Devilla
A colorful blur of red, gold, and black slamd into , nearly knocking off my feet. Armored limbs wrapped themselves around my torso, squeezing tight. While my body’s durability made it difficult to gauge the exact strength of Lucy’s sudden hug, the force of our impact and the faint sounds of protest emanating from her armor implied that I should be thankful for that very sa resilience.
“Eena! You ca early!”
“I… Yes,” I replied, surprised to find my voice wavering a touch, in the aftermath of her affectionate display. It felt… odd. To be held like this. Like a fluttering in my stomach - warm, but frantic and crying for attention I couldn’t spare.
“What are you doing at the adventurer’s guild, though? I thought you were going to co et at the church?”
“I… planned to get myself settled before coming to see you,” I inford her, trying to focus on the redhead’s words rather than our ongoing embrace.
“Settling in?” Lucy inquired, parting from so that she could et my gaze with her own. Her hands remained attached to my form, despite the newly created distance, rely shifting their position, from my back to my arms.
“I…” I shook my head, trying to unstick my thoughts. What was wrong with ? Why was I so fixated upon a small asure of physical affection? I was acting as if I’d never been hugged before. Hadn’t I experienced them all the ti, back when I was Jacob?
“Eena…?”
“It’s nothing,” I replied, forcing a smile to my lips. Because it was nothing. “You were asking why I’m at the guild, yes? It’s because I wished to join.”
Lucy frowned at , her hands at last parting from my flesh, to instead settle upon her own hips. “You’re not doing that thing where you pretend everything’s fine even when it isn’t, because you don’t want to worry anyone, are you? Because if people think you’re the sort to suffer in silence, rather than sharing what’s wrong with them, it’ll only make them worry more.”
“I’m not pretending,” I assured her, my smile becoming a touch less strained in the face of her earnest concern. The panicked feeling was almost entirely gone, now, in any case. “I was rely caught off guard. I’m not used to being greeted with such enthusiasm.”
Except from Bailey, perhaps? She had a tendency to wag her tail and lick my face after even the shortest of separations - but, truthfully, even that lacked the impact of Lucy’s hug. Between the horned wolf’s subservient attitude, her preference for a four legged form, and the simple fact that we’d rarely parted for more than a few minutes at a ti, Bailey’s reaction to our reunions felt more akin to a pet’s eagerness than a friend’s joy. anwhile, Lucy was hitting with sothing of a triple punch - a warm embrace, from soone who sincerely wished to befriend , after a day of everyone being terrified of .
“I don’t think that’s the sort of thing people normally say with a smile on their face,” Lucy remarked, frowning at . “But if you say you’re fine, then I won’t push… Though I do want to know why you joined the guild without ! Didn’t I already pledge to vouch for you?”
“Ah…” I winced. She had suggested sothing of the sort, hadn’t she? In an attempt to incentivize this very visit to Rendra city, if mory served - and I knew full well that it did, considering how easily the conversation flowed into my mind now that I’d been reminded of it. Specifically, she had promised to help skip the probationary period - the rookie requests, I suppose. It was an offer I had initially dismissed, not wanting anything to do with the Heroine past our coincidental eting. That resolve had been short lived, mind you, but only because I was too weak of will to continuously deny her heartfelt pleas for a rendezvous.
Then ca my dual confrontations with Abigail and Sylvanna, which caused my mindset to shift yet further. Where once I’d planned to run away and begin a new life as an adventurer, now I wished to build a solid foundation of trust with Lucy, so that I could reveal my identity to her without her turning on . As such, I had nothing but thanks for my past self and her “poor” decision making - at least so far as it applied to this singular instance.
Even so, from start to finish, Lucy’s kind offer of assistance had never been more than an afterthought. And, with everything going on…
“Would you believe that I forgot?”
“You forgot?” Lucy parroted. Her tone, like her expression, was difficult to read, but I was fairly sure it wasn’t irate. A short lived relief. “You promise?”
“Promise…? You make it sound like I have sothing to gain with such a lie,” I remarked, a furrow of confusion marring my brow. “If I wanted to cover for myself, don’t you think I’d be spinning tales about not wanting to take advantage of your generosity, rather than admitting to an embarrassing oversight?”
“That sort of statent is exactly why I want you to promise , before the goddess, that you just forgot!” Lucy proclaid. “Though I guess it also proves you’re telling the truth, since you don’t seem to realize how backwards your way of thinking is… But that doesn’t make worry any less!”
“Backwards…?” Now I was starting to feel like a parrot. A very confused parrot, who dearly wished to know why Lucy’s requested promise seed to be escalating in nature. When, precisely, had the goddess co into this?
“Extrely backwards!” Lucy confird, thrusting her finger towards , the tip of it stopping just short of my clavicle. “Eena, there’s no world in which you forgetting about my offer of help would ever upset ! The only one who suffered from that is you - and I can still talk to the guild master once we’re done here, so I don’t think that really counts in the first place! I’m much more worried about you thinking that you could ever impose upon by taking up on sothing I freely offered! Especially when we both know that part of why I offered it was explicitly because I wanted to see you again!”
