After a moment of silence, Lia spoke in a calm voice, "Because it seems interesting."
Leo raised an eyebrow after hearing her puzzling words.
"Interesting? Risking your life is interesting?" he asked in a baffled voice.
She silently nodded.
"Also, I trust you, so I don't mind it."
Leo swallowed nervously, and he sighed inwardly, 'Her head is more messed up than I initially thought…'
Sometime later, Leo handed the slave mark back to Lia and spoke, "I'm not going to enslave you. That seems too wrong and immoral for me."
Lia looked at the slave mark but did not accept it back.
"If you don't put a slave mark on me, will I truly be yours?" She suddenly asked.
"Huh?"
"I was defeated by you, and I promised to become yours if I lost. If you put a slave mark on me, then I will physically and spiritually be yours."
"You don't need to take that bet so seriously… You can just consider yourself mine. There's no need to do something like this."
"No." Lia said, her gaze filled with resolution. "I am a member of the Scarlet Family. I will keep my promise no matter what. This is also a condition if you want me to become your partner."
"..." Leo was speechless.
"Why are you so reluctant to enslave her, Leo? She's practically begging you to do so. There's no need to feel guilty about it, and this will be safer for you too, since she won't be able to betray you." Lilith suddenly said.
"Perhaps you're a sadist and you feel thrilled to have a girl beg you to enslave her. If that's the case, you cannot call me a pervert anymore!"
Leo felt like cursing out loud, but he resisted it.
After a moment of silence, Leo took a deep breath and spoke, "Sorry, but I don't like it— the idea of enslaving someone. If I cannot trust you without putting this slave mark on you, then I wouldn't have come to you and ask you to be my partner in the first place."
Contrary to Leo's expectations, Lia didn't seem to be annoyed by his answer. In fact, the edge of her lips even curved upwards slightly.
She then snatched the slave mark from him and stored it back inside her spatial ring.
"Now then, isn't it about time you tell me about your identity?" Lia spoke a moment later, acting as though the situation with the slave mark had never happened.
Leo took another deep breath before speaking, "Even though I told you that I am Leo, I am not the Leo you knew."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm not sure if you know about this or not, but several months ago, I had disappeared for 3 months and was considered dead."
"I know about it. The whole city was talking about it, after all. You returned with amnesia, right?"
"Yes, but that's not true."
"So you didn't lose your memories?" Lia raised an eyebrow.
"No, I never had them in the first place. I may look and sound exactly like the Leo who disappeared, but I am not him. I am actually from another world— a 'Leo' from another world."
Lia's eyes widened slightly after hearing this shocking revelation.
"You're an Otherworlder…?" She mumbled in a low voice.
He nodded with a serious expression, "Yes, I am, and don't bother asking me how I came to this world because I don't know. When I woke up, I was already in this world."
"I see… Then why did you decide to become Leon?" Lia then asked.
"Honestly, I didn't even make that identity. Someone else made it for me, and it's only purpose was for training. After all, when I came to this world, I could already use magic, but the Leo of this world can't use magic, hence why I had to use a new identity."
"So the Fruit of Magic Awakening was fake?"
"That's right. It was just an excuse for me to be able to use magic." He nodded.
Lia then spoke, "As for why Leon suddenly disappeared, is it because of the bounty?"
"Eh? How did you know about that?" Leo was surprised to hear this.
"I did some research on you because I wanted to know more about you," she said, admitting to spying on him.
"However, I couldn't find any information on you, so I had a feeling that Leon was a fake identity."
"That makes sense… But how did you know I was Leon when I was Leo?"
"I just had a feeling," she calmly said.
"Now that doesn't make any sense at all…" He shook his head with a bittersweet smile.
"Anyways, that's my true identity. Do you have anything else you want to ask?"
"Not a question. A condition."
"Another one?"
"Since you refused to put a slave mark on me, I have another condition before I agree to be your partner."
"Alright, let's hear it."
"I want you to use Mana Drain on me at least once a day when we're outside the city," she said.
"You want me to use Mana Drain on you while we're in the Wilderness? That's a little dangerous, don't you think? What if we get attacked by monsters and you're out of mana?"
"I will only request it when it's safe. This is a condition that I will not back down from. If you refuse, I will refuse to be your partner. After all, I am going to be causing my family trouble by helping you."
"How are you causing them trouble?" Leo frowned.
"I came here without telling them, so they'll be looking for me."
Leo was speechless, as she basically ran away from home.
"Don't worry, I do this often, and they have never caught me before," she said with a confident look on her face.
"I don't think that's the issue here… They'll probably be suspicious of me if I suddenly show up after a month of absence with a female partner right after you disappeared." He sighed.
"It'll be fine," she insisted.
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