A Little Game

The meal had finished quite early without anyone breaking the ice. Then all of them only came to talk towards each other to greet a good night as a sign of courtesy, a greeting full of sultry tone similar to the owner of the mansion, and went on to their rooms to do their own businesses.

Because Luna and Lady Liliana's rooms were close, they coincidentally walked together. Lady Lilia forced herself to smile all the time towards Luna but not until they reached the last hallway where only the two of them could be seen.

"Ah!" Luna uttered.

From a third-person point of view, anyone could tell that Lady Liliana purposely bumped into her. The force wouldn't have been that much but the lady used a lot of force to make sure the other would fall. Nonetheless, Luna quickly regained her balance as she hid her slight sinister grin before raising her head.

"A-are you okay? I apologize for the sudden incident," Lady Liliana said.

Her insincere worried face stared at Luna and even helped her stood up properly. While doing that, she made sure that her light yellow eyes glinted with concern, afraid that she would get mad for the sudden 'unwanted accident'.

"I'm fine," Luna said and slightly hit the lady's hand away from her as she was pressing her shoulders a bit hard which sent a sudden tinge of ache like it was a spark of electricity.

Lady Liliana smiled and apologize one more time before going into the guest room while Luna went into her own. Inside her room, she sat on a chair, rested her head with her right hand, and concentrated on the book she chose to read.

Nonetheless, her mind kept getting occupied by the two-faced Lady Liliana. Her smile didn't even reach her eyes which meant that it was a fake smile. With Luna's observation habits, it did not take long for her to notice that.

"Creating chaos eh?" Luna uttered and closed her book. A smile unknowingly arose through her lips as she looked outside the window. After seeing their visitor's resolved nature, countless plans began to enter her mind. It was rude of her if their guest left without a memorable event in the mansion.

'It would be rude to ignore her, isn't it?' Luna thought. Despite Magus Nation's peace, such petty persons were still existing. Luna could only shake her head helplessly after remembering so many people back on earth.

After several hours, the sun took over the night. With Luna's body clock, she immediately woke up, and also, she was completely awakened by the smell of newly-cooked food. Into her table was a note written on a small piece of brown paper.

'Miss Luna, master found out that you're waking up too early so he decided to bring out your breakfast into your room earlier than the set time of breakfast.

-Ms. Zione Myrtle'

After reading the note, she ate her food before cleaning up herself since her stomach grumbled upon seeing the appetizing food. Nonetheless, Luna remembered that she did not see any ice cream since she lived in Vermillion.

'C-could it be that there's no such dessert in this world?' she demised.

After eating, Luna took a bath in the bathtub with warm water and hung around for half an hour. Later, she dressed up in an elegant blue and white-colored winter dress. It was a dress which she could move around comfortably. Then she combed her silky black hair and picked up the clip adorned with a tiny silver crown in it. She took a liking to the design as it reminds her of her pocket watch.

Instead of sandals, Luna chose winter boots that were a few centimeters high than her ankles with a similar color partnered with cream-colored socks with the same length as her boots.

"It's been a long time since I'm out on a snowy day!" Luna uttered.

Meanwhile, Ryle was startled when she saw her attire while walking downstairs and said, "Luna, it's still too cold outside!"

He didn't know what's going on with her and went more confused when she turned her head towards him with a decisive grin on her face.

"You know, it's too peaceful here but someone wants to play with me," Luna said.

"Huh? I'll go with you!" he said confused yet was curious enough to follow her. With worry etched on his face, he began thinking about whose person Luna was talking about although a certain person that should not be named entered through his mind. Then something came up in Luna's thoughts.

"Hmmm, if you insist, I'll let you join although your role will be hiding into shadows," Luna whispered.

"Hiding?" Ryle asked.

Luna pulled him into a corner of the mansion and asked, "Ryle, what is your magic element?"

"It's the earth element but specializes in a sword," he said while still bewildered by her question.

Based on what she had read from books, she guessed that it would be his element. Seemingly satisfied, she started to tell Ryle what he should do.

"Shield me from attacks when I signaled you. Also, hide beneath the tall trees. Since you're an earth element user, you can blend in within the surroundings. Anyway, can you do an earth shield?" Luna said.

Ryle nodded. "But how will you signal?" he asked while raising a brow. He just could not follow Luna's thoughts more than Akiro's which he first thought that no one was more complex than him. How wrong he was.

