_"Are you two spying on us? You didn't think we were in here together doing something naughty were you?"_

A bolt of purple energy hurled past the girl and landed directly in the wall behind her. The curse bubbled out in a dark mess of negativity before bursting out and causing a rather impressive explosion. To the others, it may have seemed like the castle was being invaded by a small platoon. And to be fair, that wasn’t too far from the truth, seeing as a love war had just been declared.

Not bothering to wait for the smoke to dissipate, Marianne strode forward, located Jacob, and curled her fingers around his arm. Leaning into him, she held him protectively and possessively, glaring at the Archer before the cloud finally subsided. Although her single-seen crimson eye burned with a whole new set of rage, her voice still held it’s composure, though that didn’t stop her from making death threats.

_**“Don’t touch him. Don’t touch him. Don’t touch him EVER. He’s interesting. You’re not. You’re just boring.”**_

A pause of silence.

Taking a few moments to calm down, Marianne closed her eye…before opening it again and replenishing the smile on her face. Looking at Meline, she bowed her head in apology but still kept a tight grip on Jacob’s arm.

“Sorry for that, honestly! I guess I got…carried away? Oh, but who could blame me when the fearless leader is so interesting,” she said happily. “Ah, just know Miss Succubus that if you ever do anything to my beloved fearless leader, _**I will gladly tear your face off and have the Exalt herself use it for knitting material**_. Ok?”

Not really caring if Meline agreed at the moment, the Dark Mage brought herself closer to Jacob, looking at Jerod with a wide-eyed stare.

“Oh, we forgot to head to the barracks! Mister Jerod, apologies for delaying us even further from our goals.”