Aria was still wearing panties, so Zach had to strip it too. However, Aria grabbed Zach’s hand and stopped him.
”Don’t you think we should first discuss our relationship?” she asked. “What do we plan to do further, and how it’s going to affect the rest of us.”
Zach pulled his hand back and nodded, “You are right. Let’s talk about it first.”
Aria, who was in Zach’s lap, turned to him and asked, “I will continue what I was saying.”
After a brief pause, she said, “I will skip everything and get to the point since we are getting sidetracked again and again.”
Zach calmly listened to Aria, who said, “When you mentioned the dream you had about the past sealed memory with a different perspective, you deliberately skipped Erza’s name. That was my final straw, and I was convinced that you are someone related to Erza.”
”I figured.”
”It felt really weird after that. I wasn’t sure if you knew about it or not. I didn’t even know if Erza had told you about me or lived as a human,” she said calmly. “But it was foolish of me to think that you didn’t know about it.”
Aria stared at Zach with a judging look on her face, and there was no hint of her grin from before. She was serious, and looking at her made Zach nervous.
He wasn’t scared or afraid of what would happen in the future, but his relationship with Aria was at stake, which was enough to make him lose his cool.
”In my defense, I didn’t know about it either. When we first met, I assumed you were an NPC, and I won’t lie….” Zach let out a loud sigh and uttered, “I didn’t fully believe you even after you gave me your blessings.”
”Wow. That hurts… but that’s something you would do,” she remarked. “And stabbing someone to death too.”
”When you told me about yourself after I ordered you to, I matched your story with mothers, and they matched. Ironic enough, mother never mentioned your name, I don’t know why,” Zach said with a curious and confused look on his face.
”My name… is cursed. My name shouldn’t be said aloud, or it would bring calamity,” she muttered with a dejected look on her face. “I heard this every day when I was in the heavens. Erza’s followers would curse me every day. And the evildoers came to me to ask me to fulfill their evil desire.”
”…” Zach wanted to comfort Aria, but he didn’t know what to say. Normally, he would have stopped her by kissing her on the lips, but their relationship was in a limbo right now.
”Even though I was a goddess… I was treated as a devil. They came to me with offerings in return for doing their tasks. Sometimes… I would get tempted to do them and become a devil they yearned, but Erza always stopped me.” Erza started crying while telling her story.
”You might hate me for saying this, but… I hated Erza. We used to get along fine until we created the humans. I never asked to be the Goddess of death and destruction. But I didn’t get to choose that.”
After a brief pause, she continued, “I wasn’t bothered by it at first because Erza was happy. But that didn’t age well. My hatred for Erza grew more and more but of course… I never meant any harm to her.”
”Aria…” Zach held Aria’s face in his hands and said, “You didn’t hate Erza; you were simply jealous of her.”
”Is that… so?”
”Yeah.”
”I still loved her despite all that, and after we were exiled…” Aria shook her head and made a sad look on her face.
”You don’t have to tell me more. I already know the rest,” Zach said calmly with a smile on his face. “Now, we have talked about everything.”
”Indeed.”
”I kept it a secret from you because I was afraid of losing you. I loved you so much that I wouldn’t have cared even if we were related somehow. But I agree, it was wrong of me to hide it from you.”
”It was.”
Zach looked into Aria’s eyes and asked, “Are you angry about that?”
”You know, I was thinking the same as you. I was unsure when I found out about it and assumed you weren’t aware of it. I didn’t want to lose you either, and mind you; I did not know if you were directly related to Erza or not. You could have been her son, which was the last thing I wanted.”
”What… would you have done if I had told you when I found out about it. Would our relationship have turned out the same?” Zach asked in a calm but anxious voice.
Aria didn’t reply at first, but then she nodded and said, “We probably would be on our separate ways.”
”…!”
”I was still conflicted about my feelings for you. I wasn’t sure whether I truly loved you or not, but then I finally confessed to you in the dungeon expedition. So if you had told me before that, I don’t think I would have ever confessed to you.”
”Oh…” Zach sighed in relief and muttered, “So that’s what you meant.”
Aria smiled at Zach and said, “So you did the right thing by hiding it. And I am glad it worked out in the end.”
”So… are we good?” he asked with a judging look on his face.
”I am not sure, honestly. I still love you, but you are technically my nephew, and it feels… weird.” Aria let out a weary sigh and asked, “What about you? I am sure you referred to me as your aunt in your thoughts. I bet you fantasized about me too.”
Zach averted his gaze and said, “I would never do such things.”
SIGH!
”You can’t be more obvious.”
”Anyway.” Zach looked into Aria’s eyes with a serious look on his face and said, “I love you, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you. Would you take my hand and do the same?”
After seeing the earnest look on Zach’s face, Aria left out a soft chuckle and uttered before kissing him on the lips:
”You are so smooth at this stuff, my dear husband.”
***
Total players in the game- 1,482,511
0 new players logged in.
8 players died.
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Thanks, @Woodzero, for the gift!