Chapter 16
A bouquet suddenly appeared before my eyes.
“It’s a gift. I asked around, and they said it’d be good to prepare one.”
The lush flowers adorning the bouquet were all asphodels.
Asphodels were flowers that grew only in the Underworld—flowers of the dead, made up solely of pale, ghostly white petals.
When spring flowers bloomed in full, a few would occasionally peek their heads up into the surface world. Still, they were flowers rarely seen above ground.
“I wanted to give Leuke the most precious thing I had.”
The language of these flowers was—
I am yours.
Knowing that, it was hard to calm my wildly pounding heart.
“Thank you.”
I slowly accepted the bouquet.
A fragrance unlike any surface flower rode the breeze. Cool and cold, yet strangely comforting.
“It’s so beautiful. Really—so beautiful that I don’t know what to say.”
The image of you pondering what gift to give me.
The image of you gathering each flower one by one and awkwardly arranging them with clumsy hands.
It was so beautiful that words failed me.
“You’re even more beautiful.”
He murmured softly.
His low, gentle voice, tinged with a smile, tickled my ears. The tenderness overflowed—so sweet it felt like his voice might start dripping honey.
In an instant, my face burned hot. Was this man trying to kill people by cardiac arrest?
“H-haha, shall we head up now?”
Burying my face beneath the profusion of white blossoms, I smiled secretly.
—
“Aren’t you hungry? I didn’t even eat breakfast because I was meeting you, Adis.”
Hades quietly watched Leuke as she skipped ahead.
Her silver hair fluttered lightly, revealing the back of her snow-white neck.
Warmed by the sunlight, that nape looked soft beyond words.
I want to touch it. I want to kiss that slender neck. I want to bite it and see her startled expression. I want her eyes filled with nothing but me.
…That won’t do.
She seemed to like gentle, considerate men. The type who blushed just enough, who knew how to be thoughtful.
So I have to endure it.
I want to pull her into my arms right now, to hold that tiny body—barely half my size—but… endure it.
“Did you eat, Adis?”
“I didn’t. I wanted to eat with you, Lili.”
“Don’t just stand there—sit down. I have something for you.”
“For me?”
Leuke reaching into her large basket, saying she had a gift, was unbearably adorable. She looked just like a rabbit digging through its burrow for a hidden carrot.
I want to gobble her up.
“Ta-da!”
What Leuke pulled out was a handkerchief—the one I had given her to wipe blood when we met in the Underworld.
A pitch-black handkerchief that didn’t suit her pure whiteness at all.
“You lent it to me back then. But the bloodstains on this corner wouldn’t come out completely. I’m sorry.”
“I don’t mind. You could’ve kept it as it was. I’m grateful just to have it returned.”
“But I felt so bad that I tried adding some embroidery over it.”
She held it out confidently, yet hesitated shyly when it came time to show it. Even that was adorable.
“I learned directly from Athena’s priestesses, but I’m still not very good. Please… try to see it kindly.”
How could I possibly see it more kindly than this? I was already going blind from how cute she was.
“…Hmm.”
What she wanted me to see kindly wasn’t herself. Hades stared at the embroidery for a long while.
Now I understood why she’d asked that. Even a five-year-old girl might not have produced something quite this tragic…
No. Tragic?
Calling the embroidery she made while thinking of me tragic? Hades sharply deducted points from his today’s date score.
“An unusually shaped cloud.”
This is supposed to be an animal? Does anything with four legs count as one? To begin with, where are the four legs?
Hades examined the embroidery again from every angle. It looked like a clump of Cerberus’s fur mashed together.
“A deer?”
Leuke’s eyebrows drooped pitifully.
Hades broke out in a cold sweat.
Staring at something labeled embroidery but better described as a Cerberus furball, he arrived at his second answer.
“A cat.”
“…Does this look like a cat to you?”
Now Leuke looked like a rabbit caught in the rain, her lips drooping downward.
If I get it wrong one more time, I’m done for. Separating a Titan’s head from its body is easy—so why is identifying this tiny embroidery so hard?
“Well, that is…”
As Hades stammered in panic, Leuke supplied the answer herself.
“It’s a puppy.”
“A puppy! Of course, a puppy. Now that you mention it, it really does look like one. Especially the teeth—they resemble Cerberus’s—”
Ah.
Hades realized too late that he’d misspoken.
Comparing this cute(?) puppy embroidery to the hellhound of the Underworld—she was bound to be upset.
As Hades fidgeted nervously, watching her reaction, Leuke suddenly burst out laughing.
“Pfft—”
“?”
“Puhahaha!”
Like spring buds finally bursting into bloom, like lilies in full flourish, she laughed beautifully.
In that moment, Hades didn’t realize what an idiotic expression he had on his face as he stared at her.
“Looks like a puppy at first glance? This really looked like a puppy at first glance to you, Adis? Really?”
“Well, not at first glance exactly, but if you look closely, it does resemble a puppy.”
As Hades answered awkwardly, Leuke couldn’t stop smiling.
“My embroidery skills are pretty terrible, right?”
So she knew.
“No. Terrible? Not at all. It’s beautiful—just like you, Lili.”
“Did you know? You’re the first person who’s ever praised my embroidery.”
Leuke smiled like a spring flower rising after winter.
“I thought I’d improved a lot with Athena’s help, but I guess not.”
She tilted her head slightly, her silver hair rippling in the wind.
A white butterfly just like her fluttered down and gently settled atop her head.
“Still, could you try to see it just a little more kindly?”
She said it boldly, but perhaps embarrassed, both her cheeks flushed red.
“…It’s beautiful.”
“Yes?”
“It already is—too beautiful.”
Hades had forgotten that he was smiling as he looked at her.
A strange, ticklish warmth spread through his chest.
Unfamiliar. Odd. And yet—I want to know more.
A feeling he had never once experienced in his long, immortal life made his heart pound as if it might burst.
“This blueberry pie—did you really make it yourself, Lili?”
Whew. Calm down. Calm down, Leuke.
I worked hard to cool my flushed cheeks with the back of my cold hand.
I can’t fall for this too easily.
They say relationships need a bit of push and pull. But resisting the flirting of a handsome man who perfectly matched my ideal was harder than expected.
Tsk. At least I wasn’t drooling.
“Yes! I’m terrible at embroidery and weaving, but when it comes to cooking, I’m second to none.”
That was true. Cooking had been one of my few hobbies since childhood.
There were so few things a sick child stuck at home could do. On days I was bored to death, my father suggested I try cooking.
At first, I couldn’t even tell salt from sugar and sacrificed my family, but now I’d become a master chef.
“Mmm! Lili, it’s really good. This time, truly—genuinely delicious!”
“I’m glad it suits your taste.”
Ahem. With a little exaggeration, I could probably go on Master Chef of the Gods.
We chatted softly as we polished off the blueberry pie.
“If you tell me what foods or ingredients you like, I’ll make something even better next time.”
“About that…”
Just then, a sudden gust of wind blew through.
Whooosh!
“Ah!”
