Chapter 186
Chapter 186
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 186
Chapter Title: The Longest Runway
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Loan glanced at Donna’s face, then quickly corrected himself.
He was just enhancing the effect of his provocation.
“Now that I look closer, you seem more like an older sister. Someone who champions innovation wearing such old-fashioned clothes—I couldn't guess your age. That color, in particular, doesn't suit your skin tone. If you were intentionally trying to look older…”
Without needing to say she’d succeeded, Loan gave a playful shrug.
A short question came right back.
“Are you making fun of me?”
She was extremely flustered and humiliated, yet hearing it while looking at his face stirred a strange sense of urgency within her.
Donna forced her eyes wide and stared at Loan.
“I apologize if you felt that way. It was rude of me to say on our first meeting. As someone who funds the Zegna Guild, I couldn't stand by when it felt like I was being dismissed out of hand.”
A polite reply came back once more.
Truly a strange boy, offering a remedy right after inflicting the wound.
Just then, the presentation ended, and the applause of the crowd filled the air.
As people began to stand one by one, Loan and Donna remained seated, still looking at each other.
Donna felt a hesitation to show him her entire outfit.
For some reason, she felt that if Loan said one more word, she would be deeply hurt, but Loan was unaware of her feelings.
At that moment, Sienna approached them.
“Roy, what are you doing? Let’s go.”
It was the name he’d created for this mission.
Loan stood up and looked down at Donna, who was still seated.
Then, wondering if she needed help, he extended a hand, and Donna immediately took it.
It was almost reflexive, hard to see as intentional.
As Donna was naturally pulled to her feet by his gentle tug, Sienna unknowingly shot her a wary glance.
Loan said.
“This lady has invited me to her home.”
“You?”
Loan shrugged, his expression a mixture of ignorance and indifference.
Watching him, Sienna’s gaze grew a little sharper.
Their acting was so natural that they looked for all the world like a real brother and sister.
Donna found herself making an excuse.
“No, I didn’t say my home…”
“Who are you? And what business do you have with my little brother?”
Even amidst the surrounding noise, Sienna’s refined voice made Donna feel somewhat intimidated.
She seemed like a sister who cared deeply for her brother.
Strangely, that fact reassured Donna, while Loan, for his part, was inwardly impressed with Sienna.
When she had asked him beforehand how she should act, he had simply told her to follow her heart and do whatever came to mind to seem natural.
Yet every single word she spoke seemed to carry genuine emotion.
Sienna was that immersed in her role.
Although she had received information on Donna from the Responsibility Committee beforehand, this situation was something else entirely.
This was a boy she had brought to the Union herself when he was just a kid. Having thought of him as a real younger brother during their ‘Roasa’ activities, her affection for him was bound to be special.
Though he sometimes unintentionally acted like a man, it didn't diminish the purity of her care for Loan.
With the heart of someone protecting her treasured youngest brother, Sienna glared at Donna again.
As if determined not to be pushed around by the two siblings any longer, Donna straightened her posture and looked back and forth between them.
“My intentions are not impure. I simply thought his proportions were excellent and was suggesting we see how he looks in my collection.”
“Collection?”
Sienna asked, not understanding.
Donna spoke with a bit more confidence.
“I meant trying on the clothes I own. If you’re so worried about your brother, you can come along and see for yourself. Though I think we’re both past the age of being treated like children.”
She was practically calling her a nanny.
Her attitude was a mixture of wanting to recover from the insult, wanting to dress Loan up, and not wanting to lose to the intimidating Sienna.
Sienna did not back down.
“My brother is so exceptional that he attracts all sorts of creeps. Isn’t it proper to first reveal who you are and extend a formal invitation?”
“I don’t make such offers lightly. It's quite rare. In Medioll, there’s no need to go to such lengths. Because that’s who Donna of the Vascini family is.”
“Ah, Vascini.”
Hearing the name, Loan reacted slightly as if he recognized it, but he didn't seem particularly surprised.
Donna felt a bit of a competitive streak rise.
“Let’s just say only those who are worthy can wear my collection. Of course, I don’t yet know if you two are worthy or not.”
“Me? Why, are you planning to dress me up too?”
Donna slowly looked Sienna up and down as she asked.
“You too… for some reason, I think a suit would suit you better than a dress. Watching you walk over earlier, it seemed like you were more accustomed to that.”
“…”
“You have a good frame. And I can sense solid muscle in the lines where the fabric drapes and falls from your body. How about it, you come along too. I’ll formally invite you both, and it’s your freedom to accept.”
Loan’s team ended up heading to the Vascini family estate with Donna.
It was an achievement they had secured very quickly and without much difficulty, thanks to their brazen acting.
Despite this, not a single Union member looked bewildered.
They maintained a posture and attitude of constantly attending to Loan.
Following the family’s procedure that required them to proceed on foot from this point, they dismounted from their horses and carriage. As they faced the massive entrance gate to the Vascini estate, the tension became palpable.
An incredibly large and ornate gate.
Stretching out long and straight to the left and right of the gate was a high, neat wall made of shaped boxwood hedges, their sheer size and density conveying an overwhelming presence.
Garcia raised his head toward the top of the hedges and spoke without thinking.
“Boxwoods of this size must have lived for at least a few hundred years. It’s not often a family’s heritage is so apparent right from the entrance…”
There was no Richa to cut him off, but Loan was here.
