As though crushing it would crush the association that should never have existed, and the reflection of that saint in her sea of hatred.
At that, Lia silently moved to her side, her long black dress nearly blending into the flowing neon floor.
Her golden eyes swept over the gem, then returned to Jeanne Alter's profile, where her attempts to hide her feelings were all too obvious. A faint, knowing smile touched Lia's lips.
"Then buy it."
Lia sounded as matter-of-fact as if she were deciding whether to add salt to dinner:
"Master's credit card could probably buy this whole building, let alone one stone."
Jeanne Alter seemed to choke on her composure and insisted stiffly:
"Tch. I don't like fake things like this. I just... I just don't like the look of it."
"Oh?"
Lia tilted her head slightly. Her gray-tinged golden eyes gleamed coldly beneath the light of the nebula display, and her voice held a hint of teasing curiosity:
"Why don't you like the look of it? You actually like it, don't you?"
Her gaze was sharp enough to pierce Jeanne Alter's heavy armor and reach the restless heart beneath it.
"Shut up!" Jeanne Alter snapped like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. Her red-gold eyes flashed toward Lia, and the flame at her fingertips flared an inch higher.
"King Arthur! Do you want to fight right now?!"
"Ha. How absurd."
Lia ignored her anger and studied the Tear of Compassion again with an almost academic calm.
"This gem has a high density of Memoria. Its Memoria may have been compressed and purified to the extreme, giving it properties similar to rare tear crystals in the real world."
"It would be a shame to crush it."
"Who asked you to tell me any of that?"