*Knock!* *Knock!* *Knock!*
I gently knock on the door of Lilith’s apartment.
*Click*
Some moments later, I hear a clicking sound, and the figure of a frail-looking, red haired girl appears before my eyes.
“Uwaah!! Big brother is here!” Lilith suddenly shouts and jumps on me in excitement, while I also hold onto her and let her wrap herself around me.
After hugging me to her satisfaction, she then comes down and starts dragging me into her house.
“Big brother, come inside….my mom also wants to see you!” She says, pulling me inside and immediately closing the door from behind.
Suddenly, she pauses her movement as she turns back and looks at me with a bleak expression.
“Big brother, you’ll have to sit on the floor, we don’t have any chairs in our house. All our belongings have been confiscated by my mom’s creditors,” She tells me dejectedly.
Hearing her words, I look around carefully, and realize that what she’s saying is actually true. The living room is empty, there is no single chair, and neither are there gadgets that were formerly here before. It’s as if there is literally no one living here..
“It’s fine, Lilith,” I say, and in the next moment, I sit down in a semi-lotus position in a corner of the living room.
“Hehe, thank you, big brother!” She tells me with excitement on her face when she sees that I didn’t mind the condition of their living room, nor did I berate her.
“I’ll go and call my mom!” She announces and dashes off to the kitchen.
Sometime later, Lilith’s mom emerges from the kitchen with a large tray containing three plates of food in her hands.
“Mrs. Kremer….” I mutter and greet her in a low voice the moment I see her.
“Good evening, Jake… Please don’t mind the condition of our living room, thanks for bearing with us. Here, I made you some blood steak…” Mrs. Kramer tells me with a beautiful smile on her face as she bends down to give me a plate of blood steak, and also gives one to Lilith who promptly sits down beside me.
Damn, I guess their dining room is also empty which is why she didn’t bother inviting me to eat there. Just what the fuck happened to Mrs. Kremer and her child, their house wasn’t like this before.
Well, how should I describe Mrs. Kramer… She’s an average-height, slim woman, with long red hair that is freely flowing behind her back. She also has small little horns on her head, and pouted, plump red lips that perfectly fit her oval-shaped face. To cut things short, Mrs. Kremer is just like the mature version of Lilith.
Right now, a baffled expression is still on my face since I am wondering about what happened to Mrs. Kremer.
“Jake, Lilith told me about how you helped her retrieve her bag from the hands of a thief, and you also gave her some money. I-I don’t know how to repay this favor, I am very grateful for your kindness. And If you want me to do anything for you please do tell me.” Mrs. Kremer says in a low voice.
“It’s okay, Mrs. Kremer, I didn’t do it because of anything, I did it because Lilith was always like my little sister when we were younger, I’ll take care of her from now on,” I reply and pat Lilith, who is enjoying her blood steak, on her head.
“T-Thank you J-Jake…” Mrs. Kremer mutters and a single tear trails down her face. Currently, she’s sitting down opposite me, wearing a white skimpy nightgown and also eating some blood steak.
I have so many questions to ask her, but I decide to ask after the meal.
After eating, Mrs. Kremer carries all the plates to the kitchen, while Lilith sits close to me and puts her head on my shoulder.
“Big brother, my results are finally out and I passed in flying colors…hehe. I am going to be promoted to the 12th grade and become an adult as well next year!” Lilith tells me with excitement.
“Good job, Lilith… I’ll surely reward you.” I say, as I pat her on her head and caress her horns, while Lilith has an expression of ecstasy on her face as if she’s enjoying it.
Abruptly, Mrs. Kremer comes back from the kitchen and sits down opposite me and Lilith.
Uh, why is she blushing or am I imagining things?
“Ahem… Jake, do you have anything to say to me?” Mrs. Kremer suddenly asks with a beautiful smile.
