I Will Be with You

Although Isabel's Iver sounded like a third person... Aleister could nevertheless feel the immense depth of emotion.

And Isabel continued, "Before I truly fell in love with him... I first came to feel awe, dependence, and trust toward him. Though we were the same age, I felt the love and reliability of an elder.

"And after that came curiosity... I was incredibly curious at the time—is this really all of him? Is he truly this young? Was this some kind of performance? Or was there some hideous flesh beneath that layer of omniscient, omnipotent, godlike radiance that he could not reveal?"

After that uncontrollable curiosity, Isabel gradually sensed Iver's gentleness and reliability.

He was like an excellent commander, a wise monarch, or perhaps a loving grandfather or doting elder brother... At first, Isabel did not feel love. That was because Iver had been far, far too distant from her then.

"But amid those complicated emotions, I gradually peeled back Iver's heart. And, unexpectedly... deep within him, I caught sight of something."

—That was a trace of "Iver's humanity."

"It was the melancholy, timidity, inferiority, and panic in Iver's heart. He never showed these things on the surface. Only after Iver completely relaxed in front of me would he secretly let a little of them out, then hurriedly take them back. It was as if he feared I would discover his secret... But what I never told him was that I had sensed it long ago. I simply said nothing out of concern for his pride.

"You have to understand... the Path of Beauty is the path with the strongest ability to perceive the human heart."

Isabel whispered softly beside Aleister's ear, "Actually... that was the real reason I fell in love with him."

Isabel's feelings for Iver changed from "liking"