Chapter 144: Let’s Go to the Beach (3)

The beach was draped in darkness. Waves crashed and scattered foam across the shore, the cool sea breeze brushing pleasantly against the skin. Beneath the silver glow of the moon, the sight of the silver-haired woman standing quietly felt so unreal, so breathtakingly beautiful, that I could do nothing but stare at Yurina, dumbstruck and speechless.

Maybe it was because I stood there frozen without saying anything, Yurina, her arms crossed over her chest as though embarrassed in her swimsuit, turned her head toward me. “Dale? What’s wrong?”

She walked closer, her wet feet sinking into the sand with each step. Her silver eyes locked firmly on me.

I replied, “It’s nothing…”

How could I possibly admit aloud that I had gone speechless simply because she looked too beautiful? I swallowed hard, turning my head slightly so I wouldn’t meet her gaze.

Yurina frowned. “Dale.”

Closing the distance in a few steps, she cupped my face in both hands. She then turned me back to face her directly, forcing me to meet her eyes. “Why are you avoiding my eyes?”

“Uh! Well, that’s…”

She glared at me fiercely, eyes blazing. “Ah! Wait, you! Don’t tell me you were looking at me and thinking, ‘She’s not as good as Professor Baldwin’? That’s not what it is, right?”

The accusation was so unexpected that I couldn’t help but let out a small, awkward laugh. “I didn’t think that.”

“Really?” Yurina lowered her gaze toward the swimsuit she was wearing, her expression restless. Her confidence, once sky-high, plummeted the moment she thought of Professor Baldwin.

She puffed her cheeks in frustration, looking down at herself. “Ugh! I thought I wouldn’t lose out to anyone, but… that was unfair.”

However, her figure was just as flawless, with a slender waist, graceful curves, and not a trace of excess fat. Even in terms of bust and hips, she was in no way lacking.

***

Yurina thought, It’s the legs. The legs are the difference.

Between her, a woman with an average height, and Professor Baldwin, whose tall, statuesque figure rivaled or even surpassed that of most men, there was a line that couldn’t be crossed. It was the kind people often called the beauty of proportion—a sheer, absolute gap created by physical presence alone.

Moreover, she also thought that Professor Baldwin had a certain allure, a particular kind of sensual charm only a mature woman could carry, a subtle, unspoken seduction that seeped naturally into every gesture. Compared to that, Yurina felt like a girl forcing herself to act grown-up, as if dressing up to look older than she was.

That was why she kept wavering, wondering if she should even show Dale this side of her. In the end, she thought that it would be a waste to let this short vacation end without once putting on the swimsuit she had secretly bought, carefully hiding it from the others. Moreover, she also wanted to know how Dale felt about it.

She peeked up at Dale, stealing a glance at his expression. “So. Um.”

“Mm.” Dale struggled to find the right words, lips parting and closing as he wrestled with himself, then finally managed to speak. “It’s because you stunned me.”

“Huh? What?” she asked.

“You were so beautiful that I lost myself for a moment.”

Her silver eyes flew wide open, startled by an answer far beyond what she had expected. To some, it probably sounded like a corny, embarrassing line. But to her, it was pure joy.

“Uuuhh!Uuuuuu!”

To know the man she cared for had been so overwhelmed by her appearance that he forgot himself, to know he was seeing her not as Yuren but as Yurina, she felt ecstatic. She stomped and let out a flustered little groan, unable to hold it in.

Yurina twisted shyly, grinning ear to ear. “Heheh. Dale, where on earth did you learn to say something so cheesy?”

Even Dale felt his face heat up after that remark. “Well, I admit, it was kind of cringeworthy.”

He gave a wry shake of his head. “I won’t say things like that agai—”

She cut him off. “No! You should keep saying stuff like that! All the time!”

“What?”

“Because you are at your best when you’re a little cheesy!”

“Right.”

***

That’s not something you just blurt to someone’s face, you know, I thought.

I looked at her and said, “Anyway, standing like this feels awkward. Want to sit?”

“Yeah, let’s sit.”

We sat side by side on a rock a little way off from the sandy shore. The soothing rhythm of the waves filled the silence as we gazed up at the moonlit sky.

