Month

When Lucien heard that, he was somewhat surprised at such a fast response from the Washuu Clan. He thought they would actually try to hide that matter, but surprisingly they announced it to the news.

"You see? I am already famous!"

Laughed Lucien at this breaking news. He was in a good mood and that he rated him so high was very good for his ego. His nickname was also good; he didn't want to have some creepy or weird moniker. His nickname 'Hollow' was dominating, scary, and powerful sounding.

Iori was too happy for him and did something that Lucien didn't wait for. She gently kissed his lips which completely took him by surprise. This was his first kiss, it lasted for a short time, but a memory of this moment would be eternal.

Lucien was still in a state of shock, and Itori was looking at the fireplace with slightly red cheeks. None of them was talking, and silence overtook the room.

"Congratulations on being famous, Hollow."

She actually congratulated him, and then she closed her eyes and leaned over his arm, probably trying to sleep. Lucien didn't know what to do, so he too closed his eyes and tried to sleep. Because everything was new to him, he never had been in or relationship; even this kiss was the first in both of his lives.

After some time, both of them actually fell asleep and spent the entire night together, sleeping on the sofa while holding hands.

***

The following day when Lucien woke up, he thought Itori would have left, but to his surprise, she was right beside him. As he didn't want to wake her up but wanted to leave, he was caught in a dilemma on what to do now. Finally, he just decided to wait for several minutes for her to wake up. Fortunately, this plan worked, and after ten minutes or so, Itori woke up.

"Good morning, Itori."

Greeted Lucien at the same time as she woke up. She looked at him, embarrassed a little that she stayed at his home overnight, even though nothing had happened between them. She just kissed him, and that was all.

"Good morning, Lucien."

She said with a low voice. It was apparent that she was a little shy about this. Similar to Lucien, she was too new to things like romantic relationships or dates, but in her nature, she was much bolder than Lucien. This showed up to its maximum when she kissed him yesterday on her own initiative.

"Came coffee would be ready."

Both of them stood up and went to the garden. In the garden was a smaller arbor, where Lucien always drank morning coffee as he watched all that beauty in the garden. Both of them drank coffee and talked about some things.

Then Lucien ordered some of his bodyguards to drive Itori to Helter Skelter Bar.

When she was already ready to leave, she was grabbed by Lucien from behind, and this time it was he who took the initiative to kiss her lips. At first, she was taken by surprise, but she returned his kiss with even more passion as their tongues met. Compared to yesterday, today's it was more passionate.

After one minute or more, they parted.

"I will be waiting for you at the bar."

Said Itori as she literary ran away from the place.

***

A month has already passed, and Eto should be already at the 24th Ward. Now Lucien needed to go to the 20th Ward and then through Route V14 to arrive at the 24th Ward. Route V14 is an underground passage leading to the 24th Ward, which is located below the 20th Ward.

Actually, 24th Ward encompassed the deepest parts of the large labyrinth that the ghouls dug in the underground of Tokyo in the past.

The 24th Ward could be described only as a huge underground place. It could easily house thousands of people, but now only ruins remained there.

When Lucien returned to his estate, he quickly found Darkwalker, who was now lecturing new mercenaries, and almost the entire mercenary band was here as he was obsessed with tight security.

All of them were loyal to the Aeon House because it could be said that the Aeon House helped this concrete mercenary band a lot during their early stages.

When all the people there saw Lucien, they immediately saluted him.

"Welcome, Lord Aeon!"

Hearing mass-salute from more than ten people sounded very dominating and gave a feeling of power. After saluting to him, all of them returned to training and practice.

"Darkwalker, I am leaving for the 24th Ward. Be aware of CCG or V. Though I don't think that somebody would actually come here but still better be safe than sorry. Especially be aware of those little messy doves. Yesterday I killed some of them so they would be on high alert. It could be some trouble if they found out that this mansion is full of A-Rated and some S-Rated ghouls."

After that, Lucien went to the 20th Ward to have his long-awaited meeting with Eto. If they could forge some kind of cooperation. In that case, he could use Aogiri Tree as bait for the Washuu Clan, and Aogiri could become his shield and sword to kill his targets.