Chapter 8

Captain Leon's Uncertain Emotions 3

Oh, God. He just did it. He just couldn't help himself after what Rina said.

Rina's reaction when Leon gave her the oil was more than he expected.

She said, "Are you sure? I mean, did you go downtown just to buy this?"

She put her hand to cover her reddened cheeks, opened her mouth, and muttered, "This is the first time I've ever received a gift from a man...."

What was this? She was incredibly cute.

"Oh, thank you so much! I'm so happy I think I might fall for you!"

"I'm almost in love with you!" was definitely not something she should say to a guy.

He'd already fallen for her, but that was still a stupid thing to do.

"It's not that I don't care if you fall in love with me, but..."

So, he did it in the spur of the moment. He pulled her shoulders closer and pressed his lips against hers. He wanted to squeeze his tongue in, but managed to hold back with his last remaining reason. It was because Rina was provoking a guy who was in love with her. She should be a little more aware of Leon as a man.

He walked away as if nothing had happened, but as expected, he was too scared to face Rina's expression.

***

As soon as he entered the forest, Leon noticed something strange. The number of demonic beasts was clearly higher than usual, and there was a sweet smell in the air. He clicked his tongue. It was demonic incense.

There was no particular commotion on the south side, where the first knights were, so whoever set this up was targeting the second knights.

He didn't know who held a grudge against him. Was it the first prince or the king who wanted to weaken the Second Knights and solidify his power, or an aristocrat who disliked him for climbing to the position of count from a commoner? He had no idea who it was, but whoever it was was doing something incredibly foolish this close to the royal castle.

"We will not let any of them out of the woods! Kill them here!" He shouted to his men and readied his sword.

"I'm so tired. I can't wait to go back and eat Rina's food..."

The seemingly endless battle was finally coming to an end. In the corner of his eye, Leon saw a new recruit who just entered this fall kneeling on the ground, seemingly out of breath.

"Hey, don't let your guard down. We don't know if there are any more demons in the area- Get down, you idiot!"

Clank!

Leon barely managed to parry the beast's claw with his sword. However, he was unable to avoid the second strike. With his abdomen gouged out, Leon barely managed to finish off the demon with a sideways slash.

And then he collapsed.

***

"I'm sorry, Captain! It's my fault, it's my fault...!"

"It's my job to take care of those under me. Don't apologize to me. I'm not going to die from this..."

The new recruit from earlier was sobbing next to Leon, but this was caused by Leon's negligence. It wasn't the recruit's fault.

...He was bleeding worse than he thought. Was it possible that he wasn't going to make it? Just as he was about to lose consciousness, a slim hand gently caressed his wound.

Then, a brilliant light engulfed Leon.

"See, I was right, wasn't I?” Heinz the jerk boasted with pride.

It was true, Rina saved Leon's life, but a matter of life and death was not some joke! 

Because of Leon's screw-up, everyone found out that Rina had the powers of a goddess.

"I never thought you'd save me this way. Thank you."

"Hnff... Sir Leon... You're back..."  Rina clung to him, sobbing loudly.

Couldn't she do something about her crying? But even her crying like a child was adorable in his eyes.

After a while, Lina looked up, as if she had finally calmed down. Leon hurriedly stopped her from taking off her glasses and wiping her face, roughly cleaning her face with a nearby towel and quickly shoving her glasses back on.

Heinz's grin stretched. Disgusting. Then, he said something outrageous.

"I'm sure your eyesight will recover slowly even if you leave it alone, but at this point, why don't you use your healing power to quickly heal your headache and eyesight?"

What the hell was Heinz thinking?!

Rina, oblivious to Leon's panic, covered her eyes with her hands in excitement. 

Oh, damn it. Now her secret was out.

"What, Rina? ...Seriously... your face is destructive...!"

"No way, she's so cute...!"

His subordinates were buzzing, but Leon silenced them with a quick glare.

“Well, I expected this to some extent, but I didn't think it would go this badly.”

Leon glared at Heinz beside him, just barely.

"Commander, please stop looking at me like you're going to kill me. I know you wanted to keep it a secret all to yourself, but..."

Leon’s decision was firm; he would kill Heinz someday.