Eventually, they returned to Nathaniel and apologized again. Nathaniel waved it off, explaining that he'd received a sudden revelation while praying. He already knew about their mission involving demonic beasts, and offered his help. A being mentioned only in ancient texts was alarming, but ignoring it would be far worse.
Leona politely declined, saying they would handle it themselves. Internally, she was just relieved this plan didn't involve having a child with Rean.
Nathaniel praised her resolve, calling her noble for throwing herself into danger for world peace. She brushed it off modestly. Rean added that Nathaniel should contact them if anything related to demonic beasts surfaced. The high priest suddenly recalled something that might help, and left to retrieve it.
Rean frowned as he sat there, something Leona noticed but wisely chose not to ask about.
Then the screen appeared again.
Pure Love Only said: things are really frosty between them. The rookies must be struggling.
East Not West asked: since we're here to help, shouldn't we do something?
High Performance Juicer agreed and said, "Let's start with something light."
The gods' chat descended into complete chaos. Eventually, they decided to vote. The result: stick their hands together, four hundred and forty-three votes. Stick their XXX together, three votes. Whatever the XXX meant, probably best not to know.
A glowing light suddenly appeared, followed by another message announcing that divine will had been bestowed upon the world. Leona muttered about how weird these celestials were, but Rean only told her to sit instead.
That was when Leona felt it. Something was about to happen.
Before she could react, a divine beast suddenly dropped from above, landing squarely on her face. In the next instant, both she and Rean were flat on the floor. Nathaniel rushed over in alarm, asking if they were all right. Leona immediately gave a thumbs up, brushing it off like nothing had happened.
Then she and Rean locked eyes, both blushing, only to realize they were holding hands.
The high priest bowed so deeply he looked genuinely mortified by what had just happened. Both Leona and Rean sighed in unison, already exhausted, and asked the obvious question. Someone needed to explain this situation, preferably in very simple terms.
The high priest quickly introduced the culprit. The small creature was a divine beast named Louvy. Any two people it touched would end up stuck together for an entire day. He explained that while he'd gone to storage to fetch something for them, Louvy had suddenly appeared and, well, done this. He insisted that all of Sylvian's divine beasts were normally well behaved, so he had no idea it would cause such chaos.
Which meant Leona and Rean were stuck like this for the whole day. All thanks to the shipper gods.
Both of them slowly turned to glare at the angel. She immediately panicked and claimed her divine power was already completely used up, so she had to leave now. She said this while sweating bullets and very obviously lying. Then she disappeared on the spot. In their minds, every curse known to humanity was hurled in her direction, while they were still squeezing each other's hands.
Once they left the temple and boarded a carriage, Rean immediately asked Leona to give him some space. Leona glared, asking where exactly he expected her to go in such a tiny carriage.
Out the window, he said.
As she glanced outside, Leona suddenly froze and announced that she was getting off. Rean muttered that she really didn't understand jokes at all, calling her an idiot. Leona fired back with a name of her own, then pointed straight ahead and told him to look.
Up ahead, a man wielding a blazing sword stood surrounded by knights.
Rean narrowed his eyes and recognized the situation instantly. An ether criminal. Ether was a special type of energy, completely different from normal magic. Those capable of wielding it were strictly managed by the state, since that power came with an equally high level of danger. Still, in every country, there were always criminals who abused it.
Leona snapped at Rean to stop analyzing and get his lazy butt moving. People were in danger. She was about to jump out when Rean pulled her back by the arm. She glared at him coldly and demanded to know if he seriously planned to stay there because of his stupid pride. Were those people's lives worth less than his ego? She declared that she'd go out even if she had to cut off her own arm, and ordered him to move.
Rean responded with a sigh and told her to watch closely.
With a snap of his fingers, he cast frozen suffocation. In an instant, the criminal's body froze solid, locking him in place until he couldn't move at all. Smirking, Rean remarked that this was what people called a ranged takedown, on a completely different level from idiotic knights who couldn't even attack without charging in.
That comment only annoyed Leona more. She really wanted to punch him. Unfortunately for her, they were still stuck holding hands. Otherwise, she would have happily demonstrated how dangerous it was to provoke a knight at close range.
Then Leona sensed something else. She shouted for them to get down and slammed Rean onto the floor just in time, narrowly avoiding a magic bullet.
Leona immediately realized the truth. The man on fire earlier had been a decoy. The real threat was a sniper. She wanted to chase the sniper before they could escape, but remembered she was still holding Rean's hand. With no time to waste, she pinned him down again, pulled out her gun, and fired.
One shot. The culprit collapsed instantly. Everyone nearby noticed the weapon, and the sniper was arrested on the spot.
Leona, still on top of Rean, casually asked, "Who says I can't perform ranged attacks?"
When everything finally settled, Leona groaned and said that, thanks to someone, her first day had turned into a complete disaster. He replied that he felt the same.
Then she casually asked if he wasn't hungry, only for him to quickly say that he wasn't. She argued that they had missed both lunch and dinner that day. Rean shut that down instantly. It was only one day. She could endure it.
Looking at their filthy clothes, Leona pointed out that even changing like this would be difficult for both of them. Rean suggested that she cut one sleeve first, and that he could fix it later with restoration magic if she wanted to remove her shirt. He didn't want to stay in dirty clothes either.
She muttered that there would be no holding back and began unbuttoning her shirt, which immediately made Rean avert his gaze, his face heating up. Using one hand turned out to be harder than expected, and Leona made a few strange noises as she struggled. Rean stiffened instantly and told her not to make it weird. She was just changing clothes.
She muttered that the underwear part was the worst. It wouldn't come off.
That did it. Rean literally sprang up from his seat like he was being launched. His innocent ears had been corrupted in an instant. He demanded to know how she could say something like that in front of a guy.