Then Siren seemed to remember something and suddenly stumbled over her words. Seeing Siren like this, Yuri clicked her tongue. Even though she tried to act like she didn’t know, Siren sucked at lying. It wasn’t difficult to guess what thought was going through Siren’s mind right now. It was pretty obvious that Siren’s reaction was due to Lakis who was currently staying at her house.

After changing into clothes that were easier to move in, Yuri picked up the mask by her side.

“It doesn’t matter whether I wear or take off my clothes at home.”

“No!”

When Yuri spoke like she didn’t care, Siren urgently refuted. She even sprang to her feet like she was greatly shocked.

“I am against it! I…I mean, you…”

However, Siren suddenly realized that she had almost unconsciously revealed that she’d secretly looked into Yuri’s house and knew about the existence of Lakis Avalon. So she pondered over what to say.

The moment she saw Yuri’s red eyes staring at her, her mind turned into a tangled mess. Actually, what she wanted to say was that she was against the idea of Yuri and Lakis Avalon having such a relationship. But she couldn’t say straight up say that.

Soon, Siren shut her eyes and shouted haphazardly.

“I’m against you throwing off your clothes just because you’re at home!”

“…”

“Okay? We’re not at the lab anymore, so you have to make sure you’re always well covered! Even after taking a bath, don’t walk around undressed and even when you’re sleeping, you have to wear pajamas! OK?”

The longer she spoke, the weirder the contents seemed to become but Siren was frantic. She was worried that Yuri might still have her habit from the lab and could be stripping off her clothes without caring if Lakis Avalon could see or not. Then what if she gotten eaten up by that terrifying person…!

‘I’m going to kill you, Lakis Avalon!’

Simply imagining such a thing sparked fire in Siren’s eyes. Yuri felt Siren was more excited than necessary and spoke in an effort to calm Siren down.

“Alright. I’ll dress well.”

“Yes! You have to be dressed! Don’t just change in front of others like you just did!”

“I only do that in front of you guys, don’t have to worry about it.”

Instantly, Siren paused

“Y-You only do that in front of us?”

It somehow felt like she was being given special treatment and Siren suddenly felt touched. Of course, despite Siren feeling moved, Yuri didn’t really have anything in mind when she said that.

“I’ll head out. You two, get along.”

After saying so, she left Leo and Siren and left the monastery. For now, her destination was the black market she went to last time.

* * *

The black market in daytime was as quiet as a graveyard. It could be attributed to the fact that Kalian Crawford had gone through this place not too long ago, but the place was way too quiet.Yuri began to dig up the trails at the slave trading market where Leo and Siren were captured. Honestly, if it wasn’t for the fact that she lost contact with Odin, she wouldn’t have a reason to come back to this place.

Yuri thought the slave traders were trying to capture the test subjects in order to sell things with unusual appearances to perverted nobles at a high price. Actually, this sort of thing happened in Carnot from time to time, so it wasn’t that unusual.

After digging through the empty wasteland of a slave market, she found something that seemed like a list of clients. Of course, it wasn’t somewhere easy to find but she had used her thread to look through all sorts of secret locations before finding it.

Yuri skimmed through it before throwing it away. Then she left the black market without pause. She had memorized the list with a glance earlier so there was no hesitation in her steps as she headed to the next location.

~

After leaving the black market, Yuri headed north. There were criminal organizations gathered at that border too. Similarly, the main activities here happened at nighttime so right now, it was on the quiet side. Honestly, broad daylight was a bad time to invade but it couldn’t be help.

Yuri rode a rope down from the roof and checked for signs of people around then she picked a window and went inside. The room seemed like a warehouse. Knowing there was no presence outside the door, Yuri went out into the hallway.

She planned to find out if they were also looking for mutants in this place and see if Odin might be here. And so, she moved while avoiding people as much as possible…

Then she ran into someone unexpected.

