Chapter – 48 A Date(?) with the Ashen-Grey-Haired Beauty

In the late afternoon

Chuu~ After planting a kiss on Nova's lips, Lavinia lightly brushed his hair, and spoke, "Well then Lord Nova… please have fun…" Lavinia wasn't going to join Nova and Iris on their Dat–Cough 'Grocery Shopping' trip, the reason is that she was busy doing research to find the Magic Nova had suggested to her in the morning.

"Will do…" nodded Nova with a grin, then left their room and made his way to the guest room. He did not have to wait long before Iris too arrived at the guest room.

As the ashen-grey-haired beauty stood in front of him, Nova took a closer look at her and smiled.

Not understanding the reason behind his sudden smile as he looked at her, Iris touched her face and asked, "Is there anything on my face?"

Nova shook his head, "No there is no problem, you look just as beautiful as you always do, and I was just admiring your beauty…"

Unlike their last outing together when they went to pick up Minagawa Natsume–when Iris wore a full-body biker suit–this time, she hadn't put much effort. In fact, she wasn't much different from her usual self, keeping a stoic emotionless expression on her face with no make-up, and was wearing a simple white sleeveless dress decorated with green ornaments, but that didn't matter as Nova still found her incredibly beautiful. Different from that time, today Iris appears to be an innocent beauty.

Iris looked down, and lightly mumbled, "Thank you," Although she did not express much emotion to the sudden praise, her cheeks had reddened a little in blush. Even if it's a girl as calm and stoic as Iris who doesn't display many emotions, suddenly being praised for her beauty all of a sudden did make her feel sweet.

Seeing that his words had their intended effect, Nova smiled to himself, then quickly changed the topic to avoid an awkward atmosphere, "Then shall we go?"

"Ah… yes!" nodded Iris. And the two left the Apartment Complex.

Unlike their previous outing together, they were not using Iris' magically modified Ducati Monster-796 S2R, they were going to use a local train for commutation, personally, Nova preferred this choice as he would be able to spend more time with Iris.

Walking side by side on the Street, Nova suddenly realized something, and questioned Iris, "By the way, where are we going?"

"The Shinjuku Shopping Complex… it's close to the Local Train Station, and we would be able to buy almost everything of necessity there…" answered Iris.

"Alright…" nodded Nova. It's the same Shopping Complex where Ikuse Tobio used to come after school hours to pass the time before returning to his apartment. In fact, just yesterday Nova and Minagawa Natsume were at the Shinjuku Shopping Complex while tailing Tobio and Magnus Rose, at that time, he hadn't expected to return to the same place the very next day, though unlike yesterday, today he is going to the Shopping Complex with Iris, and unlike Natsume's case, it's a real date this time, well, real date in his words, not Iris's, but it did not matter as Nova happily chatted with Iris about casual things.

He wasn't exactly sure why, but he was very excited today, much more excited than he normally is about most things, 'Hmm… it's quite strange…' thought Nova, then shook his head, 'Who cares…'

It wasn't just Nova, even Iris was acting a bit differently from her usual self, at least that's what she thought. She is not very talkative and generally finds talking too much a little troublesome, despite that, today she neither felt annoyed, nor frustrated and thought to herself, 'I wonder why?'

In this manner, the two soon reached the Local Train Station and boarded a train to the Shinjuku Train Station.

…

On the Train

Unlike yesterday, despite a few seats being empty, neither Nova nor Iris chose to sit, both of them were standing with Iris leaning on the inner wall (A/N: I am not sure if 'inner wall' is the right word) of the train, on the other hand, Nova was standing in front of her while holding a hand strap for support. Although the two were standing quite close to each other Iris didn't feel uncomfortable, and let's not talk about Nova… how could he feel uncomfortable?

So while maintaining that distance the two continued their conversation. It started with one topic, then moved to the second topic, then shifted to another topic until finally Iris couldn't help but ask something that had been on her mind since morning, "Do you mind if I ask something, Nova?"

"Sure…" nodded Nova, curious as to what Iris wanted to know.

Iris hesitated a little as she asked, "Why did you want to come with me for the Grocery Shopping?"

Nova is a noble-born, and people of his pedigree don't do such stuff. They have hundreds if not thousands of servants at their beck and call to do such things for them, therefore, Iris had to wonder.

"Hmm… oh, you are curious, huh? Well, if I am being honest, then my sole reason for coming for something like grocery shopping is to spend time with you…" answered Nova truthfully. What other reason could there be?

"Spend time with me?" Iris was surprised as her cheeks reddened a little, and she asked, "Why though?"

"It's to get to know you better… as I mentioned once before, I intend to recruit you into my peerage… I cannot do that if I do not understand you… Spending time together is the best method to get to know a person… that's what I am doing… it's why we are going on a date together…" explained Nova without hiding his true intentions.

Iris's eyes widened, and she asked, "You were serious at that time?"

"Of course!" nodded Nova while staring into Iris's heterochromic eyes. He is as serious about recruiting Iris Gaule to his peerage as he is about reincarnating Ingvild Leviathan as a member of his peerage.

Upon learning that Nova was indeed serious, Iris's expression became hesitant, she tried to speak something but couldn't bring herself to speak while staring into Nova's 'earnest' and 'pure' eyes. She broke eye contact and looked at the floor as she spoke lightly, "You shouldn't… I… I have things that I must complete even if I must die… so…" she bit her lips and added, "So… please… please don't… otherwise you will only be disappointed."

The sudden change in Iris's mood surprised Nova, but he accepted the girl's answer partially, "I understand that you have things on your shoulders… so I won't push you in that regard… however… what about after you have finished those things?"

"I don't even know if I can finish it…" answered Iris with a painful expression.

