Hero

Alexander slowly walked in the rain towards the vampire city. He wasn't thinking of anything, just walking as he looked around.

He didn't feel the cold or the pain in his body. He wasn't even tired.

The rain had washed away most of the blood but his clothes still had blood marks on them.

Alexander was covered in mud and rain, he looked like he had been through hell. But if someone looked close enough, they would see that he didn't have any injuries at all.

Everything healed after a few hours of walking, even the poison wasn't making any difference anymore.

He closed his eyes and started humming a song as he walked.

A few animals passed past him, even a few monsters but no one got close enough to properly see him.

The rain sound made everything so quiet and Alexander kept walking while listening to it.

Alexander arrived at the city and entered by jumping the wall. Since it was raining, it was easy for him to enter without being seen.

The guards weren't going to stop him even if he showed up at the gates, but he didn't want to go through all the trouble of identifying himself.

He walked through the city and didn't see anyone, it made sense since it was raining very heavily.

He walked slowly through the rain, it had a peaceful feeling to it as if everything was washed clean.

After a few hours of walking, he arrived at his house.

He stopped at the door but it didn't seem like he would open it at any time soon, for some reason it was really difficult for him to get the strength to move his hand at that moment.

Then the door opened. His wet hair was blocking his vision so he could barely see Lili through the rain.

"Alexander? Are you okay? Did something happen? Why are you walking in the rain? Come inside, hurry"

Alexander didn't answer her and entered the house.

He suddenly approached her and she couldn't step away as he hugged her.

"AAAAAHHHH!" She shivered and screamed because of how cold he was.

Alexander didn't notice her reaction and kept hugging her.

"Stop!"

She started to struggle to get herself away from him. She liked the hug but he was dirty, wet, cold, and smelly. She wanted him to at least take a shower before doing something like this.

He didn't hear her since he was too immersed in his own world. After a while, she gave up and let herself get dirty

A few minutes later, he recovered from his stunt.

"I'm sorry" He apologized after looking at her dirty clothes.

Lili looked up and shook her head.

"It's fine, nothing I can't clean. More importantly..."

She looked at him with a serious expression.

"What happened?"

"..." He didn't really want to talk about everything that happened on the mountain.

Lili didn't know why he didn't want to talk, but she didn't insist for too long.

"Whatever it was, you need to rest. Look at you, you look like you just fought a war. Are you injured somewhere?"

"No"

Lili stared at him and she could see how sad he was, the way he spoke was different as well.

"Then you should take a bath and get some sleep. I'll make something for you to eat."

They were in a vampire kingdom, they didn't have human food here so Lili was the only one who could easily get it by teleporting to the woods and hunting.

She was going to get him food even if he refused to accept it.

Alexander nodded and released her.

"Good. Now go and throw those clothes away. If you put them together with the other clothes, I will kill you"

She teleported away to get food while he walked to the bathroom and threw everything away.

He cleaned himself and went to his bed. Lili was right, he was indeed very tired. The moment his head touched the bed, he could feel the weight in his eyes.

But strangely, it wasn't enough to make him sleep. Even though he was more tired than ever, his body refused to fall asleep.

The scenes from the mountain kept replaying in his head. He tried to not think about it but his mind didn't listen to him. He rolled and changed positions so much that the blankets fell from the bed.

Lili arrived a few hours later. After she was done cooking and cleaning herself, she went inside his room to check on him.

She saw him lying on the bed, still awake.

"Why are you still awake?" He had never taken more than a few seconds to fall asleep before.

"...I'm not sure myself"

Lili stared at him confused and then sat next to him.

After a few seconds of silence, she released a small smirk and placed her hand on his head.

"Even someone as strong as the hero can be as weak as a bunny when there is no one watching, so he needs a princess to help him get up and fight again. But I'm not that princess, I don't care about you all. He needs to stay in bed, away from all that fighting and killing he puts himself through every day. He doesn't need to be the strongest, the bravest, or the mightiest... Just alive is more than enough"

When she stopped talking, Lili stared at him while waiting for his response... But even after a few seconds, he still didn't say anything, just staring at her intensely.

She suddenly got embarrassed and tried to remove her hand from his head, but the moment she tried, Alexander grabbed her hand and pulled her closer.

Lili became paralyzed when she realized the situation she was in. Alexander was hugging her while they lay together in bed. Her heart started beating faster as she had no idea what Alexander would do next.

"Who is stealing lines from books now?" He said close to her ear which sent a shiver all over her body.

"A-At least I remembered the whole paragraph unlike someone else" She got a little less nervous trying to make fun of him.

His stiff face finally relaxed a little and his gaze felt even more intense.

Alexander's whole body felt warm as he placed his hand on Lili's face and she looked up at him. He couldn't understand why, but the more time they spent like that, the more relaxed and at ease he felt.

His vision started blurring, all the fatigue hitting him at once. It was good that he could finally sleep but at that moment he couldn't help but wish to stay awake for just a little bit longer.

"...Why did you become so pretty all of sudden?" He said slowly, almost like a whisper.

Then his eyes closed and he fell asleep instantly.

Unlike Alexander who became relaxed like a feather in their current state, Lili felt like her heart was gonna burst out of her chest. Her face was as red as it could get and her body was frozen like a statue by how nervous she was.

And what he said at the end didn't help in the slightest, her thoughts went wild as she imagined what he meant by that.

She looked at his peaceful face and almost cursed him out loud for leaving her like that.