Leviathan of the Covenant - a chinese web novel
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| Leviathan of the Covenant |
Original Name
《盟約のリヴァイアサン》 BY 丈月城Synopsis
You shall become king>>Go to the chapter list of Leviathan of the Covenant to read more!
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Chapter 1: To the Homeland Where There Are Dragons
It all started two months earlier.Back then, the calendar read February.
That would be midwinter—Well, only inhabitants of the northern hemisphere would jump to that conclusion. At the time, Hal was actually in Australia on the southern hemisphere, and at a little coastal town to boot.
With summer in full swing, the sky overhead was blue and distant while the clouds were so white that they were dazzling.
Although the sunlight was quite intense, it added further to the liberating feeling of summer.
There was also the sea. A beautiful sea, navy blue and crystal clear, together with a white beach.
This was a town where one could take a quick walk to the shore and fully enjoy summer. Even if meant as flattery, calling this area metropolitan would be quite a stretch. However, it was not sparsely populated to the point that one would begin to miss urban life.
Tranquility in moderation. Comfort in moderation.
Hal's purpose here was work.
—Flying in from the moon and satellite orbits, the frequency of recent dragon attacks on urban areas had almost reached the level of sudden natural disasters.
As a safety precaution, local administrations in developed nations had written up tremendously detailed emergency evacuation manuals.
Furthermore, rigorous simulation drills were held at regular intervals to ensure flawless execution of evacuation procedures. This had already become the norm.
Apart from that, further self-defense measures would be desirable.
However, there were no military installations near this little town. In addition, despite being a coastal area, there were limitations in relying on the patrolling fleets of the TPDO—the Trans-Pacific Defense Organization.
Hence, it was commonplace for people to desire "assurance" unhindered by these conditions.
Hal worked for an organization whose main business was selling "knowledge" to these people.
Back when he first arrived here at the organization's referral, the southern hemisphere was still in winter.
During this period before the arrival of summer, Hal rushed all over Australia like the world-famous archaeologist and grave robber, Indiana Jones, and finally completed his mission. Having handed the obtained Grave Goods to local big shots, he was freed from his task.
He did not know if the ladies selected as eligible candidates would succeed in becoming witches known as "magi."
However, that did not fall under Hal's jurisdiction.
In the short term, all he needed to do was recuperate and enjoy this leisurely vacation without restraint.
Hence, he first went to a cafe by the sea. In the middle of slurping his mixed fruit juice, Hal received an incoming phone call that would disrupt all his plans.
"...Asya."
The touchscreen-operated portable terminal displayed the caller's name.
Anastasya Rubashvili.
Born in Georgia. Nicknamed Asya. Childhood friend. An unfortunate but inseparable relationship. For Hal, who did not have many friends, she was a rare case of a long-term friendship he maintained.
Touching the LCD, Hal picked up the call.
'It's been a while, Haruomi. How have you been, lately?'
The childhood friend's voice was both lovely and gentle.
In fact, she was also blessed with natural beauty that offered a perfect match for her voice.
But for some unknown reason, Hal found it extremely challenging to treat her as a member of the opposite gender. Maybe it was because he had often witnessed the way she wolfed down two-kilogram steaks while claiming "I'm lacking in appetite today" before finishing off another three plates of Korean-barbecued beef ribs.
In any case, to the childhood friend whose dreamy appearance only ran skin deep, Hal replied: "Good enough, I suppose. After all, I just finished a job."
'That's really good news. Well then, I happen to have a request fo—'
Beep. Hal disconnected the call.
Rather than a carefully thought-out action, this was a reflexive impulse.
'Could you please explain why you suddenly hung up?'
Calling again, Asya's voice still sounded adorable but now there was also something terrifying about it.
"Sorry. I couldn't help myself because you're like the monster that's trampling my paradise."
'That does not constitute a valid reason. And please avoid describing a young maiden as some kind of monster.'
"Then let me break this to you... As I've already mentioned before, my dream is to save up enough money to retire in seclusion at a quiet little town somewhere."
A light sigh was emitted on the other side in response to Hal.
'...Oh that one. If my memory serves me right, your target is to achieve your dream before the age of thirty-five, isn't it?'
"Yes. Then I'll spend the rest of my life freely indulging myself in my interests without doing any work at all."
