Chapter 67: Intervention
"Ymirite...that's quite the significant discovery..." remarked Rias, resting her cheek on the knuckles of her left hand and smiling from behind her desk as she watched Vahn caressing Koneko's head with a tinge of envy in her heart.
"Yeah, and I'm also thinking about learning how to refine it myself," said Vahn, reciprocating with a smile as he conceded, "Though, even with the Corridor, I'm not sure I have the time..."
"What do you mean...?" asked Rias, raising her brows slightly as she had a pretty good idea of how Vahn would respond.
"I mean...if I have free time, shouldn't I be spending it with all of you...?" asked Vahn, his smile cramping as he reasoned, "I may not have wanted a harem, but now that I have one, I feel like I need to spend time getting to know everyone and ensuring you're all happy..."
"Mmm...I see..." muttered Rias, lightly tapping her desk with her right index finger as Akeno, standing at her side, adopted her characteristically sleepy-eyed smile and hummed, "As much as we appreciate Vahn-sama's consideration, we're going to be together for the next ten thousand years, if not longer. If you immerse yourself in a hobby or two, we're not going to die from frustration or loneliness."
"Akeno...?"
Not expecting such words from her Queen, Rias looked back at Akeno quizzically. In response, Akeno covered her mouth and giggled before softly reminding, "It's easy to forget because of how exceptional he is, but Vahn-sama is still new to our world, and what brought him to Kuoh was the desire to attend school and experience life as a normal student. It's too late not to involve him in our matters, but his life shouldn't revolve around solving our problems and making us happy. He should be allowed to have hobbies and interests unrelated to us."
"Right..." muttered Rias, having heard something similar from her mother. Even her father invested most of his free time brewing wine and rearing Gryphons, not because he didn't enjoy spending time with her mother or the members of his harem but to avoid falling out of love. After all, you could continuously improve crafts and hobbies, but it was difficult to fall deeper in love with someone past a certain point...
"I like spending time with everyone..." expressed Vahn, gently kneading Koneko's cat-like ear as he softly appended, "If anything, I wish I could spend more time with everyone..."
"The issue is that you have too many people you want to spend time with. Is that it...?" asked Rias.
Nodding, Vahn met Rias's gaze, his expression softening as he stated, "You're all incredible in different ways...you deserve someone who can give you all their love and devotion, and I wish I could be that person for each of you..."