I blinked, caught off guard by Lucy’s rather passionate declaration of intent. I could feel heat rising to my cheeks as it dawned upon just what had made her mad - the idea that I valued her ti more than my own… Or, rather, the idea that I valued my ti less than hers, I suppose. Which ant that the reason she wished to promise was that she’d already co to the conclusion that I thought less of myself than she did… Not that it was a very hard conclusion to co to, I suppose.
The corners of my lips curled upwards, a soft thrum of joy running through in the wake of this realization. It wasn’t due to her thoughts on the matter, in and of themselves, mind you - and it certainly wasn’t due to her lecture. I already had a demonic maid muttering about my self-esteem, I didn’t need a naive heroine claiming my thoughts to be backward. But, after a day of dealing with those who quaked in my presence, it was nice to know that Lucy would go so far as to welco wasting her ti, purely for the sake of the very sa company others had been so desperate to avoid.
“Very well,” I acceded. “A promise can be given, if that is what you wish. But as for you helping with my mbership issues - if you truly find my company to be of such worth, I do believe I have a superior suggestion. One that has the added benefit of taking our… beleaguered guildmaster out of the picture.” And spare from more of his scrutiny.
“Eena…” Lucy’s eyes widened, much to my confusion, and for the briefest mont I saw a flicker of fear pass through her eyes. It was gone so quick I might have thought it a fignt of my imagination, if not for the way her voice had wavered when she’d said my na. “I’m happy to hear your ideas, but… Has anyone ever told you that you have a tendency to sound really ominous, sotis?”
“Only you,” I replied, frowning as I recalled the last instance of this strange pronouncent. Back when I told her we needed to have sex sowhere isolated enough that nobody would hear her scream. “Though I hardly see what’s so ominous about expressing concern for others.”
“That’s not exactly what I ant, Eena…” The look upon Lucy’s face was unnervingly close to defeat, but the smile that followed was so bright as to make doubt the previous shadows. “It’s fine, though! I already know you’re built a little differently, after all - and I don’t have any intention of rejecting that, or any other part of you! So why don’t we move onto you telling your idea?”
I regarded Lucy silently for a mont, trying and failing to discern what was going on inside her skull. Eventually, I decided to give up with a shake of my own head, deciding to take Lucy’s words of acceptance to heart - though I’d be applying them to the Heroine, herself, for my part.
“Put simply?” I said, eventually. “I want to earn my place amidst the adventurers. To prove not only my strength, but my commitnt. To that end, I believe that completing the rookie requests would be beneficial. But I happen to be in need of a ntor figure, who can vouch for . One of unassailable character… If you understand my aning?”
I smiled at Lucy, hoping that my sincere desire for her help would outshine the guilt I felt for my half-truths, at least enough to keep the latter from showing on my face. It wasn’t as if I were lying, per se. I did wish to prove myself, to so degree - to be seen as an adventurer, during my ti amidst humanity, and not an unknown variable of frightening power. And Lucy’s help would, of course, be paramount to accomplishing the goal. But, more than that, I wished to prove myself to Lucy. To show her my willingness to work towards my goals, while exposing her to… If not the best side of , then at least to as a whole. Because as much as Lucy trusted right now, as much as she believed in the goodness of my heart, the fact of the matter was that she hardly knew at all. Without actual experiences to back up her view of , I feared her good will could easily be overwritten by misconceptions and misunderstandings when my identity was revealed.
Naturally, there was a limit to how much she could learn of while I was hiding that identity… But if I couldn’t tell her the full truth with words, then I would at least do my best to show her through action. I would spend ti with her, allowing her to see my virtues and flaws alike in action. Of course, the latter might well overwhelm the forr. She could easily end up with a lower opinion of , by the end. But that was fine. I didn’t need her to love . I only needed her to understand , so that she would recognize my sincerity when I asked her for help with my people.
Which was why I was honestly rather relieved that I could use the rookie requests as an excuse to spend ti with her. Otherwise, I would have been forced to stick with my original plan, and agree to join her party. Not an unworkable plot, by any ans, but one that would have been harder to pull off, in my opinion. Those misconceptions and misunderstandings, such as accusations of sabotage, could all too easily rear their head if I were to officially join her in a quest to kill myself.
“Well, if that’s how you want to handle it, I definitely wouldn’t mind spending more ti with you… But, if possible, I really don’t want it to be limited to just adventuring, though!”
“You want us to spend more ti together, afterward?” I questioned, arching an eyebrow. Was this a prelude to her asking to join her party after all?
“I do!” Lucy confird. “Because there’s sothing I want to do - but it’s sothing I can’t do without you. Without your willing help, too, so… this isn’t exactly a demand. You can say no, but… Eena… Would you please…”
I tensed, watching Lucy take a deep breath, looking uncharacteristically nervous as she closed her eyes and gathered up her courage. She was obviously gearing up to ask sothing big and, no matter what she said to the contrary, I knew I would have no choice but to agree. To do otherwise would endanger our long-term relationship.
“Please go out with !”
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