29 Come in

"It's a pleasure to meet you!" Kaiser immediately bowed low, mustering an overjoyed smile as his head faced the ground in greeting. He was truly frightened for a few seconds there! Fortunately, Colleen's parents didn't perceive him as a bad guy attacking their daughter. He could finally breathe properly. And another plus was, Colleen's parents seemed extremely nice, too!

Colleen rushed to her parents' side, frantically waving her hands in denial to rub away their assumptions. She tried her best to remain cool, but she was tensing all over, wondering what her parents would continue to think. "Dad, Mom, he's not my suitor, okay? You've got it all wrong!"

However, it was too easy for the two to rush to conclusions. After all, they've been rushing their daughter to start a family for quite some time now. And unfortunately for her, Kaiser was the first man they saw her with, and he was visiting her first, nonetheless.

"Yes, yes, I'm not her suitor," Kaiser suddenly spoke, and Colleen was just about to think he was being considerate for once as he pulled the most respectful smile he could. But she should've known better, for he relentlessly and shamelessly pushed on with, "I'm her sweetheart! We survived the last expedition together with the power of love! It's as if we're a match made in heaven!"

Colleen couldn't help but gag. Cringe. Gag and cringe. Cringe and gag.

But seriously…WHAT THE F*CK?

The f*ck did he say? D- did she even hear that right? Did he really, really, just call her 'sweetheart' in front of her parents? She failed to understand, feeling her brain slowly die off and her soul threatening to fly off to the heavens.

Colleen could only remain in maddening silence as she disappointedly watched her parents quietly celebrate together, eyes twitching as they pondered over Kaiser's words.

And when she thought deeper and realized it, she whirled around at Kaiser, face burning with rage as she shot daggers at the uninvited visitor with her flaming eyes. 'This guy actually… I thought he was just an idiot, but he actually knows what he's doing! Being loud so that the neighbors can hear him…he's doing this all on purpose! I'll f*cking kill him and throw his body to the beasts!' she cursed. Ohh, how her muscles twitched, wanting to blast this b*stard into smithereens. She wanted to yell and scream, give him the beating he very well much deserved, but in reality, she could do nothing in front of her parents. It would take too much effort to sort things out afterwards.

As much as she wanted to kill Kaiser right now, her parents didn't know her as the Colleen Valanar everyone in the dragon-slaying academy knew. She knew, if she let in all the details of the academy and realities of expeditions, they would do anything to make her quit her dragon-slaying career. And so, it became a must for her to keep things light at home, conceal everything, even her personality. She must remain the respectful and obedient daughter they raised. By no means can she let them know her real self.

"HAHAHAHA! Is that really the case? Honey, are we dreaming?" Colleen's father turned to his wife, shaking her shoulders in excitement. "Did you hear him? He said he's our daughter's sweetheart. We're going to have grandchildren, my dear!"

In response, Colleen's mother began to weep, tears of joy rolling down from her eyes, in which Colleen stared at in sickening repugnance. "Oh, honey. Our lovely daughter is going to get married! I can still clearly remember the time we were arguing whether to have a baby or not. Look at our baby now, all grown!" she cried. "She'll give birth to our grandchildren soon! We've truly raised her well."

"I told you! We raised such a fine woman! I am so proud of our daughter, honey." They pulled each other into a blissful embrace as Colleen facepalmed herself for the third time in a row.

'Look at these lovebirds. They are shaming our family's image by doing this here. This is so…humiliating!' Colleen clicked her tongue and hunched her shoulders hopelessly, wishing she could just disappear now. All of this wouldn't have happened…if it wasn't for him!

She whirled around and hissed sharply, "F*cker, go home now!" Her neck and face were coated in sweat that sprung from her long-suppressed anger, dripping down to her exposed collarbones and cleavage. She was so mad that she forgot what she was wearing: a brown, loose-fitting, belted robe dress with a plunging neckline; a comfortable piece of home wear for women typically worn inside since others would say it's too revealing.

"Say what now?" Kaiser answered idiotically, completely confused and unable to hear her clearly.

"Um, it's almost lunchtime. Why don't you go inside have lunch together with us, young man?" Colleen's mother gently asked, behaving in her natural delicacy as she motioned with her hand, inviting him in.

Colleen's eyes widened, taken by surprise as she instantly jumped into action. "M- mom, no! Kaiser is a busy man. He still has many important things he needs to catch up on, right Kaiser?" She turned around with her back to her parents and signaled him with an attempted wink, hoping he would catch on and agree with her.

Sadly for her, she'd never winked before, and from Kaiser's point of view, all he saw was her face twitching and scrunching and contorting with her mouth open, squinting and blinking both eyes so hard it looked like they were about to pop. Is she…malfunctioning…?

He just shrugged, scratching the back of his head obliviously as he said slowly, "Actually…I don't have anything to do today."

Her mother's face broke into a delighted grin. "Oh! Well, then in you go, hohoho!" she chuckled with enthusiasm as she started to step back into the house. "Kaiser, that's a handsome name! I thought my daughter didn't like men…it seems she's just picky!" she could be heard saying as she disappeared into the kitchen.

Colleen's father turned and scurried in after his wife like a clingy little puppy, saying, "Right, honey? I'm also interested in the boy who managed to make our daughter fall for him! HAHA!"

"Oh, god. What in the hell did I do to deserve suffering like this?" Colleen muttered to herself in defeat. She flung her foot towards a loose pebble in the ground, letting it fly high and hit a random man loitering around right on the head to vent some of her anger. She was only a bit satisfied when a bird-like scream echoed off in the distance before she turned to follow her parents in.

But before she could reach the door, Kaiser tapped her on the shoulder. "Hey, uh…were you trying to…wink?"

"Shut the f*ck up!" Heated, Colleen turned and threw his hands off her, only to walk head-first straight into the wall when she turned back, missing the open door right next to her. "F*ck!" she screamed again, holding her hand to her face as she heard a child in the background call out with a provoking, "OOOF!"

"A- are you okay?" Kaiser reached forward to help, only to get thrown to the side again.

"Get away from me!" She stormed inside.

Kaiser flinched, whimpering as he scuttled to the corner with his head down, wondering why she was acting that way to him.

'…what? Is he a baby or something? Why is he doing that?' Colleen grumbled inside her head. Suddenly, a figure appeared at her side and tapped her other shoulder, whispering, "But isn't he kind of cute?"

"Yeah. He is," she answered without a moment's hesitation, not bothering to see who asked. And when she finally realized what she said, she hissed, "Wait, no! Who the hell-?"

She turned her head, only to see a ghost-like shadow of herself cackling as it faded away. What the hell? What was that? Was that the one something they called…one's inner demon?

'Ugh.' Colleen shook her head in frustration and instead called after the dumb*ss who was still standing outside alone.

"Kaiser! Come in already!"