"Huh?!" The shout took everyone's attention, including the passer-by.
"Theo?" Phyrill looked as confused as him, knowing that Theo shouldn't have anyone as his family. He had checked Theo's background after all.
"I-I think you're mistaking me with someone else, young lady." Theo gently denied it.
The two guys didn't want to get embarrassed even more by the little girl, so they quickly left the scene, knowing that it was impossible to do what they wanted to do.
On the contrary, the young girl shook her head with a smile. "No, I didn't mistake you for someone else. Let me introduce myself first… My name is Nella Griffith."
"Griffith?!" Theo's teammates drew a gasp as they took a step back, looking at Theo dumbfoundedly.
Griffith might not be a common name, but it didn't mean people in the world couldn't share the same family name. There were many occasions where two complete strangers had the same name from given to surname, so it wasn't weird to see someone with "Griffith" in their name.
But there was a problem with the little girl. It wasn't a coincidence or whatsoever because the girl mentioned her name only to Theo, who happened to have the same family name. If it were just a coincidence, she would've introduced herself to Phyrill or any other people.
"I didn't mistake anyone else. You're Uncle Ignotas Griffith's only child." The small girl smiled.
Theo took a step back and freed his hand from her hands while staring at her, becoming even more vigilant. "How do you know my fat—No, that's not important. Only child? You must get the wrong person. I have a brother, so I'm sorry, young lady, I am not your cousin."
Nella tilted her head in confusion before coming to a realization. "Ah, so that's how it is. In any case, I didn't find the wrong person. You're indeed my cousin. If you happen to want to know more about your origin, we can talk after you reach the main stage."
"Main stage?" Theo furrowed her eyebrows as his expression turned serious. "You…"
"Yes. I am also a participant. Fortunately, I couldn't find your country's name in my block or else we will have a clash soon." She smiled and took another look at his teammates. "I see. So these people are your teammates… Only one of them is decent. The rest is not so much…"
Sihan and Laust crossed their arms as if they felt a bit offended by what the girl said. Phyrill, on the contrary, laughed as he walked to them while pointing his finger at the girl. "What's this little girl saying, Theo? Pfft. There's an age restriction for the competition and her body—"
Before Phyrill finished, he was launched into the air, landed on the ground, and rolled a few times before stopping.
"!!!" The others looked at the girl in shock before appearing next to the girl, trying to restrain her, only to find five more people appearing on the scene.
The first one was a blonde girl sucking a lollipop with her hand circling around Theo's neck. Another one was a brown-haired female that grasped Ellen's wrist. The third one was also a girl with black hair. She appeared behind Sihan and simply stared at him.
The other two were both males. The blonde guy grabbed Alea's hand to stop her while the green-haired guy put his foot in front of Laust, glaring at him as if telling him to stop.
The blonde girl held the lollipop for a bit while speaking in English. "Hey, hey. What's happening? What do you want to do with our little princess?"
"…" It was complete silence as Alea and the others also had their guard up and prepared to react to any kind of movement.
"It's enough." Nella let out a long sigh and looked at the blonde girl. "Zara, I believe you should remove your hand from my cousin."
"Your cousin?" Zara widened her eyes dumbfoundedly before shaking her head helplessly. "Oi, we just lost you for a few minutes and you got a cousin now?"
Responding to Zara's nonchalant attitude, Nella leaked her killing intent a bit as she stared at Zara with an irrefutable stare. "I won't repeat myself."
Zara felt a chill down her spine and took one step back instinctively. Sweats began to cover her forehead as fear remained on her face.
Seeing Zara stopped, the rest suddenly put down their hands, thinking it was just a misunderstanding.
Nella took a deep breath and turned to Phyrill with a calm expression. "You're only a little… a little bit taller than me, but you're older than me. You're the one smaller. I'm also 17 years old."
Phyrill gritted his teeth and glared at Nella while thinking, 'What just happened? I don't know what was going on, but I felt as if my body got hit by a car. Something invisible, but different from Alea's Inch Slash…'
"Who are you…" Theo squinted his eyes and acted as if everything didn't bother him.
"I've introduced myself earlier. My name is Nella Griffith, your cousin. If you are interested in knowing more about me and what I know, come to the grand stage and meet me privately. I will tell you anything I can say." Nella smiled and gently grabbed his hand again. "I hope that we will meet again."
"I don't have any memory of you, so I don't think there's any need for it." Theo shook his head.
"If you believe such a thing, then I can't help you. But…" Nella suddenly took out another pocket watch hanging on her neck before moving it closer to the one on Theo's chest.
Suddenly, both pocket watches resonated and a circle of white light shone on each of them as if showing that both of them matched.
Even Theo couldn't contain his shock anymore as he never expected that the pocket watch could actually do such a thing. "You…"
"This is the proof that I'm your cousin. Unfortunately, I can't say anything at the moment." Nella smiled and tiptoed to increase her height a bit before giving a small peck on his cheeks like a greeting. "I'm glad that I can meet you here. I believe we will see each other soon."
Nella then took a step back before walking away while waving her hand at Theo.