Alaric's declaration lit up the girl's face with delight.
"You really don't fear me… and you even like me?" she asked, her smile blooming like a delicate flower in early spring.
"Can I touch you?"
As she spoke, she carefully extended her hand, almost as large as Alaric himself, toward him, as if trying to test and confirm his sincerity.
Though her hand was beautiful and slender, if not for the size, it would even be considered fragile by normal standards, Alaric knew this was the hand of a fearsome warrior.
With just a bit of force, she could easily crush him to death.
But Alaric also knew that rejecting her might truly hurt this girl.
"Of course," Alaric replied with a carefree smile.
"I'd be more than happy to get a little closer to Attila."
With that, Attila slowly extended her index finger toward Alaric, lightly touching his face.
For her, it was a careful, tentative gesture, but for Alaric, the motion was still a little too large.
Even so, he endured it, and in return, gently took hold of her finger and placed an elegant kiss on it, a proper hand-kiss.
That made the girl beam with joy.
"You're so sweet, Alaric." She reached out her hand further, gesturing for him to step onto it. He obeyed. "Now I'm starting to believe what you said earlier."
"So you didn't believe me at first?" Alaric put on a deliberately disappointed face.
"I'm sorry."
The girl gently lifted him, as if he were a delicate, precious artifact, and brought him to her chest. Her voice lowered.
"It's just… being so big is really inconvenient. Not like you, so small, so cute."
"Me? Cute?"
Alaric didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
In the past, his youthful and striking appearance had often earned him such compliments from older women, Aurelia, Sylvanas, even the three dragon daughters.
But those were more like older sister to younger brother kinds of affection.
Yet from the way Attila spoke just now, he could clearly hear a different tone, one used to describe something beloved.
'She's treating me like a kitten or a puppy?'
Alaric wanted to refute her, but didn't know where to start.
And Attila, unbothered by his internal turmoil, happily held Alaric close to her chest now that she had his permission.
She looked like she never wanted to let him go, gently stroking his head with her fingers over and over again.
'She's really treating me like a kitten or a puppy!'
In the past, Alaric was the one who would pat others on the head, a natural gesture that came from his huge experience, despite his youthful appearance. Hermione often complained about it.
Now, karma had come full circle.
With no other choice, Alaric sat cross-legged in Attila's palm, letting her do as she pleased with gentle touches.
In truth, Alaric, who understood Attila's past, was quite sympathetic toward her.
The lonely girl craved intimacy, longed for physical closeness, especially from someone who didn't fear her.
However, Alaric's tolerance and pampering seemed to be encouraging her to take things further.
She even wanted to stuff Alaric into her not-so-spacious chest, offering him her softest parts as a resting place.
Perhaps it was because Alaric was the first to neither fear her nor reject her. The first to like her, to talk to her, to touch her.
In her heart, Alaric had already become incredibly important, intimate, even.
In fact, Alaric himself felt an intense curiosity and desire for such closeness. But his sense of shame stopped him from doing such things with a girl he had just met.
So he broke free from her hand, quickly scrambled up to the top of her head, and gave her a firm knock.
During the entire process, Attila didn't dare move an inch for fear of hurting him.
"Oww! That hurts!"
It didn't hurt at all, really, but the girl still responded considerately.
'She really does treasure me, her new companion,' Alaric thought, before issuing a stern warning.
"Don't do that again. A good girl doesn't do those kinds of things to a man she's just met."
"Yes, I understand."
Attila appeared utterly obedient.
But after all that playful interaction, the distance between them had clearly shrunk.
"…So, why are you here?" she finally asked.
Now that her desire for closeness had been satisfied, Attila grew curious about Alaric's origins.
At that moment, Alaric was reclining in a very comfortable position, held gently in Attila's hands. Her two large, ruby-red eyes gazed at him with curiosity.
"I don't know either," Alaric answered honestly.
"I suddenly appeared inside this blue crystal. I want to leave, so I've been searching for a way out. I ended up here by accident."
"Is that so?" Attila sighed. "So you're trapped here too. Poor thing."
"Then, can you tell me how to get out of here?" Alaric asked at once.
The question seemed to touch something sensitive inside Attila. She was reluctant to answer, and after a long pause, she finally nodded.
"Yes, I know how to leave."
"Can you tell me?" Alaric asked excitedly. "I want to visit Earth again."
"You want to go there too?" Attila tilted her head, speaking in a sorrowful tone.
"Well… it is such a prosperous, vibrant place, full of all kinds of little creatures. It really is beautiful, so much better than this dark and lonely world. So… you want to leave?"
Looking at her reluctant and sorrowful expression, Alaric couldn't help but sigh.
This giant goddess Attila… was such a gentle, soft-hearted girl.
"So… you can't leave this place, can you?"
"No."
Attila nodded.
"I'm trapped here. This is my chamber… but also my prison. I've always been asleep here."
"But… you can't leave through that hole?" Alaric pointed at the exit. "With your power, you should be able to open it, right?"
"I could," Attila confirmed. "But I can't. Because if I step outside, that power will control me again. And then…"
She trailed off, not finishing her sentence.
But Alaric immediately understood what she meant.
Such a sweet girl, just to avoid being controlled by that celestial force again, to prevent causing destruction, she would rather stay confined in this narrow prison and let loneliness consume her than shatter the beauty in her heart.
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