As Lyn pondered on these thoughts, she did not notice that Beth had turned quiet, until she hears a sudden, "Impossible," and yelp from the woman.

Lyn snapped out of it and looked at Beth, the girl"s whole face had turned a brighter shade of red than her cheeks earlier. Could it be, "You didn"t notice?"

Beth coughed, "Rhys, and I are not like that Lady Lyn. We"ve always had a kind of no strings attached relations.h.i.+p with each other."

But isn"t that strange? Lyn could tell how close the two were, and how Beth seemed to get jealous whenever Rhys spent more time with her. She"s no expert in romance, but even Lyn could tell when a person was in love. That"s why Lyn wondered about Rhys. How come she didn"t notice? Or maybe she can only tell when it came to her fellow females.

"Would it really be that weird? If you fell in love with Rhys?" Beth is surely already in love with Rhys. But the woman clearly does not know.

"Lady Lyn, with all due respect, are you only doing this because you know Rhys has feelings for you?"

Lyn flushed red, "T—that is not it."

Beth did not look convinced, and Lyn wasn"t sure either. Why did she say those words out loud? Even if Lyn thought that way, there was no reason for her to say it out loud. She ought to have just kept it to herself. "Does everybody know about it? About, Rhys feelings?"

"Huh, yeah? They knew."

So everybody knew about it.

"Lady Lyn, do you really not like Rhys at all?"

Eh, "Why are you asking?"

Beth paused, "It"s just, pardon me if I"m wrong. But I think you talk more naturally when you"re with him."

She talks more naturally when she is with Rhys? Lyn was about to comment that Beth was wrong when she recalled something Kazuya said to her. Now that she thought about it, didn"t Kazuya say something similar? About her feeling restrained around him? Lyn has never thought that whenever she is with Kazuya, she can relax and no longer keep up a facade.

When she is with Rhys, she is always stressed out and angry. How is that natural? Is it because she doesn"t get mad when she is with Kazuya?

Beth must have noticed her troubled look since she sighed, "Well, your only sixteen. n.o.body expects you to have a serious relations.h.i.+p now. Your elite on top of that."

That"s true; people do not take relations.h.i.+ps in this day and age -- even marriages, let alone this boyfriend and girlfriend thing.

"Maybe it"s like that; I don"t understand relations.h.i.+ps very well. No," Lyn trailed off, "Matters of the heart to be exact," she stopped walking up the steps and turned to the slop, "You see, the thing is even after things got better for me and the servants stopped picking on me. My loneliness remained. I met Pupillam, and General acted more like a father figure to me. I made friends with Gabrielle. Things got better, but I always felt lonely."

She didn"t understand why that was. How could a person like her who never knew the warmth of others feel lonely? What is loneliness, what is love, Lyn closed her eyes, "I don"t know whether it"s okay for me to stay by Kazuya"s side when I"m like this? But, all I know is. It"s very warm beside him. When I"m with him, I feel a joy and safety I haven"t in years."

She doesn"t know whether or not her interactions with Rhys is misleading. But Lyn knew one thing for sure, these types of feelings; she only has it when she is around Kazuya. Only around him, it is only when she is with him that her chest hurts like this.

Beth said nothing for a while, and Lyn thought she blabbed too much when Beth muttered something about being similar and then roared, "You heard her, Kazuya."

Eh? Lyn spun around and was immediately pulled into a warm pair of arms, "K—Kazuya?" she said in disbelief.

"Rhys is in the usual place; you can interrupt him."

"Sweet, I"ll go."

Wait, wait, wait? But before Lyn could ask Beth anything, the girl was already walking away, leaving her alone with Kazuya. Fully aware that she was still buried in his arms, Lyn quickly backed away, but Kazuya grabbed hold of her wrist.

"Are you trying to avoid me?"

"I"m not, we...we"ve patched things up now," Lyn looked down at her feet.

Kazuya nodded, "Yeah, we heard everything I had to say. But I never heard your thoughts, that"s why I asked Beth to bait you."

So that thing with Beth acting like a good role model recently was a trick? Ahhh, "I want to crawl into a hole," Lyn said embarra.s.sed. How embarra.s.sing, she completely misunderstood Beth.

Kazuya laughed, "Relax, you"re right about Beth. She isn"t a bad person, not an ideal role model. But she"s a good girl."

"A good girl," Lyn repeated in her head. From time to time, Lyn wondered if it was okay for her to like Kazuya. Kazuya, does he like "good girls" better? Does he prefer them? He always uses that word to describe people, so at the start, Lyn didn"t think much of it. But she became more conscious as time went by, and it became worse when they started dating.

"Am I not a good girl Kazuya?"

Kazuya smiled softly, "You"re a good girl Lyn, but you"re different from all the others."

Is she different? She doesn"t understand that. But more importantly, Kazuya thinks she"s a good girl? Vivid images appeared in her head. "How can I be a good girl, when I"ve dirtied my hands already?" It"s faint, but she recalled it all too well. Her eldest brother"s training methods, even though they are related. He never held back with her.

It was only for a short while, but she did missions for her brother. He said it was to test her powers. Lyn understood what he meant by that. Eldest brother didn"t want her to end up as a test subject, that"s why he personally "tested," her. How can she be the good girl Kazuya has in mind when her hands are stained with blood already?

Lyn hugged him tightly, "Woah, what"s wrong, Lyn?"

She doesn"t want him to find out.
She can"t let him find out.
If Kazuya finds out, he would definitely hate her.