As Bella's hands pressed and released, easing his muscles, it wasn't long before Aria arrived with Lorien's breakfast.
He ate leisurely, enjoying the delicious meal from the fridge while sipping milk tea in small gulps. Out of habit, Lorien opened the news to check the latest events.
Sure enough—
It had blown up.
Don't even ask what. Wanda and Gwen's videos from yesterday had gone viral. Just like those candid photos before, now seven or eight out of every ten headlines were about Wanda, Gwen, and that man—himself.
Lorien scanned through the titles:
"Goddess Alliance Launches Personal Accounts! Want the Latest on Superhero Lives? Follow Now!"
"Scarlet Witch Confesses Love! Now a Homemaker! Hates City Noise, Loves Her Husband More!"
"Spider-Woman Confirms Her Love! Still a Hero, But Loves Normal Life Even More!"
"Who Is That Man? Appearing in Goddess Alliance Videos—Why Is He the Husband of the Alliance?"
"Famous Director Declares: I Want to Use Spider-Woman's Cinematography in My New Film! Calls Her First-Person Short Video a Masterpiece!"
Good grief.
Too many. Way too many. Lorien couldn't even finish scrolling through them all. Everywhere he looked, it was news about the Goddess Alliance—discussions about their relationships, about the videos, about their content, about superheroes, and of course, about Lorien himself.
It was being talked about everywhere.
This storm had started the day before yesterday. Back then, people were all saying, Who the hell is this guy? Why's he being hugged by two superheroes?
And then, the very next day, Gwen and Wanda went public with their relationship.
It left everyone completely dumbfounded.
Don't you care about traffic? Aren't you afraid of losing fans? What if people don't approve?
The answer was simple: Who cares?
This was Wanda, Gwen, and Lorien's love. Not anyone else's.
We're going public. What business is it of yours?
If fans left, then so be it. Honestly, if they really had none, there'd be no need to make it public in the first place.
Besides, Wanda and Gwen didn't care about fans. They weren't Homelander, crying for half a day if they lost followers.
For them, fans? If they were gone, they were gone.
...
After finishing the news, Lorien switched over to the Goddess Alliance's official site.
It now had chat rooms, complete with AI moderation.
To join, you had to log in with verified identity info. Normal chat was fine, but violations were punished depending on severity: first a warning, then a ban. Some offenses were banned outright with no warning.
Lorien entered a chat room to take a look. He didn't post—just lurked.
There were already dozens of active channels, each with a cap of 500 to 1000 users. Not everyone was typing at once, but the messages still flew by at dizzying speed.
[Damn it!!! Who the hell is that man? Who knows his real identity? I want to duel him!]
[Damn it all! Why would the Goddess Alliance choose the same man as their partner?! I'm so jealous… so furious!]
[I cried all night! I can't believe the Goddess Alliance was lying in some man's arms, especially since their video even showed that same photo… waaahhhh!]
[I recognize that photo! The hand on Scarlet Witch's right is Spider-Woman's. The hand on Spider-Woman's left is Scarlet Witch's. And the chest in the middle? That man's!]
[Aaaaaaah!!! I want to kill him!!!]
Reading the wails in the chat, Lorien's lips curled into a satisfied smile.
Now this was happiness.
A little petty, sure. But still happiness. Real happiness.
Too good.
He scrolled through a few more chat rooms.
Yep. Most of them were filled with people saying they wanted to kill him.
Look at that. Doing absolutely nothing, yet he'd become the public enemy of the world.
What defines the ultimate villain? Lorien leaned back with a smug grin—perfect tactical recline.
After skimming a bit more and seeing the same death threats repeated over and over, Lorien closed the page.
Still, he'd noticed something else.
More and more women were curious about his true identity and his full face.
The last candid shot had only caught part of his profile—half an eye, half a nose bridge, half a mouth, and his chin.
Which only fueled curiosity. Countless women now wanted to see his complete face.
Unfortunately for them—no chance.
Mystery plus curiosity.
