"W-Where am I?" Leon asked while trying to regulate his steady breathing. The bright light illuminating from the bulb almost blinded his eyes, when he sat up straight with the help of Alana.

After being successful in steadying his temporary blindness, Leon was finally able to have a better understanding of his new surroundings. He was in a room, no doubt, and on a bed, with a blue blanket covering the lower half of his body. Lucian was seated at the end of the bed with his concerned eyes on Leon. Whereas, the other three girls, Lena, Cynthia and Cora, all were circling the bed. Alana was the one who was nearest to the Dragonesian. To Leon's bewilderment, the unbearable pain was no more bothering the crimson eyed Dragonesian. In fact, a square shaped cotton pad now covered his infected wound. Very evidently so, his fever had disappeared, including the ever-growing swell.

"The pus has been squeezed out," a hoarse voice informed, which belonged to a masked man; Leon figured. He had been doing something in one corner of the room that Leon noticed now. The man removed his gloves while working through tweezers, cotton pads, antiseptic liquids, ointments and what not. All were present in a steel tray.

"Your health will be alright," the man kept on informing, "Surprisingly, the infection had stopped spreading through your body, even before you were brought here. Could be because you have Dragonesian blood flowing in your veins..."

The man sent an undetectable glance at Leon, especially when he emphasized more on Dragonesian blood. Leon seemed to be shrinking in insecurity, while Alana squeezed his hands, assuring him that he was safe.

"Rest well," the man uttered lastly before exiting the room.

"Are you alright?"

"Does it hurt anywhere?"

"We were so worried."

"Would you like us to get you anything?"

"I am fine," a stifled laughter came out of Leon's mouth seeing his friends bombarding him with unending questions all at once, "Really, I am alright."

A grunt left the Dragonesian's throat due to Alana's unprecedented smack on his arm.

"You," Alana smacked the boy hard, "Are an utter," the girl smacked again, "Idiot. Are you aware of the fact?"

Bewildered, Leon stared at Alana with innocence coating his eyes before he noticed her tear stained cheeks and red eyes and nose.

"Wait, did you cry?"

"No I did not!" Alana grumbled immediately, "In fact, I am very curious to learn the reason you had allowed yourself to get dragged by Mullin and not transform into your dragon form?"

"Well..." Leon trailed off, scratching the back of his head, "It is not really explainable, you see."

"And what do you mean by not explainable?" Alana stressed on the words as it was no wonder that Leon was lying.

Leon's crimson eyes roamed around the room and fell upon Lucian, who gave the same cold stare to the poor Dragonesian. Silently, he attempted to ask help from Lena and Cynthia. However, the two girls could do nothing but look at the Dragonesian prince with pity, as it was a known fact that Alana was furious. She was frustrated with herself, and at Leon. The amalgamation of emotions was not helping the girl either. In fact, she was more infuriated with herself rather than with Leon. It was due to the fact that she knew the boy needed rest. Yet, she was desperate to know the true reason as to why Leon had so easily allowed himself to once again fall in front of death. Even when he had already learnt how to transform into his dragon form.

Above all, Alana blamed herself for being a weak soul and giving up rather easily.

All in all, the girl was annoyed because of her abrupt burst of emotions when Leon was being taken away.

"So?" Alana pushed harder to get some answer out of Leon. Something worth to prove that the tears she had shed had not gone in vain.

Pride and arrogance were deadly attributes that no one knew Alana could possess. Nevertheless, the girl was not ready to admit that she had the ability to show tears in front of everyone. It made her feel embarrassed deep down, thinking that perhaps others now would see her as nothing but fragile and delicate. Alana was unwilling to accept that crying was absolutely fine, just how her deceased mother used to always tell her.

"I couldn't," Leon finally answered, his eyes on the bed, "I tried my best, but I just couldn't. It is true that I now can transform into my dragon form, but I am unfortunately, not aware of the process. Perhaps, the transformation requires something which I lack."

The others nodded understandingly, while Alana stared into oblivion. Not knowing how to proceed with the conversation, an awkward silence prevailing in the room. Only Cora seemed to be in her own world as she had long ago taken a seat on a chair.

