Chapter 48: Alternative
"I think I want to do it right now," Azrael says with conviction. "I want to further strengthen our relationship and put a label on it, Claire."
The atmosphere is serious in the living room once Azrael utters his honest yet desperate feelings. The shocked Alina, who is sitting on a couch across the low rectangular table, has her lips sealed tight not to cut the silence. She just silently sips her tea.
Claire looks at him and sees his dire needs for something in his eyes. She can tell that he wants to rush things fast after exposing himself to such dangers in his life. He is hopeful, but Claire has yet to decide how to respond to his feelings.
Feeling that Claire won’t respond right away, Azrael gradually calms down and decides to back off. He lets out a long exhale before he removes his eyes from Claire’s and he leans back on the couch.
"I’m sorry, Claire. I lose myself there for a moment. I couldn’t stop myself from doing so." He excuses himself and then looks at her again. "I might be rushing, but I was serious when I said that I wanted to strengthen our bonds. I already liked you the first time I saw you."
Claire was the first person he met upon coming to this world, implying that mankind exists somewhere, which filled the emptiness in his heart. But at that time, the two had to fight each other to survive, resulting in Claire’s defeat and, later on, the agreement in the soul space.
Upon facing a godlike being, Azrael was not certain how long he would live, but it entirely depends on what Vordoth’s real purpose for sparing him is. He used this anxiety to justify his desire for something he had been longing for—a woman’s warmth.
He is aware that he holds her by the neck, but then he realizes that it is not the right thing to do. He still has his morals even after his second awakening. Rather than threats, he wants to gain her trust by strengthening their mutual understanding instead.
"I know that you are not ready yet, but I can wait," Azrael adds. "Just let me know when you are ready."
"I... I should have prepared myself for this, but now that it came, I realized how hard it is to actually face this."
Claire finally breaks her silence, and she begins explaining herself.
"I never had experience with romance in my hundreds of years of life. Even though I was offered love more than I can count, it was really not my thing. I was just obsessed with filling my insatiable hunger for knowledge; hence, my decision to explore this dungeon unprepared for unfortunate events.
"..."
"I rejected every single love they confessed to me since I was free to do so, though the majority of them wanted me for my power. But in this case, things are different. My fate is bound, and I have to fulfill the deal with the devil."
"Well, I can’t deny that."
"Binded or not, I must provide you my response to your honest feelings. For now, I am afraid to tell you that I haven’t made my decision yet. Please understand me, Azrael."
After she says those words, Claire places her right hand on Azrael’s left, almost like pleading. Azrael takes a glance at her hand before he briefly closes his eyes and lets out a heavy sigh.
"Like I said before, I can wait for your response. But I prefer it if you don’t take too long," he voices his impatience in the latter, and then he decides to go back to the previous topic. "Now then. With the dungeon unavailable right now, I have pretty much free time to spend."
Pacing with him, Claire jumps into the new discussion, and then she lets go of her hand on him. "Ahem. If that’s how things go as of now, how about killing your free time to improve yourself?"
"You have a point." The red-haired young man presses his thumb under his chin, and then he finds something lacking about himself. "Now that I think about it, I actually have crappy swordsmanship. I don’t have any formal training, and I just swing my sword however I want without a care in the world. Perhaps I should start sharpening my sword skills seriously."
"In that case, since this is the only dungeon that has stopped functioning, how about becoming an adventurer in the empire? Not only can you find someone to train you, but you can also continue to increase your power with the monsters both in the dungeon and on the surface."
"Hmm. That might be a great idea, but..."
"But you don’t want to gain attention, right?"
"Yeah, that’s the life I preferred. Though I am kind of interested in exploring more of the world."
In his previous life, Azrael was not a social person and always shut himself in his room. He carries that trait to this world, but he also has desires that he wants to fulfill that he cannot achieve in his previous world, like building a harem and managing his own land.
"Well, even if you don’t want that, there are even bigger fish in the sea, literally."
"What do you mean by that? Oh, wait."
Suddenly, Azrael remembers where they are right now—over the ocean. The reason why almost no one managed to cross the open waters is mostly because the ocean is filled with dangerous and powerful monsters.
The ancient residents of this world knew that the world is round, though no one in modern times was able to circumnavigate the world to officially confirm. It is estimated that this world’s equatorial circumference is around 9,600
The ocean is one of the best sources of power for Azrael after this dungeon. The problem lies with the distribution of powerful monsters, as they tend to avoid one another. But Raphael is confident that he will be able to find some through his massive radar, which can currently cover a radius of thirty kilometers.
"I think I might go fishing from now on. I heard it is a good hobby. Alright." Filled with hope, Azrael stands up from his seat and scans through his radar. "Great, I already found one nearby."
"Are you doing it right now?" Claire asks.
"Yeah. I’ll be back."
With that, Azrael storms out of the house before transforming himself into a griffin and taking off from the island. After that, Claire takes a glance at Alina. The servant immediately gets her cue and stands up before she walks toward her.
"Alina, there’s something I want you to do..."
◆◇◆◇◆◇
At night.
Azrael has finished spending the rest of the day hunting for monsters in the ocean. His hunts include gigantic sea monsters like giant armored sharks, krakens, limbless marine dragons called "sea orcs," and more.
Along with their bodies, Azrael also acquired their wild magics. Since each of them is categorized as at least a crisis-class monster, Azrael is having quite a seafood feast of their magic cores and gaining a little power relatively to his enormous mana capacity.
He is currently in his own room only with a white bathrobe on his body after taking a bath to get rid of the fishy smell lingering on his body. Sitting on the edge of the massive bed, Azrael’s head is still filled with the conversation earlier this day.
Knock. Knock.
Suddenly, two knocks echo in his room. He does not know who is behind the door, as he just deliberately ignored his radar, like disabling the UIs mid-game. Given what happened earlier, his guess is that the person is Claire.
"Come in."
At his permission, the door slowly opens, creaking its hinges. When the person behind comes to view, Azrael’s eyes widen, seeing his guess fails.
"Alina?"