"Come on, Arthur," Aria asks as she pinches his cheeks, swaying his face from side to side. "Tell Mommy what you have been doing with Nyx for the past three years!"
Despite her touch still being gentle and loving, Aria is clearly upset and frustrated in a way that not even she thought she could be.
"We didn't do anything besides a few kisses recently, for real!" Arthur speaks desperately.
He doesn't know how his mom ended up so angry, but he certainly blames Nyx for that.
"Why did you have to talk about the kisses??" He asks her mentally.
"I can't hide it from her!" Nyx responds.
"Why not?" He gets curious.
"It's just... you know..." Nyx gets shy. "She's your mother..."
"Wait..." Arthur begins to understand what is happening with Nyx. "Are you so worried about your relationship with her because she's your mother-in-law?"
"M-m-mother-in-law?" Nyx was thinking about that word, but hearing Arthur say it in her mind makes her even more shy.
"Oh, Nyx, you are so adorable," Arthur can't help but smile. "But you got us into trouble, and now my mom is freaking out."
"I can't do anything about it," she can't help but blush every time she receives his compliments. "And stop teasing me; now is not a good time!"
Arthur also agrees that now is not a good time since Aria is looking at him with that curious expression.
"You're talking to Nyx mentally, aren't you?" She asks, already sure of the answer.
"How do you know?" Arthur continues to be amazed by his mother's intelligence.
"Ara Ara~" She makes a charming and confident expression. "Mommy is not stupid; I always noticed you getting this disconnected expression, and now it makes sense,"
"I mean, people with Astral Beasts can give commands to their companions mentally," Aria pauses and looks at Nyx. "I suppose you have such a bond, right?"
"Astral Beas-" Arthur stops speaking and casts a loving look at Nyx. "I don't like to think of her that way since Nyx is a person."
"Oh," Aria looks at Nyx with a sorry expression. "I didn't mean to say anything offensive, but Astral Beasts are far more complex than we can imagine, so I suppose it's not impossible to have other people in this situation."
Nyx nods, "This one really thinks our bond is like the Astral Beasts'."
"Oh, dear," Aria speaks in a gentle tone to Nyx. "You don't need to be so polite to me,"
"Since you've been sleeping with my son for three years..." Aria casts a penetrating look at Arthur before speaking to Nyx again. "We are family now, right?"
Nyx blushes at hearing that, and Arthur opens a confident and proud smile.
"You are right, Mom, we are family; after all, she is going to be my wife." Arthur makes his position very clear.
"W-W-WIFE?!?" Nyx did not expect him to say that out loud.
She is so amazed at such a statement but at the same time so shy that she dematerializes her body and flees back to his Nexus.
"My~ my~~" Aria shakes her head at Arthur. "You really know how to make a girl blush and run away shyly."
"That's her charm." He shrugs with a proud smile. "But there is no reason to deny our relationship; our bond is already so solid."
Aria sighs. "And what else can you tell me about Nyx besides her being shy and my daughter-in-law?"
Arthur can see flames arise in his mother's eyes when she says "daughter-in-law," and he quickly regrets his bold statement.
"Hehehe…" Arthur tries to appear calm. "I will tell you everything, Mom."
"I have no doubts about that, my beloved son," Aria speaks with her tone full of love but also feelings that Arthur can't identify yet.
He quickly tells her everything about Nyx, how she appeared in the bathroom when he was taking a bath, how they started interacting and sleeping together, and also how he feels his body getting stronger whenever they interact.
But he doesn't tell some details of how he teases Nyx and kisses her whenever possible. And, of course, he doesn't tell about how she was about to wash his body during the bath earlier.
Arthur has no experience with relationships, but he already understands that his mother seems upset with the idea of him doing naughty things with Nyx.
While he was telling Aria about Nyx, she was making signs with her hand, and a feather was writing those things in a book.
"Is this some kind of diary?" He asks when he finishes his story.
Aria nods and points to a bookshelf full of other books similar to that one. "This is my research on Astral Beasts, and Nyx is certainly the most fascinating creature so far."
"Mom…" Arthur really doesn't like to think of Nyx as his Astral Beast but rather his partner, his wife. "She's not-"
Aria can see that and quickly makes a sorry expression. "I know, okay, your wife, right?"
Arthur nods with that proud smile, but Aria hits his head with the book, making a *Bam* sound. "You're only fourteen!! This is not the age to be married already! Also, you'll have to make her your fiance first!"
"Ow, ow!!" He jumps back, surprised at the hostile reaction of his mother, who has always been so loving. "I got it, okay?"
Aria lets out a long sigh and sits on a sofa in the corner of the room before looking at Arthur and patting the seat next to her.
"Come on, we have to seriously talk about Nyx now," She speaks in a calm tone.
Arthur doesn't know what to expect, but he sits next to his mother, and she places her hand on top of his.
"Nyx is really part of the family, and we are going to learn to deal with this situation together, but…" She can't hide a sorry glow in her eyes.
"You can't tell your father about her," Aria says. "And you also can't talk about your memories of another life, neither to him nor to other people."
