The Dark Knight of Aincrad

Chapter 11: Gift

As the sun shines brightly in the sky and the birds started chirping. Diluc's eyes started fluttering as soon as the sun made contact. The redhead finally opened his eyes to see a blur vision but gets clearer and clearer by the second. As soon as his vision's clear, the first thing to greet him was an unfamiliar face.

His red-colored eyes matches with the person's own red-colored eyes. "Hello?" Diluc said.

Then out of nowhere, the person who was staring at him ran away from Diluc. The redhead sat down as he scratches his hair. Then the at the door frame, Jean was there holding a tray and there was another person behind Jean. 

"Ah, you're awake. Morning, sleepy head. It's 8." Jean said.

Diluc yawned as he rubbed his left eye. "Jean is it just me or is there someone behind you?" Diluc asked as he stopped rubbing his left eye.

"Oh. Diluc, this is Klee. She's my daughter." The blonde girl said.

Diluc's eyes shot wide open as he looked at Jean with a shocked expression on his face. "Say what?!" 

The girl behind Jean hid behind Jean as the Grandmaster of the Knights of Favonius herself started laughing out loud. As soon as she calmed down she placed the tray of food next to Diluc's table. 

"I'm only joking. Yes, on paper you could say she's my daughter but in truth, I found her one day in the rain. Come on, Klee. Introduce yourself." 

Then the girl now named Klee walked forward and bowed down. "Hi, my name's Klee. And you are?" Diluc examined the girl, she has pale skin and light red eyes. She has pale blonde hair tied in pigtails with a prominent cowlick and elf ears. She also wears a pink-colored pajamas.

"Hmm... Polite girl." Diluc responded. "Diluc, that's my name." 

Klee then smiled as Jean took a seat next to Diluc. "Klee, why don't you go out and play with the others?"

Klee nods her head and left the room leaving both Jean and Diluc alone together. As the door slammed to the door frame it was quiet and awkward for the two of them. 

"So, that girl. Klee. Is she an NPC?" Diluc asked.

"Yeah... I never knew Sword Art Online was also a mother simulator..." Jean responded whole letting out a small laugh after.

"Must have been tough." The redhead said.

"It was a little challenging but thanks to the rest of the Knights, they managed to help me out. Turns out, you can adopt kids as you completed their side quest that is." Jean said as Diluc hummed. The two were now back to the awkward silence that they had before.

Sighing and wanting to get this over with. Diluc spoke up first. "Jean... I'm sorry. You know... For leaving everything to you." He looked down as he apologizes.  

"Yeah... You better be..." Jean said with a shaky voice in her tone. "You don't know... How much it pains me to see Ryu gone... And you went missing... Hajime... Why? Why did you leave me?" 

Diluc looked up only to see Jean's face filled with tears and a shocked face made its way to Diluc. He felt horrible for leaving everything to her. He knows that it affected her more as well as he did. The redhead teen sighed as he couldn't do anything, the only thing he can do was to wipe away Jean's tears.

"Kisho... Please... Stop your tears..." Diluc- no. Hajime said as he hugged Kisho.

"You dummy...! You're such a dummy...! Why...? Why did you even leave?" 

"I couldn't handle it... The halls here in this base will always haunt me. His obnoxious laugh, that contagious smile. It hurts, Kisho! It hurts so bad...! I couldn't take it... I ran away... I know it was stupid of me to do it. Abandoning you and everyone else... But I just couldn't handle it."