And with him being the husband of the Goddess Alliance, it wasn't surprising that plenty of women were already fantasizing about his true identity and real-life appearance.
It was even starting to take on a mythic aura.
Which, of course, was fine.
Because Lorien was stronger than any god.
...
10:00 AM
Since Lorien hadn't worn out the two girls last night, Gwen and Wanda were up earlier than usual. They made breakfast themselves, and once everything was ready, Gwen grabbed her plate, some fruit, and her phone before rushing downstairs to find him.
She set her breakfast on the table, then pulled up her account dashboard and handed her phone to Lorien with an excited grin.
"Lorien, I gained a million followers overnight! This is insane—my video already has almost 10 million likes!"
Lorien took her phone and glanced at the numbers.
Her followers: 2M.
Which meant 2 million. And 10M likes—that was ten million.
The video had only been up for a day, yet it had spread this far. That wasn't just normal algorithm promotion. Clearly, the Avengers had pulled strings with the platform—or more likely, TikTok itself was pushing it hard without being asked.
Which made sense. A personal account from a superhero? Only a fool wouldn't realize how much traffic and new users that would bring in.
Now, almost everyone opening TikTok was seeing Gwen and Wanda's videos.
Talk about a push.
"Looks like Gwen's a star now."
Lorien chuckled and handed the phone back.
"It's fun, but fame doesn't really matter. What matters is being able to share daily life—and remind people to stay safe."
Gwen dismissed her notifications and started scrolling through her comments while eating her breakfast.
Lorien nodded. She was right. In time, her account would have incredible influence. Maybe even to the point where New York officials could piggyback on it.
If the city posted an announcement like, It's dangerous tonight, citizens are advised to stay home, who would listen? People would still do whatever they wanted.
But if Gwen said it, plenty really would stay inside—especially kids.
Compared to Wanda, Gwen seemed to have more fans, spanning all age groups, with a particularly large number of younger ones.
Then again, Spider-Man was always a superstar across every universe. His pull was terrifying.
"Click~~"
The door opened and Wanda stepped in. She handed her phone to Lorien with a playful smile.
"Lorien, look at my comments—they're hilarious."
Lorien took the phone. Wanda had 1.8M followers and 8M likes.
Logically, since she'd uploaded her video half a day earlier than Gwen, she should've been ahead. But reality was different.
Gwen's video was more exciting, more immersive. She had the bigger fanbase, too. So her numbers had overtaken Wanda's.
That… might sting a little. Hopefully Wanda wouldn't mind.
Lorien checked the comments. The top three were:
[FUCK! Tell me who this guy is—the Goddess Alliance's husband! He deserves to die!]
[Superheroes deserve their own lives and happiness. Thank you, Scarlet Witch, for all you've done for the city.]
[Ladies, sisters! I want to know what the Goddess Alliance's husband looks like! Like this if you agree!]
Each of those comments had 1–2 million likes.
Wanda, however, had only replied to one—the third, which was written by a female influencer.
Her response: [Sorry, I'd need to ask my dear's permission first. If he agrees, maybe—but I don't think he will.]
Totally unnecessary.
She knew full well Lorien wouldn't agree, but she'd replied like that just to show off their intimacy.
So much Public Display of Affection. Way too much, really.
Lorien gave a helpless smile as he handed the phone back.
"You really are cheeky."
"Hmph~~" Wanda hummed smugly, then went back to her fruit and veggie salad.
As for Gwen's comments, Lorien glanced over. She interacted too, but sparingly—mostly with female fans, never with the male fanbase.
"Hm?"
Lorien frowned slightly.
"Gwen, you don't only like your female fans, do you?"
"No, no, no." Gwen wagged her finger. "It's not about gender. The problem is that male fans are usually pretty immature."
"You're already the best. Why would I bother with them?"
Lorien couldn't help but smile at that.
He had to admit—he loved hearing it.
What Gwen meant was simple: he was the best, and every other guy was just ordinary. So there was no need to pay them any attention.
She had already said before that she didn't need fans. Interactions were just for fun.
