Read Novel Full Chapter 117
Chapter 117
The One Being Protected
Leonardo’s finger gently touched Francesca’s lips.
“I cannot even lie and say that I’ll stay away from you………no matter I may have to fight because of it, I simply cannot even bear the thought of you not being beside me.”
The man always seemed to be afraid of nothing, and yet, his eyes seemed as dark and cloudy as the evening sky.
“Even if you become afraid of me, or push me away.”
“…………..”
A very faint smile seemed to appear on his lips.
“——to have someone like me love you so much, oh poor, pitiful, Francesca.”
The moment she heard that, Francesca reached her hand out.
And then grabbed the collar of Leonardo’s white shirt and then pulled him directly towards herself.
“……!?!?”
Both their foreheads smacked with each other, and light sound echoed in the room.
“Fran…….”
“You know, you just asked me a while back if I hated being protected by you right!?”
She then pulled Leonardo’s body to the side, making him fall back on to the bed beside her.
Leonardo was already suffering and weakened from his fever so Francesca very easily made him flop to the side. He could only blink in shock and look at her as she stretched her hand and touched Leonardo’s cheek.
“I do hate just being protected. If you want to protect me, let me protect you back as well!”
“…….Francesca.”
“Why would you think of me as pitiful? You wanting me to always stay by your side….it made me very happy you know…….”
She didn’t want him to ever feel like she was obliging him to stay with her.
“After all, you are my most cherished friend Leonardo. And also,”
At that point, she stopped her words, and blinked in confusion.
(And also?)
What was it more that she felt? She seemed to be having difficulty finding the right words for what she was feeling exactly and it really frustrated her.
“……..you are extremely dear to me too. So it’s fine, let’s remain together okay?”
“………Francesca.”
“I can’t let you chase after the mastermind yourself Leonardo. We’ll go after them together and beat them. After all, this is..”
Francesca closed her eyes, and then quietly muttered.
“—–my story as well.”
“…..?”
Before Leonardo could question her over what she meant, Francesca energetically raised her body back up.
“If both my attackers as well as the assassin are from the mastermind’s faction, then doesn’t that make things simpler for us? Of course I don’t want arbitrarily decide these things as fact just yet and we have to keep it in mind that there’s always a chance that there’s another party in play as well!”
“………”
“The party is already close, the day after tomorrow. We need to make sure to protect Graziano’s father…….whaaa!?”
Leonardo grabbed her by her shoulder, and made her fall back on the bed beside him like before. Turning her into his hug pillow again, Leonardo leaned in close to her ears and asked.
“What kind of person do you think would be best suited to be an assassin?”
Hearing the question while being embraced tightly, Francesca shifted her body within his arms as she began to think.
“Umm……..well, you need courage, enough strength to go past the bodyguards, and someone with enough endurance to last till the deed is done……?”
“hmm. Your image of an assassin is a little funny.”
(Uwaaa!! He’s right, the kind of person I imagined was less of an assassin and more of a yakuza hitman instead!!)
In her past life, whenever some executive from a opposing yakuza organization came to target them, they were the well built type that jumped straight in front of their target boldly aiming their gun at them.
Forget worrying about getting caught, they would attack with the resolve to die at that place, and rather than worry about getting found out, they’d be more focused on making sure that they kill their target.
“Wh-what are normal hitmen like then?”
“Well, first of all, I’d say that there’s no ‘normal’ hitman in the first place.”
Leonardo chuckled in amusement as he spoke.
“They are best at completely erasing their presence and assimilating themselves in their surroundings to the point where it feels completely natural that they are there. Just like what we talked about on the day we came to this forest, they’d likely be disguised as a guest invited here or…….”
(I can’t say it. That unlike what Leonardo believes,[the real killer happens to be one of the guests that suddenly open fires and attacks] or at least that was the image in the game, but I can’t tell him that…..!!)
“Then there’s also staff members who work behind the scenes and during the party etc as well. And then they could be someone from the sponsor’s side as well.”
“The sponsors…….”
By sponsors, he meant the people that invited all these people to this forest in the first place. Both the managers of this forest as well as their subordinates would fall under this category as well.
“Leonardo.”
Francesca decided to talk about something that had been on her mind for quite some time now.
“At that time in the forest, I always thought it was suspicious how that person appeared at such a perfect time and supposedly by completely coincidence no less.”
“……..”
And by the looks of it, it seemed Leonardo had also already come to the same conclusion as well.
“Hey, how easy would it be for a an outsider woman to take the look of a prostitute and enter this forest do you think?”
“……..Francesca.”
Leonardo made a somewhat troubled face, but Francesca didn’t let that slip by her.
“I realized it you know. Leonardo talked about it before as well right? The way to sneak me into the party.”
“……..Hold on a moment. If some of those other men acted rudely with you, I really might lose my temper and kill them you know?”
“You don’t need to worry about that. If I want to protect Leonardo, I need protect the things that Leonardo holds dear to him as well right?”
When she said that, Leonardo could only blink in shock. Francesca grinned, and then spoke in a very straightforward manner.
“I am well aware that what you want to protect the most, is me.——So I’ll protect that, alongside you too, Leonardo.”
“……..You are really……..”
Leonardo hugged her tight and kissed her forehead as he whispered.
“No matter how many skills I may steal from this world, I could never hope to be as strong as you.”
“Oh please, now you’re just exaggerating!!”
And then the sun set, and night fell.
Only a short while remained till the night party.
———————————-(End of Act 4)—————————————-