"Val! Stop kissing him, I'm coming in!"

Theo removed the lecherous grin off his face and turned towards the tent entrance. It was not a problem if Vex saw him like that, but if the rest of Miracle saw him like that, he wouldn't have any chance to get them.

When Vex entered the tent, she was confused. Theo was standing alone, Val nowhere to be seen. "Vex." Theo said.

Vex walked next to him and saw Val who passed out on the floor with drool coming from her mouth and blood from her nose. "What the hell did you do to her?"

"Nothing. I literally did nothing."

Vex observed Theo's face, checking whether he was lying or not. She looked annoyed by the fact that Theo was not lying. "Well, I don't know what happened that can make her like that but..." Vex crouched and picked Val from the floor. "She needs to rest."

"If there's nothing else, I'm going now."

"Sure." Said Vex while she put Val on her bed. "Don't forget that Sir Arslan is looking for you."

"Yea, yea. See you tomorrow Vex."

Theo approached Vivi once he got out. Vivi and Lyana were sitting on the ground. From the looks of her face, Lyana was thinking about something, and she was thinking it deeply that she didn't notice his presence. He tapped her shoulder. "HO!!"

Lyana's body jumped. "W-what?!" She turned. when she realized it was Theo, she stopped. Her eyes widen, there was a troubled look in it.

"Let's return to our tent. It's already late at night."

"O-oh...yeah." She answered without the usual fire in her voice, and Theo noticed that.

"Vivi, how undetectable is your magic?" Theo asked when they walked back.

"Pretty hard to detect. If I want to continuously alter someone's mind, it's easy to detect and trace, but if I only inject some images or give a suggestion like I did with you the first time we met, it's almost undetectable, unless that person has a high mind magic resistance." She answered.

"Lyana, return to our tent first, I have something I want to talk with Vivi." Lyana didn't object, she seemed to be consumed by the trouble she had in her mind.

After making sure that no one was eavesdropping, Theo crouched and whispered to Vivi. "Tomorrow morning we're going to go scouting with the member of 'Miracle'. I want you to inject an image of me to the mind of every member of 'Miracle' except Vex and Valera. Be careful to not get noticed."

"O-kay. What is this all about?"

"If you suddenly think about someone for no reason at all, what would you do?" He asked with an evil grin on his face. Theo then answered it for Vivi. "If you have experienced in this kind of things, you will know that either you like someone, or you're interested in that someone. If you are oblivious to these sort of things, you will be confused. You will ask your friend about it because you don't understand the meaning of it and they will tell you that you're interested in someone."

"Ohhh!" Vivi eyes were sparkling "So that's how you planned to get them."

"Originally I wanted to do it the slow way, but I got you right, Vivi?"

Vivi looked away for a second. "But will it work? If you went for all of them, Theo-Sama, it's likely you will have a problem later."

"I have another plan for that." Theo answered, confident with his plan. He turned to face the Miracle's tent. "That is, of course, if some of them haven't fallen for me in the first place."

--------

"Why the red face Val?" Vex asked. She was sitting on the table with the rest of her team except Sistina, who was sleeping on the bed.

"S-S-S-Shut up! It's because of that........ MONSTER!!" Val answered. She gulped down the beer in front of her. She gripped the beer bottle and looked at a few other empty ones next to it. It was the first time in her life that she consumed so much alcohol in one sitting, yet even that didn't solve her problem. Her head was still boiling and her chest aching.

"You mean, Theo?" Vex asked.

Val's body shuddered. The moment she heard his name, he filled her mind. His handsome face like no other in the world. His smile as bright as the sunshine. His deep eyes. His sharp nose. His perfect body. His cool armor. Anything about him seemed so perfect in her eyes. Blood started running from her nose again. "So~ Perfect~" She said it unconsciously.

"Val....." Vex said. She waved her hand in front of Val's eyes, but she was as unresponsive as a rock.

After a few seconds lost in a trance, Val returned to the real world. She slapped her own cheek until it was red, and not because of her emotion. "NO! NO! NO! IMPOSSIBLE!"

"What? For you to fall in love again after a hundred years?" Vex asked.

Val glared at her. "I am not! IN LOVE!" She looked at her own hand. "This.. this... is charm curse. There's no way I would have such a strong explosive reaction if this is not a curse! There's no way for this to be natural!"

Vex agreed that her reaction was not natural and all symptoms pointed out that Val was charmed by either a curse or a spell, but there was no direct proof. Val was one of the best appraisers in the continent if not the best. If even she couldn't detect what was wrong with her own body, then there wasn't anything wrong with it. And her symptoms didn't exactly match with any charm spell of curse that they knew of.