As soon as she turned around the corner of the hallway, she came face to face to a man in a white mask.

It was Lakis.

The moment they met, both of them paused at the same time. And the same thought crossed their minds.

‘Why is Lakis here?’

‘Why is Yuri here?’

They were even more surprised because both of them had been hiding their presence, so they didn’t know about each other until they were right in front of each other’s nose.

Once Lakis saw Yuri’s masked self which he had seen at the festival last time, he immediately knew her identity. After which, Lakis raised his hand.

Yuri instantly thought he was going to attack but that wasn’t the case. Lakis didn’t directly speak, instead he conveyed something with his hand. It was a pretty easy-to-understand hand signal, so she immediately knew what he was trying to say.

‘There’s something this way so why don’t we go the other way?’

She didn’t know if this ‘something’ was a human being or a trap, but it was clear he meant that she shouldn’t go in the direction he pointed to.

Yuri quietly raised a brow, in spite of herself.

‘Why is he telling me this?’

This sort of kindness wasn’t what she would associate with the Lakis who attacked her at the festival. Of course, he did help her when they met at the slave market some time ago but…

Right then, Yuri sensed a couple people moving towards where she and Lakis stood.

“…!”

The next moment, Lakis grabbed Yuri’s arm. Yuri paused for a moment, then she followed Lakis’ lead. A while later, they hid themselves in the corner of a dark hallway. There wasn’t much space, so their bodies had to touch each other. In that position, they waited for the obstacles to pass.

Lakis’ gaze fell on Yuri’s masked face in front of him. Normally, he would have just wiped out all the people he encountered but he didn’t know why Yuri came here so he held back for now.

Lakis heard that this place might have ruins fragment, so he came to verify the claim. But naturally, he had no idea he would meet Yuri here. Lakis wondered what she came here for.

Yuri felt Lakis’ gaze on her and lifted her head. Their eyes met in the air. Even though it didn’t fit the situation, Lakis felt the urge to hold Yuri’s hand.

In fact, although they were wearing masks to disguise themselves, they already knew each other’s identity. However, Lakis was unaware that Yuri knew who he was while Yuri was beginning to suspect that Lakis recognized her. And so, neither of them could make a rash move.

The bustle of noise nearby moved past them.

Yuri was watching Lakis in the meantime, then suddenly thought she might as well ask him, so she raised her hand. Once Lakis saw the thing wrapped around Yuri’s wrist like a bracelet, he flinched. What she showed him was a black feather hanging there. Lakis recognized it as Odin’s feather.

Then Yuri signaled with her hand like Lakis did earlier. She tapped the feather and motioned a bird flying, then she pointed to her eyes. After that, she pointed to where the footsteps had come from inside the building.

Lakis roughly understood what she meant. A literal translation would be that she was asking if he had seen a bird with this kind of black feather and a better interpretation would be…

[Have you seen Odin in here?]

Lakis racked his brain.

‘Is Yuri here to look for Odin?’

When Lakis didn’t give an immediate response, Yuri’s masked face tilted to the side. Then she figured he might have not understood so she gestured a second time.

Lakis’ gaze was fixed on Yuri. Again, his thought didn’t fit the situation but…

‘Damn it. This is so cute…’

Only

The sight of Yuri trying her best to explain something to him looked so cute that he almost reached out to her unconsciously.

—You have a serious mental case…

The bug in his head mumbled as if it was getting sick of the whole thing. Soon, the footsteps of the people passing them became distant. His gaze momentarily moved in that direction before looking back, and their eyes met in the air again.

Yuri figured Lakis didn’t know anything, so she moved out first. Once she moved, Lakis caught her without thinking. Then Yuri stopped walking and turned to look at him.

Lakis shook his head in reply to what Yuri asked earlier and drew an X on his hand. Then as though confirming, Yuri imitated him.

Lakis nodded his head.

Yuri also nodded to show she understood.

‘Ah, like I thought, she’s so cute…’