Prometheus looked deep in Syndra's eyes. He soon realized that she wasn't kidding. She truly was proposing him to marry an old woman.
'That's... genius!' shouted inwardly the youth. He wasn't angry at all for the suggestion. Nor he was offended. He found it genial! An old matron could care about him better than a young girl! Plus, she would probably need less his help to survive.
He took a large breath, tried to calm himself and then nodded to the energetic girl before him.
"Okay"
Syndra was smiling ironically, waiting for her old friend to start again cursing her and screaming in agitation like he always did when she played tricks on him. When see saw him nodding and heard him say that he was okay with her proposal, her mouth opened wide and her eyes almost popped outside her eye-sockets.
"Okay?" se asked, shocked.
"Yeah" confirmed Prometheus.
Syndra gave herself a pinch, to be sure that she was really awake and she wasn't having another of her weird dreams. The pain confirmed to her that she was indeed awake.
"Are... are you sure?" she tried to confirm again that she did heard correctly what he said.
Prometheus sighed: he knew that it wasn't something normal for a young man to ask to marry an old lady. Even on Earth, a planet that was incredibly more civilized than most regions of Illusory Thunder, that was seen as a very weird thing. Yet he had no other choice. He needed someone that could care for him and he needed it now!
In less than 40 hours he would be a complete retard incapable of securing his own survival. He didn't have any family left and his only friend was a lesbian teenager! Marriage was his only chance for survival. It wasn't much, but it was better than having no one to rely on.
"Yes!" he exclaimed trying to sound the most truthful possible. "I always liked older women!" he added after a moment. The last part wasn't a real lie. He actually liked more mature women. He tended to consider that women were like wine: the one that tasted better was the more aged one.
Now there was a line between aged and rotting, a line that he didn't want to cross. Hold had? that seemed to cross it, but he cound't do anything about it. It was survival at this point.
Syndra's eyes shined with a strange light. She smiled, hugging the maimed youth to her chest. Finally she found someone that could relate to her at a deeper level!
"I support you Sif! Us weirdos should always back each others to fulfill our dreams!" she screamed, tears of joy pouring down on her face.
'Wtf?' Prometheus was taken aback from her sudden movement. Weirdos? He wasn't a weirdo, nor was she one. 'No, I need to stop using my Earth common sense here' he realized. Yes, if he used the common sense that he developed during his first life he could see that both their love preferences were quite far from the normal way of doing things in Illusory Thunder.
"Do not worry Sif, I will help you with the old hag and then you will pay me back helping me build the greatest harem of hot babes in the whole county!" said the red haired woman, holding him so tight that Prometheus was feeling his wound begin to act up.
"Argh" he lamented, unable to control himself when an agonizing pulse of pain run across his body starting from his maimed arm.
"Oh sorry, I forgot" claimed the girl, rapidly separating herself from his body. She gave a look at his missing arm and her eyes watered a bit. The girl knew how much her friend was an archery and hunting fanatic: his body full of scars was a witness to that. However without an arm he would never be able to hold a bow again in his whole life.
Loosing access to the only thing that he seemed to enjoy had probably pushed him on the edge and now he wasn't caring much about what people thought of his love preferences. That's why he was finally opening with her. This was almost the same thing that happened to her.
Realizing how serious was the situation, Syndra couldn't bear to just sit on the sidelines: she needed to help him directly!
"I will go and talk with her! Just stay here and rest" said the girl already eyeing for the door. Panicking, Prometheus stopped her by grabbing her arm and pushing her back on the bed next to him.
"Wait, I need to.." he tried to find an excuse to forbid her to go talk on his behalf. He just didn't want her to ruin his only chance by doing or saying something stupid.
Syndra didn't resist, even if she knew that she could easily overpower him. She let herself be pressed down on the bed. However, when he started to talk she immediately interrupted her friend, putting a finger on his lips while shaking her head slowly.
"I really want to help you Sif, but you can't train your skills on me... I really don't swing that way" she said, giving to the appalled Prometheus another brief hug and then pushing herself again up.
Before the stunned youth could say anything else, she was already gone, moving with big steps outside towards the center of the village.
'What just happened'
Prometheus was beyond shocked by what just happened. That girl was completely insane. Who the fuck wanted to exercise on her? He just didn't want her to ruin his only chance for survival by saying some stupid thing to the woman he wanted to marry.
She didn't look like the person that had a good reputation in the local community, who was the moron that would want her to go and propose a marriage on his behalf? She would probably hit on the bride if she found her of her liking!
Feeling an headache coming Prometheus put a hand on his head in despair. This third life of his was the worst!
'Well, at least I can only go up from here... I'm already at rock bottom'
He had a system that continuously led him into traps, a best friend that was a moron and a sex fiend and his whole family was already dead in a attack where he lost his arm!
What else could go wrong?
'System: who is the old hag?'
Seen that things were already in motion, Prometheus didn't try to run and stop the red haired moron. He didn't know even if he could manage to keep up with her speed thanks to the pain that he was feeling. The only thing that he could do was to get information on this old hag person.
[Old Hag: Name Unknown, Aspect Unknown. She lives on the edge of the forest, expert herbalist.]
"An old herbalist living in near a forest? Sounds like an Anise to me..."
The system didn't any other information on this woman. In fact, the only thing that Prometheus learned was that she lived near a forest and was an herbalist.
"So cliché, is she a witch or something?"
He wouldn't be much surprised by that. Not with all the weird stuff that were happening to him. The thing that he found curious was the lack of information on the woman, even her real name and aspect were missing from the thing that the system was showing him.
[The owner of the body didn't have any interaction with her whatsoever.] explained the system to the young man's disappointment.
"Talking about blind dates... this is a blind marriage!"