Chapter 97 Episode 97: Mine

Kael’s POV

Public attention had followed me for most of my career. I walked through the main guild hall and felt the usual eyes turn toward me. The weight of those looks no longer meant anything.

People had watched me since my early ranked years. They watched my clear records and my family name and the way I moved through high level work. I had stopped finding the attention useful or interesting a long time ago.

What mattered now was the attention that landed on Akira. That attention felt different in quality. It carried more questions and more risk.

I kept him in the edge of my sight while we crossed the open floor. Hunters glanced at him and then at me and then back at him. The pairing had made his presence a point of focus.

Visibility and safety pulled against each other. The more people noticed him the more information they gathered. Some of that information could turn sharp if the wrong person used it.

I guided us toward the assignment desk with a steady pace. My hand rested lightly near his back without full contact. The gesture stayed small but clear to anyone watching.

Akira kept his head forward and his expression calm. I could still see the slight tension in his shoulders. Public eyes still pressed on him in a way they no longer pressed on me.

We finished the short desk business and turned toward the quieter side corridor. A pair of mid rank hunters stopped talking when we passed. Their eyes followed Akira longer than they followed me.

I filed the detail away. Curiosity was still the main flavor of the looks. I needed to know the moment that flavor changed into something else.

Back in my office I locked the door and sat at the terminal. The public attention on me could wait. The attention on him needed closer care.

I opened the monitoring tools I already kept on his external profile. Forum mentions. Mission comment threads. Casual guild board posts. The volume had grown since the pairing became accepted fact.

I did not tighten the net. Tightening would create new noise and new risks of discovery. I made the existing net more precise instead.

Key words shifted to catch sharper language. Location tags on his mission reports received an extra quiet flag. Names of hunters who repeated comments too often moved into a short watch list.

The work felt cold and necessary. Love for him sat under every adjustment I made. Worry about the Death God registration sat there too.

People in the community saw a D rank hunter standing next to me. They did not see the internal rank or the system quests or the moment a Death God had looked at him and known him. That gap had to stay closed.

I ran a clean sweep of the last three days of open talk. Most of it stayed at the level of interest and light speculation. A few comments carried a harder edge about how a low rank had gained so much access.

Those harder comments went into the precise watch. I set no alarms that would reach official channels. I only needed early warning if the tone grew into real intent.

When the adjustments were finished I leaned back in the chair. The office stayed quiet. My own long history of public attention felt distant and simple compared to this.

I had grown up inside the center of the hunter community’s gaze. Records and expectations and constant review had been normal since I was young. The attention became background noise years ago.

Akira had grown up without that constant weight. The sudden pointed interest sat heavier on him. I saw it every time we walked through a crowded space.

Protectiveness rose in my chest while I thought about it. I wanted to clear every watching eye from his path. At the same time the public claim had been necessary to stop worse rumors.

The auction house evening returned to my mind. My hand on his back. The kiss on his forehead. The clear message that he was not temporary. That message had worked. It had also increased the focus on him.

I stood and walked to the window. Training yards and lower roofs filled the view. Somewhere in the complex Akira was moving through his own schedule under those same watching eyes.

I sent him a short message asking if he wanted to meet for a late meal. His reply came quickly. He agreed and named a quiet spot near the residential wing.

The rest of the afternoon I handled ordinary council notes and two supply approvals. My hands did the work while my mind stayed half on the monitoring feed. No new sharp comments appeared.

When the time came I locked the office and walked toward the meeting place. Corridors held the usual traffic. Eyes still turned toward me and then slid past with old familiarity.

Akira was already waiting at the small table. He looked tired around the eyes but steady. I sat across from him and watched the way his shoulders dropped a little at my arrival.

"Long day?" I asked.

"Same old. Numerous looks. Many quiet comments when people think I cannot hear." He wrapped his hands around the cup in front of him. "I am learning to keep walking while ignoring them."

Anger at the faceless talk stirred under my ribs. I kept my voice even. "Most of it is still curiosity. I am watching for the moment it becomes more than that."

He looked up at me. Emotion moved through his expression too quickly to name. Gratitude. Residual stress. Quiet trust.

"You do not have to manage every eye in the guild," he said.

"Onlythe ones that matter." I held his gaze. "Your safety sits higher than my comfort with public talk. That is not going to change."

Food arrived and we ate without hurry. I watched him give the same careful attention to each bite that he had given during our date. The small familiar habit eased some of the tighter worry in my chest.

Around us a few hunters passed the open archway and glanced inside. Their eyes landed on him and then on me. I met one look directly until the person moved on.

Visibility and safety remained in tension. I could not remove every watching pair of eyes. I could make sure I knew when those eyes turned from curious to dangerous.

After the meal we walked the quieter residential paths. Night air cooled the earlier heat of the day. Akira stayed close enough that our arms brushed now and then.

I thought about the precise surveillance I had set. It would tell me if certain names began to gather around his mission records. It would tell me if talk moved from forums into private channels that carried real intent.

Love for him made the cold work feel necessary rather than invasive. I would rather watch too carefully than miss the first sign of trouble. The Death God network already knew his name. Human threats could not be allowed to grow unnoticed beside that fact.

At his door we stopped. Soft light from the wall panel touched the side of his face. He looked less pressed than he had in the canteen earlier.

"Thank you for the meal and for the quiet," he said.

"Any time." I lifted a hand and rested it briefly against the side of his neck. "Message me if the looks become more than looks. I need to know."

He nodded. A small tired smile touched his mouth. I dropped my hand and waited until he was inside before I turned away.

Walking back to my own rooms I reviewed the day in simple pieces. Public attention on me stayed irrelevant. Public attention on him stayed important. The monitoring was now more precise.

Worry and care and steady love moved together inside me. I opened my door and locked it behind me. The rooms felt silent after the constant low noise of the complex.

I checked the monitoring feed once more before sleep. No new flags. The talk remained at the level of curiosity and light speculation. That was acceptable for now.

I prepared for rest with the same focus I gave any ongoing task. Tomorrow the eyes would still be there. Tomorrow I would still watch the quality of those eyes with care.

Akira’s safety and my need to keep him clear of unnecessary threats sat at the center of every plan. The rest of the hunter community could look at me as much as they wanted. I had stopped finding their attention relevant years ago.

His attention was different. The attention he received was different. I would keep the watch precise and quiet for as long as the tension between visibility and safety remained.

Sleep came slowly. The image of him sitting across from me at the small table stayed clear behind my eyes. I held onto it while the complex settled into night around us both.