Stalemate—Aiden mulled over the significance of this term.
"Are you trying to make me lower my guard?" Aiden responded.
"Breaking the rules in a place like this takes the fun out of the game. Declaring defeat means defeat, declaring a draw means it's a draw," Melissa replied. "Anything beyond that would just lead to upending the game board and having a brawl, which wouldn't be fun."
Aiden realized that the Scheming Goddess had never taken this battle seriously from start to finish. Unlike him and the Goddess of Revenge, who took the fight seriously, Melissa was merely toying with the idea of playing a game of power with Aiden after his ascension to a ruler, although she wouldn't hesitate to assimilate both Aiden and the Goddess of Revenge if she won. But she wasn't overly fixated on this.
"Of course, for you, managing to force a stalemate can be considered a rather good outcome. You can treat it as your victory," Melissa said with a laugh.
