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"Where the hell did that little brat go again?!"
Penny coughed awkwardly under the manager's death glare. "S-She, uh, s-she went out to play?"
"Play what?"
"… games?"
The manager almost blew her top. "FUCK! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?! I told you to watch her closely!"
The ponytailed blonde knew that she couldn't very well admit that she couldn't have been watching Emilia any more 'carefully' even if she tried, right? That would only make her look like a creep.
She could only rub her nose in embarrassment. "Don't worry, she promised she'll be back before you know it."
The manager could only stare at Penny as if she was looking at the biggest idiot in history. "I already know about it, and I don't know if I'm going blind, but she's not here now, is she?"
The blonde girl chuckled. "Guess not?"
"I'll go call the police—!" The manager stared hard at her wrist that had been abruptly clenched by Penny. "What are you doing?"
The blonde girl smiled. "Sorry, I uh, forgot to tell you before, but Emi took Crystal's permission before leaving. If you call the police on her now…"
The older woman was only momentarily dumbfounded before she shook her head in disbelief. "No way, even if Crystal coddles the little brat like her own daughter, she wouldn't allow her to run off on her own after she'd already been kidnapped once—?!"
"Hi, Crystal, you weren't busy, were you? I'm sorry for the abrupt call, but can you please 'confirm' that you allowed little Emi to go out to play on her own today? She doesn't believe me!"
Luckily, the heroine was quite good at improvisation.
"… Ah, yes, yes, I did. Little Emi is both mature and smart, and she will be fine on her own. And even if something goes wrong, I have people watching her in the dark now. So there's no need to worry."
"See? What did I tell you?"
Desperately trying to resist the urge to tear out her hair, the manager could only collapse on the couch in disbelief. 'Is this the mother's filter that makes even the ugliest face lovable? If that little brat Emi is 'mature and smart', then I'm a fucking sage!'
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Of course, contrary to her manager's belief, Emilia wasn't actually just screwing around and putting herself in danger without reason.
In fact, when she first received Ginny's call for help, she seriously considered letting someone else handle it.
After all, she had already integrated into the role of Emi now, and taking the risk of exposure in this case where she stood to gain little just didn't seem worth it.
But when she imagined someone she knew crying for help in desperation, believing only she could come to save her, Emilia's heart told her that she wouldn't be happy without going there herself.
This was especially so since she'd already known about the attack beforehand, and could even be considered one of the key factors in making it possible. After all, if not for her sending the 'thugs' the silver-haired hero's way, it was unlikely for him to have been able to make so much trouble at this point.
So after leaving the explanation part to poor Penny, she quickly begged Noelle to secretly send her over to Ginny's place.
Of course, she couldn't go there as Emi, so the crimson-haired girl also 'borrowed' Penny's appearance temporarily, putting her valuable shapeshift skill on that dreaded eight-hour cooldown.
Fortunately, both 'Little Emi' and her original form were 'saved' and ready to be used at any time, and Emilia knew she would be fine as long as she didn't need to change to something else.
With Noelle's help, it didn't take long before Emilia was 'delivered' to the 'secret' apartment where Ginny and Jasper decided to hide temporarily, fearful of being backstabbed by any other hidden traitors.
Of course, although Ginny quickly pulled her in, having already been informed by Noelle in advance, her disappointment was clearly written on her face even if her words remained polite. "Come in, take a seat."
As someone who did her research on both her enemies and allies alike, Ginny was naturally aware of who 'Penny' was, as well as her position by the side of the gorgeous empress.
In the view of outsiders like her, Penny was just as close to Emilia as Crystal and Noelle, if not more.
After all, as the face of the most fanatical organization obsessed with the crimson-haired beauty, the mere fact that she hadn't been forbidden from getting within ten miles of her residence was enough to prove her weight in Emilia's heart.
Luckily, she had already prepared herself not to receive Emilia's response. After all, even if her weight in Emilia's heart was a hundred times heavier than what it probably was, the Empress of Blue Dawn couldn't just rush to another country without reason on such short notice, could she?
The fact that she went took the effort of arranging someone so close to her to come over and help them was already much, much more than they deserved, as far as Ginny was concerned.
After all, she knew very well just how 'sincere' the two of them had really been to Emilia. Whether the girl realized it or not didn't matter.
'Penny' just nodded as she listened to Ginny's story about how everything happened earlier that day patiently, not letting her expression give anything away. 'I can't just tell her that those shooters wouldn't have been able to shoot her or her brother even if the two of them stood perfectly still for hours on end, can I?'
Although the crimson-haired girl knew that she shouldn't feel guilty, considering how Ginny and Jasper had even seemed to consider backing down from their part of the deal a few times if not for the possibility of backlash from her side, it was impossible not to sympathize with the distressed girl in front of her.
Emilia frowned. 'Well, I guess as compensation for scaring her, I can always make Amos suffer more, right?'
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