A Strange Man (6)

...

Where three lions used to be, there are now three people.

Two men and a woman form this group; the three of them are wearing large black cloaks that cover the entire surface of their bodies, from the face to the feet

One of the men, the tallest, has a large shield hanging on his back, and a sword attached to his waist, the other man has a pair of black gauntlets in his hands

Finally, the woman is holding a book in her left hand and a small wand in her right.

The man with the big shield on his back, is Grimes, when he sees the state of his body, he is momentarily distracted, but quickly recovers and happily begins to stretch his body as he says

"Phew! How good it is to return to my normal form! I finally don't have to go through the inconvenience of picking things up using only my mouth!"

Hearing this, the man beside him – Harker nods and as his brother, he begins to stretch his body

"Yes, the first few times it was fun. However, it is now becoming stressful as hell"

While in it, Harker looks at the woman next to him – Lizze, and realizes that she is distracted looking at the ring on her right hand

Seeing this, he approaches her, and while his eyes shine, he says

"As always, this item of yours is extremely useful. Isn't that right, Lizze?"

Hearing her brother's voice, Lizze quickly wakes up from her daydreams

"Huh? Oh yeah... To be honest, at first when I received this item, I was extremely dissatisfied. Because, this item isn't very useful in combat. However, now I realize how silly my thinking was at the time"

After saying this, Lizze remembers why they returned to their base.

The three brothers ran over here, because earlier one of the alarms they had set at their base activated, and notified them that someone had invaded their base.

Afraid that someone would be stealing their things, the three quickly split up from the others to see who the invader was.

Luckily, they were very close, and in the end, they arrived just in time to find Icarus, standing in front of the entrance to his base.

"Anyway, Harker can you go and see if our things are okay?"

"Oh, I got it!"

Harker walks to one of the holes and skillfully slides his body into it thus entering their hiding place

While Harker does this, Grimes approaches Lizze and with a puzzled face he questions her

"Hey Lizze ... What the hell was that about earlier? What did you see to be scared like that? "

Hearing this, Lizze is embarrassed to remember the incident in question.

Earlier, when she activated her <Spiritual Eye> she temporarily enters a state where she becomes able to see Icarus' superficial thoughts.

While in that state, she concentrated on looking for malicious and conspiratorial thoughts towards them

However, what she did not expect is that instead of having perverse intentions for them, Icarus showed an unexpected affection for her

Not expecting this strange way of thinking from the other party, she got scared and involuntarily backed away

"Well, it's nothing serious ... I was just a little surprised ... nothing much ..."

"Oh, now I was curious to know what surprised you so much. After all, what was he thinking? "

"What was he thinking... well... you don't need to know that!"

"Huh? Why not?"

"Because... well is because, it's a women's problems!"

Hearing this unexpected response, Grimes' eyes widen and he stutters as he ask

"W,women's problems?"

Grimes looks at Lizze suspiciously, as if he doesn't quite believe the excuse she gave her

"Hmm... Really? Nevertheless, well... that person... is a guy! So how the hell can his thoughts be related to women's problems?"

Seeing that, even her brother, who is naturally brainless, is able to see through her excuses

Lizze momentarily freezes without knowing how to react and feels even more ashamed

However, this shame quickly becomes anger and while she looks at Grimes with hate, she says

"Ahh... whatever! If I said it's a women's problems, then it's a women's problems! If you continue to disturb me, I will have to have a serious conversation with a certain woman named Gau. About a certain boyfriend who says bad things about her when she is not present"

Hearing this, Grimes' face turns white and he quickly says full of panic, while think

"Okay, okay... I'm going to stop!"

'Man... why the hell does everyone in my family like to threaten me?'

After successfully evading the situation, Lizze clears his throat and asks him

"Ahem ... back to the subject ... what about you? What did you feel, when you use your Skill?"

"Huh? Oh, well... as you well know, none of us is as skilled as you when it comes to using <Spiritual Eye>. So I'm not able to see what he's thinking like you"

"Sigh! Yeah, I already know that... that's why I asked you what you felt and not what you saw! "

Hearing the mocking tone in his sister's voice, Grimes is a little embarrassed and coughs a little awkwardly

"Cough... well, although I hate to admit it. I didn't feel any evil feelings coming from him. Incredible as it may seem, he was being sincere and really wanted to get close to us. However, this is what I find strange. After all-"

As if she knows, what her brother is thinking, Lizze completes his speech in his place

"After all, what kind of person wants to get close to wild monsters, right?"

"Yeah..."

At that moment, Harker comes out of the hole, walks over to them and with a carefree face, he says

"Everything is in place, he didn't take anything! However, I found it this, down there"

After saying this, Harker shows what he has in his right hand, Lizze and Grimes quickly change their gaze and realize that the item he has in hand is a stone.

Seeing this, Lizze is thoughtful for a few seconds and soon comes to a conclusion

"It looks like he dropped it down there, and it triggered the alarm that we had left"

"Yes, that makes sense"

In that moment, Grimes looks at his brothers and says with a serious face

"Maybe we should modify the structure of the base a little bit. What you guys think?"

Hearing Grimes's comment, the other two agree with a nod, so Lizze says

"Grimes, you and Harker go down there, and modify the structure of the base a little. Make sure to hide our stuff in a secret room. So that if someone enters the base, without our knowledge, they will find only empty tunnels. We have to be careful. After all, this time we were lucky and we arrived before he entered our base, but I don't know if we will be so lucky the other time"

"Okay, leave it to me!"

"Understood!"

Seeing that the two are fine with this, she continues

"While, you guys do this. I am going to contact Rie and the others to tell them about the situation and ask what they think we should do. Okay, let's do that!"

After that, the two quickly descend through the hole with the intention of modifying the structure of the base, according to the instructions they received

Lizze on the other hand, turns her attention to the place where Icarus disappeared while thinking about in doubt

'Does he know that we are in disguise and just like Grimes say, he is a spy? If is that, it makes sense for him to approach us. However, that doesn't seem to be the case... so why the hell does he want to get close to monsters?'

After thinking about it for a while, Lizze can't find an answer to that question

Right after that, another thought crosses your mind

"Stopping to think, at the time, I was so concerned with whether he was a Sinner or not. I forgot to check if he had the World's Emblem. Sigh! Well, whatever! As he said, he will come on other occasions. When that happens, I can check it out. Furthermore, I will watch him carefully to know what the real intentions of this strange man are!"

Having reached that conclusion, Lizze quickly begins to get in touch with her companions.

Poor Icarus, he tried his best to be as friendly as possible to get close to the 'lions'.

However, all he achieved in the end was to be branded a 'Strange Man' and to be classified as a suspicious individual (for being a possible spy)

...