***
"What?" For a second, Beth even thought that she might've heard wrong. After all, normally, it is the man who can't satisfy the woman, maybe she did heard wrong.
"You didn't miss-hear. It is me who have trouble satisfying him in bed." Aiko assured after seeing her blank face.
"We've been intimate throughout our relationship, almost every day. But even after all this time, I haven't been able to match his stamina." Her voice lowered and a hint of sadness appeared in her eyes.
"He's a Saint, after all. And I am merely an awakened. I want to try my luck in a nightmare seed, but I don't want the chance of failure to keep me away from him. I love him, a lot, so I want to try every way I can think of to give him a home." Then she looked at Beth.
"A Saint having more than one wives is only natural. But Mirias isn't looking for anyone else for my sake. I am happy about it, that he's only looking at me. But, if his loyalty is the reason he can't have a family, then I would rather he cheats on me every day."
"But I am a woman after all. I know all the girls would want to be more than just his mistress or girlfriend. So I decided to choose his concubines myself."
Beth was silent for a moment, "So, since you've noticed that I have feelings for Saint Mirias,"
"I decided to invite you to the family." Beth sighed, finding a bit absurd.
"You know I am just a mundane human. If an awakened like you cannot match his stamina, how do you expect me to do it?"
"I don't." Aiko replied. "I want both of us to try together. At least one of us might get knocked up. But even if we can't, we can always invite more." She proposed her the absurd but practical idea.
"I understand." Beth nodded, agreeing to the idea. This might be her only chance to be with her crush, so she won't give it up just like that.
"But how many people are in your list, and who are they. I need to know."
Aiko nodded and told her about her list and the observations she made.
Mirias was outside, looking at the silent bubble around the two people. He was curious what they were talking about.
Then, the voices of some people reached his ears.
"What are you saying?"
"I know, it's shocking. But It's true."
Then, a new member of the group joined in, asking in confusion, "What are you guys talking about?"
"You haven't heard? It's been discovered recently."
"What has been discovered?"
The man talking then whispered close to the other ears, but Mirias could hear it.
"The Winter Beast...It's dead."
Mirias stopped listening. He couldn't be bothered to listen further.
After all, it was him who killed it, ripping the beast with his own two hands.
It has been three years since he killed it. But he wasn't alone.
***
The Waking Realm..
Saint Jet has recently finished a meeting with the government officials and saint Cormac.
But as soon as she stepped out into the road, she suddenly heard news of a familiar man making trouble again.
A smile tugged onto her lips as she shook her head with helplessness.
A few hours later, she walked through the bloody field of numerous corpses.
Countless Nightmare Creatures lay on the ground, dead. Most were Awakened, many Fallen and some Corrupted. Their bodies were devoid of any Soul Shards.
The only thing jarringly obvious was the ripped holes on their flesh, as if only a hand ripped the shards out of them.
To explain the scene in one word, harrowing. It was a harrowing scene.
Walking forward, she quickly came to another grotesque scene.
"I still don't understand how you're still a Saint." She said, making the black figure sitting atop the mountain of four ginormous corpses of four Great Nightmare Creatures.
The figure looked back, giving her a lecherous smile on his blood soaked face.
"So many corpses around, yet, you are still my favorite!" The man said with his bloodsoaked face.
Jet smiled at him. His strange preference and creepy way of teasing still makes her uncomfortable.
But the weird thing she noticed, was that she is getting addicted to this.
She climbed the massive carcasses and sat beside him with a familiar ease.
"So, another Category-3 Nightmare Gate?"
The man nodded, making Jet ask for the millionth time, "And you still won't join the Goverment?". The man shook his head in response.
Instead, his hands wandered around her back and settled on her waist, pulling her closer.
At first, she would always slap his hands away. But now, she leaned her head on his shoulders, giving in to his possessive and creepy touches which she considers to be 'intimate'.
"And are you really sure you are not part of the three great clans?" She asked again, which the man replied with another shook of his head.
"You still haven't answered all my previous questions....why? Since you are so strong that you can clear out a Category-3 Nightmare Gate all by yourself..."
"Why didn't you help during the Antarctica incident? Why, the hidden clan you speak of was silent during all those years?"
"..." They both stayed silent, the mans hands stopped gr0ping her and rested back on the bloody carcass of the corrupted titan.
They sat alone for a while, the wind breezed softly but firmly. Jet's confidence wavered by the silence.
'Did I touch something sensitive?' she asked herself worriedly, oblivious to the mans inner monologue.
"Do you really want to know?" He asked at last.
"I really do, Parsil Gray." It was rare for her to call his full name, which he told her about a year ago. Seeing the determined look on her face, Parsil sighed.
"Our clan never intended to reveal itself and planned to settle in the dream realm. But..." He stopped for a second, before adding,
"...We were Annihilated."
***
To be continued...