'For a teenage boy's ambitions, that's severely lacking in the dream department.'
"Is it? On the other hand, I believe that as far as life's planning goes, there's nothing more dream-like than this. If you ask some pedestrians on the street, I'm sure many people will support the notion."
'Many people may agree, but I'm quite sure not many teenagers will be among them.'
Rather than caustic, Asya's tone of voice was indifferent.
She seemed to have had enough. However, Hal remained unfazed and continued, "In any case, that's my dream. My current location is quite ideal. This town offers just the right level of tranquility, it's comfortable to live in and has good proximity to the sea."
'By ideal, you really mean...'
"Yes. As a secluded residence, I think this place is completely flawless. Asya, I just finished a job and am now in a place where I can fulfill my dream. Wouldn't you agree that it'd be a most natural development if I want to take a vacation and have a trial run of my future while I'm here?"
'Speaking of which, it happens to be summer over on your side right now...'
"And yet you call at a time like this to discuss a 'request.' In any case, I'm sure it must be work related? That's why I hung up. In order to stop a certain insensitive monster from invading the sanctity of my paradise..."
'Please do not use a word like 'sanctity' to describe an excuse for slacking off.'
"I want to spend my time here lazing about like some sort of slovenly creature. Please find someone else."
'I refuse.'
The two sides had no common ground.
In order to overcome the impasse, Asya began to explain tirelessly.
'There's some personal research I'd like to conduct, so I plan to go to Tokyo New Town soon and use that place as a temporary base of operations.'
"Research, you say? And you deliberately go all the way to New Town?"
'Yes. However, I'm not too familiar with that city. I've also heard that SAURU does not have much staff there who could provide assistance.'
Hal and Asya both belonged to the research organization SAURU.
Undertaking the revival and research of the Metaphysical Body of Knowledge for resisting dragons, their mission was to promote this to the entire world—A secret association.
"The current Tokyo is nothing more than a regional city. I believe it has fallen into a deep recession, so having large numbers of staff stationed there is pointless," said Hal indifferently.
After the "Dragons' Return" and First Strike event over twenty years ago, the humans were forced into an unequal treaty, resulting in the establishment of over two hundred "concession" territories ceded to dragonkind.
The Tokyo Concession was one of them.
Currently, all the capital functions had been moved to central Japan.
'However, it would make a huge difference just by having one trustworthy companion by my side... Haruomi, you were born there, am I right? I also seem to remember you mentioning that you have a home there. So I wanted to discuss—'
"I haven't gone back for three years already. Neither do I have any intention to do so now," Hal swiftly rejected Asya before she could finish.
'Could you compromise a little on that point? Think of it as helping your childhood friend.'
"Friends are best kept out of sight, in one's heart."
'...Heartless.'
"I don't mind if you call me a fiend."
'Then I won't hold back. Fiend, demon! You are totally human scum, the worst lowlife!'
"Hearing that from a young girl gets me a little excited."
'You're a total pervert as well!?'
"......Heh."
'P-Please at least pretend to deny that last allegation!'
After grumbling at Hal's chuckling, Asya coughed and cleared her throat.
'In that case, Haruomi, let us have a chat about old memories. Do you still remember the time when we went to town by ourselves and ended up getting lost?'
"I seem to remember you were leading the way and took a wrong turn?"
'If anything, it was your fault for losing the map, Haruomi. Anyway, we were wandering about town back then, our stomachs rumbling with hunger.'
"Right, that's why I suggested: 'Given how cute a girl you are, Asya, all you need to do is plead tearfully and some benevolent adult or dirty pedophile will surely treat us to a meal, why not give it a shot?'"
'That's right, you said that... When clearly that kind of beggar-like behavior is totally unacceptable.'
"Rather than beggar-like, it's truly authentic begging."
'That's even worse! Putting that aside, back to the subject... Back then, by spending the little money I had to buy a hamburger, I was rendered penniless. Yet I divided my precious food and shared half with you to alleviate your hunger.'
"Hold it right there. From what I remember, your share was a lot more than half, you know?"
'W-Whatever. Anyway, roughly a half, okay!'
"Judging from your arguing, you're really doing this on purpose."
'...Please cast away those suspicions that are tainting our wonderful reminiscence. In any case, you understand now? After that, the bond we've built up has become our shared treasure. In order to respect that bond, shouldn't we support each other through good times and bad?'
