Under The Veil of Night

For the next few seconds, they didn’t make any sounds. Only the sounds of heavy rain and storms outside could be heard.

"Um... thank you," Kanae decided to break the silence. It felt really awkward when it was only the two of them who were present there.

Kevin arched his eyebrows. "I should be the one to thank you. You protected me in several events from a long time ago."

"That..." Kanae opened her mouth and closed it again. "Without you helping me this time, we might not have survived."

"I’ll teach you how to swim in the future."

"That’ll be great."

After that, it was silence between the two of them again. Looking at one another, there were a lot of questions they wanted to ask. Mostly it was Kevin, though, as this was the first time he realized that Kanae and Rei were the same person.

"Um.... Did you see?"

"....If I say that I didn’t, will you believe me?"

In the first place, it would be impossible for him to take off her clothes without looking at her. After all, he needed to make sure that he didn’t touch the wrong place when he took it off.

Kanae’s face reddened in embarrassment. "No."

"You have answered your own question," Kevin replied. He looked back at the girl’s eyes. "Do you want to tell?"

"About?" Kanae’s eyes held doubts.

"Your wounds. It didn’t seem like something a normal person should have."

"Ah," Kanae tightened her grip on her arm. "Yeah."

Seeing her reluctance, Kevin decided to change the question. "So you’re part of the underworld, Kanae?"

"Kind of," Kanae replied curtly. She has never talked about this to Kevin before as there were barely any contacts between Rei and Kevin, except in rare occasions. "Are you mad?"

"No."

He had never seen Kanae fight physically before. The very first time he saw that Kanae had some skill was during the incident in his company. Without any hesitation, she used a gun to shoot a man. He thought that he was the one who forced her to do it, but it turned out that she had already done that countless times before.

Not wanting to think any deeper, Kevin looked at the girl. "Everyone have a secret that they don’t want to share with other people. It’s fine if you don’t want to tell."

Kanae hesitated as she recalled those wounds on her back. She shook her head slightly. "It’s not really a secret, but I would prefer to keep it from Laura."

Laura?

"Is it related to the Nali Family?"

"Yeah," Kanae pursed her lips. "My uncle and aunt wish for me to give up on my inheritance and after I decided to face my uncle upfront directly, my aunt decided to take the matter into her own hand. She held me back in the hall and used some weapons to hit me in order to make me follow after her wish. Thankfully, she can’t go too far because of the rules in the Nali Family."

Kevin’s eyes glowed dangerously when he heard the word ’weapons.’ It looked as if he was ready to kill someone at the next second.

"What kind of violence?"

"You wouldn’t want to know," Kanae didn’t feel like telling anyone. Those days were long over, and she didn’t wish to recall them back. At that time, she was unable to do anything in front of her aunt as that woman beat her up.

Kevin looked at Kanae. "Dagger or whip?"

Kanae’s lips twitched when she heard his question. Why did he want to know so much about it? Most importantly, how did he guess the weapon her aunt used back then so easily?

Was there... still some mark on her back?

"She had died a long time ago, and Nali Family won’t make any trouble for me anymore. There’s no need to try recalling them back again," Kanae refused to answer.

From the way Kanae behaved, Kevin knew that his guess must be correct. That woman must have tried to make scars on the girl’s body because a woman treasured their looks the most. His heart was filled with rage at the thought of what that woman did to Kanae before.

"Are you angry?"

"I am."

"Don’t be. It has passed a long time ago."

Looking at the reassuring smile on Kanae’s face, Kevin curbed his feeling. This girl had taken her own revenge against them too, so there was nothing he could do to help. He changed the conversation by pointing to Kanae’s wound. "How long do you think it will need to heal?"

"The earliest time for gunshot wounds to heal normally is three days, but I guess I’ll be fine in one to two days," Kanae replied. She was not sure about the extent of her recovery ability, so she can only give the estimation.

Kevin nodded his head. If it was only one to two days, there should be enough time. He had to make his return as fast as possible before Megara caused irreparable damage to the clan.

When his thoughts recalled Megara, he truly wanted to get out of the hut and hunted that man down this instant. He had been very careful lately, but he still missed the plan that Megara prepared. It was truly vexing.

"How do you able to recover from the poison?" it was Kanae’s turn to ask Kevin.

Kevin pondered for a moment. "It’ll be a long story. I’ll tell you when we return back."

"Oh, ok."

Kevin raised his hand and patted the girl’s head. "At that time, I want to know too why you’re hiding this identity from me."

"Uh..."

Originally, she wanted to erase the name of Rei after she had gotten enough money for the tuition. However, the grand fight and the rise of her name caused her to be unable to leave so easily. Adding with the fact that she still needed the money, she prolonged this second identity of hers.

Later on, she realized that she could never leave Black Street anymore. It has genuinely become her second home and a place that she never wanted to abandon. It might be filled with danger, but it was the place where she felt the most comfortable too because she wanted to stay in the clan by this man’s side. Besides, it was the only position where she could truly get the revenge to the one who kill her parents.

As it was rather sudden –no, not sudden, but she only realized it after quite some time, she had to make the preparation for that. One of the things that she had to do was making sure that she would never hinder her sister. She had to make sure that her sister would stay safe.

Her identity as part of the Underworld, not to mention such a famous figure, would surely drag her sister down. If they knew that she has the relationship with the underworld, who would make the deal with the Nali Family?

Thus, she began to distance herself from her own family.

Kevin noticed Kanae’s complicated expression and pulled the girl’s head to his embrace. "Sleep, we’re exhausted from the long battle."

"There is enough space, you don’t have to stick so close to me," Kanae complained.

"It’s warmer."

"There’s heater."

"It’s not enough."

"..."

Knowing that she could not win in the argument, Kanae closed her eyes. She could hear the heartbeat of the man beside her, but her body was too tired because of the battle. Before long, she had fallen into a deep slumber.

On the other hand, Kevin found it harder to sleep with her sticking close to him. Feeling the soft skin of the girl near him only made him want to touch her more, but he had to restrain himself. Right now, he just wanted her close to him as he wished that they could get closer after they had known each other much more.

However, this caused him to take more time before he could calm down and rest, which mostly because he was tired.