“What’s wrong?” Aria asked with a confused yet curious look on her face.
Zach showed his stat to Aria and pointed his finger at his ‘Marital status’.
“Why is it showing married?!” he exclaimed.
“Hmm…” Aria pondered for a while and said, “It must be because of the soul pact. We are soulbond now, so maybe this game is registering as married?”
“Why aren’t you freaking out then?!” Zach shouted.
“What’s there to freak out?” Aria asked with a puzzled look on her face.
“You don’t care if you are married to me?”
“Surely, it’s not as impactful as I was when I found out that I was your servant,” Aria sighed.
‘What should I do?!’ Zach wondered. ‘I can’t let anyone see this, especially Aurora.’
Zach turned to Aria and asked with a curious look on his face: “Can we annul the soul pact?”
“We can, but both of us need to agree on that,” Aria replied.
“Then let’s get divorced! I mean, let’s break this soul pact,” Zach asserted.
“Are you sure?” Aria asked with a judging look. “I am your servant right now. If you break the pact, then our relationship will be back to… well, nothing. And now that I know that…”
Aria stopped as her eyes widened in realization.
‘Wait a minute. I am currently at 10% of my power. Does that mean Zach is more powerful than me in a 10% state? That’s impossible!’
Aria furrowed her brows and uttered inwardly, ‘Have I become that weak? Or… is Zach that strong?’
‘Does that mean… he is hiding his true strength?’ Aria wondered. ‘How powerful is he?’
‘If he is stronger than my 10% of power, and if our relationship now is at 30:70. Does that mean his power is the same as mine at 30%?’
Aria stared at Zach and wondered, ‘Who are you, Zach?’
Aria’s interest in Zach had piqued even more.
‘What should I do?’ Zach thought. ‘I want to annul the soul pact, but I can’t let this one in a lifetime chance slip by. I have Aria as my servant, but is it worth taking a risk?’
After pondering for a while, Zach had made his decision.
“Anyway!” Zach turned to Aria and said, “Aurora can not know about this, got it?”
Aria smirked at Zach in response.
“I order you to not tell Aurora about this,” Zach ordered.
“Are you sure about that?” Aria asked. “Honesty is the first step to a healthy relationship.”
“We are not in a relationship… yet,” Zach stuttered.
“So, are you going to lie to her?” Aria remarked.
“I am not lying. I am hiding it for a few days,” Zach retorted.
“What’s going to happen after a few days?” Aria asked with a curious yet calm look on her face.
“We are going to clear up to the 50th or maybe more floors in the dungeon. I am close to reaching level 23, and Aurora should be close to hitting level 22,” Zach asserted.
“We both will reach level 25 in a few days. After that…” Zach conjured the crimson sword in his hand and said, “I am going to gift this sword to her.”
Aria’s eyes widened after seeing that sword.
‘Isn’t that sword… no, there is no way that sword can be here,’ Aria thought to herself.
“I still haven’t told Aurora about me. I will give this sword to her and tell her everything about me— including this marital status. After that, I will let her decide if she still wants to be with me or not.” Zach uttered in a solemn voice.
Aria smirked and asked, “Are you afraid of rejection? Aww~”
“I am not… I am afraid of being alone. If Aurora leaves me, I will…” Zach sighed.
Aria chuckled and said, “Yeah. Being alone is scary.”
Aria had spent millions of years alone without meeting a single soul. She knew what loneliness felt like.
Aria snorted and said, “If she rejects you, you can come to me. I will give you a shoulder to cry and then make fun of you.”
Zach raised his hand and showed Aria her fist.
“What?” Aria stared at Zach’s fist with a puzzled look on her face.
Zach slowly raised his middle finger and said, “Eff You!”
After that, Zach left Aria’s room.
At the same time, Aurora opened the door of her room and frowned her face.
‘What was Zach doing in Ameria’s room?’ she wondered.
She had woken up to go to the washroom, but after seeing Zach leaving Ameria’s room in the middle of the night, she forgot everything and went back to her room.
Meanwhile, Aria was still wondering what Zach was trying to convey by showing his middle finger.
‘What does ‘Eff you’ mean?’
Aria needed some modern knowledge.
—
–
.
The next day, in the morning.
Aurora woke up a little late than usual, but he was still the first one to wake up in the house.
Aria woke up a while later after Aurora. She insisted on helping Aurora to make breakfast, but Aurora ignored Aira.
When breakfast was ready, Aurora knocked on Zach’s door and woke him up.
When they all were eating breakfast together, Zach asked Aria to pass him some pepper.
Aria passed him the bottle without speaking a word.
Zach was going to sprinkle some pepper on his egg, but he stopped when he noticed Aria gave him the salt bottle instead of pepper.
“I asked for pepper,” Zach groaned and glared at Aria.
Aria passed him another bottle with a smirk on her face.
After watching Zach and Aria, Aurora squinted her eyes and said, “You two seem to be on friendly terms now.”
“I don’t take idiots as my—”
Zach was interrupted by a message from Kayden.
He opened the message and read, [Come at the guildhall now! It’s an emergency!]
****
Total players in the game 410250.
0 new players logged in.
187 players died.
====
Author’s Note- I released around 18 chapters this week. Yet, instead of the stats increasing, they dropped. We used to hit 400+ power stones every week, yet we didn’t even hit 300 power stones this week.
I know, it’s my fault for expecting something in return.
Thanks for reading.