Arthur doesn't care about the opinion of other people, but the idea of never being able to tell the truth to his father and introduce him to his beautiful future wife is just sad.
Even though he doesn't agree with the way that Draven wanted to deal with the bandits the night before, he doesn't hate his father.
How could he hate the man who has always been present in his life with a gentle smile on his face, teaching him to swim, hunt, fight, and everything else?
"Is there any possibility that he would understand?" Arthur asks his mother.
Aria feels her heart ache, but she shakes her head. "Draven can't change; I know better than anyone, he's inflexible."
Arthur is confused because he doesn't know many things about Draven, and Aria understands that, so she has no choice but to say some things she wouldn't like to say.
"Look, my son," She speaks lovingly. "Mommy doesn't want you to hate your father, but you need to understand how he thinks,"
Arthur listens attentively while Aria talks about Draven.
"Before you were born, we were part of a group of adventurers; at that time, your father and I had been traveling companions for many years, crossing the world..."
"Both of us had deep wounds because of our families, and when our group was forced to separate, only he and I remained,"
"At that time, your father was very different; he thought he could defeat all the villains of the world with his sword and golden lion,"
Aria shakes her head and smiles at the memory of how delusional Draven seemed. "Your father is like that; his ego makes him think he can change the entire world alone."
"But the reality is much darker..." She speaks in a sorry tone. "Your father saw the world in black and white before we met, so he killed everyone he considered to be bad people,"
"He left behind a gigantic trail of bodies, including people who didn't deserve to die... the wounds in his heart were very deep, and he fell more and more into a dark abyss within himself."
Arthur is shocked to learn that his father also has a dark side, which doesn't make sense.
Aria may no longer feel any love for Draven, but she gets emotional remembering the past.
"Once we saw a kid stealing an apple out of hunger, and Draven almost raised his sword to defeat another villain... that was when I most wanted to help him,"
"So I showed him that the world is not black and white but gray, that there is both light and shadows within all of us, and what defines whether we are good or not is not any sense of morality or ethics but the people for whom we choose to do good or evil."
Aria pauses, and Arthur can see disappointment in her look.
"I thought it would allow Draven to start his life again, but it actually made him more certain that he could save the entire world, not by killing but by removing evil from within people..."
"We were friends, loyal companions, and I didn't want to see him get lost again... at that time, I also felt very lonely, so the idea of starting a family with him seemed good."
Aria smiles at Arthur and lovingly strokes his face. "I always wanted a family to call my own, to whom I could give all my love... and of course, receive love in return too, I won't lie."
Arthur smiles and caresses Aria's hand, making her smile even more.
However, her expression becomes disappointed again as she thinks of Draven.
"Draven promised me that he would be a good father to our children, that we could start over away from all the shit of the world,"
"So I accepted him, and we came here; I wanted to raise my children in a calm and good place, away from everything bad in this world until our family was ready to venture out there together,"
Hearing that, Arthur imagines traveling the world with Aria, Eve, and Nyx, which would be very good.
But the image of them with Draven comes naturally to his mind when he thinks of his united family; after all, he grew up with that father, so discarding Draven simply doesn't seem natural.
Aria continues her story. "Draven had promised me that we would make all the important decisions together, and things seemed that way for a while... but everything changed when Eve was born,"
She looks increasingly disappointed as she explains. "I think Draven never really changed; he just pretended to agree with me while, in fact, he was already making his own plans for you and Eve,"
"He didn't just want to love and protect our children like me but to take us all to a noble academy, a pathetic place for rich and spoiled people..."
"His idea was that he and I would become teachers in this academy, and you and Eve would have the best training possible,"
"But not just that," Aria pauses, and Arthur can see that in addition to disappointment, there is anger in her eyes. "Draven even had plans for you to marry a noblewoman and suitors for Eve..."
"Damn, she was barely a year old, and he was already thinking of handing her over to some disgusting nobleman who shares the same stupid heroic ideas as him!!" Aria clenches her teeth in anger.
Arthur is shocked to hear that. How could the father, who was always so loving and dedicated be actually planning to control the lives of their children like puppets?
He doesn't blame Draven for wanting him to have some kind of special education and wouldn't even be angry at a suggestion of engagement or something like that.
But he can't accept the idea that his father was already planning to force Eve to marry someone when she was not even a year old.
"Did he really do something like that?" Arthur asks.
Aria nods. "Unfortunately, yes; he must think that it is the best path for you and Eve to become heroes like him, and together you would save the world or some shit like that."
Arthur still can't hate his father since he really must think that would be the best for him and Eve.
He also only has that story from Aria's perspective, and even though he completely trusts his mother, he wants to hear that story from his father, too, and understand how things ended up that way.
The thing Arthur has always feared most is losing his perfect life, which includes his perfect family, so the idea of Draven not being the good father he always seemed to be is very painful and frustrating.
"I have to be sure about his intentions before anything..." He thinks about giving Draven the benefit of the doubt and not a judgment based on the one bad day they've had in fourteen years.