"I think that reason's really stretching it."
'I don't care. Back then, you took away half of my food, Haruomi, so it's not fair unless you repay me accordingly!'
"...If I remember correctly, we were in Luxembourg back then?"
Hal attempted to recall the price level and local currency value from that time.
"A hamburger, right? Probably less than two Euros..."
'What's important is the benevolence of sharing roughly half of one's possessions with another. It's not very manly of you to calculate the value of a favor in terms of money.'
The above conversation led Hal to return to his homeland of Tokyo.
Despite going on a massive tangent filled with nonsense, Anastasya Rubashvili, aka Asya, was indeed Haruga Haruomi's old friend.
To be honest, Hal's true thoughts were "By this point, why bother going to a place like Tokyo..."
He had not returned all this time. Furthermore, despite being his homeland, there was no one waiting for him back there. There was no need to confirm this fact deliberately—That was what Hal believed.
However, his long and deep friendship with Asya prevented him from rejecting with that kind of reason.
Hal could only shrug and go "good grief" in resignation.
Hence, his vacation was cut short after lasting a mere three days. Hal started preparing for his return to Tokyo New Town.
Part 2Time flew.
On the verge of returning to his homeland, Hal had no choice but to finish handling a mountain of paperwork.
First of all, he contacted the Japanese headquarters of SAURU, the organization he belonged to.
"So that's how it happened. Although it's not my original intention, I have finally decided to visit my hometown."
'Oh dear, your long phase of living away from home is finally drawing to an end, eh?'
Making an international call from Australia, Hal explained the situation and reported his plans to return.
On the other end of the line was a woman called Hiiragi-san. Her voice sounded gentle and elegant over the phone. Hal could not help but describe her voice as noble.
She was the leader in charge of SAURU's Japanese branch in the Kantou region.
'Considering it's you, Haruomi, who refused to return no matter how much I tried to persuade you... This somehow makes me deeply moved.'
"I didn't run away from home. I'm simply making a living overseas."
'At your age, there are definitely plenty of alternatives to your pelagic fisherman-kind of lifestyle, aren't there? There's plenty of work in Tokyo too. You must have heard about the shortage of talent around here.'
"Yes, primarily from you, Hiiragi-san."
The speaker on the other side was Hiiragi-san, a member of the organization's core leadership.
Part of her duties involved referring jobs to SAURU members such as Haru and Asya. After receiving "requests" from civilian or state agencies in her area of jurisdiction, she would assign them to suitable members according to what the jobs entailed.
"'The lack of manpower is such a pain, so I hope you can help out in handling all the odd jobs and menial tasks. I'll order you around and make full use of you, so hurry back, will you?' —That's what you actually mean, right?"
'...Hold on, I should've expressed it far more tactfully than that, right?'
"You even resorted to tears once."
'My acting skills were clearly perfect that time... But you still remained unmoved, Haruomi.'
"Because the timing in the transition from your original subject of conversation to the outpour of tears was a teeny bit unnatural."
'Getting duped willingly is a show of manliness in times like those, you know♪ Oh right, before I forget it,' the crafty organization leader suddenly changed the subject.
'I've already introduced you to a high school that's on good terms with our organization, so you must attend school normally.'
"High school!?"
'Of course. After all, you're an age where you normally go to high school to begin with.'
"I've totally forgotten about that."
'Forgotten on purpose, you mean? Don't just focus exclusively on being a treasure hunter. At least earn the high school credits you're supposed to have.'
"I'm not good at that kind of stuff. After all, I won't be making friends."
Hal's talent was in searching for the antiques known as Grave Goods.
Technically speaking, they should be called "magical apparatus for enshrined object emulation."
Due to being too long and unwieldy, the official term naturally fell into disuse. Instead, the colloquial name, slightly lacking in dignity, found widespread use. These were the objects that Hal would obtain by excavating, stealing and extracting from ancient ruins and historical sanctuaries, or by acquiring them from black markets where artwork and antiques circulated.
This was why Hiiragi-san called him a "treasure hunter."
Hal was not the only one talented in this line of work. It had been his father's specialty as well.
For the sake of securing whatever caught their eyes, the father and son would go as far as to run all over the world. Hal had been transferring between schools constantly on a global range.
