The new house had not been furnished yet, so Kabe simply brought the two women into his own estate instead.
The moment they stepped into the living room, Kabe, right before Brandish's horrified eyes, reached out with both hands and grabbed Irene's cheeks, yanking them out to either side.
"What the hell are you doing, Irene?!"
Irene had clearly not expected him to pull something like this. Her strength might not match his, but whether in age or seniority, she still stood well above him.
Just because she had moved in next door without warning him first, was this brat really going to react this violently?
Her cheeks were already being tugged out of shape, and just as she was about to speak in fury and humiliation, she heard the rest of Kabe's sentence.
"You should have just admitted it yesterday. Why did you have to beat around the bush and tell that stupid lie instead?
Now your relationship with Erza is going to be impossible to sort out forever!!"
'So that is what he meant...'
The moment the topic shifted there, Irene instantly fell silent.
Seeing her stand there playing mute, Kabe only got even angrier.
And so, right before Brandish's increasingly frightened eyes, he continued kneading and squashing Irene's face, pinching and rubbing it in every direction as he vented all his frustration.
Irene herself was left stunned for quite a while by this outrageously rude treatment.
Only after Kabe had vented enough did she finally flush red with anger and slap his hands away.
"Y-you bastard brat, do not go too far! My affairs are none of your business!"
"Your business, my ass. You just chickened out. Before coming here, you looked all calm and confident, like you had everything under control.
And then when it actually mattered, you shrank back like some useless spineless coward.
And you call yourself one of the Empire's Twin Walls? Scarlet Despair?
Please. You're more like Scarlet Softshell."
Once Kabe's temper really flared up, there was no stopping him. He let loose and blasted her without mercy.
Irene was never the kind of person who took things quietly to begin with. After being sprayed with that kind of verbal assault, her anger instantly surged up from the depths of her heart.
She immediately summoned her staff into her hand, released her magic power, and prepared to settle things with Kabe properly.
Kabe was not the slightest bit intimidated either. He cracked his knuckles loudly and looked more than ready to teach this muddle-headed old woman a lesson.
The only person thoroughly terrified by their confrontation was Brandish.
She was just an innocent bystander. She had no desire whatsoever to get dragged into a fight between these two monsters.
As she crouched behind the sofa, trembling and having no idea what to do, a lazy, playful voice suddenly rang out through the living room.
"My, my. We have barely been apart for a few days, and already the relationship between the two of you has deteriorated this badly.
That will not do. If the alliance between the three of us falls apart, I will be terribly troubled."
The instant the voice sounded, both Kabe and Irene turned their heads at the same time toward the sofa Brandish was hiding behind.
Under their watchful gazes, ripples like water suddenly spread through the space in front of it.
Then Selene, who had parted from them earlier to return home and deal with her own affairs, slowly stepped out of another dimension as if strolling through a doorway.
After that, she seated herself quite naturally on the sofa and elegantly crossed her long legs.
"It has been several days, my beloved allies.
Come now, do not be shy. Sit down and let us talk properly."
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