No longer a monster

The more he listed, the more frustrated he felt. Lila did not leave a sheltered lifestyle, but she did not undergo any hardships because he protected her. So for her to receive such scars and destroy her pretty hands upset him.

"Miss Princess, you have become quite ugly recently."

"Wah! What?!!!"

"Let's see aside from your wounded face and hands. You have dark circles under your eyes, very bad ones" Kiryu removed his hands from her cheeks and patted her head lightly.

"You've been working far too hard. Try to relax a bit. "

Even though he can no longer guard her like he did when they were kids, he still seems to know everything about her. But even though Haruka has not spent that much time with Lila, he quickly learned these things about her. 'I am no match.'

"I don't know what you're talking about."

'It's really unfair. Even though she brought him along instead of asking Haruka to make him relax, here she is making him worried about her.'

Kiryu paused when he heard her thoughts again. She probably does not realize that her thoughts are leaking out? Should he tell her? But if he does, he won't be able to hear it anymore.

"But, since we have this opportunity to ourselves. We probably ought to get the item now." Kiryu commented.

Nobuhiko caught them and instructed them to buy a few things on their way out. Geez, even in his condition, he is still thinking of his experiments.

"I am not familiar with these areas, though, Lila, you should-" Kiryu paused when he saw the spaced-out look on her face.

"Lila? What is wrong?"

"Ah, sorry. I spaced out a little. I know where we need to go, so just follow me." Lila turned towards the direction of the mountain path.

For the next fifteen minutes, neither of them spoke. Kiryu, however, kept his gaze on Lila. Just now, what was she thinking about?

Now that they are alone together, however, there is something he wants to ask.

"That substitute partner woman, LilaWhat are your genuine thoughts about her?"

Lila reacted strangely calmly and didn't get mad at Haruka. Although Haruka did not do anything wrong, with her jealousy issues, it seems odd.

"I think she's a very sweet and kind girl."

Kiryu rolled his eyes when he heard those words.

"I don't think I can like her if she likes Haruka. Truthfully speaking, I'm okay with others liking Haruka. Even though he belongs to me, I can't prevent others from loving him. After all, he is a kind person; his gentleness is so warm and beautiful. For other girls to like him shouldn't surprise me. Even back when we were children, many asked him out. He never told me about it. But I always found the letters. He was never good at hiding those. He accepted many sweets for Valentine but never ate them. Instead, he'd give them to the local charity center."

Lila laughed. "He was so foolish; he didn't have to do those things.

The entire time, Haruka was being considerate. He accepted the presents but never ate them. He rejected them but didn't start hating them either; he even helped those girls out with other matters. He did all that when I wasn't looking, though, because he didn't want me to get hurt."

"I understand, but you can see why people misunderstood him, right? It would look like he was sneaking around with other women behind your back."

"Mmm, I understand. But despite all those bad rumors, I knew that others stopped seeing Haruka as a monster."

"I knew; that the only problem was me. But Haruka always returned to her no matter what. He never left my side for long then. He was always with me. Because he was with me, those comments and others' dissatisfaction never reached me."

Haruka did such a good job that there was never anything left for him to do.

"So, did you also know he beat up anyone who said anything about you?"

"Eh? What?"

"Anything you'd hear when you weren't together with him. The remarks of all those guys and the girls, he'd beat them up. The latter, though, he'd only threaten them a little. Even then, it was pretty frightening."

"Haruka did that? But his image and his reputation?"

"Do you think that he cared about any of that? Sure everyone knew he was a nice person. But they also understood that if they said anything about you and continued to treat you the way they did, he'd never get away with it. "

"When?"

"From the start."

"Is that why he was always wounded? Haruka often told me that it was just an accident. ' I just lost control of my powers for a bit. ' Afterwards, he would drink heaps of my blood, so I never suspected it. Could it be that he drank a lot to regain his strength? Why? Why didn't he tell me?"

"You already know the reason for that."

Haruka shielded her from anything that would harm her so she could concentrate on her beloved singing. In a way, Haruka and Soichiro used similar methods.

"I brought you out here to cheer you up, Kiryu, but it feels like you are cheering me up instead." Lila sighed. "I can't even do this much for you; how frustrating."

Is she genuinely bothered by that?

Lila proceeded to take the bag of fruits from him that he took from her earlier so she could participate, but he didn't give it back.

"This much I can manage on my own."

"Kiryu-" Lila trailed off, but before he could hear the rest of her sentence, they heard an explosion.

His eyes widened, alarmed, and he proceeded to grab hold of Lila, but the girl was already rushing off. He immediately noticed why she was in a hurry; it was in the direction of that fruit stand from earlier.

'I have a bad feeling about this.'