Chapter Fifteen: Conversations of Love

"Uwaah! Anyway, I'm just a member of society who missed out on her youthful days and lacks dating experience! I'm nothing like you young students, nothing at all!" Seeing her roommate's pitiful state, Cardacia decisively abandoned her original intention.

She might be seen as mocking her, so now was not the time to suggest introducing her to any guys...

She reached out and gently poked her roommate, who was clutching her ears and shouting.

"Don't be like that, Alice dear. There's nothing pitiful about you at all. You're mature and cool—the very ideal adult I aspire to become."

It wasn't a lie.

Shigure Zero slowly turned her head, her eyes like a fish gasping two hours out of water.

"So, have you taken your solitary lifestyle to the point of chronic severity and become interested in women? There are plenty of people like that back in the Kingdom, so I won't judge, but as for me, big sister is strictly orthodox. I can't offer any relevant experiences, nor do I have any interest in that area..."

The cat ears atop Cardacia's head quivered with indignation.

"Of course not! I'm neither a loner nor into girls; I just don't want to waste my precious youth on love, that's all!"

The blue-haired woman rolled her eyes, and her feline-eared landlady protested, "What is that look supposed to mean!"

"That's an obvious excuse. If you really met a guy you liked, would you still be worrying about wasting your youth? To put it bluntly, it's this: you think all the men around you are too dumb and none of them meet your standards, so getting involved with them would be a total waste of time. So, you act detached and claim love is silly and you're above it all."

"Has anyone ever told you that you can be really sharp-tongued, Alice dear?"

"No, but I have been stabbed by genuinely sharp-tongued people more than once."

Older woman! Pitiful woman! Irresponsible!

Just thinking of a certain silver-haired youth who spoke without restraint made her grind her teeth with frustration.

At this moment, the matchmaking show had moved to the self-introduction segment, where a young, balding programmer was telling the ladies all about his rich life experience.

Cardacia's shoulders shook. "I would absolutely never accept someone like that."

"So what's your ideal type, then? No need to say—I already know. Girls like you always fantasize about men who simply don't exist in reality."

With a teasing look, the blue-haired woman watched as the current university student leapt up to retort, "My standards for a partner aren't high at all, okay!"

"Let's hear them."

Cardacia counted on her fingers, "First, I'm an outgoing and energetic girl, so my ideal partner needs to be the calm and steady sort. It'd be a pain to argue with him all the time, so I'd want someone who'd always follow my lead and stick by my side."

"With just those two, you've already filtered out seventy-five percent of all men."

"And then, I've seen enough musclebound hunks back in the United States—definitely not interested! I like refined, handsome men—a little younger than me, almost like a butler."

"There goes another twenty-four point nine percent from the remaining pool."

"And lastly, just a few small things! Kind-hearted, well-mannered—that's hardly too much to ask, is it?"

Shigure Zero's lips twitched. "You might as well stay single until you die. A man like that simply doesn't exist in this world."

"That's not true!" Cardacia huffed, snatching up her phone and thrusting it in her roommate's face. "Len can do all that!"

Her lock screen showed a photo of the blonde Cardacia with another person. Standing beside her was a neatly suited, handsome youth, who was giving a resigned smile to the camera—perhaps because Cardacia was making a silly gesture behind his head with her hand.

Shigure Zero stared at the man on the screen, struggling to reconcile him with the image in her memory.

She was silent for a moment, then hurriedly changed the subject so as not to arouse suspicion. "...So why not just date this Len directly?"

Cardacia drew back her phone and flopped onto the sofa.

"That's impossible... To Len, I'm probably long since out of the running."

"...Oh?"

Shigure Zero replied perfunctorily, but the college student didn't say anything more.

Once again, only the sound of the television remained in the room. On the show, the balding programmer was listing his ideal type, and bachelorette number thirty-six—who met all his criteria—was the first to raise her red X paddle.

I don't think we're a good match... the way you talk... your job, too...

The camera cut to a close-up of the heavily made-up woman, whose lipstick-laden lips moved on screen, making Shigure Zero feel a sudden, inexplicable irritation.

"You two look pretty close in the photo. You call each other by name, don't you?"

"Of course, Len is the closest person to me!"

"Then that's basically a boyfriend."

"It's not the same."

With the host working hard to keep the atmosphere light, the balding programmer had earned a conversation round. The two guests seemed to hit it off unexpectedly well, but the woman remained indecisive.

I'm interested in you as a person... you're more refined than I thought... but I can't imagine what it would be like to be with you for a long time...

