Chapter 6: Fate has changed

Hearing Yuuto's words, Lala gave the young man a quizzical look as she wondered what other things followed her. 

But as she wondered, a spark of realization randomly hit her as she recalled her situation before teleporting to Yuuto's bathtub-

"Ahhh!!!"

Seeing Lala react the way she did, Yuuto acted like he did not know who those two men in black were as he asked Lala-

"You know them?"

In response to his question, Lala gave Yuuto an assured look as she nodded her head while making the sound-

"Umu"

Getting Lala's confirmation, Yuuto created two large dimensional prisons and showed Lala the two men dressed in black locked inside.

When Lala saw them she started to go off about how she would not follow her father's orders and the usual anime shit.

Unfortunately, the reason Yuuto was able to lock up two powerful devilukians was the same reason Lala was currently unable to talk to the two men… which meant-

"Uhm.. they can't hear you, this is actually a dimensional gap that would not let anything enter and exit… normally. Well that's the reason they can't reach us but also the reason you look crazy right now…"

Although it was only towards Yuuto as he was the only one who knew the mechanisms behind the dimensional gap prison. For some reason, when she heard the explanation, Lala ended up blushing in shame upon realizing just how stupid she may have looked.

Lala did not know how she felt right now.

Although she didn't mind Yuuto seeing her naked and all that initially, when she learned of the young man's capabilities and how similar they both were… in terms of being knowledgeable and creative she felt a bit of shame… as a researcher!

Yuuto saw this and assumed the same, but he did hear a good deal about Lala.

The fact that she was going to get engaged and all that was something he knew beforehand but hearing it from Lala gave him the opportunity to talk about it.

"Well, I don't know what kind of trouble you're going through but if you want to run away from an engagement then I hope you won't use my house as a base… the last thing I want is to have some random space aliens come knocking on my door you know."

With a calm and apathetic tone Yuuto explained to Lala his own opinions, to which Lala replied asking.

"Hmmm…. How about we get engaged?"

Lala's words came as a surprise to Yuuto, after all, based on his own memories Lala would fall for his younger brother.

Now, how a person could fall in love with Rito was something very hard to grasp but Lala was supposed to see through Rito's true personality, his kindness and willingness for self sacrifice.

Lala was supposed to go through some initial interest towards Rito for his act of saving her and his proposal then she would finally fall for Rito after he talks about true love and all that stuff.

But for some reason-

"Are you fucking mental?!"

The moment he heard Lala talk about getting married out of the blue, completely out of character and just shoving it into his face made Yuuto recall some nasty memories of his past life.

Living in the world of anime for a good 17 years now, Yuuto had already come to accept that this was reality and that he could not see the individuals in this world as just "characters".

He had met and interacted with a LOT of people whom he thought he knew but turned out to be complete strangers.

Due to this, the moment Lala talked about marriage and given he context which Yuuto knew of there was only one conclusion he could come to-

"You know, the fact that you're proposing an engagement to me right now shows that you're no different from your father"

Yuuto had completely lost all his attachment to the character "Lala Satalin Deviluke", he stopped trying to overlap his memories with his experience and as of this moment he was facing the 1st princess of an intergalactic empire who was-

'Just another manipulative whore'

Yuuto did not see any reason for Lala to suddenly propose to him, all he did was show off some of his abilities and now she wants an engagement?

Connecting the dots was easy and Yuuto was not someone to dwell on things, denying the reality before his eyes for his ideal.

The reason Yuuto was able to reach his current state was because of his anchor to reality and his avoidance of delusions.

"What made you propose an engagement to me? Because I'm an earthling who has a bit of power to defeat your pursuers? Because I can create an isolation barrier? Because I don't look like the kind of guy to chase after power or your ass?!"

Unintentionally Yuuto had raised his voice, but it was not so high that he was shouting but his repressed anger could be felt in his words.

"Do you think I would say yes just because you're attractive or something?"

"No… no, that's not what I-"

"Then what do you want to say?"

"I… think we could both benefit from working together! I'll share my knowledge and technology in exchange for you pretending to be my lover!"

Hearing Lala's words did not calm down Yuuto's mind, Yuuto was a man with conviction and one who worked to ensure that he did not suffer too much in his pursuit of happiness.

He did not and would not feel hurt if Rito gets a harem, he did not mind if Rito seduces Mikado-san, the closest girl to him currently.

Yuuto did not care about women, real life women specifically. He did not care for them and did not want to involve himself in their matters if he could.