Vex smiled. She didn't know what Theo did to Val, or if he even did anything, but he was grateful. Looking at Val's flustered face or any of her emotional face was a treat.

Vex turned to Tomoe, who still hid her face. She grabbed her face and pulled it up, revealing the also red face of her. "Oh, and what we got here?" Tomoe brushed Vex's hand and covered her face again. "Hooo. Look at this Bry, we've got another lovestruck member. And to the same man."

""W-W-Who is love struck?!!"" Tomoe and Val shouted together.

"Oh my, oh my. Are we finally going to see a rivalry of love here?" Bry caressed her own cheek.

"I-I'm going to get some fresh air!!" Val stormed out the tent and flew away, disappearing into the night sky.

"Oh dear. It seems we teased her too much." Said Bry.

"It's fine. It's not often we see her worked up like that. It's a nice change of pace." Vex looked at Tomoe and wrapped her arms around her. "Now tell me about him. What of him that could make our honorable and duty-bound Tomoe fall in love at first sight? And don't just tell me he's handsome, even a blind goblin could see that from miles away."

Tomoe slowly revealed her face. "I-I don't know." She placed her hand on her own chest and inhaled. Her face now stoic. "He's handsome, charming......I don't know! My heart felt like it's going to explode when I saw him."

"C'mon Tomoe. Search inside that heart of yours. What made it flutter?"

"I-I don't know. I mean, he looks strong. And from his armor and sword, he...he looks rich."

"You could say that. He's also a hero, so he got some influence."

"I-I guess so."

Vex pulled Tomoe head near her chest. "Don't 'i guess so' me. Forget about your family name, riches, power, influence, and legacy and all that things for a moment and think about your happiness."

Tomoe frowned. She pulled her body away from Vex' "Sorry Vex, I can't. For my family and for my little brother. I can't abandon it for something as selfish as my own happiness."

Vex sighed. What was with her party? Every time she tried to tease one of them, they always take everything far too seriously.

------

"Sir Theo, I assume that you already know what we're going to talk about?" Sir Arslan asked.

"Yes, Sir. But I don't regret anything, and I'm not sorry for anything." Theo answered with unshakable resolve in his voice.

"Actually, I'm here to thank you." Theo raised his brows hearing Sir Arslan answer. "If I were you, I would have killed Aria for threatening someone I hold dear. I thank you for.... leaving her alive."

"So how is it, the condition?"

"A mess. I must say that the condition in Amaryn is not getting any better. It could have been much worse though. There's an uproar among the noble houses after Aria and Wrath killed some of them. They don't know exactly who's responsible, but they suspect it must be the Royal Family and they demand a.." Sir Arslan averted his gaze to the side. "Compensation of some sort, but the King ignored them as always, Aria was too hurt to do anything, Ana was too inexperienced in matters like this, and Alvaro.. let's not speak anything about him. Funnily enough, Alvaro excessive partying and his good relation with the Noble daughters and sons was one of the reasons the nobles haven't declare an open rebellion." Sir Arslan chuckled.

"What about the criminal underworld? The death of Wrath should stir it up."

"I lack information in that department but considering there's a vacuum of power right now. The medium fish are all going to try to get big. It will be a bloodbath." Sir Arslan sighed. "Well, that's a problem for another day. We have a more pressing matter right now." He fixed his sitting position. "I hope you can help the Miracle in organizing other adventurer parties. There's no doubt that the enemy has set up some defense for us up on the mountain. I hope you can dismantle most of it before the army begin marching."

"I will try my best, Sir."

Sir Arslan observed Theo's face. "You're not hiding something are you?"

Theo squinted his eyes. "I'm sorry, sir."

"Nothing." Sir Arslan stood up. "I'm sorry, Sir, but I need some privacy."

"Oh yes." Theo stood. "Of course."

Theo left Sir Arslan tent while thinking about what he said. He should have shared some of the things he knew to help the effort, but he couldn't risk it. He has to keep all advantage to himself if he wished to complete his side of 'deal' with Sara.

"Hmm." Theo stopped to think.

He couldn't understand Sara at all. She lost nothing if she pushed her advantage over him, if she kept blackmailing and threatening him. Yet she did not push more than necessary. As if she wanted to have a good partnership with him. Then why did she threaten him in the first place? Did she have another secret agenda? Did she truly mean what she said when she told him about her wrong impression about him? He wasn't sure. But he knew that he has to be careful when dealing with her and that he has to make a plan to protect his women in case Sara tried to use them against him again.

A loud boom interrupted him. When Theo looked at the source of the sound, he caught a glimpse of a red cloaked person running away from him.