He was still dazed, hadn't snapped out of it yet, when the very next second Jeanne shoved him aside, and the others quickly walked out after her.
"Heh heh, dear Mr. Leon, does the poor little lady you've left out in the cold need to help you up?"
Rose braced her hands on her knees, smiling sweetly as she bent down close, eyes narrowed, and held out a slender, pale hand toward him. There was a bright smile on her face, but Leon couldn't shake the feeling that... that smile was packed full of teasing and mischief.
Lying on the soft carpet, Leon's gaze slowly traveled upward.
Fuzzy penguin slippers...
Feet wrapped in gray stockings, slender and straight, leading up to perfect, well-trained thighs...
And finally, the high, snowy peaks and the collarbone half-glimpsed beneath, all the way up to that perfect, devilish face.
"...Cough, at least Big Sister Rose cares about me!"
Leon guiltily gripped Rose's hand, about to use it to pull himself up, only for her to let go, and with a slap he dropped right back onto the floor.
"Big Sister Rose? Are you saying I'm getting old?"
"Boo hoo hoo... you cruel, heartless man..."
Leon: "..."
Come on, you beautiful women, do none of you play fair?
She was just jealous of Jeanne, plain and simple!
...
...
By the time Leon had hauled himself up, hair a bird's nest, and stepped out of the house in his padded coat into the courtyard dyed white with snow, the others had long since gathered together, all eyes fixed on the figure slowly emerging from the swirling magic.
It was a woman.
She had a face so beautiful it looked almost sculpted, flawless as a meticulously crafted doll. Her ruby eyes and snow-bright silver hair set each other off, lending her a beauty that seemed to belong to no ordinary mortal world.
She wore a white fur ensemble that radiated noble bearing, yet it still couldn't hide her exquisitely proportioned, slender figure. Standing in the field of pure white snow, the whole picture complemented her perfectly.
Perfect!
Whether figure or face, for Leon, whose vocabulary wasn't exactly rich, the only word that came to mind, the only one worthy of her existence, was "perfect."
But in stark contrast to that perfect appearance was the worldly innocence in her eyes.
It was the kind of purity that should only appear in the eyes of an infant untouched by the world, yet strangely, it shone here on a woman who looked to be around twenty.
It didn't make a lick of sense, not by science, not by magic!
Just then, facing an unfamiliar environment for the first time, the woman looked at the crowd before her with hesitant eyes, then, following the etiquette she remembered, gave an elegant bow and softly introduced herself:
"H-hello, everyone, I... my name is Irisviel von Einzbern. From the Einzbern family."
"It's very nice to meet you all!"
"Also... I'd like to ask, where is this place? Just a moment ago I was still in the family's old castle, oh right! I remember a black envelope suddenly landed in my hand out of nowhere, I only stared at it for a moment, and then I was here."
As she spoke, her ruby eyes blinked, and she asked with a curious little face:
"Do you all know what's going on?"
The moment Irisviel finished speaking, she noticed that all these ladies were sizing her up with strange looks, which left her, someone who'd been shut away in the old castle since the day she was born and had never met a stranger apart from the family head and the maids, feeling suddenly shy and nervous.
"Th-that... did I say something strange?"
Everyone exchanged a glance and shook their heads in unison:
"Not strange."
Then, as one, they turned their heads to look at the man standing in the doorway. What are you all looking at me for? I didn't pull this off! All I do is pray and toss out the invitation. As for the recruiting method and the process, that's totally out of my hands, it's clearly the invitation acting on its own.
But obviously, no one was going to buy that explanation. After all, the power to recruit Familia members from countless worlds was one of a kind in all the world, so if it wasn't you, Mr. Leon, then who?
Especially with Kureha as the "cautionary precedent." Back then, that Sword Saint lady had been delivered flat on her back. Compared to her, who'd been summoned in with barely a breath left, Irisviel's entrance was about as normal as could be. It was just... she didn't seem to have been summoned after agreeing to sign a contract, but rather forcibly teleported the instant she touched the invitation.
Comparing the two, it was six of one, half a dozen of the other.
Uh... this unreasonable, forced-summoning style was actually very much in keeping with Irisviel's family back home.
The thought crossed his mind.
Leon guiltily curled his fingers, then a grin like a big bad wolf's spread across his face. Crunching across the piled snow, he walked forward and stopped two meters from her before speaking:
"Welcome to the New World, Miss Einzbern."
A thunderbolt right at the curtain's rise! The New World?
How weird, is this how everyone outside the old castle introduces things?
Hmm, let me think back...
Still weird, none of the knowledge I learned taught people to introduce things this way...
Unless...
She blinked, her eyes blank at first, then slowly widening, a stunned expression surfacing on her face!
"The New World?"
Leon's expression didn't change as he nodded firmly:
"That's right, in the literal sense, the New World."
Irisviel's heart surged, her cheeks faintly red, an excitement she couldn't quite suppress in her voice:
"You mean the kind of... concept where Lord Zelretch travels to parallel worlds?"
Hearing this, Leon paused slightly, marveling inwardly: As expected of the Einzbern, that prestigious magus house ranked among the Three Founding Families and inheritors of the Third Magic. In the breadth and depth of their education, they really were a cut above.
He glanced at the beautiful "madam" who was busy curiously looking over her surroundings, first nodded, then gave a small shake of his head:
"Close, but not entirely accurate. You can think of this place as a complete other world, fully independent from your own."
"Come on, the wind and snow are too heavy out here, this is no place to talk. Let's head inside first."
Irisviel immediately nodded over and over like a chick pecking grain, then walked into the house surrounded by the others.
The thick wooden door closed behind them, shutting the wind and snow firmly outside, leaving only the cozy warmth drifting from the hearth.
"Here, Iri... is it all right if I call you that?"
"Mm, Iri? I love it!"
Rose smiled sweetly as she took a brand-new pair of fuzzy cat-ear slippers from the shoe cabinet and set them gently by Iri's feet:
"Here, change your shoes first. Wearing those tall boots indoors can't be comfortable."
"Thank you!"
"Rose, Rose Marbleheart. We're about the same age, so if you'd like, just call me Rose."
"Big Sister Rose!"
...
...
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