"You'll see it soon. Be conscious of your surroundings and wait for my signals," she said and continued, "Let's go."

Ryle found himself being pulled by Luna into the garden and led him to the left side that was covered with tall trees. She let him hide beneath one and said that he should never leave that area. 'What a bizarre morning is this?' he thought.

Meanwhile, Luna sat on the balcony in front of the garden and felt that it was too bad that she could not sit at the table outside as it's currently covered with thick snow. Then she placed her book on the table and pretended to read it. Amidst that, an exasperated lady walked back and forth. She was in a hurry to find someone and when her head faced where Luna was, she gritted her teeth.

"Lady Luna!" she shouted. Her shout carried a hint of malice and with furrowed brows, tightly closed lips, and balled fists, she hastily walked near her.

"You're the one who did it right?" she said and raised an eyebrow.

Luna faced her with an innocent child-like expression although it was followed with an inauspicious smile which Lady Liliana didn't fail to see. A taunting smirk.

"What are you talking about Lady Liliana?" Luna asked.

The lady fumed in anger that she began to dash promptly towards Luna but she disappeared in front of the lady. Her eyes immediately widened while her heart started to beat wildly.

'I-impossible!' Lady Liliana thought.

"Why are you hugging the chair, Lady Lily?" Luna said as she emphasized her name. She clearly remembered how the lady wanted to call her by her nickname yet it seemed that it was just for show in front of everyone.

'How sad..,' Luna thought

Then she ran through the snowy pavement where Lady Liliana followed her but no matter how fast she was, Luna was always several steps ahead. Lady Liliana gritted her teeth as she summoned swords in her hands. They were swiftly enveloped by flames which she began swinging in front of Luna.

A surging fire appeared mid-air after Lady Liliana swung her sword. Nonetheless, Luna anticipated it to happen. With her left hand on her skirt's pocket, she tightly held the pocket watch which time froze in a blink of an eye.

"Ryle, the earth shield!" Luna shouted although she forgot that Ryle was frozen in time so she ran toward him and touched him quickly.

"L-luna!" Ryle uttered.

"Stop chattering, summon an earth shield there," Luna said.

Ryle faced where she pointed to and his eyes widened one more time after seeing how the attack and Lady Liliana were left unmoving at all. 'Right! It's time powers. What a monster!' he thought.

He did not even saw Akiro fight in such a way. 'She is clearly using him as a lowly soldier,' he thought and quickly raised his hand to summon an earth wall that was enough to block the raging fire.

Then he saw Luna ran through the wall which disappeared after the fire was dissipated. He also saw how Lady Liliana was shocked by how Luna quickly shielded her attack through a thick earth wall.

'So she wanted her to think that she's the one who summoned the earth shield!' Ryle thought.

Then Luna alternated between swiftly dodging Lady Liliana's domineering attack and using his shield attack. With his view, it's clearly seen that Luna's indeed playing with the other. He also couldn't believe how she was taking advantage of that powers by having Lady Liliana believe that Luna was too fast.

However, it didn't last long as Lady Liliana went out of energy. Then Ryle saw that Luna was now instantly sitting at the terrace with an innocent look while reading a book. Shortly after, the other's female Knight appeared and ran quickly after seeing the weak state of her master.

"W-what happened Lady Liliana?" she asked.

Her master said not to follow her earlier but she felt something was wrong so she came to find her.

"Lady Luna, what happened here?" the Knight asked. Although her words sounded nice, Luna could see how her brows almost met and her astute domineering aura while she looked down on her who was sitting.

Luna grinned. She stood up, stopped time, and went towards the lady knight's back. At the moment she disabled her time powers, the former had her eyes widened as that nimble yet undetected movement was a rare occurrence for her. It just meant that the lady in front of her was far stronger and powerful than a knight guard which she should expect since she was in his mansion after all.

"Don't. Let's go inside. We still have to prepare before leaving," Lady Liliana said.

"Pardon for my intrusion," she continued while facing Luna.

They soon left her alone. After several minutes, Ryle decided to show up. He was filled with mixed emotions as he didn't know if he would be happy or not by the commotion that Miss Luna had done

"It's fun isn't it?" Luna asked.

Ryle ended up laughing awkwardly and said, "Just don't do that to me okay, Lady Luna?"

Then he soon left her before she would do the same thing.

--To be continued...