[instinctively, belph wants to lie. it would be so easy to crush hikage right now, wouldn't it? but this isn't like with elcia. belph doesn't need to shove him away, to destroy their relationship so thoroughly that hikage will never want to have anything to do with him again.

besides, elcia would be (is) fine without him. right now, hikage seems all too fragile, and belph doesn't exactly want to see him break.]

... Geez, I told you before: talking about this kind of stuff makes me want to vomit.

Which is why if I were going to lie, it wouldn't be about something like that.