Al placed Aeson down gently on the pavement. A potion was pulled out of nowhere and she poured the cold liquid onto his sprained leg.
He shuddered at the coldness and his eyes carried confusion.
After making sure that his leg healed nicely, Al turned back and chanted something and the whole surrounding that was in flame and chaos became normal again.
She turned back and smiled brightly.
"It's just an illusion, the people are gonna come here soon because of the explosions. I set up a barrier to shield their visions. You probably don't want any trouble right, little cutie?" She calmly explained to the still-dazed Aeson. Thinking he looked cute, she pinched his cheek a few times, leaving red marks on his milky skin.
Aeson snapped out of it with the pain of the pinch. He stood up abruptly and ran in another direction, letting Al chase after him.
"Little cutie, are you being sh-" Before she could say anything more with a gloating face, she saw him crouching down to check on a pretty girl leaning on a wall. A corner of her smirk twitched.
Aeson ignored the black smoke behind him and gently swayed the saint awake. She seemed to faint through exhaustion, not concussion, so she just groaned at his movements.
"Ugh… Are we safe?"
Her eyelids blinked slowly, not clear of the surrounding situation. Her whole appearance was quite pathetic, full of dust and dirt on her hair and face, making her white hair turn ashy. Aeson took out a cloth, preparing to wipe her face, but then a sudden water current appeared out of thin air and washed up the saint's appearance.
Aeson turned his head to look at the wide grin on Al's face as she was walking closer to them. Magic was indeed useful, snap their fingers and they could do all that. Little did Aeson know that only that person could do that.
"Yes, we're in my barrier so no one can find us." Even though Al had a sunny smile on her face, her voice was cold. Aeson shook his head internally.
"Miss, do you know why you were kidnapped?" He asked slowly.
"They said something about the Demon King... I'm a seal or something..."The saint hesitated to speak as she looked warily at the two people in front of her. Then she remembered something and changed her attitude completely."Thank you for saving me! They locked me up for a whole month and kept condemning me for being a saint-"
"A saint?" Al and Aeson gave an inquiring look which made the saint jump. The saint instantly covered her mouth with her hands with a look of horror.
"I think I have heard the saint of the main church was missing." Al stroked her chin as she leaned in closer to look at the quivering saint. Her eyes held no emotion but a wicked grin was on her face, it scared the timid saint.
"My name is Aeson." The quick way to build trust was to introduce themselves.
"Oh! So little cutie's name is Aeson! I thought I would have to call you little cutie all my life." Al whipped her head to look at his profile, there was a dangerous glint in her eyes.
Aeson shuddered a bit. He was confused about her anger but then remembered that he never introduced his name to her... He felt like they already knew each other for a long time so he forgot about it...
Aeson's expressionless face showed a little bit of guilt, it was enough to soften the gaze of the powerful wizard. So, she eased her exuding pressure and turned to the saint again.
"And I'm Al, little saint."
"I-I'm Liliana." Liliana hesitantly said. She was very grateful for their help but it could not be helped that she was afraid of people. In the church, greedy old men would try to exploit her power, and when she escaped, she almost got killed. It was a lesson for her to learn not to trust people so easily. But her momentarily appreciation made her spill her status...
"I can't believe that there are still Demon King fanatics... Even tried to use the confinement spell to trap her holy status. Their ambition is big. What are you planning to do now, little saint?" Al asked, seemingly resolving the whole incident already.
"I..." Liliana had no idea. She ran away but she had no goals, freedom was all she ever wanted but the outside was so dangerous. Her big eyes showed an aggrieved and wronged emotion, making Aeson feel like seeing an abandoned pup.
He only wanted to know the saint's situation and leave right after. And he was so lucky to stumble upon a hidden plot. Maybe he should just be a home-wrecker, hooking the Saint with the Duke…
"If you want, we can go to the capital together. Or another city for your safety, this cult doesn't look simple." This must have been the longest sentence he muttered ever since he became Aeson.
With no other plan, Liliana agreed with his proposal. The trio walked back to the inn that Al recommended before. Feeling tired of the event before, they set out for dinner at a nearby restaurant.
"What are you coming to the capital for, little cutie?"
Al generously ordered a feast for them. Her interaction with the waiters was natural, maybe a regular.
"…find my lover." He could not reveal his mission of finding the World Tree fruit to anyone. But he wanted to say some truth to the person who saved him. It was not false that he was looking for his husband.