And even then, Gwen didn't respond to all female fans either. She only replied to the ones with meaningful or interesting comments.
For example, when a girl asked: [Spider-Woman, can I be a superhero?]
Gwen replied: [If you have family, then protecting them already makes you a superhero.]
Someone else asked: [Will you cut back on fighting crime in the city from now on?]
Gwen answered: [I'll do what I can within my ability, but I can't promise everyone will be helped.]
That was the kind of comment she replied to.
And her words were always honest. She said things as they were, without giving those vague, official-sounding answers. No meaningless promises like, "I guarantee it," "God willing," "this and that," or "you know how it is."
Everything Gwen said was genuine.
And it made people recognize the real Spider-Woman all over again.
Not bad at all.
Lorien chuckled, then kept swiping through TikTok. Since he'd already opened the app, it didn't feel right not to scroll a bit.
He flicked through a few videos. Some he didn't even bother watching before swiping past.
Until one video—
"Uh..."
A familiar face flashed across the screen. Even the voice only made it halfway out.
"Hm?"
Lorien raised an eyebrow and quickly scrolled back.
The moment he saw the figure clearly, he froze.
"Tony?!"
He swiped right to check the account page.
Sure enough, written clearly:
Tony Stark · Superhero · Iron Man
It was real.
It was really Tony!
"Hm?"
Gwen and Wanda, overhearing, froze as well. They both looked up at Lorien.
"Iron Man Tony?"
Lorien nodded.
"Yeah. The guy actually made himself a personal account."
Clearly, Tony's account had only just been registered. His profile only had one video and about 9K followers. That meant it hadn't been up long.
Lorien swiped back and replayed the video.
It opened in a kitchen.
Tony held a 360-degree action cam in one hand, opened the fridge with the other, pulled out an apple, and took a loud bite.
He walked into the living room, then out the front door.
Outside was the familiar lake and lawn where they'd once barbecued, with mountains visible in the distance.
Tony strolled out, eating as he spoke.
"Today, I woke up and my lovely wife told me to check the news."
"Turns out my best friend's partners decided to go public with their relationship!"
"They even made personal accounts to share their lives."
"So I figured I'd make an account too, to share some of my daily life."
Tony wandered over to a chair by the lake and sat down. He picked up a fishing rod, baited it, and cast it into the water.
Once the bait sank, he continued.
"So I thought, why not ride the wave?"
"Actually, I've known about the Goddess Alliance for a while. After all, I'm good friends with their man."
"But as you can see, I have to protect my friend's privacy. Don't bother asking—I, Tony Stark, won't reveal a single thing about him. Nothing!"
"For example, even though he's way more handsome than me, I still wouldn't admit it if you asked."
At that point, Tony probably worried he'd laugh, so he took another huge bite of apple.
After chewing it down, he went on.
"Anyway, that's that."
"Second thing—I should mention my recent reclusive life."
"How to put it? It's been amazing."
"Sleeping in until I naturally wake up, no worrying about tomorrow's emergencies, money I can't spend fast enough, and a wife who loves me."
"Looks like quitting superhero life was the right call."
"I heard Hulk retired too, and honestly, he made the right decision."
"As for the Goddess Alliance—Spider-Woman can take care of herself, and Scarlet Witch has already been living a normal life with my good friend for a long time."
Just then, Tony noticed his float twitch.
He quickly polished off the last of his apple.
Waiting for the float to sink, he continued,
"So what I'm really trying to say is—"
"Superheroes are people too. Please allow them to have normal lives."
"The man behind the Goddess Alliance isn't a superhero or an Avenger, but he's quietly helped many superheroes through their darkest moments."
"So don't think he's unworthy of the Goddess Alliance. Honestly... they're a perfect match."
At that moment, Tony's float plunged beneath the surface.
He immediately set down the action cam, grabbed the rod with both hands, and grunted.
"Alright, that's all I can say for now. The rest will have to wait for the next video."
The video ended with Tony nearly being yanked into the lake by the rod.
Looked like he'd hooked a big one.
...
(50 Chapters Ahead)
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