Although being looked with cold eyes by such beauty was painful, Leon soon recovered when Ren hit his elbows in his stomach. Leon looked at him as if he was about to send Ren to the moon, but he stopped when he saw Ren"s earnest eyes."Unless you want to lose your eyes, don"t look at her ever again like that," Ren whispered.
"What do you mean by that? I didn"t think of anything," Leon frowned. "By the way, who is she? Why is there a priestess in the palace?"
"Her name is Yuki, princess Yuki," Ren added. "She is the daughter of the emperor... I don"t know the details, but it looks like she received the power from the G.o.ds to heal sickness, poisons, and even curses. She is doing that right now."
"What? That is so unfair..." Leon frowned.
"Don"t raise your tone..." Ren broke into a cold sweat. "I"m serious, Leon. Don"t even try anything to her. If something happens to her, and the cause is another American... the Emperor won"t need to raise a finger, the entire population of j.a.pan will wage war against your country."
"Dude... I"m here to find a way home, not to find a girlfriend." Leon shrugged. "Maybe in the next life, I will have a chance with her, but I understand that we live in different worlds."
Leon made a mental note not to look at her ever again, she was indeed the most beautiful woman he had seen in the last years, but he wouldn"t cause a war because of a single woman... that being said, he didn"t see many women in the last few years. Still, it looked her family was also working hard. The people in the queue seemed pretty ordinary, and even past dinnertime, she was helping them.
"Curses… so the monster can curse people, too."
Making a mental of that wasn"t necessary because Leon would kill all monsters before they could try anything against him. Eventually, Leon and Ren arrived at a big hall, where several men were sitting on the floor, and on the other side of the hall, Leon and Ren saw the emperor.
The emperor"s name was Makoto, despite being fifty years old, he looked far younger. There was no sign of grey hair in his black hair. Although he had fierce eyes and a trained physique, his facial features were pretty delicate. It didn"t look like monsters had damaged him even a single time. At his side, Leon saw a two and a half meters long katana. It was hard to imagine someone wielding that, but it looked very imposing. Leon didn"t know Makoto"s clothing styles, but his current clothes were rather simple. It was just regular clothes soldiers would wear in those j.a.panese period dramas.
After Leon checked the emperor with his own eyes, he felt some cold stares. When he looked at Ren kneeling on the ground, he understood why. Although Leon didn"t want to put himself in such a defenseless position, he decided to mimic Ren. He was in the emperor"s house, so he had to follow his rules.
After a few seconds, the emperor said something and Ren got up, Leon did the same and saw his pale face, and he was also sweating bullets. The emperor said other things, and Ren answered with few words.
"… What are you doing here?" The emperor asked, looking at Leon in the eye.
Leon almost said, "I was wondering the same thing," but he stopped because that could cause some problems. It looked like he would have to give the Emperor a brief summary of his last four years, too. It was a pain, but he hid those thoughts.
"Well, I was traveling back home in an airplane when…" Leon said.
Leon was aware that the emperor had better things to do, so he gave him a brief summary of his life. He didn"t want to talk about it too much, so he was okay with that, after hearing Leon"s answer. Makoto looked at one of the men sitting in the sides of the hall, the man just nodded. It looked like that guy could also read peoples" minds, and those men were the advisors who lived in Tokyo.
After that, Makoto and Ren talked for a few moments; it looked like Ren was trying to convince him of something… Anyway, it was a pain to Leon not to understand what was saying when he clearly was the core of the conversation.
"So, you think I will help you if you help my country a little?" Makoto asked.
"Is that how it sounds?" Leon frowned.
"Yes, it sounds like you want to be helped directly by me," Makoto said.
"I don"t want to be helped by anyone," Leon declared. "But, if I can lend a hand to someone who can also lend me a hand, I don"t mind helping. I didn"t ask Ren anything, but he promised that he would give me a hand. We are just was.h.i.+ng each other"s hands. If he finds a secure route to me go home, it would be more than enough; I can take care of myself."
"You are rather confident," Makoto said.
"I think that I"m logical and honest, does Your imperial majesty dislike logic and honest people?" Leon asked.
"Not at all," Makoto chuckled. "However, honesty can also be recognized as imprudence."
"I can"t deny that." Leon nodded.
For a moment, the atmosphere in the palace got heavier. Leon could even hear Ren"s sweat falling on the ground, the guards didn"t move an inch, but the advisors were looking at Leon as if he had a death wish. Despite that, Leon was feeling quite normal. None of those men, not even the Emperor, were as scary was a megalodon, so he had no reason to feel threatened.