Fortunately, to clear the atmosphere, Leon questioned his friends, "Where are we exactly?"

"Bronte," Lena answered, "A confidential organization established by human revolutionaries to put an end to the rule of Dragonesians."

"And they allowed me to enter their surreptitious organization?" Leon's eyes widened in shock, "That just seems...I am sorry to say but utterly unbelievable."

"It is the truth, though." Cynthia's brows furrowed at the thought that Leon might be doubting them.

"Do not misunderstand me. I am simply perplexed that human revolutionaries, whose sole mission must be to kill all Dragonesians along with the end of their reign, permitted to bring me here and get me treated. We are not prisoners here, right?"

"Of course not," Lucian readily denied the assumption, "As a matter of fact, you were saved from the Devil Class Dragonesian by these people."

"How is that even possible?" Leon grabbed his hair in disbelief, "You all are lying to me, aren't you? Did you all have to compensate anything in order to save me—"

"Calm down," Alana put both of her hands on Leon's shoulder, making the worked up Dragonesian boy face her, "We did no such thing. And I'll be honest with you. The leader of Bronte has offered us to join them—"

"I knew it," Leon clicked his tongue in anxiety, "There was a price."

"First listen to us at least," being irked at Leon's lack of ability to listen to them, Lena lost her temper and raised her voice slightly. The stressed out girl realized what she had done and immediately uttered a sorry to Leon, who had flinched at her reaction.

The recent events that had been taking place were taking quite a toll on all of them. That also, when they were not receiving proper mental rest.

"Neither have we given a positive nor a negative answer," Alana informed, "They seemed to be too eager to have us join them. So much so, that they agreed on treating you first and then hearing our response after much discussion."

"Oh," Leon calmed down a bit after hearing the full thing. He felt foolish for doubting them without listening to the whole matter. "Yeah, t-that makes sense."

"Bronte has even informed us that they would provide everything for you," Lucian said further.

Suspicions began to boil inside Leon's mind. Usually, he would not have been distrustful of anybody without any concrete evidence. Nonetheless, due to coming across several obstacles and greeting death for the past few weeks, had eventually caused a change in the boy's thought process. Although he wanted to voice out his dubiety, he did not do so and decided to wait till he found something notably sceptical.

"So should we all—" Cynthia's words came to a halt due to the knock on the door, thrice.

"I'll get it," Cynthia announced before making her way to the door.

As soon as she opened it, the selfsame crimson tint seemed to coat her cheeks.

"Hello," Cynthia greeted the boy with golden hair, with whom she had quite an eventful meeting, not long ago. The girl grimaced at her own high-pitched voice.

Alana and Leon were confused when they witnessed Cynthia's sudden shy behaviour as the girl moved aside to let the boy in. On the other hand, Lena could only smirk subtly as she was the sole person in the room who had an idea of what was going on inside the sixteen-year-old girl's head.

"I apologize for disrupting your meeting, if you were having one," the charming boy began, politeness dripping like honey from his tone, "Actually, Miss Luxuria Demi has sent me here to remind you all of a certain discussion you are supposed to have with her."

"Should we leave now then?" Lucian asked the lot, only to be interrupted by the boy (much to Lucian's displeasure).

"The thing is," hesitation was visible in his voice, "Miss Demi wants to have a conversation only with the leader of your group."

All eyes, except for the golden haired boy, turned towards Leon. Leon was their leader, and he was a Dragonesian as well. Now they did not know how Luxuria might react to that and ultimately, decide to reveal the amount of information based on her views on Leon, due to obvious reasons. The stakes were high from all sides. Above all, Leon had just recovered from a grave danger.

"I'll go," Leon said, climbing down from the bed, "It will be alright." The Dragonesian added, sensing his friends' hesitation.

At that very moment, Alana's eyes met with Lena's who sent her an encouraging smile. The girl looked at the others, who all had the similar understanding grin, telling her one thing.

Alana knew what to do.

"I must accompany him," Alana said to the boy who was almost on the verge of escorting Leon out of the room. She clenched the dagger behind her back, while speaking sweetly, "You see, my friend here has just recovered from a serious injury and requires guidance of someone all the time.

I hope Luxuria will not mind."