Hence, his sense of belonging in the institution called school was rather weak.
'Don't give up before you start... But it's true that you're definitely a child who completely fails at reading cues, Haruomi. Even when there are hungry bears prowling nearby, I get the feeling that you'd still lightheartedly start a barbecue.'
"Rather than failing to read cues, I notice but deliberately ignore them."
'In other words, the problem lies not in sensitivity but sociability? Perfect. Then take this opportunity in the closed environment of a school to learn properly how to live in society.'
With this troublesome mission imposed on him, Hal finally returned to his home country.
The Tokyo New Town Special Economic Zone was formed by redeveloping the former administrative regions including the Tokyo wards of Kōtō and Edogawa, stretching all the way to the wards of Adachi and Katsushika as well as the southeastern part of Saitama Prefecture.
The Haruga home was situated in the Sumida Ward inside this zone.
It had originally been a grand residence designed in the image of a European mansion.
But perhaps due to being uninhabited for long periods of time, the house was no different from a derelict building. The garden was completely neglected as well. As much as the house remained intact, it had become something like a ghost mansion.
Hal cleaned up the house to a level livable for a single male, at least.
First, he made a rough sweep of the dust accumulated over the long years, doing some vacuum cleaning, cutting corners to a degree that would cause any neat freak to frown. Then he ventilated the interior and took out a simple bed to set up in the study—That was all.
Honestly speaking, it really was a sloppy clean up job...
"I've never returned to this home since Pops passed away," muttered Hal softly while looking at the study that had become his castle.
The sort-of magnificent bookshelves were fully occupied by the book collection of the Haruga family, a lineage said to have produced many a collector over the generations, although only few of them were from his father. Despite having read tens of thousands of volumes, he tended to digitize the majority of books after reading.
This naturally arose from a lifestyle of frequent relocations.
"Oh, so that's where Pops kept it."
Inside the study was a heavy desk. Opening a drawer, Hal discovered it.
A silver pocket watch. Hal had some recollections of it. During the last years of his life, his father often kept it by his side, staring at it with deep emotion. As a side note, this was no ordinary watch.
It was one of his father's tools of the trade, a "clockwork mage."
Having inherited the family business, Hal also treasured the same type of tool.
"This thing is really good, just as I thought. And you clearly said you'd give it to me once you're done with it..."
The silver watch was circular with a diameter of 10cm.
It was slightly too large as a pocket watch, but Hal still stuffed it into a pocket in his pants.
Even higher in quality than the one Hal was currently using, this thing was definitely going to come in handy in the future. However, Hal could not deny the fact that he was partially motivated by a desire to carry a memento...
Then Hal spread out some documents on the desk.
These documents were required by the school introduced by Hiiragi-san and had to be filled in properly. After doing that, he would also need to visit SAURU's one and only branch office in New Town to greet his contact there...
With a whole ton of necessary tasks to complete, Hal was quite occupied for days on end.
During this time, Asya finally arrived in Japan as well.
By the time that Hal had finished most of preparations for his new life, it was already April.
April meant the start of the Japanese school year--Having forgotten this kind of basic fact, Hal hastily changed into his uniform, grabbed his schoolbag and rushed out of the house on the morning of the opening ceremony.
Opening ceremony. New student orientation. Introduction to clubs. Official start to lessons. Etc.
After experiencing a first week packed with events, Hal's high school life entered its second week.
Kogetsu Private Academy. Year 1 Class F in the high school division.
Hal's seat was in the last row, next to the window. Sitting there motionlessly like a Japanese house spirit, he silently surveyed the classroom without conversing with anyone.
Lessons were over and it was currently after school.
Friendships within the class seemed to be establishing themselves smoothly.
Several cliques had already formed among the boys and girls. Staying in the classroom, they would either chat together or horse around, looking like they were developing amicable relations.
However, Hal was alone by himself.
This resulted from how passive he had been in approaching classmates ever since the start of the school term.
"Isn't this within expectations too?" Hal whispered to himself.
Ordinary people might feel uncomfortable in his situation, but Hal was completely unfazed. After all, his personality was not endearing at all, to the point that he would not be deterred by concerns regarding public image.
Today, he had agreed to help Asya out after school was over.
But just now, he received a text message from her saying that something had come up and she would be late.
Thus Hal was leisurely hanging around in the classroom.
