Who Could Have Loved the Monster Princess? - Chapter 11
The basket was brimming with peaches. Each peach was as white as a baby’s bottom, lovely and large. Their fragrance was intense.
“Peaches!”
My mouth watered. I had tasted some last year, and they were heavenly. They said they’d give them to me again this year, so I was eagerly waiting for the harvest season.
“You enjoyed them so much last year.”
“But it’s not yet time for harvesting this year, right?”
“I might have tinkered with one tree.”
“Oh, wow! Thank you.”
I gladly accepted Ken’s gift.
“Did you come all the way here in the middle of the night just to give me this? You could have come during the day, couldn’t you?”
“I thought you might have been busy.”
“You know I’m not so busy that I wouldn’t have time for you, right?”
Ken fell silent. It seemed like he wanted to say something, but he wasn’t the type to speak just because he was pressed to.
After waiting for a moment to speak, he finally said, “Yeah,” and left it at that.
“Would you like to have a cup of tea at least?”
Ken glanced toward the mansion for a moment and shook his head.
“Calcioso might get angry.”
When Ken mentioned Calcioso, he meant my father. My father wasn’t particularly close to his fellow warriors. No, in fact, he rejected everyone except for me and my mother.
‘Even if it’s true for others, isn’t Ken like a son to Dad? I don’t understand why he dislikes him.’
I’d do anything to sneak him in, but it felt a little awkward to accept his gift and then invite him in such a manner.
“I’ll walk you home then,” I offered.
“…No, you should go.”
“You’re just leaving? I’m sorry…”
“Oh, before I go, I have one thing to ask.”
“What is it?”
“What do you think love is?”
“Love…?”
It was an incredibly sudden question. What is love?
Ken nodded and waited for an answer, hoping I hadn’t misheard him. I had to say something, but what was love anyway?
However, there was something that came to mind first when I thought about love. It was the love story of my parents, fatefully reunited on the battlefield and bound together.
“The first thing that comes to mind is conjugal love….”
“I suppose.”
Ken looked as if he had expected my answer, and then he reached for my hand. His hand carried the scent of peaches.
I could feel the heat of his body against my skin. His slender, elegant fingers delicately touched my chin.
An inexplicable tension radiated from the touch. It was only a light touch—it was hard to make it mean anything.
“Then…”
As if about to demand something, Ken opened his mouth. His eyes glimmered, filled with a mysterious power akin to a demon before the hunt. I froze, staring into those eyes.
‘This… feels a bit…’
As I became conscious of his gaze, a shiver ran down my spine.
‘Like something… might happen…’
I could feel my heart beating faster and faster. I had a premonition that if I let Ken continue as he was, something in our relationship might change.
‘What should I do?’
I didn’t know. In the haze of ambiguous emotions, I turned away first.
At that moment, his hand stopped. The fingers that had touched me just a moment ago, as if our earlier contact had been a dream. retreated within the folds of his robe.
I looked back at Ken. His face remained unchanged as always.
He tilted his head slightly and murmured, “No… there’s a procedure.”
“Ken…” I asked cautiously, “…What was that just now?”
His behavior a moment ago was clearly trying to confirm something from me. Should I be reading any meaning into his behavior?
Ken hesitated for a moment, like he was about to say something, but in the end, I got no answer.
“I’m leaving,” Ken said and vanished into the darkness.
“Ken?”
No matter how good my eyesight was, following the movements of a demon-slaying hero was beyond my capabilities.
“What was that all about?”
I hugged the basket of peaches and stared in the direction where Ken had disappeared. I could still feel the heat of Ken’s touch on my chin. It tickled and I put my hand to it, only to find my scales hard and cold.
Finally coming to my senses, I figured that it was nothing. In the darkness, Ken’s eyes naturally seemed intense, and even the touch on my chin… it was just a momentary thing.
‘What was I even thinking?’
Thinking about it that way, it was just me getting flustered all alone. Yeah, I was flustered! Most people would be flustered upon seeing a dazzling gem. They would think about possessing that precious beauty at least once.
Especially if it was a gem in the form of a human. Its overwhelming value would make you feel more awe than greed.
So I’m in awe of Ken. That’s why I was so shaken by his touch alone. Ken thinks nothing of it.
‘How embarrassing…’
He’s just looking at his crops, all pretty and loving, and now he’s asking me for my opinion on love between a man and a woman? Did he develop feelings for someone?
Come to think of it, he wasn’t wearing his usual attire.
‘He was dressed in a splendid robe.’
Though it was dark and shadowy, I could see it clearly. Why was Ken dressed like that? Did he attend the royal coming-of-age ceremony? Could it be because of someone he loves?
I opened my mouth but then closed it again.
‘He likely protected the world and its peace. Because life is worth living, so that spring may come…’
When a friend starts a relationship, you’re supposed to be supportive, but I couldn’t bring myself to be happy.