Eh, was she expecting me to ask her something? Well, that makes sense, after all, I came to see her…
“Well, I have something to ask Mrs. Kremer. I don’t want it to seem like I’m prying into your personal life, but I just feel some sympathy towards you, because Lilith is like a sister to me. So, I would like to know the reason why your financial condition is like this now. You weren’t like this before Mrs Kremer, I’d like to know what happened…” I ask with curiosity on my face.
“Oh, you came to ask about that? Sigh…”
“Why do you say that Mrs. Kremer?”
“Actually, it’s nothing, I thought you came here for other things, Jake.”
“What do you mean, I don’t get it.” I ask, looking confused.
“I thought you came here for that.” Mrs. Kremer says and points towards my hand which is currently caressing Lilith’s head.
“Oh, what does that mean?”
“We Eatris are a subclass of vampires, but we also have our own culture. I-If a man touches a female Eatris’s horn several times, it means that he is seeking the Eatris’ hand in marriage. And s-since you have been touching Lilith’s own ever since both of you were young, I-I thought you liked her and want to marry her.” Mrs. Kremer speaks and her face flushes red.
“…..”
[….]
“Uwaaa!! If you like me just tell my mom, big brother! Stop acting shy, I also like you, and I want you to marry me! Please, save me from that dirty pig!” Lilith also tells me and buries her face in my lap in embarrassment…
“I-I didn’t know about that culture, and w-what did Lilith mean by ‘dirty pig’? Is someone disturbing her?” I ask with a stutter and my face also turns red for some reason.
This situation caught me off guard and my brain can’t seem to process it. I didn’t know that such a culture existed among the Eatris. I just enjoy playing with her horns, since I noticed that she always enjoyed it any time I did that, since when we were kids.
“B-Big brother, I…I have always hidden from you because I was always embarrassed and turned red anytime you grabbed my horns, b-but now, a dirty pig has been disturbing me and has made my life miserable. I…I thought you liked me…Uwaaa!” Lilith cries out with tears streaming down her beautiful face, before dashing towards her room.
SIGH!
No wonder I rarely see her outside anymore nor does she follow me to school. We were close back when we were still in middle school. Lilith secluded herself just because of this reason?! But, who is the person disturbing her to the extent that she even said he is making her life miserable?
In a flash, I raise my head and shoot a fierce glance at Lilith’s mom whose body jerks in surprise.
“Do you mind explaining what happened Mrs. Kremer?” I ask with an audible voice.
“Sigh… it all started after the death of my husband. Suddenly, a friend of his came out of nowhere and insisted that my deceased husband owed him a very large amount of money by showing me some agreement documents. Devastated, I had to sell our house and move to a rented apartment. Then, I used the money to pay part of the debt, but it wasn’t enough, so I started working and paying off the debt little by little while Lilith was still young.
“Everything was fine until recently. Last year, the first child of the man got interested in Lilith, and forcibly grabbed her horns. Then they came and requested that Lilith and their son should get engaged. However, I refused, since Lilith doesn’t like the boy, but these people kept bothering me and even told me that they’ll forget about the debt if I allowed the two of them to marry. But I refused these people and they left angrily.
“Shortly after, I got sacked from my job, then I found another job, but I was sacked after a week again. Thereafter, I got sacked from every single place that I worked at and it was all the doing of these people. Because of this, I wasn’t able to pay off the debt when it was due every month. So, I sold my car and all my jewelry to pay the debt. But after that, I couldn’t get any job, and the interest in the debt kept rising. But these people don’t want to listen to my pleas, they came to my house and packed every single thing we own…. A-And they are still threatening to make our lives more miserable if I don’t allow Lilith to marry their son…” Mrs. Kremer explains everything to me and breaks down in tears.
“Who did it?!”
I ask in only three words, while a red aura starts dancing around my body violently, and the killing intent that I am emitting is ready to wipe everything in its path.
=========================
Note: Sorry for the filler guys, I just don’t want you to miss out on any detail.