That was why, unlike his usual habit of moving on without a second thought after a rescue, he had stepped forward to become the sponsor of a child placed in a care facility.

He had wanted to give her a little help so she could grow up well, after losing her entire family in an instant and being left alone.

Even during his rookie years when he wasn’t earning much, Carbon had set aside a portion of his income and donated it to the facility. He was willing to spend less on himself if it meant Hyde could eat whatever she wanted and wear new clothes each season. Knowing the money was going toward what she ate and wore, he never once felt it was a waste, even as his account balance shrank.

He did not stop at one-time material support. Even during the busiest stretches of hero work when he could barely sleep, he made a point of visiting her at least once a month. He kept that connection alive, month after month, until Hyde was ready to stand on her own.

He watched her grow from a child to a girl, from a girl to a young woman who entered the Hero Academy, pushed through grueling training, and graduated near the top of her class.

The other kids around her seemed to shoot up whenever he wasn’t looking, but Hyde always looked the same. Still small, still somehow fragile.

Maybe it was because even fully grown she didn’t reach his chest. Maybe it was the baby fat that had never quite left her round face. Or maybe it was the pure, unguarded quality that lived in her large, round, liquid eyes.

Even as she handled work with skill and he relied on her more and more, Carbon could not stop seeing Hyde as a child.

“Why are you smiling?”

Hyde looked up at him with wide, questioning eyes, and Carbon let out another small laugh because she was so endearing.

In that instant, Hyde knew. She felt it instinctively. Carbon was looking at her again as his ‘cute little kid.’

The way a parent never stops seeing their child as someone small who needs to be sheltered, no matter how old they get. To Carbon, Hyde was nothing more than a ward he pitied and looked after out of compassion. She bit her lip.

“Nothing, don’t worry about it. More importantly, about the search operation for Hero Riela. Can you get me a spot on it?”

“……You want to go?”

“My ability isn’t well-suited for search work, but having one more person out there should help at least a little.”

“……Understood.”

Hyde answered slowly, not bothering to hide her reluctance. But Carbon didn’t catch it and turned back to the report he had been reading.

Hyde watched him, her eyes darkening, then bowed her head and quietly left.

* * *

Out of the office, Hyde made the calls to arrange Carbon’s participation in the Riela search operation, just as he had asked.

“Oh my! We’d be so grateful to have Mr. Carbon!”

The Hero Bureau clerk who picked up accepted with a delighted voice.

“By the way, even with how busy he must be, reaching out like this… is it because of Mr. Carbon and Riela’s relationship, after all?”

The clerk’s voice was thick with curiosity as she fished for information about Carbon and Riela.

“Is this an official inquiry?”

“No, nothing like that.”

“Then I’m afraid I can’t say.”

Hyde set the phone down with a clipped reply and stood there deflated.

‘I need to go tell him the schedule is confirmed……’

She glanced at the office door where Carbon would be sitting and hesitated, not going in right away. What had happened that morning was still sitting in her chest.

To clear her head, Hyde went to the bathroom and washed her hands. Scrubbing her soapy hands together until they squeaked usually lifted her mood.

But today the old habit wasn’t doing its job.

Hyde looked at her reflection in the mirror with the same dull, unhappy eyes.

A small frame, a round face still soft with baby fat, eyes too large and round that made her look vacant, freckles she could do without.

Her red hair swayed just at her jawline, cut clean and sharp as a blade. She had wanted to look like a career woman, but instead the cut only made her look more cute, which was the opposite of what she intended.

The freckles scattered across her plump, peachy cheeks, her small nose, her dainty lips. All of it made her look younger than she was.

“……No wonder Carbon sees me as a kid and not a woman.”

The only things that could be called grown-up were her full chest and wide hips. The one adult feature on a girl who got mistaken for a student because of her height.

But that was all.

Hyde was the complete opposite of Carbon’s past girlfriends, all of them blonde, sultry, and strikingly beautiful.

Every woman Carbon had dated was tall. The shortest, as far as she knew, had still been over 175 centimeters.

Carbon didn’t talk much about his preferences, but he had let it slip once, offhandedly, that very small people scared him because he was afraid of breaking them.

He was built large to begin with, broad-boned and physically imposing, and his power happened to be superhuman strength. One wrong move and a serious accident was a real possibility.

He could snap a grown man’s wrist like a dry twig with a little pressure. A small woman must look terrifyingly fragile to him.

Dating someone he had to handle like a glass marble about to shatter would put a serious strain on him.

“I guess that’s what I am to him.”

He had known her since she was a runny-nosed little girl, and even now that she was grown, Hyde was small enough to disappear in one of his hands. She was about as far from Carbon’s type as it was possible to be.

Upset that he saw her as a child? The truth was, she might never be seen as a romantic prospect by him for the rest of her life. The thought sent a cold spike of urgency through her.

Carbon was thirty-six this year, slightly past the conventional age for marriage, and yet women still lined up wanting him. He was the top hero of the second generation, a man who had everything: wealth, reputation, looks, and character. Of course they did.

Carbon wasn’t the type to throw himself into romance, but he didn’t practice abstinence either. He neither turned women away nor chased after those who left, and as far as Hyde knew, he had been in well over ten relationships. It would not be strange at all if he announced tomorrow that he was getting married.

Hyde chewed anxiously at her thumbnail. She glared at her reflection with dissatisfaction and made herself breathe as slowly as she could.

At this rate, she might lose Carbon right in front of her eyes.

‘Carbon is faithful. He won’t cheat.’

The Carbon she knew would shake off any temptation once he had someone. He would be devoted to that person until the relationship ended.

Until now, she had been able to wait for whoever was beside him to leave. But could she keep enduring that, not knowing how much longer it might go on?

She wanted him sooner. Now, while no one else was at his side, she had to make Carbon hers.

“……Whatever it takes.”

The worry faded from Hyde’s eyes, replaced by a sharp, clear light.