filled with anger.  "I wish that old goat would just die already.  Then the two of us could finally be free."

Luna"s eyes darkened by the mention of this "old goat".  "Don"t worry.  Soon, he could no longer affect us."

----------

Viper almost lost his foothold because of the sudden shaking of the floor caused by the unexpected explosion.  It was much stronger than the earlier tremor from the Holy Temple.  Which meant that this explotion happened much nearer.  He glanced outside the window and, sure enough, he saw smoke coming up from a distance.

What if Argent was involved in that explosion?  When he realized that there"s a high possibility of that happening, everything around him just became inconsequential.  Even the Pope he"s currently fighting.  Of course, that included the wound he got during his last failed attack.

He turned to the window and was planning to jump over.  But because of his sudden movement, the wound on his stomach opened even further.  He didn"t mind the pain.  He was quite used to such things, after all.  All he wanted right now was to check if Argent was safe or not.  

"What, leaving so soon?" the Pope said, pulling back Viper"s attention.

He looked back at the Pope.  Aside from his destroyed outer robe, he still looked as pristine as ever.  Viper hated to admit it, but the b.a.s.t.a.r.d really was strong.  They"ve been fighting for quite a while but he was the only one who ended up being wounded.  

If this b.a.s.t.a.r.d was not hated by his master, Viper would probably feel a bit admiration for the guy.  After all, the strong always deserved some kind of respect.  But sadly, he was.  Although even if he wasn"t, the fact that he showed an abnormal interest towards Argent was enough to put him on Viper"s ever increasing hate list.

"As much as I wanted to beat the s.h.i.+t out of you right now, Argent"s safety comes first.  So do try not to die until we meet again."

Then he jumped off the window.

Lucern didn"t bother to follow.  He looked towards the direction of the explosion and a worried frown appeared on his handsome face.

----------

Lei Feng collected his Mana back.  Without the influence of his Gifts, the wind and lightning surrounding the whole area of the plaza slowly disappeared.  Following that, the rain also slowly eased.  

He looked down, he didn"t expect for the whole Holy Temple to disappear.  This weapon that Argent created was comparable to the weapons she made at their original world.  Weapons that were considered as treasures by the government of their country.

In the military, she was known as the "Doctor".  Her real ident.i.ty was considered a cla.s.sified information that only few higher-ups in the government were allowed to know.  His rank was already a Captain then, he even had his own squad.  But even so, he wasn"t given the priviledge of knowing her real ident.i.ty.  

Despite being the leader of the operation that night, his superior only told him to apprehend the Doctor living in her lab located at some isolated area.  When he said that he needed more information, at least show him the Doctor"s picture so he wouldn"t mistake another person for her.  But his superior only told him that that wouldn"t be a problem.  Because the Doctor was the only one living there.  

Which ultimately lead to the accident that night.  

Lei Feng shook his head, forcing himself not to think about that stupid mistake.  He already had too many of those.  He would only drown if he continued to wallow in it.  

He looked down again and saw that the guards of the second prince of Albion were leading the people away from the plaza, all of them walking in an orderly manner.  

It"s hard to imagine that earlier, all of them were panicking.  Almost causing a stampede.  But thankfully, a b.l.o.o.d.y incident like that was prevented by the prince"s timely acting.  Add that to the almost real-like holographic image of the G.o.ddess and the success of the plan was almost a foregone conclusion.  Anyone who knew Argent could see her handwriting all over this plan.

But he must admit, without the prince"s effective performance, this definitely wouldn"t be a success.  Considering how deeply rooted religion was in these people"s hearts.

Since his part was already done, Lei Feng was planning to contact Argent when he heard some kind of explosion coming from the forest.  It wasn"t that loud, most of the people leaving the plaza probably didn"t even notice it.  But because of his current position, hovering in the clouds and all that, he could clearly see the explosion just now.

For some reason, he couldn"t help but think of Argent and worry immediately filled him.

Before he could think more, he immediately flew towards that direction.