While Asya was handling whatever she needed to do, he needed to kill time—
"Hi, you're... Haruga-kun, right?"
Someone suddenly spoke to Hal. The girl sat in front to his right.
Sporting short hair amenable to an active lifestyle, she looked rather cute.
"Are you free today? If it's okay with you, could you accompany me for a bit?"
"Sorry, I'm not free so I must decline."
The chance to get to know a cute girl—Failing to manifest such ulterior motives his heart, Hal refused her firmly.
As a result, the girl grinned with a look that seemed to say "Oh."
"Come on, don't be like that. All you need to do is visit our club room for a bit and leisurely fill out your name and class on our club membership form! After that you can be a ghost member if that's what you want, but if you're interested, you can come over after school for some fun or join in our regular weekend gatherings. Wouldn't it be nice to spend the days of your youth in a fulfilling way?"
An invitation to club activities? Hal nodded.
Were it not for this reason, this girl probably would not have tried to make conversation with Hal specifically, right?
It was only the second week, but this girl was already going around, trying to recruit members for the club which she belonged to. She seemed to be lively as her appearance suggested. Hal recalled that her name should be Mutou.
"And your club is?"
"The UFO Research Club. If we don't find two more members, we'll lose the room our club is using."
"Well, I'm not interested in chasing after flying saucers," replied Hal after hearing the girl bring up a club whose name sounded so suspicious.
"Everyone keeps saying the same thing. Looks like bringing boys over to the club room is already taxing the limits of my charm stat. But you won't even make a visit, Haruga-kun."
"I think it's not a bad approach towards recruiting members."
Mutou's sighing tone of voice instilled Hal with a sense of camaraderie.
Given appropriate suggestions, solving the problem should not be difficult with her level of energy. Hal tried the following:
"How about you don't take people to the club room and instead invite them straight to a three-day camp. After pushing them to their limits using hunger, sleep deprivation and psychological pressure, you can gently console your targets and make them dependent on you. To finish up, you can have them sign their names on the club entry form."
"No way, you're actually an unscrupulous person, Haruga-kun!?"
Hal had recommended a typical brainwashing technique, causing Mutou to jump in fright.
"Well, the method I recommended is actually the mildest one I could think of... I guess it's a bit too intense for Japanese schools?"
"I'm pretty sure that goes for schools in any country!"
"Anyway, a club that studies UFOs, eh? I thought such hobbies had already gone extinct by the end of the twentieth century."
"Eh, why's that?"
"Because we're currently in an era when dragons come flying from the moon, suddenly appearing in the sky..."
Hal pointed to the sky's vast expanse outside the window.
"I don't think the sky has any remaining space for unknown lifeforms from the universe to hover in flying saucers, whether Adamski-style or cigar-shaped."
"Ahhh, so that's what you're thinking of? Wrong, wrong."
Smiling, Mutou-san waved her hands to refute.
"The UFOs we chase are not flying saucers but the dragons you just mentioned."
Hal only needed to think slightly before understanding immediately.
The acronym UFO officially stood for "Unidentified Flying Object." It did not originally mean flying saucer but was a codename for unknown flying entities. In that sense, just as Mutou-san pointed out, the dragons were currently the biggest and most numerous UFOs.
"Then your club activities involve--"
"Yes, the study of dragons as lifeforms. See, although the government and the JSDF deny hiding and censoring information about the dragons, in actual fact, they are doing it. So in order to collect as much correct information as possible, we have to take action as civilian volunteers."
"..."
"Also, we basically have no concrete understanding of the 'serpents' humans use to repel dragons. Since it's not like they're shiny silver aliens from Nebula M78, there must be something kept under wraps, but they won't disclose anything to ordinary people."
To think the conversation would even bring up "serpents."
Hal was quite surprised. This happened to fall under his field of work, namely the Metaphysical Body of Knowledge that the research organization SAURU devoted its efforts to disseminate.
"Anyway, we only know that they're lifeforms similar to dragons... Also, they're guardian deities or biological weapons of war that are protecting humans for some kind of reason. Oh, by the way..."
Never expecting this type of topic to come up in conversation at a Japanese high school, Hal found it perplexing. While he was thinking that, Mutou-san continued.
"When dragons fly nearby, we also head out to high places to take images."
"You go that far!?"