"Lover? She lives in the capital?" Suddenly, the silent saint spoke up enthusiastically.
"…future lover."
"Are you looking for a bride? Little cutie, what about me?" Al's eyes lit up and presented her pearly white teeth with a grin.
Aeson got a headache. He rarely interacted with strangers this much. Besides the brief mention of the saint, the plot never mentioned Al who turned out to be quite a powerful wizard. He wondered what made him say that in the first place. He must have been stressed out by the suicide bomber cult.
Regarding her question, he felt restless. All his lover's identities have been male, just like how he always transmigrated as male.
"A husband." Aeson decisively said, closing his eyes to avoid the stares. Maybe with this, Al would leave him alone from now on. He really did not care about his husband's identity but he trusted the pattern and his gut.
Liliana was stunned. A man with a man? That picture felt wrong… but also right? With Aeson's appearance, he would be…pressed… The pure innocent saint who never experienced the world strayed on a very deviant path.
Meanwhile, the light in Al's eyes became brighter and her smile deepened further.
It was a weird silence until the waiter came to serve food that they all returned to normal.
But that night when they retreated to their rooms, Aeson kept having a suspicion in his heart. The moment he met Al, he did not have a cautious attitude at all, and his beating heart was undeniable. He was not a low EQ person, he realized what it might have meant. Was it really attraction or the suspension bridge effect?
'Let's stop thinking about it...'
Running away from his problems had never sounded better. Now that he pushed that to the side, he started thinking about the saint and the cult. He rarely entered Western worlds with fantasy elements like this. There were too many hidden plots because this was a damn romance novel with a little suspense to improve the love of the main lead! He swore in his heart that he would never say that this world was interesting anymore, it was too exhausting for a homebody like him. Ah... he wanted to go to 01 worlds again...
For the whole night, Aeson was full of thoughts. Due to his overload in mental capacity, he passed out until noon.
When he finally woke up, he found the saint lingering in front of his room. She seemed to not have enough sleep too because of the previous kidnapping incident. Al already left somewhere so she could only wait in front of his door.
As soon as they stepped out of the inn, a large shadow cast over them, making them raise their heads up.
Aeson's heart started to beat fast and his breath hitched. He would be a fool if not realizing what this phenomenon was.
A man with a sharp angular face, sword-like brows, and glowing amber eyes hinting at some playfulness. Especially his hair, it was eye-catching with the familiar fiery red. The face still retained the smugness. The third fish, Alfred Finch, was here.
This confirmed it, it was still his husband, not wife... Maybe both in this life. With thousands of worlds that he traveled through, how could he not think of this possibility? Red hair, great magic power, the names... it was too obvious but the plot never mentioned that he could turn into a woman... Or was it his long-lost sister?
"Little cutie? What are you thinking about?" Alfred still had a smile when he looked at the appearance of being deep in thought. It was simply too cute! It seemed like his cutie already realized it.
"What's your purpose here?" Aeson asked.
"Find my bride, of course!" Alfred beamed a sunny smile.
"..."
With that address and the unconcealed warmth in that flirting tone, Aeson confirmed his suspicions. His lover seemed to use magic or something to change their genders. He began to relax before raising his defense again. The original body knew Alfred Finch because he was one of the important figures in the continent, not just the Aether empire. With Aeson's personality, he would be extremely wary of an important person.
Liliana looked confused as Aeson shielded her behind him. He glared at the smiling wizard but there was no vigilance in his eyes. It made Alfred smile more but the glint in his gaze changed when he saw the hand pulling the saint.
"Little cutie, don't misunderstand. I'm only interested in you, not that one." Alfred quickly grabbed the little elf's waist and pulled him closer to his chest. He lowered his face, revealing eyes dripping with affection to Aeson. Their faces were only a pinky apart before the lips touched. Such an ambiguous posture brought a lot of attention from the people in the inn and on the street.
Liliana, who was ignored, gasped quietly with her hands covering her mouth. The exhaustion shown this morning dissipated with the flush on her face. Her eyes sparkled at the picture in front of her.
'So... so... so exciting!!'
She exclaimed in her heart. A shy cute and grumpy man and a flirtatious handsome man, this combination was so pleasant to the eyes that she felt her energy restocked and her holy power got stronger!
If Aeson knew what she was thinking, he could only smile wryly. Any world would have some rotten women.