Chapter 102: The most beautiful woman
Pale Smoke turned away from the empty crater, his eyes drifting toward Yeon, who still lay bleeding out on the ground nearby.
Yeon’s face had already turned a sickly shade of purple from the sheer amount of blood he’d lost, his chest rising and falling uncontrollably. He was barely breathing.
Pale Smoke let out a low whistle, tilting his head as he studied the dying man.
"Wow... you’re still alive?" he muttered, almost amused. "Even with your intestines spilling out like that? That’s surprising."
He walked closer, his boots crunching softly over the broken stone, until he stood directly over Yeon’s ruined body.
He looked down at the man’s face with detached curiosity, the way someone might examine a bug twitching on its back.
Yeon’s eyes rolled weakly toward him. He tried to focus, his lips parting as he gasped for air, each breath sounding wetter and more strained than the last. No words came out, only the ragged, desperate sound of a body refusing to give up just yet.
Pale Smoke scoffed, crouching down slightly to get a better look.
"You’ll bleed out and die soon," he said flatly, as if commenting on the weather. "How unfortunate."
Before he could straighten back up, a voice thundered down from the jagged cracks still hanging in the sky above them.
"Heal him."
The command rolled through the ruined battlefield like a wave of pressure, and Pale Smoke flinched violently, his spine going rigid.
"O-of course..." he stammered, forcing the words out. "I was about to do that."
He dropped to his knees beside Yeon immediately, pink smoke oozing out of his fingers.
*
Leon grunted, his eyelids fluttering as he slowly opened his eyes.
For a moment, everything was blurry, his vision swimming with faint streaks of green and black. He blinked hard, trying to force the world back into focus.
He found himself lying flat on his back, stretched out across the middle of a vast, open field. Tall grass swayed gently all around him, brushing softly against his arms and legs with every breath of wind.
He sat up slowly, wincing as his body protested the movement, and looked around in confusion. There was no sign of the ruined headquarters or cracks in the sky above.
All he could see, stretching endlessly in every direction, was an untouched field of grass and flowers, swaying peacefully beneath a calm, open sky.
The scene felt almost unnervingly serene compared to the chaos he had just been thrown out of.
He pushed himself up onto his feet, his legs still a little unsteady beneath him, and slowly turned in a full circle, trying to make sense of where he had ended up.
He took a slow step forward, then another, his feet brushing gently through the tall grass as he made his way deeper into the field.
The quiet was almost deafening after everything he had just endured, the earlier feeling of suffocating pressure now nothing more than a faint memory pressing at the back of his mind.
He reached out and let his hand drift across the top of the swaying grass beside him, his fingers grazing lightly over a cluster of small flowers as he passed.
The petals felt soft and cool against his skin, almost fragile, a stark contrast to the violent, bloodstained battlefield he had escaped only moments ago.
For now, at least, he was alive. And wherever this place was, it was quiet.
A beautiful scent drifted up from the flowers around him, sweet and faint, carried gently on the breeze.
Leon inhaled slowly, letting it fill his lungs, and felt some of the tension in his shoulders ease despite everything he had just been through.
"Where is this place?" he muttered under his breath, glancing around at the endless stretch of grass and color surrounding him. "Is this where I was teleported to by Brave Escape... the safe location?"
He turned in a slow circle again, scanning the horizon for any sign of a landmark, a structure, anything familiar.
Then he looked down at himself, checking his hands, his clothes, his own body, as if searching for some kind of clue. The confusion only deepened the longer he stood there.
It felt like a dream. Even with the grass brushing against his fingers and the flowers soft beneath his palm, none of it quite felt real to him, like his senses were only halfway convinced this place actually existed around him.
Still, he couldn’t deny how beautiful it all was. The colors were too vivid, the air too clean, the light too soft and golden. It was, without question, the most beautiful place he had ever laid eyes on in his entire life.
Then, cutting gently through the quiet, he heard a voice.
It was soft and melodious, carrying an almost musical lilt to it, the kind of voice that seemed to drift on the wind rather than come from any one direction.
"We finally meet..."
Leon’s eyes narrowed slightly at the sound, his body instinctively tensing as he turned toward it.
His gaze landed on her, and his eyes widened slightly in quiet awe.
She was, without a doubt, the most beautiful woman he had ever seen.
Her hair was a deep, flowing green, cascading down past her shoulders in soft waves that seemed to shimmer faintly whenever the light touched it.
Her eyes were a bright, vivid green as well, striking and clear, framed by a round, delicate face that looked almost too perfect to belong to anyone real.
Her skin was smooth and fair, practically glowing beneath the soft golden light of the field, without a single blemish or imperfection anywhere he could see.
Her body was slender yet subtly curved, carrying an effortless grace even as she simply stood there, motionless, watching him with quiet, patient eyes.
There was nothing forced about her posture, nothing that suggested she was trying to look elegant. It was simply who she was.
Leon stared at her for a long moment, unsure of what to say, his earlier confusion now mixing with a growing sense of caution. Whoever she was, she clearly wasn’t a normal person, not standing here in a place like this, not with a voice and presence like that.
He forced himself to stay still, his instincts sharpening despite the strange calm surrounding them both. After everything he had just escaped from, he wasn’t about to let his guard down completely, no matter how peaceful this field looked, and no matter how striking the woman in front of him appeared to be.
The wind shifted gently between them, rustling through the tall grass and carrying her faint scent toward him, something floral and clean, blending seamlessly with the fragrance of the flowers all around.
She continued to watch him in silence, her green eyes steady and unreadable, as if she already knew exactly who he was and had simply been waiting for him to arrive.
Leon swallowed hard, his mind racing through a dozen questions at once. Where exactly was he? Who was this woman? And more importantly, was this place really as safe as it looked, or was he simply trading one danger for another?
He opened his mouth slightly, ready to speak, his eyes never leaving hers.
She was clad in a flowing green gown that clung nicely to the curves of her body, the fabric shifting delicately with every faint breeze.
The neckline dipped just enough to offer a modest peek of her cleavage, elegant rather than provocative, matching the quiet grace radiating off her entire presence.
For a few seconds, silence stretched between them, thick and heavy despite the peaceful field surrounding them both.
Leon eventually broke out of his daze, shaking his head slightly to clear his thoughts.
"Who... are you?" he asked, his voice quieter than he intended. "Where is this place? How did I get here?"
The woman let out a soft sigh in response, the sound alone gentle and melodic, and Leon felt his heart skip a single, unexpected beat.
He gulped hard, his mind instantly racing.
’What is this feeling...’ he thought, his brows furrowing slightly. ’Is she using some sort of skill on me?’
Even back at the academy, when he had been widely regarded as the future heir of the Roaring Lions, surrounded by admirers and attention wherever he went, he had never once been the type to lose himself over a pretty face. He had always kept his composure, no matter how beautiful the girl in front of him happened to be.
He clenched his fists tightly at his sides, forcing his breathing to steady as he fought to keep his mind clear and focused.
The woman spoke again, her sweet voice drifting gently into his ears like a melody carried on the wind. "You like asking so many questions, Leon..."
Before he could respond, she vanished from his sight entirely, disappearing in the blink of an eye without so much as a flicker of light or sound to mark her movement.
The next thing Leon knew, he felt a soft, delicate hand resting lightly against his chest.
He froze completely, his entire body going rigid, and found her face now hovering directly in front of his own, close enough that he could feel the faint warmth of her breath.