Chapter 379: The Beginning Of The End [XLI]

Kael and Tyrian were waiting right outside the door when Aestrea finally emerged from the chamber.

He walked out calmly.

His expression was unreadable, smooth, and composed… far too composed for someone who had just spent over an hour with the Goddess of Light.

Kael and Tyrian stared.

Aestrea stared back.

The air between them was so heavy it might as well have been physically sagging.

“…So,” Kael began slowly, his eyes narrowing with suspicion.

“You’re actually alive…”

“And in one piece,” Tyrian added, folding his arms

“…Yes?” Aestrea blinked once.

“….”

Silence.

Kael leaned in closer, squinting so aggressively he looked like he was trying to see through Aestrea’s soul.

Tyrian circled him once, like he was inspecting a magical beast.

“…What are you two doing?” Aestrea exhaled sharply, rolling his eyes.

Kael ignored the question entirely.

Instead, he clapped his hands once, nodded firmly to himself, and stated:

“Alright. We have one question.”

“Just one.” Tyrian nodded seriously.

Aestrea closed his eyes for a moment.

“…Fine. What question?”

Kael glanced at Tyrian.

Tyrian nodded.

They both inhaled dramatically and then shouted at the same time:

“DID THE GODDESS OF LIGHT FALL IN LOVE WITH YOU?!”

Aestrea stared.

His eyebrow twitched.

“…What?”

“You took too long.” Kael pointed a finger accusingly.

Tyrian stepped forward.

“Way too long.”

“Everyone else left in ten minutes!” Kael gestured wildly.

“TEN! MINUTES! You took an hour!”

“Over an hour,” Tyrian corrected.

“Exactly.” Kael jabbed a thumb at Aestrea’s chest. “So, what happened? Did she propose? Kiss you? Kidnap you? Mark you? Seal a destiny pact? Claim you as her divine spouse?”

Aestrea’s face twisted.

“What kind of nonsense…”

Kael leaned in, voice dropping to a whisper filled with profound seriousness:

“We made a theory.”

“A strong theory.” Tyrian nodded gravely.

Aestrea resisted the urge to walk away.

“…A theory,” he repeated flatly.

“Yes!” Kael replied, nodding frenetically.

“A theory based on evidence!”

Tyrian held up a finger.

“One: she stared at you from the moment she arrived.”

Kael held up a second finger. “Two: she noticed you trying to escape, and immediately declared no one could leave.”

“Three: her gaze kept returning to you constantly.” Tyrian raised a third.

Kael raised a fourth.

“Four: she kept you inside for over an hour.”

“Five: you are cursed.” Tyrian lifted a fifth.

Aestrea stared at that last one.

“…That’s not evidence.”

“It absolutely is,” Kael argued.

“Everything weird happens to you.”

“Objectively speaking, yes.”Tyrian nodded.

Aestrea opened his mouth to argue, but then remembered his life.

…They weren’t wrong.

Kael crossed his arms, looking quite smug. “So? Our theory is that the Goddess of Light wants you. Like… wants you wants you.”

“We believe she may be… romantically or possessively attached.” Tyrian nodded seriously.

Kael leaned in with a giddy yet confident smile.

“So tell us the truth.”

Aestrea stared at them for a long moment, and there was absolutely no way in hell he was telling these two idiots any of what actually happened.

So he inhaled softly, pushing down the chaos in his head.

He straightened his posture, smoothed out every trace of emotion from his face, and adopted the calm, reasonable expression of someone who definitely did not almost get married against his will.

Then, lying through every tooth in his mouth, he answered:

“It was an evaluation.”

“A long evaluation?” Kael’s eyes narrowed instantly, his entire face scrunching up with suspicion.

“Yes. A very detailed indeed,” Aestrea nodded calmly, as if this made perfect sense.

Tyrian’s gaze sharpened at his words, unblinking, like he was trying to detect lies through sheer eye contact.

“…An hour-long evaluation?”

“She asked many questions,” Aestrea replied smoothly. His tone was very steady, his eyebrows were relaxed, and his breathing was even.

He was the picture of innocence.

Kael lifted a brow so high it nearly touched his hairline.

“What kind of questions?”

Aestrea shrugged with perfect casualness.

“The usual. She asked about the reason I progressed so fast and my future goals. Then, she measured my power potential… and evaluated my attitude.”

Tyrian didn’t blink at all.

“…Did she give you candy?”

“…What?” Aestrea almost choked.

Kael immediately slapped the back of Tyrian’s head. “Why would she give him candy?! She’s a goddess!”

“Kids like candy.” Tyrian rubbed the spot he’d been hit.

“Aestrea is not a—” Kael stared at him like he was judging his entire bloodline.

“—No one gave me candy,” Aestrea cut in, voice dry as desert sand.

“Fine, whatever. But back to the point.” Kael waved that away.

He stepped closer, eyes narrowing even further.

“Are you sure she didn’t fall in love with you?”

“No.” Aestrea’s eye twitched.

“No, you’re sure? Or no, she didn’t?” Tyrian lifted an eyebrow before pressuring him into replying.

“…No, she didn’t,” Aestrea said firmly, maybe a little too firmly.

Kael tilted his head slowly, like a confused puppy.

“That didn’t sound convincing.”

“It wasn’t,” Tyrian added flatly.

Aestrea inhaled through his nose, genuinely tempted to strangle both of them and bury their bodies behind the academy.

“Listen, Aestrea… if something compromising happened, you can tell us. We’re your brothers.” Kael placed a dramatic hand over his heart.

Tyrian nodded with solemn sincerity.