Loan merely turned to look, seeming ready to hear more of the explanation, but Garcia misinterpreted the commander’s gaze and let his words trail off.
When it seemed no more would be said, Donna signaled to the guards.
The gate slowly opened.
*Groooooan.*
As the Union members, marveling at the natural wall, stepped onto the Vascini family’s territory.
Another gasp of admiration escaped, this time from Loan.
“Wow…”
It was a very boyish exclamation, and its lack of pretense made it feel like an even greater compliment.
Donna shrugged and then tilted her head.
“Don’t you want to walk?”
She then cast her gaze far, far into the distance.
Between gardens filled with the atmosphere of late autumn that stretched endlessly to the left and right, a straight path, similar in form to the runway seen at the fashion show, extended far into the distance.
Just gazing down its length was enough to make one feel dizzy.
Still, it was clear that at the end of the path lay the grand Vascini family mansion.
When it seemed no more would be said, Donna looked over Loan and his companions and spoke.
“I mentioned worthiness. It’s simple. Walking the longest runway in the world to greet the designer. The countless members of the estate and nature itself will all be your audience. I hope you will approach with an unwavering and proper posture. Preferably in a single file.”
“…”
Except for Loan and Sienna, everyone was armed, but Donna didn't point this out.
She seemed to assume they were escorts.
“I’ll go ahead and select the clothes. Well, I’d like to have all of you try something on, if possible. You’re all outstanding.”
Leaving behind a mysterious smile, Donna spurred her horse on and galloped toward the mansion alone.
After watching the back of the white horse recede down the center of the straight path, Loan opened his mouth.
“Things turned out as we hoped, but I didn't expect it to be like this. Shall we go?”
He didn't feel bad.
It was a long way, but the goal was clearly in front of them, and besides the mana of the Union members, there was nothing else in sight.
He couldn't completely let his guard down, but for now, all they had to do was walk.
As it turned out, the others were thinking similarly.
Following behind Loan, who was striding forward, Garcia spoke.
“Hmm. Our next objective was to cross the manor grounds, but it’s strange that we just have to walk.”
Following him, Sienna said.
“It’s quite a long road. We don’t know when or how the nature of the space might change. It could be a trap.”
In truth, even if everything that had happened so far and everything to come was a trap, there was nothing they could do about it.
Still, things had been resolved very easily. And very quickly.
For now, they had to be satisfied with that.
But humans don't always envision only a positive future.
A single thought was now running through everyone’s mind.
“If we get hit by one of that amazing Luciano’s arrow attacks while walking like this, how many of us will die in one shot?”
Someone in the middle of the procession whispered playfully.
Everyone knew he only said it because he was scared.
Therefore, it was Loan’s role to lead and reassure them now.
He was this team’s commander.
-I haven’t experienced it yet, so I don’t know how to block it, but I will prepare to maintain a constant defense.
As Loan’s thought reached everyone’s mind, Garcia followed up.
His voice also resounded in everyone’s hearts.
-Your willingness to take the lead and accept the risk is admirable. However, your role doesn't end there, so don't try to take responsibility for everything.
-…
-If we are attacked, everyone focus on your own defense. I can draw Luciano’s arrows with a highest-grade taunt. I can probably block up to five of them, so if Luciano’s presence is confirmed, consider it an opportunity for a decisive strike and follow me at full speed.
The Seekers of the Responsibility Committee looked steadfastly at the back of their commander’s head, which was the only one sticking out in the group, and gave a small nod.
Hearing such resolve added strength to their steps.
Loan also felt a sense of reassurance as he looked at their mana.
He was grateful.
It was a little embarrassing to add anything after Commander Garcia had said so much.
To express it differently, he unraveled the Convection that flowed solidly around his body, like unwinding a skein of thread, and let it stream behind him.
Past Garcia and Sienna, all the way to the senior member at the very back.
Loan’s breath, the flow of his mana, formed a gentle cluster.
“…”
“…”
They were all masters at the peak of their skill.
They immediately noticed the subtle change in the flow of the atmosphere.
They also understood that it had originated from Loan.
Could his words about maintaining a constant defense be related to this?
The strange occurrences didn't stop there.
Their steps gradually began to resemble Loan’s.
There was something solemn about them, something unrestrained, a sense of power.
The ten members of the Union walked the long road, maintaining a perfect formation and distance.
Their presence on the path grew to rival that of the straight, neatly arranged trees lining it.
As time passed like this.
Loan focused on stimulating the fourth mana flow.
The situation was ideal for it.
The path that complemented the third path, rising from the outside of the foot and passing through the ears and nose—the one Sienna had taught him by tracing it with her finger.
Suddenly, he seemed to feel that ticklish sensation once more.
It was fine.
Loan knew that it wasn't a bad thing for sensation, memory, and imagination to connect.
And so.
Circulating his mana and feeling the flow cross around his face, he allowed his senses to bloom wider and deeper.
The mana he drew in and the synesthesia he unfolded.
The range in which he could see mana expanded as well.
By the time they reached the midpoint of the long, long runway.
Loan saw the turbid mana signatures embedded in the forest on both sides.
He couldn't feel any intent, but he knew it wouldn’t lead to anything positive or peaceful.
Loan sent a telepathic message.
-Fifty-meter radius. Thirteen on the left, fifteen on the right. Presumed to be Nostra.
The team members did not waver.