Chapter 61: Ten years

The light hits Kyrie's eyes, and he wakes up from his slumber. The memories of the day before flood into his mind. The stuff that he said to Ian without the restrictions of his trauma is setting his heart more peace than he would have thought if he remains silent.

Despite that, he covers his blushing face with his hands.

How can he say so much nonsense at the same time that well? He has reached the top tier at his narcissistic levels for saying his internal monologue out loud! 

Now, he is just waiting for a system to congratulate him with a title of shamelessness. 

He has even proposed to Ian! 

Kyrie rolls around the bed while hiding his blushing face with his hands. His emotions flood like a tsunami inside. No words can describe how overwhelming and overflowing his emotions are.

[I just can't even... *(#*$(#&5@$%@#]

After a couple of minutes, he smiles at his silliness as he takes his hands off, letting them fall on the bed lazily. He discovers that he also has those moments of embarrassment while being drunk.

Back then, Sil never tells him what happens whenever he gets too drunk. Sil only laughs at him and shuffles his hair, telling him not to drink in front of other people. Maybe he confesses to people whenever he is drunk, or perhaps he is a drunk who spills everything. 

He looks at the ceiling of the room, and his hand runs across the empty side of the bed. His fingertips can only feel the cold refreshing surface of the covers. He turns towards the empty side, and the potion caresses his chest when it drops. He touches to feel the outline of the potion on top of his shirt, and his mind returns to yesterday's events. He is now sober.

He takes the potion out from his shirt. 

[Ian has left the potion with me. What do I do now?]

A bit more than two years now in this world, and many things have changed for him. Yet, he just keeps going forward with whatever comes his way.

However, a lot of plans that he prepared have gone to dust since Imogen arrived. Plus, many other things are not part of his calculations. 

The potion is one.

Sil is another.

Nate as well.

But the one thing that is bothering him the most, and cannot even ask the person about it, is that he feels like the novel he read has too many differences from reality. It can also be that his arrival changed fate.

However…

[I didn't know that there were a fallen saintess and a fallen paladin.]

They are keys to the story, yet they are out. If they are vital to the development, then… does that mean that the rest is a lie? Or are they not that important in the grand scheme of things?

Plus, they now have met Phanes and Erebus. Erebus of the past does not seem like the god who will want to destroy the world. In addition, there is no mention of Phanes.

They are yet a couple, but he can feel the interest that they both have for each other. Plus, from the literature that he encountered in this world, it always mentions that they love each other dearly.

Walking away from his bed, he heads towards the windows. He opens the bedroom window, and the simultaneous clash of sounds from the busy streets hit his ears. He watches the inhabitants interact with each other, and a gentle breeze lifts his hair, rustling his loose clothes. 

"Yoohoo! Kyrie!"

Kyrie turns to the voice that is calling him. Phanes waves at a distance, seemingly returning from somewhere alone. The sun is already up high, so it is most likely around noon. She motions him to come downstairs, so he quickly gets prepared to meet Phanes. 

After fifteen minutes, he walks down the stairs to the lounge area where the numerous races eat and talk. Like entering into the novel, his eyes twinkle as he watches them interact with each other.

There are elves, dwarves, demi-humans, humans, and demons in the mix. The diversity and the peace that usually are not two terms that come together are real in this lounge. 

The underground city is truly a neutral zone.

"Kyrie!" Phanes calls him again.

Numerous eyes turn to him, and many of them are surprised. Phanes looks at the reaction of the people inside the lounge and cannot help but to agree. Kyrie has an otherworldly appearance that draws in all genders. Even in the realm of gods, his beauty is rarely seen. However, too bad for them, this man's heart belongs to someone else.

"Hello, Phanes!" 

"Hi! Erebus and Ian went to look for some clues together, but they have yet to come back. Do you want to walk around the city with me? The city is fascinating!"

"Sure! Let's do that!"

"Ah! You must not have eaten yet. Let's get something on the go!"

Phanes and Kyrie walk out of the inn with tasty crepes in their hands. 

"I thought you would have gotten the sweet one!"

"Huh? Ah… I prefer salty, but Ian likes sweets," responds Kyrie to Phanes.

Phanes cannot hold it anymore! Her curiosity about these two is reaching its peak! 

"Say… Where did you meet Ian?"

"Eh? Ah! At the academy in the kingdom of Ethern."

"So, you guys study together?"

"No, not really… I just happened to travel there."

"How long did you guys know each other?"

"Around a bit more than two months."

Phanes almost chokes to death on her food after hearing Kyrie's response. Her dramatic reaction causes the surrounding people to turn their heads and stare to see what is going on. A smart tent owner walks towards them purposely and shows off her coconut refresher. 

"Coconut refresher! Really good on helping to swallow food and to smooth out throats!"

The owner side glances at Kyrie up and down, waiting for him to take action like a gentleman helping a lady in distress. Kyrie buys one and gives it to Phanes. The owner walks away satisfied with the money for the item that she might have sold overpriced.

"Are you okay?"

Phanes takes a deep breath after getting a drink from the coconut refresher and holds Kyrie's arms, staring at him with serious eyes. 

"Are you serious that you guys have been for two months?"

"Yeah?"

"But yesterday… Anyways… Your relationship seems to be progressing fast, but you seem very familiar with him... As if you have known him for a long time."

Phanes is able to see through after careful observation. After all, she is still looking for an answer to her first trial question.

"I do know him for longer than he knows about me," Kyrie confesses.

"Hold on… So, basically, you guys officially met two months ago, but you knew about him for how long?"

"Ten years."

Phanes opens her mouth in shock, and her crepe falls from her hands. Kyrie looks at the crepe on the floor that became the attraction of street animals. Underneath their feet, street dogs gather to get a piece of the crepe that fell. Kyrie and Phanes step away and continue their walk around the city.

"You liked him one-sidedly for ten years?" 

Phanes is not even mad that she just dropped her crepe after hearing that.

[More like fanboying for ten years...]

"Well… at first, I didn't think of him like that… It's just that when I met him, fireworks…"

"Wow… Does he know?"

"Eh?"

"Does he know that you one-sidedly liked him for so long?"

"Ah… No… Not really."

"What? Why are you not telling him?"

"I…"

Kyrie stumbles on worlds. He knows how unreasonable the situation is turning into due to his condition. However, Phanes waits for his answer, letting him take the time that he needs.

"I can't say it… I just seem not to be able to say anything about me to him…"

"Hmmm… I don't get it. Shouldn't he be the one that you talk most about this kind of stuff?"

"Sometimes, the truth can destroy a lot of things, even in relationships that you have felt that were eternal."

"I think you got it backward. People who get into intimate relationships with you would always want to know your true self. They would have a natural interest in you. They will try to make up for the deficiencies you have because they would empathize with you that you are not perfect. Well… I just tell you that from what I have seen with mortals. Loving couples that last always are like that."

"I know… I can't talk about myself because of what happened in the past. I even know that I should not dwell in the past, but saying it and doing it are two different things."

"In the past?"

"I used to care about someone, but the truth broke us up."

"You still resent him?"

"Hm? I..."

Kyrie's thoughts of Sil emerge inside his head - Sil's last words before death, pleading for another chance.

"I think you still do because you are putting those resentments on Ian."

Kyrie tries to absorbed what Phanes is telling him. The truth is again cutting at his wounds, yet he still needs to face his fear. He can't keep Ian in the dark just because he is afraid.

However, all of a sudden, he feels a force that abruptly stops him in his tracks. His head tilts down to look at a dwarf that is wrapping her arms around his thighs. 

"Little brother, are you looking for a job? Can you be my model?"