The only reason he wanted to involve himself with Lala was because of the reward!

At first, he wanted to see if Lala was as good of an individual as she was in the anime.

If she was then he would not mind setting things up for Rito to have a harem with the Deviluke princess but-

"In the end all women are the same"

Yuuto muttered as he snapped his fingers causing a red magic formation to light up beneath his and Lala's feet.

Then, in a flash of red light, Lala and Rito along with the two men in black appeared in a distant clearing.

"What?"

"Hime-sama!"

"Please return with us Hime-sama!"

Lala was shocked and the two pursuers quickly shook of theirs and tried to talk to Lala who did not know what to do.

"First, I'll help you just this once-"

Yuuto turned to Lala, his gaze and words still as apathetic as it was before.

After saying what he wanted to say to Lala, he turned towards the two Deviluke warriors as he manifested a weird spellbook.

From afar it looked like just another creepy book but only those who know its origins would understand how eerie it truly was.

Yuuto held this book that was made of human flesh with a face that seemed to want to escape its cover. 

Without a care, Yuuto opened the book and as he did an eerie purplish red magic formation expanded below his feet.

"Witness! The horrors of the unknown, the monsters of the abyss! Open your eyes to the beast that feed on dreams, I call forth, Noden's Hounds - Night-gaunt!"

After Yuuto completed his chant, monstrous beings that looked like weird demons with smooth skin and large bat like wings materialized form the darkness.

A weird screech emanated from them and yet-

They had no eyes, no mouth no… face.

The universe was filled with a plethora of hideous and monstrous beings and entities but the Night-gaunts that were summoned by Yuuto were something else.

Even Lala felt a chill seeing the creatures materialize out of nothing-

"Sic-"

As Yuuto commanded, the army of night gaunts charged towards the two deviluke warriors.

The two men in black tried their best to fight back but-

"Aaaarrghh!!!"

"Make it stoppp!!!!"

It did not take more than five seconds for them to suddenly collapse and start screaming.

Seeing this, Yuuto raised his hand as he said-

"Halt!"

With his words the night-gaunts ceased their attack and the two deviluke and also stopped wriggling in fear. Instead they curled up into a ball sobbing.

"Begone"

With his next command, the night-gaunts let out a series of gut wrenching screeches before dissipating into black mist.

The whole event took less than a minute and Yuuto tossed the weird book up into the air making it disappear before turning back to Lala.

"I've dealt with your current problem, as for your bigger issues… I would recommend you find a suitor in some other planet, earth does not have anyone worthy of you or stupid enough to participate in your stupid game of pretend."

As he said those words, Yuuto gave Lala an apathetic glare that caused the poor girl to feel a shiver down her back.

Then, another magic formation appeared below Yuuto, this time it only expanded to below his own feet and in a flash of red he disappeared once more.

Lala stood there dumbstruck with what just happened, she did not know what to do or how to react-

"Peke… did that just happen?"

She asked with a tone filled with disbelief as she did not expect to be rejected by Yuuto so harshly.

Lala had experienced a lot of things but pure apathy was something she had felt for the first time in her life.

Even her father would show anger or joy, Yuuto on the other hand… It was like he was looking at a pebble by the roadside.

Whatever happened to it, whatever led it to be there, he did not care. It was there and had nothing to do with him and had nothing of importance to him.

Normally Lala would ignore this, she would have left it all but for some reason… she felt that she had lost something the moment Yuuto started to look at her with apathy.

"Peke… do you think Yuuto also faces the same problem as me?"

Lala did not know why, but the moment she spoke with Yuuto she felt that they both had a lot of similarities between them.

She felt a weird connection between her and Yuuto, in fact, her asking about engagement was something that just came up in her mind spontaneously.

Who would have thought… those words of hers would be the trigger for Yuuto to suddenly change.

But! When Lala thought more about it she felt that Yuuto's apathy towards her was for a reason and the more she thought about it the more she realized how bad she acted.

"Hey Peke… do you think Yuuto-san would forgive me if I talk to him?"

This time, Lala felt that she wanted to know more about Yuuto, why did he dislike engagements? What was his opinion on love? What did he think about all this?

She knew that Yuuto hated engagements in a way as he did criticize her fathers actions but claimed that her own was similar…

As her mind spun and tried to figure things out, the answer Lala got was suddenly clear-

"PEKE! I need to meet Yuuto! I NEED to talk to him!"

Lala knew this was her chance, not probably her only chance to find someone who she could truly love and she did not want to let it go!