Creeeak-
The Castle's great doors were pushed open a crack. In the pitch-black darkness, a little girl crept inside, holding Lin En's hand.
"Shh! Don't make any noise. My dad isn't home! But don't alert the butler and the others either. I'll sneak you into my room, so follow me quietly! No shouting the hours!"
(Tip, tip, tip)
(Very, very carefully)
Lin En said in exasperation, "Seriously?! Do you have to act like a burglar when you're going into your own home?! It's not like you're sneaking a lover in! You're making even me feel like I'm doing something immoral!"
Hana Ye said, o(≧口≦)o, "But bringing you home already feels like sneaking a lover in!! And could you stop talking so loudly?! They'll hear us! They'll hear us!"
Thud, thud-
Footsteps sounded faintly inside the Castle.
Hana Ye froze.
Without another word,
she immediately grabbed Lin En's hand and hurried off with a (〃＞皿＜) expression.
She rushed all the way up to the fourth floor.
Pushed open her bedroom door.
And locked it with a click.
Only then did Hana Ye slump against the door, panting. Clutching her pounding little heart, she said with wide eyes:
"That scared Hana Ye to death! Good thing nobody noticed. If the butler and the others found out, they'd definitely tell Dad... and if Dad found out, he'd definitely beat Hana Ye to death!"
After all, bringing some random man home would get her backside beaten raw, no matter how she looked at it.
Lin En said uncertainly:
"Hey, what's going on here? You were out so late, and nobody cared? Are you really that unpopular?"
Hana Ye said, o(≧口≦)o:
"N-no, I'm not! I-it's just that Dad went to another city on business, and my sister's too busy... Hana Ye didn't dare tell her either... so, so that's why..."
Her voice gradually grew downcast.
"What about your mom?"
Hana Ye froze, then lowered her head and bit her little lip.
"She passed away when Hana Ye was very little..."
Lin En blinked.
"What about your aunt, then?!"
"She went to work at the Church's headquarters, ⊙﹏⊙..."
Lin En was thoroughly exasperated.
"What about your butler, then?! Maids, servants-you must have those, right?! Don't they look after you either?!"
Hana Ye held her head as she endured his lecture, (ó﹏ò｡).
"Um... there used to be some servants, but Dad dismissed them all last year. The ones who stayed... well... they're a little strange. They don't listen to anyone but Dad, so sometimes they don't really feel like living people..."
"Anyway... anyway, nobody would notice even if I disappeared for a few days..."
Her voice grew quieter and quieter, like a little wife who had done something wrong.
Lin En glanced at her.
"So you're a little latchkey girl."
Hana Ye immediately flew into a rage, baring her little canines and raising her tiny fists.
"What do you mean, latchkey girl?! I'm-"
But before she could finish,
Lin En slapped her against his pecs and said with his eyes closed:
"All right, cry if you want to. Your dad might not care about you, your sister might not care about you, and your aunt might not care about you, but you still have a free husband. Sure, I'm a bargain husband you've had for less than one night, but I'm still a husband."
"So you can borrow my broad shoulders to cry on whenever you like. Don't be shy. I don't have many good qualities, but I'm especially softhearted toward little girls. Go ahead and cry."
"It's no crime."
"Mmph-(struggling)-mmph-"
Lin En wore a 〒▽〒 expression.
It's so hard! It really is so hard!
He had never expected that one day he would become someone's sole source of support. Having someone cling to him and pour her heart out in tears really made him feel as though he had been reborn as a human.
"Mmph-(suffocating)-mm-"
Lin En sighed, holding the back of her head, and said:
"There, there. I know you're hurting. You'll feel better once you cry it out. Who hasn't had an unhappy childhood? Back when I was little..."
Lin En rambled on about his childhood for over ten minutes.
Then, at last,
Hic-
Hana Ye's little body stopped moving.
Lin En blinked and instinctively pulled Hana Ye out to inspect her. Her eyes were already spinning in spirals, and with a (꒪Д꒪) expression, a wisp of smoke rose from her head. She had gone limp and died of suffocation.
"Hey, hey! Cauliflower!! What's wrong?! Don't play dead!!"
Several minutes later.
