房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

Chapter 433 141 - The meaning of obligation (part 3)

Zoemi nuzzled his way up so that at least he could face Aspakeony and looked at her with his cheeks smushed between her breast.

"..."

"..."

Which resulted in the two of them staring at each other in silence for a good few embarrassing seconds.

"...finally done it...? So you were thinking about abducting me for a while?"

"...!"

The black-haired boy asked, making the gray-haired girl twitch and look away bashfully.

"Don't get me wrong - you are misunderstanding the circumstances we are in. I was the one who showed up at your office, you didn't kidnap me or anything if that helps... but you were the one to hug me first when I tried to wake you up."

He continued to explain but his words didn't particularly make Aspakeony feel any less embarrassed.

"(I want to hug master too!)"

"(Eh?! Not fair! Me too!)"

To add up to the situation, Zoemi's second sentinel cheered out and emerged from the boy's shadow before nuzzling up to his side - and was closely followed by the first one who was definitely thinking about doing the same even earlier but was the more socially-aware than their friend.

That resulted in Zoemi being hugged by the necromancer and the two murky-black spheres.

"I don't remember saying anything like that..."

Aspakeony mumbled while facing away from the black-haired boy.

"...?"

While doing so she also tried to casually make some space between them, but to her surprise, Zoemi didn't let go of her at all.

"Since we have a chance to talk like that, I would like to ask you about Ehmi."

"...?"

The boy said, to which the gray-haired necromancer furrowed her brows and tilted her head looking at him in concern.

"Considering the state your body was in, there was nothing that you could do. Besides, after that brat Vanterl showed up, you would not be able to do anything either... without starting a full-on civil war that is."

The gray-haired girl explained with concern, although because of a slight misconception on her part, she was speaking about something that certainly wasn't on Zoemi's mind at the moment.

"Not about that, I figured out that since Ehmi herself didn't fight back against another fire sage she was fine with the outcome... hold on... what do you mean a civil war would start? On what basis?!"

Although even though Aspakeony's words were off the mark, the vicinity in which they landed, ended up being almost as much worrisome as the main point, so Zoemi couldn't stop himself from asking.

"Oh...? Ohhh...! If you don't know that either then I understand your confusion."

The gray-haired girl raised her brows even higher before slowly nodding her head in realization.

"You see, originally all the high noble families stem from the sages. If not for the betrayal of the Ghosts of Bellcephora and their hunt for sages and strong magicians, most of them would still be around."

"Okay...?"

She started talking while getting closer to Zoemi once more and the black-haired boy nodded while looking to the sides trying to figure out how that was connected with anything.

"Do you know that humans have a limit on how much mana they could have? That means that once they reach the said limit, they cannot get any stronger and so the battle between sages are usually glorified battles of attrition."

Aspakeony explained while tilting her head to the other side.

"Grandpa Benevirau said that fighting all of the Ghosts of Bellcephora was like fighting just one of them, is that what you mean...?"

Zoemi spoke up blinking rapidly because of the conflicting information.

"...please don't call him grandpa, that makes me feel even more ancient than I already am..."

Aspakeony groaned while rolling her eyes with a pained expression.

"But about little Benevirau, of course, he can say it like that, he has access to the mana from nature itself, of course, he would win every single battle of attrition - he literally cannot run out of mana."

"Ah. Right, sorry, I wasn't thinking...!"

The gray-haired girl pointed out and the black-haired boy nodded awkwardly before forcing himself to stop looking at the necromancer's chest.

"When two sages fight the end result is usually so destructive that no one truly wants to fight - with the only notable exceptions being the Ghosts of Bellcephora and Vanterl. Hence, it's a good thing that you didn't pick a fight with him."

Aspekony ended her sentence making a benevolent smile and looking at the black-haired boy as if he was a cute innocent child.

"...but Ghost did kill a lot of sages, and William erased one of the Ghosts so easily that it scared the rest of them into hiding... hell, even I killed in two of the Ghosts by myself, and I wasn't even a sage when the I killed the first one either. Are you sure that everything is as you say...?"

"..."

Zoemi bit his lips and asked doubtfully making Aspakeony freeze.

"...?"

Although after just a second, the black-haired boy realized that it wasn't his words that have caused it.

Instead, it looked like the gray-haired girl was completely focused on his lips.

Just a single heartbeat later, she ended up leaning in as if for a kiss - but Zoemi jerked his head away and frowned, actually angered.

"Hey! Don't try to get away from the subject like that, focus, you stupidly attractive ancestor!"

He scoffed, leaning his head forward so that he rested his chin against the necromancer's neck to prevent another attack.

"You think I'm attractive?!"

"What, was that ever under any doubt? Of course. But! Aspy, I am not an idiot, you are clearly not telling me the really important stuff. Please do not change the subject like that - my will is stronger than you seem to expect."

The gray-haired girl gasped in awe but the black-haired boy only scoffed, rolling his eyes in annoyance.

"Tsk... fine. The real reason why no one is picking a fight is because of Bellcephora."

Aspakeony clicked her tongue and breathed out, fully entrusting herself to Zoemi's and breathed out heavily.

"...so just like the other noble families had a progenitor, the royal family did too? Well, that's logical, actually..."

The black-haired boy tilted his head a bit, unintentionally leaning against the necromancer's skin.

"Not just the family, the entire kingdom."

She pointed out, correcting his line of thought.