"Come here and sit down. Would you like some coffee? I was about to have a cup." (Yuri)
"Yes, I'd love to." (Anne-Marie)
As the two girls sat opposite each other, the gazes of the people around couldn't help but be fixed on them. However, both Yuri and Anne-Marie were used to having people's eyes on them, so they continued what they were doing without paying it the slightest attention.
"Oh, and here you go. This is what you asked me for this morning."
The paper bag that Anne-Marie handed over, contained medicines from the clinic. Yuri didn't think what she had at home was enough so when she met Anne-Marie on her way to work today, she asked Anne-Marie for this. Anne-Marie didn't ask any questions; she might have believed it when Yuri said she was just preparing the medicines in case of an emergency.
"Thank you. I was going to come get it myself when I got off work today. The cost…"
"You don't have to pay me. You give me coffee every time. And you also give Hestia candy whenever you see her."
Anne-Marie smiled sweetly and shook her head. Because she firmly refused, in the end, Yuri didn't pay anything. In exchange, Yuri was especially careful when she made Anne-Marie's coffee.
After Anne-Marie took a sip of her coffee, her pale-green eyes went wide, and Yuri was satisfied.
* * *
"Ms. Yuri, you can stop here for today."
Time flew by and at some point, it had reached the coffeehouse's closing time.
"Then, see you tomorrow."
Yuri said her goodbye and left the store. But as she drew nearer to her house, her steps slowed down. She didn't want to go home for some reason. Even if that man's eyes were opened or closed, she felt like she would be annoyed either ways.
As expected, should she have just left him outside?
If only she had known that handling this would be so troublesome. Perhaps the sub-villain would grit his teeth at this, but Yuri truly regretted it a little. Meanwhile, the distance to her house was gradually narrowing.
Click.
"…"
Consequently, the house she finally arrived at was quiet.
Yuri walked towards the sofa in the living room. And she approached, the man lying on it became even clearer. His blonde hair was loosely scattered on the cushion, like sweet flowing honey.
His lowered eyelashes were longer than she thought, and they were also the same shade of gold as his hair. The stiff but delicate lines of his face were half-lit by the light, and his appearance was so flawless it made you wonder whether this was what the mythical Psyche saw, when she first laid eyes on Eros.
Furthermore, perhaps because the light was focused on him while the surroundings were dark, or perhaps because his face appeared sickly, he was oozing a sort of decadent charm. If it was another woman standing here right now, she might have felt her heart race for a moment. But to Yuri, this man was just the sub-villain who came to the wrong house.
She opened the man's clothes and checked his body again. There were bandages all over his body with blood seeping through them. Yesterday, she had realized that not only his chest, but his neck was injured too, so she treated there as well. The man had still not woke up yet. Considering how badly he was hurt, it was only natural.
Honestly, Yuri thought he might die. She had put in some effort yesterday so it would be a bit of a pity, but the life or death of Lakis Avalon wasn't really important to her. When she came back today, her thought was: if he lived, he lived, if he died, he died. To her, either way was simply out of her control.
But here he was, surviving and breathing. Unlike in the novel, the heroine wasn't here to take meticulous care of him and help him with all of her power. At this point, you could say he had the lifeforce of a cockroach.
Yuri heaved a long sigh and loosened her hair which she kept tied up during work. Then she looked through the paper bag that Anne-Marie had given her earlier in the day.
…Since he was alive, she could only do what she could again.
It seemed that when she kicked him into the flowerbed yesterday evening, his wounds had opened even more. As Yuri moved her hands, she wondered why she was doing this type of work on the sub-villain when she wasn't even cut out for it. Then just when her fingertips touched the man's body…
"Gasp…!"
That very moment, the man took in a huge breath and his eyes flashed open. At the same time, a firm grip caught Yuri's hand. The man's torso raised as his dense muscles tensed up. His movement was hasty and rough like someone suddenly waking up from a nightmare.
It didn't seem like he had been awake all this time but was hiding it. It was more like his consciousness was awakened the moment someone's hand touched his body.
His bright gold hair softly fell in front of his eyes. Because the man had abruptly gotten up, his scattered breaths and Yuri's shallow breaths mixed together in one spot.
It should be very painful due to his wound opening, but the man didn't seem to feel any of that. No, it was more like he hadn't the time or chance to realize it.
Their eyes met almost an inch away from each other. His flaming blue eyes flickered violently, if it would swallow up everything in its sight. Yuri saw the venom, burning fiercely in his eyes. It would seem Lakis Avalon was not yet fully awake, but still trapped in a nightmare.
"Lie down."
A low voice flowed from the red lips that had been firmly shut so far. Even in this situation, her voice was strangely calm and serene, making one feel odd. Her placid red eyes were no different from her voice.
"Lie down, and go back to sleep."
The calm, monotonous voice sounded like a lullaby in a way. In reality, it wasn't like a singing voice at all.
"At least, there's no one here to threaten you right now."
After saying that, she lifted her hand and slowly pushed his shoulders down, as she did so, his rock-like body was slowly pushed back. Finally, the embers of emotions raging in his unfocused blue eyes began to die out. Even the hand that was clutching Yuri's hand lost strength and came loose. After abruptly charging at her like a wild beast, Lakis Avalon quietly fell asleep, like he had fainted again.
A pair of indifferent red eyes quietly took in his appearance. Her hand which had been in his grip some moments ago, hurt like it had been crushed. Even as Yuri inwardly cursed him out as an ignorant brute, she laid him down on the sofa properly.
"…!"
But the very next moment, she saw something that made her turn as stiff as a rock.
"This damn—"
Yuri eventually swore aloud. She held her forehead as she looked at the bandages which were now soaked in blood again.
'The wound…opened again. Gah, this goddamn sub-villain…'
Once again, Yuri seriously considered just letting him die for real this time, but she eventually endured it and engraved this matter in her heart.
A thin thread extended from her fingertips again. It was another long night.
* * *
When the man woke up again, it was dawn, the next day. By this time, Yuri was standing by the window, watching the rising sun beside the half-rolled-up curtains.
Then she noticed a change in the breathing behind her. And when she turned out, she found the man lying on the couch with his eyes opened.
"You're awake."
The blinding sun outside the window sprinkled generous rays of sunlight on his frame. It was perhaps thanks to this, that Lakis Avalon's expression looked somewhat dazzling as he looked at her.
His half-narrowed, rigid blue eyes took in Yuri's standing figure by the window, without the slightest movement. For some reason, it felt like the airflow in the room had changed subtly.
After seeing the man, who holding his breath as if time had stopped, Yuri turned her gaze back to the window.
'Is the sunlight too strong for someone who just woke up?'
Swoosh.
A fair hand stretched out and pulled down the curtain, blocking off the sunlight coming from the window. Thankfully, the light that lit up the house stayed on overnight, so it didn't fall into complete darkness.
"How do you feel?"
The same tranquil voice from the previous night filled the room. Yuri moved away from the window and walked a little closer to Lakis. But she stopped a reasonable distance away. Although he was currently severely injured, he was a man who was the king of the underworld until just recently. There was no harm in simply being careful.
"Your wound might open up, so don't get up suddenly like you did last night."
Because of how quiet her voice was, it sounded like an advice, but it was actually a warning. If Lakis were to move carelessly again and his wound opened, she didn't plan on treating him again.
How can she do that laborious work a third time? She refused to.
Fortunately, it seemed he understood what she was saying and didn't get up carelessly like he did yesterday. But for an instant when their eyes met, confusion flashed through his eyes.