"Achoo!" Hana Ye sneezed into a handkerchief, then sat with her legs splayed in an M and burst into loud sobs.
Her tears burst forth in two parabolic arcs, drenching Lin En's face.
"How could you do that, ˃̣̣̥᷄⌓˂̣̣̥᷅! When I wanted to cry, you wouldn't let me, and when I didn't want to cry, you insisted on making me!! I kept saying no, but you just kept shoving me in! I was being murdered! Murdered!"
Today really has been too hard!
Not only did an Evil Spirit chase me,
I even sold myself to a Great Demon.
I didn't want to cry, but he pinned me down and made me!
"Waaaah!"
Let it all be destroyed! Destroyed! Hana Ye has nothing left to fear!
"Useless, useless, useless-"
Hana Ye's fists rained down on Lin En like machine-gun fire, (〃＞皿＜), moving so fast they almost left afterimages. Great Demon or not, she had nothing left to fear!
A large hand silently settled on her head.
Hana Ye froze, then instinctively looked up through her tears.
Lin En smiled, his eyes curving into crescents. Leaning against the door, he sat with one leg on the floor and the other bent up, his strong hand firmly ruffling her hair.
"Because crying isn't always the same."
"The tears you shed when you're scared are just tears of fear, after all. But they don't represent everything you are. There are different kinds of tears, you know."
Hana Ye stared blankly at his face, momentarily at a loss for words.
Moonlight spilled into the room.
Her tears kept dripping.
Yet for some reason, she suddenly felt something warm flow through her heart... like the little girl who curled up crying in an empty room in the dead of every lonely night, never receiving the slightest comfort, not a single bit of solace.
That feeling was like the... fatherly love she had lacked for so long.
Her eyes widened, and her face flushed scarlet from her forehead all the way down to the base of her neck.
[Ding! Hana Ye's affection toward you +...]
"What the hell are you blushing for?! (▼皿▼#)!"
"I'm not blushing!! You're the one who suddenly started saying weird things! Aren't you a Great Demon?! How can a Great Demon casually say such sappy things to flirt with girls?!"
o(≧口≦)o
Thud, thud-
Heavy footsteps suddenly sounded outside.
"Miss, have you returned?"
Th-the butler and the others?!
Hana Ye jolted, immediately clapping a hand over her mouth. With round, wide eyes, she hurriedly made a shushing gesture at Lin En.
"Yes! It's me! Hana Ye's back!"
That raspy voice drifted faintly through the door.
"Is someone else there? I thought I heard another person's voice. Miss Hana Ye, the master instructed us-you are not permitted to bring anyone else home."
Hana Ye immediately braced herself against the door with a (.;ﾟ;:profit:;ﾟ;.) expression and said:
"No, no! You heard wrong! I-it's Hana Ye practicing a play! It's for school! So Hana Ye was rehearsing her lines! Um... it's getting late! I'm going to bed too! You can go! Don't worry about me!"
There was no more sound outside.
Only rows upon rows of figures could faintly be seen standing motionless in the corridor.
Gurgle-
Lin En's ears twitched, and he immediately glanced sideways at the gap beneath the door.
It was as though something was trying, bit by bit, to wriggle and squeeze through that oppressive gap.
Viscous.
Cold and sinister.
Lin En tilted his head and grinned.
The Red Moon shone, its light falling on him.
In an instant, every sound disappeared. That gurgling pressure receded at once, as though it had never existed.
[Impostor Puppet's Sanity -5]
"Forgive us, little miss. Sorry for disturbing you."
That wooden voice came from beyond the door.
Then heavy footsteps quickly receded, though they sounded more like the synchronized tread of a whole crowd, overlapping into a single heavy beat that made the floorboards creak.
"Phew-"
Hana Ye patted her chest, eyes still wide with lingering fear.
"They finally left. That really scared me to death."
Lin En said with dead-fish eyes:
"So they've been living here with you all this time? That voice just now really was your butler? Are you sure?!"
Hana Ye muttered, "Of course it was. Didn't I already tell you they're a little strange...? Honestly..."
Lin En smiled and said:
"They certainly are a little strange. And it looks like this place you live in is quite unique, too."
Before you continue