Side Story 4: Love vs Stanning (4)
“Ah, I, I…”
When Aisha held the man tightly and sobbed as if she was being reunited with her brother whom she was apart from for a long time, the man blushed, looking flustered.
Being dumbfounded for a while, Hades had realized the situation within 3 seconds and charged in to detach Aisha away.
“It’s not him!”
“Huh?”
Her eyes were already full of longing for her brother and was overwhelmed because of the reunion.
Whatever she heard from elsewhere, he did not know, but she had to be mistaken.
Seeing the man dazed with his face red from a sudden hug from a beauty, Hades shouted loudly, “Do you wish to die? Want me to burn you? What are you standing around blushing for?”
“Ahh! Y-Your Grace, forgive me…!”
“Ack! Don’t do that!” Aisha stepped in as Hades approached the man in a wide stride.
‘Really, this woman…’
Trembling in rage, Hades barely managed to collect his breath and asked, holding Aisha’s shoulder tight. “What is it all of a sudden?”
“R-Roxa said…”
“What about him?”
“He said that Your Grace has brought a famous book author from the capital!”
“Yes, yes I did. That damn book!”
Mistaking Hades trembling in shame as anger, the man once again bowed deeply from where he was standing.
“F-forgive me! I shouldn’t have written such a thing n-no matter how short of money I was!”
Glaring at the man not knowing his place. Hades spoke to Aisha half-given up.
“It’s not him. That’s not your brother.”
“He’s not?”
Aisha still looked at the man with fondness in her eyes.
Hades drew out a long sigh and asked.
“You. What is that thing you wrote on the afterword? About siblings and Genus and whatnot.”
Hearing the two’s conversation cluelessly, the man answered right away, “Ah! That… I told the man from my dream that I would like to repay him in whatever way, that I’m grateful… he said there was no need and all he needed was for me to add those words to the book.”
“Right…”
Thanks to Hades’ arbitration, Aisha slowly understood the situation. Only when she held the book he took out from the drawer and flipped through a page, did she nod.
“Ah…”
“There you have it.”
For Aisha who liked this novel so much in the other world, Procreathor was being pointlessly gracious to write up even the side stories to send over to this world. That graciousness from Procreathor made Hades endlessly ashamed.
All those words he spoke long ago before Aisha — just why they kept resurfacing so vividly without being forgotten… he never knew.
-I am a man of my word. Though you won’t be able to believe that I will marry you, it’s not a dream so there is no need to worry that you might wake up.
-I do understand that you can’t take your eyes off me for even a moment, but I suggest that you eat.
-I know that your feelings are genuine. You like me purely without ulterior motives.
-When did it all start?
-This is my first time meeting someone who pours unconditional affection like this…
-In order to return your heart towards me, I too, will try to like you earnestly.
His hand rose on their own and covered his face, trembling.
No matter how hard he thought, he wasn’t thick skinned enough to look at Aisha’s face casually after all.
As he lowered his hand covering his face, Aisha was smiling awkwardly, quite flustered.
“H-honey. Er… b-by any chance, d-did you…”
“Yep.”
Hades beamed.
Unlike his expression, his eyes looked as if he had transcended shame, nothing left to be embarrassed of.
“I read everything.”
* * *
After sending out the man, the couple sat in Hades’ room opposite to each other. Their expressions were the complete opposites.
Aisha sat trembling like a mouse before a cat, opening her mouth first.
“Are you… angry?”
“Angry? No… this isn’t anything I should be angry about.”
Come to think of it, Aisha had never directly said ‘I came all the way here because I like you!’
Not even once.
Her sincerity towards Abel, a lovechild he thought she would naturally take heed of, was genuine. That wouldn’t have been easy for any average woman. Who would be able to genuinely feel affection towards a lovechild of a man she is about to marry?
Now that he realized his misconception, however, all Aisha’s actions were understandable.
Hades thought as he hid his face in one hand as it continued to burn up.
The harvest festival in Merren County where he realized Aisha’s existence for the first time as she chased after him.
‘Abel was there too.’
The capital’s debutante ball held the next year.
Also when he went there requested to do a speech of congratulations, certainly…
‘I took Abel with me there.’
It wasn’t only that, though there were many places the busy Duke Louvremont was invited to, yet the times he took Abel with him was all because of a reason.
