Person in the Shadows

“…….”

After letting go of Francesca, Leonardo turned towards the entrance of the cave again.

“now then,”

Unlike before, his tone was completely different and a lot more casual. Seeing him shift moods so quickly, even Francesca was unable to speak any more.

“I would love to take you back to someplace safer but, we can’t just so easily move around while it’s raining this hard either. Either we wait for someone to see the smoke signal and come to get us with rain gear, or we simply wait for the rain to stop.”

“Sorry, for dragging you into this as well Leonardo.”

“Why are you apologizing? I love it when you drag me into these kind things. In fact, I want you to freely throw me about wherever, whenever you want even.”

While saying that, he began to open the buttons of his drenched coat.

“That said, I’d prefer if you didn’t do anything that’d put your life in danger like this time around though.”

“!”

Leonardo hung his coat around Francesca’s shoulders.

Even if it was indeed wet, it was still much warmer than Francesca’s dress. But in weather like this, she couldn’t just go along with his consideration either.

“This won’t do Leonardo, I can’t take this. Your shirt is wet too, won’t you feel cold instead?”

“Please just keep wearing it. I’m begging you.”

“But…….”

“Ah………..Francesca.”

Leonardo suddenly averted his eyes looking somewhat awkward. It was rare for him to make an expression like that.

Leonardo pointed his own middle finger at his own chest and lightly tapped it to indicate something.

“………It’s for my sake as well.”

“?”

Unable to understand the meaning behind his gesture, Francesca simply tilted her head in confusion. Then suddenly, she realized something, and then looked down at her own chest.

“……….Ah!!”

She wore a light summer dress, which was currently clinging tightly to her body after getting drenched in the rain.

The shoulder strings of black camisole she wore underneath, as well as the skin coloured cleavage in the middle was quite easily visible. And Leonardo had given her his coat to let her cover that up.

“Uwaa! I’m really sorry! I made you care about such things as well……!!”

“Good girl. So keep wearing that coat properly so as to not expose anything, okay………”

“Y-yeah…”

Leonardo’s coat was a bit too baggy for her, and even after closing all the buttons, it still didn’t really cover up the middle properly. So Francesca simply hugged the coat instead, as if wrapping it around her, and then gave a nod.

“Are you done?”

“I did it!”

“haah……”

Leonardo sighed again, which made Francesca feel even more guilty.

“I’m sorry, Leonardo.”

“You don’t need to apologize. The problem is on my end after all.”

“?”

“Now, just stay put here, and focus on preserving your stamina. If only we had a soft and fluffy sofa here as well.”

“……..thank you for helping me so much. Hey, Leonardo…”

There was something Francesca really wanted to ask Leonardo still.

(When I tried to protect that lady with my body against the gun, someone used their skill thanks to which I didn’t get shot.)

At first she thought it was Leonardo but, afterwards she felt that it had to be someone else.

That was based on nothing more than instinct on her part so she wanted to confirm it with Leonardo properly. But judging by his current look, it was obvious that he definitely wasn’t close by when that happened.

“It’s actually about what happened right before I fell down this cliff but—…….”

And then, Leonardo quietly listened to everything Francesca had to say.

She tried to explain it all in detail hoping that something could provide a hint to Leonardo. Francesca made sure to even explain the parts she felt were her own subjective thoughts so that he could come up with a better explanation.

“……..so a person watching you from the shadows helped you like that?”

“Yeah.”

Francesca nodded, and asked just in case.

“There wasn’t someone that had been assigned to bodyguard me in secret or something like that, right?”

“If that had been the case, the news of your fall would have come to us much faster. The Ranieri prostitute apparently tripped about a lot while running through the forest before she finally made it the villa.”

“……..and what of the people that attacked me? If was 4 of them, and I had knocked out at least 3 of them if I recall.”

“We found those three in the forest as well.——-as for the last, I think he escaped but don’t you worry, I’ll catch him, no matter what.”

To get more info, he probably wasn’t going to kill them all instantly, but his words came off as extremely cold regardless. She felt a bit worried but continued on with the main topic at hand.

“I believe we should be very attentive of finding this skill user. Though I feel I don’t need to explain this but, that person was probably…….”

“——–probably, the person I am looking for.”

Hearing Leonardo’s words, Francesca simply cast down her eyes.

(The person that brought in drugs into the capital and brainwashed Ricardo’s father. The game scenario’s [mastermind] who hides behind the shadow of Leonardo, the supposed last boss of the game……..)

And Leonardo was also thinking of this.

(7 years ago, that person was also responsible behind the incident where another family betrayed Leonardo’s family and killed his father and brother.)

<<If you are reading this chapter at an aggregator site please go to https://shikkakutranslations.org/ or visit https://ko-fi.com/nerosk12/shop to support the translator and read ahead.>>

Could it be that the person who saved her was the mastermind or someone on their side? That was her hypothesis.

(The reason why I believe that to be the case is simple. The assassination of Graziano’s father is part of the main story.)

In the game, this too was made to be part of Leonardo’s scheming but now she knows that’s certainly not true.

In that case, the mastermind must also be connected to this assassination as well.

(They have to be in this forest which is the stage for this incident, and they possess powerful skills. If there had to be a person that fit these criteria but were not included in the already revealed characters…)

She recalled the lightning like skill that she had witnessed at that moment.

(…….They have to be someone directly related to the mastermind at the very least.)

Tap the screen to use advanced tools Tip: You can use left and right keyboard keys to browse between chapters.

You'll Also Like