Chapter 98
Chapter 98
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 98
Chapter Title: Family (2)
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Lily didn't open that door.
She vaguely sensed the ambiguous nature of their relationship. It even felt strange to her that she was paying so much attention to the space between them.
She had finally found a peaceful, stable family,
yet right in the middle of it, Lily felt an inexplicable, strange awkwardness.
The next day dawned,
and as she walked with Crow like always,
"I don't want to."
Lily said it with a slightly pouty face.
From Crow's perspective, it seemed like inexplicable sulking,
but in reality, it was closer to the heart of a pubescent girl lost in her own turbulent emotions.
"Why not? You said you wanted to go yesterday."
"Just... no."
He understood to some extent.
Crow wasn't Lily's prince. To her, they were her brother and sister, but also like her father and mother.
"..."
In the midst of this first minor discord he'd ever experienced, Crow couldn't help sorting out his thoughts. Since he wasn't someone versed in child psychology, it was only natural that it took him quite a while.
The two neither walked
nor exchanged any words,
just sat in front of the terrace of some nameless café, letting their awkward silence drift between them.
"Did something happen?"
"No."
A curt reply to his gentle question.
The conversation couldn't continue. Right now, Lily saw Crow as nothing but an annoying person.
"Okay."
His gentle attitude only fueled her anger more.
The worried eyes gazing at her, the annoyingly refined face, the pleasant voice.
"...I want to go."
"Okay, let's go."
He rose as if it were the most natural thing, paid smoothly, and even flashed a kind smile at the waitress.
That made her so furious she could barely stand it. Emotions she couldn't quite grasp swelled within her bit by bit.
So she raised her hand.
It had been a really long time.
Sinister energy flickered at her fingertips, aimed at the waitress. The woman was just unlucky.
Caught in the whirlwind of her swirling emotions, Lily wanted to vent her rage on the girl right in front of her.
Until now, she'd had no reason to get angry,
no cause for annoyance,
but today, Lily was about to fall back into her old habits and snap the waitress's neck with her finger.
Crack—
"Lily!!"
Strangely, it wasn't the waitress's neck that broke—it was Crow's arm. Blood splattered everywhere.
Crow, who had been watching Lily closely, had thrust his own arm into her line of sight. Under her intent to shatter whatever was before her eyes, his arm twisted grotesquely and exploded into pieces.
"Kyaa, aaaah...!"
The moment the sudden bloodshed erupted, the waitress began screaming.
It was 10:30 AM,
just after the shop had opened, so there were no other customers—but the space was already filled with the overwhelming presence of the two of them.
A slightly flustered Lily,
and Crow, just as flustered.
"What are you doing...!"
The incident had already happened. Lily blinked, her face full of dissatisfaction.
"S-sorry. The Hero Association will be here soon. Please calm down first."
Crow was the one handling the situation. He dropped to his seat, somehow soothing the screaming waitress, then grabbed Lily's hand and bolted into a deserted alley.
Under a somewhat bright sky,
a decidedly dark alley.
"Lily, what the hell...!"
Crow backed her against the wall, looking like he was about to say something.
"..."
But her face made him hesitate.
An expression utterly clueless about what was wrong...
"You can't do that. Do you even realize what you were about to do to that waitress? You almost killed her. If I'd left it, she would've died."
It was discipline.
Discipline directed at the monster named Lily.
"Do you understand me? Answer."
To the girl who had already sliced off his arm,
Crow spoke without a hint of fear.
"..."
But what emotion did Lily feel toward this Crow?
Indifference. Or even greater annoyance than before.
"No."
It was defiance. Defiance against Crow, and an outburst of her own inner torment.
Even as a twinge of guilt flickered at the sight of his severed arm, she vented the annoyance swelling unnaturally within her.
At this moment,
Lily was challenging Crow.
It's something common in child-rearing.
Children challenge parental authority to push the boundaries of their world wider.
Testing what actions they shouldn't do,
how far they can go before those people get angry,
provocative behaviors that subtly probe such things.
"..."
Some describe it as a mischievous expression of attention.
Torment directed at loved ones. A strange desire to become even a little more entangled with them.
"Don't you know what you did wrong?"
"Yes."
Rip—
With that, Lily tore off Crow's other arm too.
She hadn't planned to at first,
but siding with the waitress made her hate Crow even more.
"..."
This time, though, Crow didn't groan once as he looked down at her.
His eyes, always so endlessly gentle, now stabbed sharply into Lily.
"Don't pretend it doesn't hurt."
Lily deliberately avoided his gaze, trying to coax him into showing weakness.
Ordinary humans would wail and flee in hysterics at this point.
"..."
But Crow, strangely, refused to break.
Even though both his arms had clearly been twisted and ripped away.
"I didn't do anything wrong."
"You tried to kill someone."
"So?"
A slight chill ran through her.
It was a strange feeling, different from fear.
His arms regenerated. Lily swallowed hard, taking the full force of the beautiful man's cold reprimand.
"That person has a life of their own. They might be working hard to treat their parents to a nice meal out, or planning to catch up with old friends after work for some fun stories. They might even have a little daughter your age. You were about to smash all that to pieces and make everyone connected to them suffer too."
"That has nothing to do with me."
Unlike Crow's voice, which grew endlessly calm,
a tremor began seeping into Lily's.
Even Lily herself couldn't understand why she trembled before this man.
If she wanted to kill, she could do it easily. Crow, the waitress—if she really meant it, they'd drop dead in a blink.
"Then go ahead and kill me now. It has nothing to do with you anyway. I can't bear watching you pull this crap anymore."
It was an attitude she'd never seen before.
Utterly unlike everyone else who screamed in terror.
"...Do you think I can't kill you?"
Even as she pressed her finger to his heart for one final threat,
Crow stared quietly at her and said,
"You can. Kill me, kill everything else. If that's what you want."
They stayed like that, pressed close, glaring at each other for several more minutes.
But as time passed, amid the tension, it was Lily's pulse that quickened.
Lily simply couldn't comprehend it.
The heart under her hand beat steady as ever,
yet her own cheeks flushed hot, her heart racing wildly.
A warm embrace she could melt into,
more beautiful than any prince from a storybook.
A strange pull. The very knowledge that she shouldn't have it made the attraction ignite.
"...A-alright. I get it, so move."
Lily turned her head first, asking Crow to step aside,
but he wouldn't budge until she made a proper promise.
Instead, he dropped to one knee to meet her eyes and said it again.
"Never do that again."
"Okay."
"Say it looking into my eyes."
"I said okay! Just move already!"
Lily's mind spun in chaos. It was a fluster she'd never felt before.
She couldn't meet Crow's eyes at all. Her burning face felt ready to burst.
"Look at me, Lily."
Yet his gentle voice calling her name
made her head turn ever so slightly, facing him head-on.
No—even after, she kept flicking her gaze this way and that, over and over.
Her body itched strangely. Crow already gripped her arm tight, demanding her answer.
Their touching arms slick with sweat.
"I said look at me. Promise properly. That you'll never use your power like that on anyone else again."
"It's my heart...! Why should I listen to you, Oppa!"
She sulked right up to the end before finally meeting his gaze.
But the face she beheld brimmed with a ruthless beauty she'd never encountered.
Too grand for her,
a beauty she couldn't tear her eyes from.
"Promise."
"..."
Now Lily couldn't look away, staring fixedly at him.
That, we call love.
A shy girl's first love.
"A-alright..."