Chapter Four

A few years later

All of the girls gather around Argus. I awkwardly stand next to him. During the past few years, he's been learning how to walk on two feet. He still prefers to run on his hands and feet. Ever since he started to walk on two feet in public, girls have been either hitting on him or fangirling over him. Surprisingly he now has his own fan club.

"Omg! He's so cute!" one of the girls squeals.

"Wanna go out with me?" one of them asks.

Argus tilts his head and smiles. He obviously doesn't know what's going on. All of the girls scream from the cuteness emanating from him.

"I'm going to get going," I say awkwardly.

Argus suddenly hugs me and rubs his head against mine. He's as warm and cuddly as a teddy bear. All of the girls make extremely jealous faces.

"Um… Argus? Could you please let go?" I ask politely. "I don't want there to be a misunderstanding."

He refuses to let go. If I struggle against his hug, I'll most likely become the number one target on the bounty board at all of the adventurer guilds.

"I'll buy you beef jerky if you let go," I say.

He quickly lets go of me. His eyes sparkle with happiness and excitement.

"Just kidding. I'm going to spend all of our food savings on pudding," I say.

The sparkles disappear and he has a disappointed look on his face. He then picks me off the ground and runs off. The group of girls is left in the dust.

"Hey! Put me down!" I yell.

"Rawr!" he says in response.

"If you haven't noticed, I can't understand a word you say!" I shout.

Argus suddenly stops in front of the convenient store. He gently puts me down and holds my hand.

"You're serious, right?" I ask. "You carried me all the way here just for some jerky?"

He nods with a smile.

"Wipe that smile off your face! This isn't funny!" I shout.

He starts to growl.

"What is it now?" I ask and look upwards.

Shoki stops in front of me with a curious face. His mouth opens up wide and he points straight at me.

"Kensei! What are you doing here!" he shouts.

"Oh my god. Let's go somewhere else," I say and drag Argus with me.

"Don't ignore me!" he yells and grabs me by the shoulder.

Argus bites his hand ruthlessly.

"Ow! What was that for!" he shouts.

"Could you just leave me alone, Shoki? You're getting on my nerves. Why are you always everywhere?" I ask in a dark tone.

"Give back my sword," he asks politely with a smile that makes me want to throw up.

"Here. Have the stupid sword. I never use it anyway," I say carelessly and toss him the half I took from him. "Go back to where you came from."

We start to walk away, but he reaches for my shoulder again. Argus bites the exact same spot, and Shoki tries his best to withstand the pain.

"Sadly, I can't," he says.

I stop and take a few steps back to confront him face-to-face.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

He looks at the floor and answers, ���I got exiled. I can't return to the Celestial Realm."

"Sucks to be you. Well, I'll see ya' never," I say and stick my tongue out.

We walk away from the convenient store while holding hands since Argus doesn't want to let go.

"She's so cold," he says.

We head to a different store to go buy a bunch of jerky and pudding. We basically robbed them of all of the pudding and jerky since there's a big sale. Argus drags me to the walking park. I sit on a bench with him. He stares at me with a warm smile. I smile back. He continues to stare at me while smiling.

"Could you stop staring at me like that?" I ask.

Argus shakes his head and pulls out a notepad and a pen. He starts to scribble something on it and hands it to me. I take it and start reading it.

It says, "I love you"

I drop the notepad, and my face is now apple red.

"Y-You probably mean like a family way, right?" I ask.

Argus picks up the notepad and starts scribbling something. This time it's taking him a little longer than before. He hands it over to me.

It says, "I know you're the one who's been writing me letters instead of Mom. You claim that it's from her, but I know it's not. Despite that, I love you for who you are and how caring you are. You treat me like an equal and not like a freak. I wish we can stay together forever just like this."

Tears run down my cheeks. I've never felt the love of someone who truly cares about me. Argus gently puts my head onto his shoulder while I bawl my eyes out. He wraps his warm arm around me even after I fall asleep.

I slowly open my eyes and notice that it's day. My eyes are all puffy from crying myself to sleep. I look at the tree in front of me and notice something. It's Shoki sleeping next to that tree.

"How is he everywhere?" I shout very loud.

Argus and Shoki wake up from their slumber. I notice that his eyelids are so puffy to the point it looks like Pacman trying to eat something every time he blinks. I start to laugh very hard because of how much his puffy eyes ruin his pretty face. Argus joins me.

"What's so funny?" asks Shoki.

"You look so stupid!" I laugh.

"You better stop laughing," he says. "I'll happily take all of your pudding and jerky."

"I'll kill you," I say.

Argus growls.

"I'm just joking," he says. "Have fun, Cutest Couple in the World."

"What do you mean?" I ask.

Shoki shows me one of the screens he makes out of his own magic. It's a post of a photo of Argus and me sitting on the bench while sleeping.

"Who took this photo?" I ask.

"I have no idea. I wonder who," he says sarcastically.

"I'm going to kill you!" I yell.

"Try me," he says. "Could you and your cute boyfriend even leave a scratch-"

Argus digs his teeth into Shoki's skull. I smile.

"Hm… That seems to be a little more than a scratch," I say.

Shoki drops onto the dirt floor. Argus gets off of him and kicks some dirt in his face.

"Rawr (Don't you dare lay a finger on her)," he says in a dark tone.

"Why would I ever?" Shoki says in response.

"Wait," I say. "Don't tell me you can understand what he's saying."

"My magic comes with an auto-translate function. It's super convenient when traveling or facing someone who speaks a different language," he says. "Too bad you can't do the same."

"My question is why are you here? What happened to your punchable face?" I ask.

"It's nothing. I should get going," he says and leaves.

At the spot he was just at, I found a piece of paper on the floor. I pick it up and start reading it: "Dear Kensei, the Adventurer Guild is looking for members. If you like to join, come to the building at this location."

I smile and say, "Hey, Argus. You wanna come with me and try to shut this guy's career down?"

Argus gives me an evil smirk. It's actually more cute than scary.

"Sorry Argus, but you can't pull off the evil look. You're just too cute to do that," I point out.

He makes a pouty face afterward and starts drawing perfect circles in the dirt while mumbling to himself. It sounds more like puppy noises to me.

"We should get going," I say. "We don't want to turn down this opportunity."

"Rawr!" he says in response with a smile.

We head straight to the place where we know our enemy works.