“By the way. Isn’t it uncomfortable?” I asked.

“Hm? What is?”

“Living while pretending to be Yuren all the time.”

She had lived half her life like this, but it wasn’t something she had chosen willingly. The fact that she had asked me out here, dressed like this, told me she wanted to live as Yurina, not Yuren.

Yurina shrugged, nudging the sand with the tip of her toe. “Hmm. Maybe. I mean, saying it’s not uncomfortable at all would be a lie.”

She had lived so long as Yuren that it felt familiar, but familiarity wasn’t the same as comfort.

“It’s a hassle when I need to use the bathroom outside, or when I see a pretty outfit I want but have to just walk past it, or even when I go buy underwear. Ugh, the stares I get. Oh, and I always feel guilty around the other female cadets, too.”

“Why guilty?”

Yurina scratched her head with an awkward smile. “Well, because I, um, get confessed to a lot.”

“Ah, right. You’re the most popular guy in the academy.”

She puffed out her cheeks and jabbed me in the side with her elbow. “Ugh! You too, Dale? Really? Do you have any idea how exhausting it is to turn people down every single time? And every time I use aura, I have to control my mana so that it looks gold. That’s tiring, too. Honestly, there are just so many frustrating little things.”

Her expression darkened slightly. “But more than anything, the hardest part is having to keep lying to the people I care about.”

Before she met me, Yurina didn’t have anyone she could call precious. But after we crossed paths, one by one, new bonds began weaving themselves into her life.

She continued, “Iris, Berald, Camilla… even Professor Baldwin and Jules. They’re all good people, aren’t they?”

They were party members who had explored ruins with us, who had helped with her training. Professor Baldwin had given Yurina her honest, heartfelt guidance with no agenda but her growth. Jules had stepped forward to help her in a difficult moment without ever asking for repayment. All of them were connections formed in just half a year since she had met me. In a life that had once been utterly empty, so many new ties had bloomed.

“If it were the old me, I never could’ve imagined having people like this around me,” Yurina added.

When I thought about the days when she had lived as Yuren, the change felt almost like a miracle granted by the Seven Gods themselves.

I stared at her face in the moonlight, my expression hardening. “Yurina…”

For someone as earnest and honest as her, the constant burden of lying to those around her had probably weighed her down.

She gave me a soft smile, resting her head gently against my shoulder. “You don’t need to look so serious, Dale. Because, at least, with the most important person to me, I don’t have to lie.”

My chest ached at the way she said it so easily, without a hint of hesitation, calling me her most precious person. Exhaling slowly, I asked, “What if you just told them?”

“Hm?”

“I mean, Iris, Berald, Camilla. They’re trustworthy, aren’t they? It’s not like you couldn’t tell them.”

The only reason she still pretended to be Yuren was the academy. If it ever came out that Yurina Helios had been attending the Hero Academy while disguised as her own brother, there would be endless trouble.

“Maybe…” Yurina hesitated briefly before shaking her head. “But still, for now, I think I like it this way.”

She hugged my arm and smiled bashfully. It feels like… our own little secret, you know?”

Her face, bathed in moonlight, was so breathtakingly beautiful that I once again lost the ability to speak, simply staring blankly at her.

She teased me with a mischievous look. “What? Did I leave you speechless again because I’m so pretty?”

Then she tilted her head back to gaze at the moon above. “Being here like this, doesn’t it remind you?”

“Of what?” I asked.

“The first time I revealed myself to you in this form.”

“Ah!”

That day, too, the moon had been shining down.

“If you hadn’t seen through my lie that day, by now, I would’ve become the Sun, wouldn’t I?”

A false light, a twisted sun casting its deception across the sky.

Her silver eyes turned toward me. “Thank you, Dale. For letting me stay as the moon.”

Our gazes locked. My heart thudded violently, as if it had gone haywire. Some feelings didn’t need words to be understood. In silence, we leaned toward each other, little by little, until our lips were close enough to feel the warmth of each other’s breath.

At that moment, a cool, low voice cut through the summer night air, freezing the moment. “Oh my, Dale! Who is this woman this time?”

Bathed in the cold blue moonlight, the Saintess stood there smiling sweetly at us.

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