"This level of bruising will go away on its own.
That guy's punches weren't hard enough to scratch the skin or hit the inside of my mouth.
It just looks like a bruise."
“A handsome face should not be used in this way.”
"Liliana, I'm hungry.
Can't we eat first?"
"Your face is more important than food."
“Why?”
“Because a beautiful face is a pleasure to the eyes.”
"..."
“I've only taken two pictures of you so far.
How can I take pictures of your face like this?”
“My pictures don't really matter, do they?”
Liliana's cheeks puffed up at Damian's words.
She looked very upset and finally removed the ice pack after half of it had melted.
"Look here, fortunately it doesn't look swollen."
She gently touched Damian's face with her hand.
Damian shuddered involuntarily, more from the strangeness of Liliana's long, slender fingers on his cheek than the pain.
Liliana misinterpreted his reaction, and placed her hands on her hips.
"See?
It hurts, doesn't it?
Shouldn't you take some painkillers?"
"Shouldn't I eat something first before taking the painkillers?"
"Well, can you chew anything?
Maybe you should have some porridge."
“You're the one who said I'm overprotective of you, but aren't you overprotective of me too?
I can even bite the flesh off the bone.”
Damian complained, and Liliana said as if she had been waiting for this,
"Then let's make a pact.
We won't be overprotective of each other anymore."
"..."
Damian's lips pressed into a thin line, and Liliana narrowed her eyes and clicked her tongue.
Damian groaned.
“What a great way to start our first day of sightseeing.
The plan failed, we even got robbed.”
“You're telling me that, but could something worse happen from now on?”
“Liliana, you shouldn’t say such things carelessly, they might come back to you and hurt you.”
Damian shuddered, remembering the consequences of going against Tennant's valuable advice.
"But it was fun, wasn't it?"
Liliana asked with a smile, and Damian's face became serious.
"Interesting?
This?"
“Why not?
Life rarely goes according to plan.
So, it's no big deal if our tourist plans get a little disrupted.
We just don't have today.
I'm already satisfied with just seeing the palace.
And honestly, you were amazing today, Damian.
How did you win a 4-on-1 fight with just one hand?”
"Well...
I'm... somewhat capable, aren't I?"
Hearing Damian's words, the corners of Liliana's lips twitched, and then she burst into laughter.
"Ahahaha!
That's funny!
You're somewhat 'capable'!
Ahahaha!
You're so confident!
But I can't argue with that because it's true.
Ahahaha!"
Liliana laughed so hard that she grabbed her stomach and fell on her back on the grass.
She rolled over, laughing uncontrollably.
Her infectious laughter seemed to tickle Damian's lips as well.
He instinctively covered his mouth with his hand, but when he heard Liliana's laughter, he couldn't help but let out a chuckle.
"Ha-ha-ha, what's going on?"
When Liliana saw Damian laughing and his shoulders shaking, she stopped rolling on the grass and said as if she had witnessed something rare.
"Oh my God?
Is this the first time you've laughed out loud in front of me, Damian?"
“Oh, is that so?”
"It is!
It's the first time!
So you can laugh like that."
“I can laugh when there is something worth laughing at.”
“Then no funny things have happened yet?”
Liliana asked with wide eyes, and Damian was speechless for a moment.
"What happened recently?" He couldn't think of anything.
He couldn't get a job, housing and prosthetics were expensive, and he had no idea how to live his life, so he wasn't enjoying his life at all.
“There weren't any particularly sad events, but... there weren't any happy ones either.”
Liliana slowly tilted her head to the side, her golden hair falling with the movement.
“Then let's make a lot of fun memories from now on.”
"from now on?".
"Yes, like today."
“I'd rather not get robbed twice.”
Damian said seriously, and Liliana laughed.
“Oh, I wasn't talking about pickpockets.
I mean, didn't you enjoy the palace tour?”
Damian had visited the palace before, so his visit today wasn't particularly new or exciting for him.
But Liliana's constant chatter as she explored the palace was somewhat new.
In his memory, his previous visit to the palace had been uneventful.
But being with Liliana, who commented on everything she saw and urged him to look at things, made it feel different.
Damian nodded and replied,
Yeah, I think I enjoyed it quite a bit.
"I saw?".
Liliana wiped under her nose, looking proud.
"I promised to show you around the capital, didn't I?
It would be fun to explore it together."
Damian smiled unconsciously and replied,
"Okay.
But before that...
I want to say something."
"What is this?".
“I will refuse any trips like the one we took today.”
"What?
Why?"
Liliana puffed her cheeks, and Damian said with a tired expression,
"We both are patient.
We can't deny it.
We have to face reality.
With our current energy, we can't handle such a busy schedule.
Look at us today.
We're exhausted after touring just one palace."
Damien's logical reality check made Liliana look frustrated.
"This is correct....".
“So, what if we limit ourselves to visiting at most two places a day from now on?”
Liliana thought for a moment, then clicked her fingers and said,
“That means I have more excuses to ask you out!”
“…I think so.”
“Wait.
What caused that silent pause earlier?”
"I don't know".
Damian spread his legs and leaned back, supporting his upper body with his arm on the floor.
“I was just thinking that if we were friends, we wouldn't need excuses to see each other.”
Liliana seemed very touched by his words.
“Dammian, you know more about friendships than I thought.”
“What do you mean by that, Liliana?”
'Well, you said you didn't have any friends, so I was going to teach you all about friendships, but you seem to know a lot.'
"I may not have any friends because I lack social skills and charm, but I know that much."
Damian's sarcastic comment made Liliana laugh.
“Well, you said it yourself, so it's a promise, right?
If you are free and have nothing to do, come when I call you, right?”
"Okay."
Damian replied with a smile.
“That means the same goes for me, right?
You can contact me at any time, even if you don't have anything specific in mind."
“I think so.
So it's agreed.
"I look forward to spending time with you."
Liliana smiled for a moment, then lay down on the grass, using her hands as a pillow behind her head.
She looked up at the blue sky and said,
“If you think about it, I haven't told you this yet, have I?”
"You didn't tell me what?"
Damian waited patiently for her answer, and Liliana hesitated for a moment before speaking.
Then she said something completely unexpected.
“I actually have memory loss.”
"What?".
Damian's eyes widened, Liliana smacked her lips, feeling bitterness in her mouth, and explained.
“I don’t remember the last two years, starting from the day of the accident.
They say the shock of the accident erased my memories.”
The Liliana Damian had met so far was living a remarkably normal life for someone who had lost two years of memories.
Even Damian, who was more observant than the others, could detect no sense of contradiction; She seemed to be in quite a good mood and had a cheerful personality.