"I've known that kid for almost four years," Cardacia said gloomily. "Four whole years! I've dragged him all over the place, making him do all sorts of silly things with me. All the others I've picked up before either left early or got annoyed and ran away, but Len's always stayed by my side."

How boring.

Who wants to hear your love stories? If you want to brag about how happy you are, go find some lonely bachelor to share your delightful memories with.

I love you but refuse to confess first! I admire you but don't dare to get too close! Just thinking about such things makes me sick. Please, if you want to play at being a pair of idiotic lovebirds, do it somewhere private.

Shigure Zero took a gulp of beer, worried she might blurt out her true thoughts otherwise.

She remembered the photo she'd just seen.

It was hard to believe that even Shigure Len had become such a fool.

Tucking away his dignity and malice, obediently trailing behind a girl as her ever-compliant lackey... Is that what happens when you fall in love?

Perhaps he sacrificed his intelligence in some deadly struggle. On second thought, that seemed even more likely.

"So he likes you a lot, then?"

"I think so? But liking and loving are different things. Len always thinks in such a negative way..."

At this point, the blonde girl hesitated. She seemed unsure how to express her thoughts. After a few seconds, she spoke vaguely, "He's used to assuming the worst, and he cares too much about the people around him... That's probably why he always stays by my side."

That was easy enough to imagine.

For Shigure to think positively would be stranger still. And of all the Shigures, perhaps only that idiot truly believed in 'family.' Of course he cherished these things—

"...."

With this thought, sudden clarity dawned on Shigure Zero.

To outsiders, it would be incomprehensible; even knowing he was a Shigure, it would be hard to grasp the roots of such twisted thinking. Only Shigure Zero, who knew his past, could instantly understand.

So this is what it was—within the despair of the laboratory, he once took his false relatives as a form of solace and hope. Upon arriving in this city, he clung to the woman he met as the lifeline he refused to let go.

Humans are short-lived and shortsighted; if they see no light of hope, they're swallowed by darkness and despair. Shigure Zero pinned her hopes on herself, seeking freedom through strength, while Shigure Len placed his hopes in others, searching for someone into whom he could pour all his feelings.

If he left these people, even in a far-off city, he would be in the same lightless hell as before.

Could this be called ordinary love? Hardly. The object of his affection could always be replaced. As long as he found a new substitute in time, a new light would flare by his side...

Even if such self-satisfying emotion isn't all there is to love, once it's noticed for what it is, one-sided devotion only breeds even stronger resistance.

Did this girl vaguely sense his abnormality after being together so long... or was she truly oblivious, viewing everything through the ordinary lens of romance and gratitude?

She adopted a lighter tone. "So you see that as dependence? Like a stray cat that refuses to leave the kind old lady who took it in?"

Cardacia retorted angrily, "Len is not some twisted man like that!"

She almost burst out laughing.

Amazing—this woman really had no idea!

Just how well have you disguised yourself, Shigure Len?

While Shigure Zero was quietly amused, Cardacia lowered her head in dejection. "Honestly, I'm not the kind of person who cares that much about feelings or authenticity. As long as someone treats me well, that's enough... But at this rate, I'm just tying Len to my side."

There it was. That self-righteous sense of responsibility so typical of do-gooders and fools.

"I can't use the past as a chain to bind him."

You really are a good owner—see how well you've trained him.

She fought the urge to speak maliciously—she admitted she didn't actually dislike this girl—and instead said playfully, "Seems to me the boy just likes you, that's all~"

Cardacia took off her cat ears and swung them back and forth.

"Hahaha, as if. He probably just sees me as a willful older sister type. What sort of guy spends so many years with a girl he likes and never confesses?"

Ha. Haha. Hahaha.

That was it—she couldn't bear to listen to this topic any longer. Let any warmhearted soul take over the love talk between kindred spirits and college girls; if this went on, she might lose control.

—Stop talking about this in front of single women, you lovestruck fools!

On the matchmaking show, the balding programmer was finally decisively rejected, and contestant number one left the stage in disappointment. Shigure Zero slammed the remote and changed the channel. "Honestly, I think you're better suited to balding middle-aged men like this one."

"So mean! Age-wise, Alice dear is a much better match!"

"All right, now I'm really mad. Prepare yourself."

The blue-haired woman snatched the phone from her companion, left the couch to pick up a black-and-white maid outfit, and then advanced step by step on the weak, helpless landlady.

"No! That was for you—" Cardacia clung to a sofa cushion, wailing, "Don't come near me!"

And so, in the end, the overbearing lady in the top hat received her due punishment at the hands of a woman even more fearsome.

A few minutes later, a photo of someone in a maid outfit was sent to the account labeled “Len”—but that is another story.