"What do you think this is?" she asked, her gaze fixed on me like she was trying to pull the answer straight out of my head.

"I think it’s more like another fraction of Lilith is there," I said, taking a second before continuing. "There’s a good chance that Elise is the one there."

"Why do you think Elise is there right now?" Veronica asked. Her tone wasn’t sharp, but there was a noticeable curiosity in it. She kept going, asking more than usual, which caught me off guard a little.

That wasn’t like her.

She wasn’t the type to keep pressing like this unless something was actually bothering her. It made me wonder what exactly was going on in her head. Why was she suddenly this interested in Elise, or even Lilith as a whole?

Thinking about it for a second, it kind of made sense.

She was basically a creation of Lilith too. That alone probably meant something to her, even if she didn’t fully understand it yet. There might have been something deeper there, some kind of connection she couldn’t explain, or maybe she just wanted to understand the one responsible for her existence.

Honestly, I wasn’t that different.

"I don’t know," I said with a small shrug. "More than that, have you two actually seen each other?" I asked. "She’s been looking for you, you know?"

"Well, we did," she answered after a short pause. "But we didn’t really talk much."

"I see..."

That wasn’t a bad thing.

At least they had already met. That alone made things easier compared to starting from nothing. Still, it felt incomplete. A short encounter wasn’t enough, especially considering how complicated everything around Lilith and her fractions was.

I had already told Elise that the two fractions were in Milham, and that another one was in the Empire of Rodonia. She knew where they were, at least in general terms. Still, knowing and actually meeting were two completely different things.

A proper conversation would probably help clear up a lot of things.

As far as I knew, the only two she hadn’t met yet were Estelle, who was staying at the academy, and Leona, who was over in Rodonia.

"Are you sure it’s possible that she’s the one in the demon continent?" Veronica asked again, her voice quieter this time.

There was something behind that question.

Worry, maybe.

Curiosity too, but not the casual kind. It felt more personal than that.

Instead of guessing, I figured I might as well check directly.

I pulled out my phone and decided to call Elise.

Usually, this part was simple.

The moment I dialed her number, she would pick up almost instantly. It had gotten to the point where I barely even thought about it anymore. It was just how things worked between us.

Most of our communication was through texting. I had given her that phone so she could reach me even from far away, and she used it almost every day. Still, we didn’t really do voice calls that often.

This would probably be the first time in a while that I was actually calling her.

Funny thing was, calling her was still way more efficient than texting. She was slow at typing. Really slow. Painfully slow, even.

It was honestly impressive.

She had all that time with the phone, and somehow, she still typed like she was learning it for the first time. You’d expect some improvement by now, but apparently not.

Still, I didn’t mind.

I pressed the call button and waited.

Then I kept waiting.

She didn’t answer.

At first, it just felt like a small delay. Maybe she was busy, maybe she didn’t hear it right away. That kind of thing happens.

But then it kept going.

The ringing didn’t stop, and there was no sign that she was even going to pick up.

It didn’t feel normal.

It felt like the call wasn’t reaching her at all.

That was the part that bothered me.

"That’s weird," I muttered under my breath.

"What’s weird?" Veronica asked, tilting her head slightly.

"I don’t know," I said, glancing at the phone again. "Elise usually gets back to me immediately when I call her. There’s barely any delay. But right now, she’s not answering at all."

"Do you think she’s in danger?"

That thought hadn’t crossed my mind at first.

Then again, now that it was out there, it didn’t sound impossible.

Elise was strong. That was a given. Still, strength didn’t make someone untouchable. There had already been situations where she ended up in trouble despite that.

"You’re sensing her in the demon continent, right?" I asked, shifting my attention back to Veronica.

"Yes," she replied. "Although I’m not completely sure if it’s really her. It could be Lilith herself."

I frowned slightly.

Lilith being there didn’t line up.

She was inside me. That much I was sure of. The chances of it being her were extremely low. Still, there was always that tiny possibility, the kind that technically exists but barely matters.

"What are you going to do, Leon?" she asked. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

"I’m going to figure out what’s actually happening," I said. "If her phone got destroyed or the battery died, then I’ll track where she was last located on that phone before it died and start from there. It could be nothing, but the fact that she didn’t answer when I called is bothering me more than it should."

That was the honest part.

It might have been something simple.

A dead battery, a broken phone, bad signal. Any of those could explain it.

Still, something about it didn’t sit right.

Maybe I was overthinking it.

Wouldn’t be the first time.

Getting the facts first was the smarter move before jumping to conclusions. Acting too fast without knowing anything would just make things worse.

While I was thinking about all that, I noticed Veronica staring at me.

Her expression was... different.

At first, I couldn’t quite place it.

Then it clicked.

Jealousy.

"Are you jealous?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

She blinked once, like she needed a second to process that.

"Is this... jealousy?" she asked, almost like she was asking herself instead of me.

That was pretty much an answer.

She didn’t even try to deny it.

For some reason, that made me smile a little.

It was kind of adorable.

Seeing her react like that, trying to figure out her own feelings in real time, felt oddly genuine.

"Are you busy?" she asked after a short pause.

"A bit," I said. "Why?"

She looked at me for a moment, like she was deciding whether to say it or not.

Then she just went for it.

"Can we have sex?"