Normally, Lancer should have left after dropping them off, but when Ryouko Fueguchi invited him in for a sit-down, Lancer chose to agree on an impulse.
And when the other party opened the door, Lancer felt a little strange, because the house the Fueguchi mother and daughter rented was not large, even a little cramped, but from the furnishings inside, it could be seen that this was an extremely warm home.
Originally, when Lancer saw the two living here, he had thought about whether to financially assist the other party, as money was basically meaningless to him, but as soon as he walked in, he felt unable to speak, because he felt that if he spoke, it would simply be 'blasphemy'.
Based on the CCG's information, Lancer could almost imagine Ryouko Fueguchi working most of the day.
But did the other party need his financial assistance?
The other party relied on her own efforts to support this small but extremely warm home.
"I apologize, I don't have anything good to offer you."
After handing a cup of coffee to Lancer, the other party specifically explained.
"This cup is new."
Drinking the instant coffee brewed by the other party, Lancer was silent for a while, but then felt a little lost.
Lancer did not regret his choice back then, because it was precisely his actions that allowed Kureo Mado to survive and Ryouko Fueguchi to survive.
But standing at his current height and perspective, he also saw many immature aspects of his past actions. If he had handled things better, the Fueguchi mother and daughter would not have had to endure such great mental pressure.
For him, he could ignore the rumors, after all, he would leave after dealing with the matter. As long as the people he cared about and the people who cared about him did not misunderstand, he didn't care, but what about the Fueguchi mother and daughter?
They had to live in this world forever, and those rumors would accompany them throughout their lives.
And Ryouko Fueguchi on the other side also felt a little strange when she saw Lancer silently drinking coffee.
She could never forget their first meeting. When she realized that she and her daughter had been discovered by a CCG investigator, she was almost desperate. The final outcome was not unexpected; she was defeated by the other party, but what happened afterward was completely beyond her expectation. The other party actually did not kill her.
At the time, she thought the other party was coveting her body, and she was extremely terrified inside. To protect her daughter, she decided to offer her body to satisfy the other party, but the other party's choice surprised her again; the other party actually refused her.
It was from that moment that her heart, which was restless due to tension, began to calm down. She also began to try and observe Lancer. After all, no matter what choice Lancer made, in her opinion, she and her daughter had to rely on Lancer to survive, and it was undoubtedly good news if Lancer was not a base creature whose mind was full of SEX.
The result of her observation made her feel a little incredible.
Although Lancer did not give them excessive care, he also did not discriminate against them excessively. This was something that even ordinary people could not do towards them, let alone an investigator belonging to the CCG. It was as if the other party was not from this world at all, so he didn't care about the differences between ghouls and humans. He was just simply doing his job and subjugating ghouls.
But no one expected that just when she thought her second half of life would be spent like this, an 'accident' arrived.
The 'Owl' appeared, they reached an agreement, and she regained her freedom.
And the other party completely disappeared more than half a month later, and the next time they met was more than two years later, and the capacity in which they met was even more incredible: the other party came to save her.
Although she learned afterward that the reason she was attacked was also because someone wanted to use her to threaten the other party, she still felt a little incredible, because in her opinion, she was not qualified to put the other party at risk at all.
Thinking this, she suddenly stood up and returned to the room, taking out a neatly folded trench coat and handing it to Lancer.
"This is the clothes you lent me before..."
Ryouko Fueguchi's face couldn't help but turn red when she said 'lent'. After all, her top was basically torn back then. Just thinking about that night, she couldn't help but feel a little shy. Even though she was already a married woman and her daughter was not small, she was a very traditional person. She had not even shown her skin to any man other than her husband, and Lancer was probably the only man alive who had seen her body.
Holding the slightly wrinkled clothes from the other party, Lancer suddenly felt a sense of being at a loss.
The clothes had a strange yet familiar scent of soap, a scent he used to smell often.
In the sunlit backyard, he was wielding his long spear, and the girl in the maid outfit was humming a song while hanging his clothes out to dry.
But since that day, his clothes were basically consumables. He had stuffed a large amount of clothes into his 'weapon box', and he basically threw them away after using them...
"Thank you."
The clothes were just an ordinary CCG uniform and were not worth much, but they made him recall many things.
Even though he still couldn't go back now, back to the Land of Shadows, he believed that as his strength increased, he would definitely have the day when he could see the other party.
And looking at the undisguised longing on Lancer face and the gentleness she had never seen before, Ryouko Fueguchi suddenly felt a little curious.
'What on earth is the other party thinking about?'
And she didn't know if it was her illusion, but she always felt that there was a subtle, indescribable emotion mixed in with those gentle feelings.
Even though he was smiling, Ryouko Fueguchi unconsciously hugged Lancer back, as if trying to comfort him...
The brief contact immediately startled Lancer from his memories, and Ryouko Fueguchi herself was also startled awake from her unusual emotional state.
"Ahem, I should leave now. It's getting late."
While speaking, Lancer finished his coffee in one gulp and then stood up, and Ryouko Fueguchi on the other side also looked around a little frantically. She didn't know why she had done that just now. Was it maternal instinct at work, or was it a yearning to receive the gentleness of the man in front of her? She wasn't sure, but she didn't want her daughter to see it.
When she saw the light filtering out from the crack in her daughter's room door, she was relieved. It seemed that she hadn't been seen.
"Mr. Lancer, I will see you out."
"Clatter~"
But at this moment, Hinami Fueguchi's room door was suddenly opened, and Hinami Fueguchi jogged out.
"Mom, you must be tired after working all day. I'll see Uncle Lancer out."
Lancer didn't know if it was his illusion, but he felt that the other party seemed to be stressing something in a strange way?