After studying him for a long, drawn breath—searching for even a flicker of deceit or hidden motive—Serah found nothing in Marcus's eyes but that same maddening, carefree gleam. She sighed.
"Well... I guess I might just believe you then," she said at last.
"Wow," Marcus said, grinning with a flash of teeth. "That's sweet. So we can move on to the next stage of our relationship, yeah?"
Serah flinched slightly, caught off guard—again—by his words. "There's nothing to move onto," she retorted quickly.
"How boring," Marcus replied with a mock-wounded look.
A brief silence passed between them before Serah leaned slightly forward, her tone calm but tinged with curiosity. "This might be none of my business but... as a dark mage, don't you think making a living in one of the Kingdom's most tightly-guarded Zones is kind of... suicidal?"