"Then that's all the more reason to become mine, isn't it…? I can help you finish whatever it is that you want to finish…" said Nova as he held Iris's cheek and added, "Two is always better than one… not to mention I have more people on my side who will definitely help out…"

For a moment Iris wanted to accept Nova's words, but recalling that horrible week in the Church of her hometown when she lost every loved one at the hands of that monster, Iris quickly shook her head as she pushed his hand away from her, and shouted, "You… you don't understand… it's something only I can do and I must do… this is my responsibility… it's why I––" Halfway through she stopped when she felt everyone on the train staring at them. Unknowingly, she had raised her voice, and everyone had heard her.

The atmosphere became awkward as the two felt dozens of eyes focus on them. Fortunately, the two of them were speaking in native French–Iris's mother tongue–not Japanese, so other passengers probably did not understand what the two were talking about and the sudden cause of her outburst, lest it would be more awkward.

But then again, feeling dozens of eyes on them was a little troublesome. Nova sighed then he turned towards the other passengers as his heterochromic eyes glowed in a mysterious light, immediately expression of everyone on the train except him and Iris became dazed for a moment before returning to normal. As the other passengers' expressions returned to normal, they got back to doing whatever they were doing before Iris raised her voice and ignored the presence of Nova and Iris.

After dealing with the crowd, Nova looked back at Iris, but the girl didn't meet his eyes. She kept looking at the floor and while biting her lower lip, she apologized, "I am sorry…"

Nova shook his head, "Don't worry about it…" and spoke, "I guess I came out as too aggressive…"

Iris didn't give a response, well, she kind of agreed that he was being a bit too… um, you know…

Without waiting for Iris's response, Nova raised Iris's chin up and while staring into her eyes he said, "Be that as it may… I will still make you mine… It doesn't matter whether you agree or not… I will definitely make you mine…"

Iris was a little frustrated now, but unlike last time, she didn't lose control, instead, she spoke in a low voice, "But I might die while trying to complete what I must…"

Nova chuckled, "It doesn't matter because death won't be able to keep you away from me…"

He was being very literal here. One of the amazing features of the Evil Pieces is that they can revive the dead as long as too much time hasn't passed since the time of death, therefore, even if Iris were to die, he can still use his Evil Piece to revive her as long as he is in close proximity. Not to mention the existence of [Sephiroth Graal] that can be used to revive the people who have been dead for a very long time, and he just so happens to know the person who possesses the said Longinus, so there's no way Iris would ever be able to part ways with him, even death won't be able to steal her away from Nova!

Although Iris did not understand how Nova could speak something so absurd, she did feel that he was being extremely serious. Feeling defeated, Iris sighed and asked, "Why though? Why do you want me? You… you don't even know me! You don't know what I have been through, you don't know of the responsibility that I should––!" suddenly she realized, "I see… that's why this 'date'? That's why you told me that you want to get to know me…"

"Well, it seems we have come back in full circle, haven't we??" chuckled Nova.

"Seems to be the case…" sighed Iris. She was speechless and muttered in defeat, "That's unfair…"

"Life's unfair… especially when there are cheaters like me around to make other's life difficult…" mumbled Nova. And while keeping hold of her chin, he gently caressed her lips with his thumb… this action immediately widened Iris's eyes… and she panicked, "No… wait… I––!"

"Don't worry… I am not going to do it now…" Nova reassured her, and then he removed his thumb from her lips, making Iris sigh in relief, but before she could sigh properly, he suddenly brought his face closer to hers to the point their lips were almost touching but not actually touching.

"!!!"

Their bodies were so close that they could feel each other's heartbeat, Ba Dump! Ba Dump!

But neither Nova nor Iris closed that small distance. Nova did not do so because he had given his word that he would not do it now, meanwhile, Iris did not do so because she was afraid. Afraid to open her heart to anyone for there is a responsibility she must complete!

The two teenagers remained in this position as they stared into each other's eyes in silence.

After a while, Nova spoke, "I am a greedy bastard! I am a horny and lustful prick who would do anything to fuck the girl I want! I am an arrogant, spoiled, and lazy devil as I don't put too much effort into things unless I really want them… but most of all, I am possessive… possessive to the point that if I want something, then I want it at all costs, all hell shall break loose, but I want what I want and nobody shall have/oppose what I want. Now that I have laid my eyes on you, and made my decision to recruit you into my peerage, there's no running away from me, it doesn't matter what end of the world you go to, you'd still be within the palm of my hand…"

Taking his personal interest in her cooking skills and beauty aside, Iris is actually a good peerage candidate. He hasn't made this decision just because he is simping for her, while that is indeed true, it's not the complete reason. During his days living together with Iris Gaule and Vali at the Grigori's Apartment Complex, Nova has gained some understanding of Iris's Sacred Gear… and learned that she possesses a Dragon-Type Sacred Gear with some amazing abilities. Therefore, he has all the more reason to recruit her in his peerage!

"I…" Iris seemed to want to say something, but before she could speak, a mechanical announcement sounded on the train.

[Shinjuku Station]

"It seems we have reached Shinjuku Train Station…" said Nova as he took a step back.

"Hmm…" nodded Iris swallowing back her words.

As the train stopped at the Shinjuku Train Station, the two teenagers disembarked and made their way to the Shinjuku Shopping Complex.

Unlike the time they made their way from the Apartment Complex to the Local Train Station, this time the two were walking quietly as an awkward silence lingered between them.

While the two teenagers disembarked the train station, neither of them noticed the creepy smile slowly creeping on the face of an old woman still sitting on the train as she stared at their back from the glass window pane. "Eh… who would have thought… you are still alive, and you are also in Japan… Sœur ainée (elder sister)."

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