They were occasions where there was a need for him to inform the people of Abel’s face, his heir.
The inheritance ceremony of a renowned noble, the grand ball where all the aristocrats from the mid-continent gathered, all the public knighting events in the capital…
The times he found Aisha sneaking a look from the distance, Abel was always there.
Aisha’s gaze that he thought would naturally be fixed on him, who was the object of the entire empire’s envy, was always aimed at the young child beside him from the start.
‘It was…’
Abel.
‘…all you.’
“Whew…”
It was a sigh that erupted out of embarrassment, but having mistaken it for him being angry, Aisha flinched and trembled.
Hades waved his hand as he spoke.
“No, I have no intention of blaming you. I-I thought it went without saying…”
What was with that confidence he had?!
“No. In truth, I knew that you were mistaken but I couldn’t say anything. I am also at fault for that. I thought you might misunderstand me if I honestly told you that I’ve been chasing after Abel…”
“…”
“What is this crazy woman thinking of having her eyes on my son? Swipe, slash. Like this.”
Looking at Aisha eyeing him as she mimicked cutting off her neck, Hades laughed absurdly.
“You think I would have killed you for such a thing?”
“But back then you were so notorious. And you cared so much for Abel too.”
“Haa…”
“It wasn’t like you would have believed me if I said Abel was a male lead from the novel book from another world, would you?”
She was right in every aspect and Hades couldn’t object at all. Had he met Aisha who confessed that in truth she was following Abel around and that she wasn’t from this world?
The least he would have done is throw her out, thinking she was crazy.
“Right…”
“But… do those things matter now?”
Eyeing Hades, Aisha rose from the seat and asked as she blinked slowly.
The way she played cute as she gathered her lips together adorably was something she would always do when the two fought. How did she know he couldn’t say no to that expression…
Aisha smiled shyly as Hades looked at her with resentment in his eyes and approached him with light footsteps, hugging his neck.
“You are the person I love the most in the world now.”
With the heart trembling confession and a peck of a kiss, Hades’ upset heart would melt away as always.
“I really loved Abel as a mother, and it was you who made me fall for you. Even if I didn’t know about Abel, I would have fallen for you eventually and chased after you.”
You think so too, right?
With Aisha rubbing her cheek at him with a hug, Hades’ expression eased up in the end.
“You are so impish.”
Hades scoffed and sat Aisha on his lap and kissed her chin softly.
Like this, the couple’s cold war never lasted beyond two days. Amidst the atmosphere that soon turned sultry, their lips slowly locked onto each other’s. Like a last tantrum, Hades’ kiss was passionate to the degree of being too overwhelming for Aisha.
“Haa… wait, honey…”
“Why would I wait?”
Aisha barely managed to take her lips off and drew a breath as she pushed Hades away, but his chest was wide and solid as a mountain and wouldn’t budge.
On the contrary, with his hand tightening around the waist, her lips were swallowed once more.
His passionate kisses were as they always were, looking as if he was going to swallow her.
It was something she should’ve gotten used to, yet the sensation felt as if it was licking and soothing the most private part inside. Her mind would slowly start to deter.
A kiss that went on long enough to seem like a bore was a mere interlude.
Pulling his lips away, Hades planted his face onto Aisha’s bosom and panted.
His rough and irregular breath was hot.
“Mh…”
Though she already realized the moment she was seated on his lap, she could vividly sense how much more he was burning up with their kisses and she felt a little embarrassed.
It was almost laughable how she mistook him to have grown tired of her.
“L-look how healthy you are. You wouldn’t need a health check-up.”
“Haa…”
Feeling embarrassed, Aisha jumped off Hades’ lap.
But it was a pointless flee. Before Aisha turned and ran any further, Hades hugged her close with his body deeply onto her, biting her earlobe lightly.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
“I-It’s in broad daylight! And keep that thing away from my butt! It’s embarrassing!”
“If anyone sees, they would take us for newlyweds. And you came running to my room the other day.”
“T-that’s…!”
“And what’s the matter that it’s in daylight? Don’t act like someone who’s never done it during the day before.”
“Ack!”
Hades picked up Aisha within his arms and walked straight up to bed.
Though she struggled like she didn’t want to, Aisha was thinking in her head.
‘What underwear am I wearing today?’