Liz’s words caused the movements of Red’s hands to pause slightly.
Then, he nodded slowly and gave a plain, one-word reply.
“Yeah.”
“Speaking of which, back when we were in the party, Letia was already very close to you. Now that the two of you are practically living together… has anything changed in your relationship?”
Liz wanted to know if Letia and Red had progressed to that point.
She wasn’t a fool; she knew very well that she no longer had a chance.
But… she still wanted to try and find out.
‘Perhaps it is just human nature,’ she thought.
‘You only realize how much you cherish something after you have lost it.’
If Letia and Red hadn’t reached that stage yet…
How could Red not notice the way Liz lowered her head in deep thought?
He gave her a silent glance before slowly speaking.
“Well, in a sense, I suppose she is like half-family to me now.”
Upon hearing this, Liz suddenly looked like a deflated balloon, as if she had completely given up hope.
“I thought so… Even though the way you two act around each other doesn’t seem to have changed much, as far as I can tell, I really can’t see any difference.”
“The biggest change is probably the fact that I won’t be cornered and interrogated by you like this, right?”
Red’s words caused Liz to freeze on the spot.
“Fine, it was my fault for prying. But I’m truly curious. As a couple, how far have the two of you actually gone?”
Though she felt a bit of lingering regret, Liz had already given up.
At this point, all she had left was curiosity.
“Wouldn’t it be faster to just ask Letia?”
Red said while manipulating his Magic.
“But since you’ve asked, I’ll answer truthfully…”
“I still do the cooking.”
“I still help her organize the housework.”
“I still have to call her to get her out of bed.”
“In truth, there isn’t much difference compared to when we were in the Dawnblade.”
“If I had to say… it’s nothing more than the fact that the two of us live together now.”
Red’s explanation left Liz stunned.
“You… you aren’t lying to me, are you? Logically, with Letia’s proactive personality and how much she likes you, the two of you should be more… more…”
At this point, Liz’s face turned slightly red.
She hesitated for a long while before finally finding a suitable word.
“Intimate?”
“As you can see,” Red said, pointing to the cold breakfast sitting on the table, “instead of saying I gained a girlfriend, it would be more accurate to say I’ve become her father… Talk about a massive jump in seniority.”
By the end of his sentence, even Red couldn’t help but chuckle.
“While I hate to admit it, that word is indeed quite fitting,” Tos said, suddenly emerging from the shadows.
He patted Red lightly on the shoulder.
“It’s just that you haven’t developed that self-awareness yet.”
Tos’s sudden appearance gave Red a bad feeling.
He had originally intended to make Liz give up, but given the current situation… it seemed like big trouble was coming.
Sure enough, Tos hooked an arm around Red’s neck and spoke mischievously.
“I didn’t expect you and Letia to have developed that kind of relationship. Truly, you can’t judge a book by its cover! When did you two make it official?”
If it were just Liz, Red could have bluffed his way through.
But now that Tos was involved, things were entirely different.
For Red, the situation was becoming quite difficult to escape.
He couldn’t admit he was lying just now, but he also couldn’t explain when his relationship with Letia had supposedly become “official.”
Worse yet, with a big mouth like Tos, it was likely that every aunt and neighbor in the area would know about it in no time.
How he would explain this to Letia later was going to be a real problem.
Red could only brace himself and speak up.
“It’s not what you think… We haven’t even made anything official, okay? Besides… have you ever seen a couple act like us? We still bicker and mess around just like before. Nothing has changed… right?”
Hearing Red’s rebuttal, Tos couldn’t help but tease him even more.
“That just means you two are always being lovey-dovey.”
“Are you kidding me?”
Red, who rarely used foul language, was starting to get a little agitated.
However, Tos simply threw up his hands.
“Alright, alright. When the two of you were outside, you already lacked any self-awareness. How many times have you been stuck together as if no one else was around? And that’s just in public… If you’re at home… you must be doing even more scandalous things, right?”
“You can’t just slander someone’s reputation out of thin air,” Red instinctively countered.
But Tos adjusted his nonexistent glasses.
“Then why do you have Letia’s scent on you, Red?”
‘The scent of Letia on me?’
Red froze for a moment before quickly realizing what it was.
That scent likely rubbed off on him when he was helping Letia organize her clothes.
But Tos didn’t give him a chance to explain.
He simply gave a cold laugh and pointed a finger at Red.
“There is only one truth!”
“The two of you definitely slept together!”
Red wanted to argue, but when he remembered that he actually had slept in the same bed as Letia once, he found himself unable to refute the claim.
He stood there awkwardly, trapped between a rock and a hard place, not knowing how to even begin explaining.
“I only helped Letia organize her clothes.”
“Do you think anyone will believe that? Besides a couple, who helps a member of the opposite sex organize their clothes?!”
“But do you think Letia even falls into the category of ‘opposite sex’ to me? I’m practically her dad!”
“Whoa… you two play those kinds of roles?”
“To hell with you!”
Watching the two of them bicker, Liz opened her mouth to say something, but she felt a bit of a sour taste in her heart.
However, based on her understanding of Red, she trusted him more than Tos’s reasoning.
After all, she knew very well that Red wasn’t that kind of person.
Thus, she spoke up to help explain.
“Actually, back in the Dawnblade, Red often helped us tidy our beds and… wash our clothes. So, this is actually quite normal.”
Red, who was exhausted from dealing with Tos, was stunned for a moment upon hearing Liz’s words.
He then gave her a look of pure gratitude.
With Liz’s explanation, Tos finally, albeit reluctantly, let go of Red’s shoulder.
“To keep you from misunderstanding, I’d better explain clearly…”
Red rubbed his shoulder.
“Actually, the laundry and those chores were originally assigned to Letia. But that lazy girl dumped all the work on me. So, it’s not like I’m proactively tidying her bed and washing her clothes.”
Thinking back to the past, and the first time everyone saw him washing women’s clothing, Red couldn’t help but feel a surge of sorrow.
“In the end, I’m the victim here, you understand?!”
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