“We will support you. Even if she is trying to kidnap you. Or marry you. Or chain you in a divine palace. Or bind your soul to hers. Or even if…”

“None,” Aestrea said slowly, glaring hard enough to pierce a hole in them.

“…of that happened.”

Kael leaned slightly toward Tyrian, whispering with the subtlety of a thunderstorm:

“He’s totally hiding something.”

“One hundred percent.” Tyrian sighed deeply.

Aestrea clenched his jaw.

If he clenched any harder, his teeth might crack.

Kael stepped forward again, eyes gleaming with nosy determination. “Just tell us one thing. One honest thing.”

“…Fine. What?”

Kael swallowed dramatically.

Tyrian leaned in like they were about to hear divine secrets.

Both of them asked at once…

“Was she beautiful up close?”

Aestrea froze.

The image of Olivia sitting on his lap, veil glowing softly, breath warm against his skin, flickered through his mind.

He exhaled slowly, defeatedly.

“…Yes.”

“HE ADMITTED IT!” Kael gasped loudly enough to alert half the academy.

Tyrian nodded like a philosopher confirming universal truth.

“Theory confirmed.”

Aestrea didn’t bother arguing anymore. Instead, he lifted both his hands, and smacked Kael and Tyrian on the backs of their heads

“OW—?!”

“MY BRAIN—!”

Both idiots grabbed their heads and crouched, whining dramatically like they’d been mortally wounded.

“That’s for being stupid,” Aestrea said calmly, dusting off his hands.

Kael glared up at him. “You didn’t have to hit THAT hard!”

“Yeah! I think I saw my past life flash before my eyes!” Tyrian nodded tearfully.

Aestrea ignored them and started walking toward the exit.

Kael blinked.

Tyrian blinked.

Then, both of them froze as they realized what Aestrea was doing.

“W-WAIT—ARE YOU LEAVING?!”

Aestrea waved lazily without looking back.

Kael was the one to panic first.

“BRO, YOU CAN’T LEAVE US HERE!”

“WE STILL HAVE OUR TURN! WE CAN’T ESCAPE!” Tyrian sputtered.

“You traitor!” Kael shouted, pointing dramatically at Aestrea’s back. ”

TAKE US WITH YOU!”

“YEAH! OPEN A PORTAL OR SOMETHING!” Tyrian jabbed a finger wildly.

“We shared lunches together!”

“We suffered classes together!”

“We almost died together!”

Kael even clung to a chair for emotional support. “DON’T LEAVE YOUR BROTHERS TO BE SACRIFICED!”

Aestrea paused and turned slighly, lifting his right hand.

“I knew it!”

“He wouldn’t betray us!”

Both of them held their breath in hope.

And Aestrea showed them his middle finger.

“HAH!” Kael gasped as if betrayed by destiny itself.

“YOU, YOU HEARTLESS BASTARD!”

“HOW COULD YOU?! AFTER EVERYTHING WE’VE BEEN THROUGH!” Tyrian stumbled backward dramatically.

“COME BACK AND DIE WITH US LIKE A MAN!” Kael yelled.

“YEAH!” Tyrian shouted.

“FACE THE GODDESS WITH US! DON’T BE A COWARD!”

Aestrea rolled his eyes.

Then, with the grace of someone absolutely done with their nonsense, he grabbed the door of the large hallway.

SLAM!

He shut it in their faces with enough force to rattle the frame.

From the other side came their faint voices:

“NOOOOOOOOO—!”

“COME BAAAACK—!”

Aestrea walked away without a single bit of guilt.

They deserved every bit of it.

He walked mindlessly through the grand halls of the academy grounds, his footsteps echoing on the marble floor.

Until suddenly… a familiar voice, yet strangely different, slithered through the air. It was enticing, and fucking seductive.

“Aestrea~”

He instantly recognized that voice, so he turned around…

“Miss me~, yet?”

But as he did, his eyes widened in complete shock.

It was Selindra.

But… it wasn’t.

Sure, he had heard about her from Kael and Tyrian, but he didn’t think that the changes she went through… were that fucking huge!

The woman who stood before him was completely different!

The old Selindra, with her dark, sun-kissed skin and sharp, golden eyes, was gone. In her place was this… this creature of impossible perfection.

Her skin was no longer the warm tone he remembered.

It was now a flawless, creamy porcelain, so smooth and perfect it looked like it had been sculpted from the finest silicone!

Her long, wild black hair had transformed into a beautiful, lustrous cascade of cotton-candy pink that fell down to her waist, even shimmering lightly.

And her eyes… her piercing golden eyes were now a mesmerizing, hypnotic pink, the color of cherry blossoms.

But the changes didn’t stop there.

Her figure, which was already deeply seductive… only seemed to have become even more obscene.

Where before she had been athletic and toned, she was now a masterpiece of exaggerated curves.

Her breasts were massive, round, and impossibly perky, straining against the fabric of her tight uniform, threatening to spill out with every breath she took.

They were so large they looked like they belonged on a Goddess of Fertility.

Her waist had been cinched to an impossible, doll-like slenderness, making the flare of her hips look even more dramatic.

And her ass… it was a perfect, peach-shaped masterpiece, round and full, looking so soft and plump that he almost had the urge to reach out and sink his fingers into it.

It jiggled slightly as she shifted her weight, a movement that was both subtle and utterly hypnotic.

She stood with one hand on her hip, pushing her chest out even further, a slow, confident smile spreading across her perfect, puffy lips.

“Cat got your tongue, Aestrea?” she purred seductively.

“Or are you just… happy to see me~♡?”

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