endless path, infinite cosmos

chapter 41

Vahn stood there in shock as Lili continued holding his hand on her chest. His mouth gaped open and closed like a fish out of water. He was trying to find a solution but struggled to find the words. Though he tried removing his hand, he was shocked to find Lili had been holding his wrist like a vice seemingly unwilling to let him extricate it from her grasp.

"Ara~. Even though the sun has gone down, it isn't appropriate to show such displays of affection in public."

The cold sweat that had settled on his back began to increase as Vahn heard the unamused words that seemed to be spoken by a demon from a dark icy abyss. Both he and Lili turned towards the sound of the voice in a mechanical manner and saw a mature woman staring at them with an icy gaze. The smile on her face, though it appeared friendly on the surface, seemed to possess a veiled threat as it coldly observed their actions.

The woman, Milan, continued to stare at the two children who were frozen by her sight. Though she was laughing in her mind, she felt a mischevious urge and wanted to tease the two of them. She moved her 'icy' gaze towards the hand that was still being held to the chest of the hooded girl and Vahn immediately snatched his hand away as a result. The hooded girl was broken from her stupor by the movement before crouching down into a ball and hiding her face from view.

After staring at the girl for a moment, she turned her gaze back towards Vahn and increased the depth of her smile. "Vahn, it seems you not only took advantage of my daughter but in the span of a few minutes you found a second victim~nya? Perhaps it's too dangerous to allow you to stay under this roof any longer so as to protect our female residents and employees~?

Every word seemed to increase the mental damage Vahn had received since entering the Inn. Had he known something like this was going to happen, he wouldn't have tried pinning on the brooch in the first place! At this point, he could only swallow his regrets and try to explain the situation while apologizing.

"Mrs. Yuel...please, I can explain...I didn't mean to offend your daughter. This whole situation is just a big misunderstanding caused by my slip and lack of focus." He raised both his hands and waved them in surrender.

Milan couldn't help but find his reaction hilarious, but she wasn't willing to let him get out of things so easily. "Ara~? So you're saying that after you 'accidentally' slipped and groped my daughter, you also 'accidentally' squeezed her chest~?"

Hearing the words, Vahn fell to his knees with his palms on the ground. Though he could explain away the first part, he didn't have a reasonable excuse for the second half of her words. After she had repeated the series of events, he was dealt a critical blow and couldn't remain standing any longer. He now began to understand why so many 'dense' protagonists suffered in anime and manga, and he resolved to try and remedy his bad habits in the future.

While staring at the boy who had black lines covering his face, Milan had to cover her mouth to prevent laughing aloud. She had no doubt everything was caused by a misunderstanding, but it didn't change the fact he took advantage of the situation to gain benefits. Seeing that it would likely take time for Vahn to recover, she decided to change her focus to the second 'victim'.

Milan was surprised at how small the girl was. If she wasn't wrong, the girl was even younger than her daughter if height was any indicator. "Little miss, what brings you here to my Inn? Were you accompanying this rogue willingly, or did he kidnap you from somewhere~?"

Lili twitched when the woman began addressing her. She turned towards the voice and took a good look at the woman who spoke. She could see the similarities between the woman and the young cat person, Tina, from before. This was probably the girl's mother and the proprietress of the Inn.