"Yeah, then we release them on the internet. So, seeing as you've misunderstood our club activities, I'll ask you once more: Haruga-kun, would you like to join our research club? It's quite interesting."
Just as Hal was pondering how to respond, someone suddenly joined the conversation from the side.
"I know it's very impolite for me to interrupt your conversation, but please allow me to interject a few words."
The girl sitting in the seat to Hal's right had turned towards them.
Hal was quite surprised because ever since Year 1 Class F came into being, the noisily chatting boys and girls had rarely approached this female student.
Nevertheless, she was not one of those "unsociable nobodies" like Hal. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Precisely because her presence stood out too much, she became a "solitary person."
"Regarding your club, Mutou-san, I've been having the same misunderstanding as Haruga-kun. I never expected you to be a community that tries to contribute to society so seriously... I suppose this serves as an example of why we shouldn't make judgments based on preconceived notions," murmured Juujouji Orihime emphatically, the girl with excessive presence.
Due to the rarity of both her family and given names, Hal had retained a strong impression of her as well.
"Oh, it's nowhere as amazing as what you make it out to be... We club members only do it because we like it."
"Even so, your noble deeds are still admirable."
Although Mutou-san acted very modest, Orihime offered her praise generously.
Elegant, refined, graceful, magnanimous—
Various virtues typically lacking in high school girls could be found in Orihime's comportment.
Like Hal, she was seated in the last row at the back of the classroom. But unlike Hal who sat all lonesome by himself like a Japanese house spirit, Orihime's sitting posture was very upright as though she were a noble princess presiding over this classroom.
Paying serious attention to all lessons, performing gallantly during PE class to showcase her excellent athleticism and outstanding figure to the surrounding people, she was extremely capable and talented.
(So she resembles a princess not only in appearance but internally as well?)
Speaking of people whose personalities failed to live up to their appearances, Hal had his childhood friend Asya as an example.
Possibly, Juujouji Orihime was also—Hal secretly speculated. But imagining such things seemed too impolite. Hal silently apologized in his heart.
Unaware of Hal's thoughts, Orihime took out a B5-sized sheet of paper from her desk.
It was a club entry form. With beautiful handwriting, she wrote down "Juujouji Orihime, Year 1 Class F" then handed the form to Mutou-san.
"You need club members, don't you? I am willing to help."
"Eh, are you sure!?"
"Yes. I might have needed more time to think over the matter if you hadn't mentioned the option of being ghost members. But since ghost members are accepted, I see no reason to hesitate any further," said Orihime as she took her schoolbag and stood up.
"Oh, if it's okay with you, please feel free to visit our club classroom for some fun next time."
"Of course, if I feel so inclined and happen to be free. But I am quite busy, so I'm sorry I cannot readily promise anything. Please don't be too expectant," replied Orihime cheerfully after hearing Mutou-san's invitation from behind.
With these honest words without any nuance of sarcasm, Orihime quickly walked over to the classroom entrance. Her every movement was truly dashing and gallant.
"...Almost like a person from a painting," muttered Hal subconsciously to himself as he watched Orihime depart.
Part 3Curry shop, cafe, massage parlor, used bookstore, DVD shop, etc.
Anastasya Rubashvili aka Asya was currently on the fourth floor of a multi-tenant building. To be precise, she was inside a used bookstore called Mirokudou.
Even more precisely, she was at the cash register.
Nevertheless, she was not in the middle of a part-time job. Originally, she had simply come here as a customer.
Sighing lightly, sitting on the round stool, Asya turned her gaze to a book on her thighs. Two hours had passed since the shop manager, the only member of the sales staff, had asked her to help watch the store.
During this time, not even a single customer arrived. In other words, the shop was in a state of being open but halted in business.
As commonly seen in shops of this type where nary a comic book was put on display, this hard-line used bookstore had never undergone thorough organization at all. Books that could not fit on the occupied shelves were piled up haphazardly like towers of waste paper all over the store's interior.
Asya's appearance was very out of place in this old and filthy store.
She was a beautiful young maiden.
The delicate features of her well-proportioned face seemed somewhat dreamy while her blue-tinted silver hair also gave off an intense air of mysteriousness.
Her slender body looked fragile enough to break from a single hug. Naturally blessed in appearance, this Eastern European girl possessed a body that could be described as like a fairy's.
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