Muyoku no Seijo wa Okane ni Tokimeku

Chapter 72: Leo apologizes. (2/3)

[T-there's nothing inside you! You don't have magic power in your body!]

[Eeeehh!?!? N-nothing!?]

Leo was so surprised by the sudden turn of events, that he couldn't help but let out that confused, and panicked, scream. However, the one who was really confused right now, was none other than Leena herself.

[Y-you! What did you do!? Did you use a large-scale spell again!? How could you let your magic power reserves reach this state!?]

[I-I also don't know what happened, okay!? I'm just as confused as you!]

[Bulls**t! It's impossible for a person's magic power to simply deplete itself out of nowhere, unless someone, or something, forcibly absorbs it from you! That's a basic magic principle!]

After hearing that, Leo froze in shock; he also started sweating a lot.

[H-hee∼, so your magic power needs to be f-forcibly absorbed for that to happen, huh∼? I didn't know that∼, t-thank you Leena∼] – Said Leo, in an awkward tone, while doing his best not to look into Leena's brown eyes.

When Leena saw the way Leo was acting, a sudden thought came to her.

(Leo is so easy to read... it's obvious he's trying to hide something...)

However, she wasn't the only one who had noticed that. Bruno also knew that Leo was trying to hide something from them, so he took a few steps forward, and said–

[–Hey, Leo, try jumping a bit...]

[Huh...? Y-you want me to jump...? R-r-right now...?]

[Un... right now...]

[H-hmm, can't we do this s-some other day? M-maybe on my n-next visit to the orphanage? H-how about that...?]

[If you don't wanna jump, then I'll make you jump...] – Said Bruno, as he continued walking towards Leo with a serious look on his face.

[W-wait, please! W-we can talk this out like civilized people! Y-you don't have to do this!]

Leo tried his best to change the mind of his childhood friend, but that was to no avail. Bruno just continued marching forward until they were face to face, then he lifted Leo by the armpits, despite all of his protests, and started shaking him up and down.

*Clink!* *Clink!* *Clink!*

Soon after Bruno began doing that, a lot of different things started falling out of Leo's pockets, like copper coins, silver coins, odd trinkets... and a small shard of a destroyed golden bracelet.

[No! My collection!]

[So... when exactly were you going to tell me about this, Leo?] – Said Leena, in a cold tone, as she pointed at the small lump of gold that was once part of a bracelet.

Even though she was standing a considerable distance away from the piece of the golden bracelet, Leena knew, just from looking at it, that the thing was dangerous, so she couldn't help but ask Leo what was that ominous thing–

[T-that's just a normal lump of gold... I-I swear there's nothing w-wrong with it...]

–However, instead of telling the truth right away, Leo gave Leena and Bruno an ambiguous answer, which made the two stare at him coldly, since they knew, for certain, that he was telling them a bare-faced lie.

Not being able to stand all the pressure of those cold gazes from such a close range, Leo gave in fairly quickly and told them the truth.

[T-that lump of gold is a shard of a m-magical golden bracelet...]