After making her declaration, Aurora looked at Sol with a meaningful glance and carefully scrutinized his expression.
But whatever she had hoped to see did not appear for the slightest instant. Sol only showed a thoughtful expression at the mention of her name.
‘Was I wrong? Or does he not remember? Perhaps he is simply acting right now?’
She immediately discarded the last notion. She was the weaker party here. If he had really gotten his memories back, he had absolutely no reason to fear her.
‘This… Hmmm… It’s quite complicated.’
In the first place, she had no intention to meet him right now. She had felt the flow of destiny and deduced that it was not the time yet for them to talk it out.
So she had been taken off guard when he suddenly appeared in this place and found her so accurately even though she had masked her presence with the authority of [Night].
Even those stupid sisters of hers could not feel her presence when she was using her authority to mask herself.
‘I am sure it’s him. So what is going on.’
“Are you by chance a reincarnator? Or a foreign soul that stole the body of this girl?”
‘Reincarnator?’
She was briefly confused by his unexpected choice of words but soon understood what he meant by them. She swiftly proceeded to explain herself.
“You do not have to show such wariness towards me. I did not steal this body. This body was mine from the start.”
The reason she had fallen asleep was simply that this body could not support her divine soul at that time. She should only have been able to wake up after a few years time from now on after completely assimilating her memory but who would have thought that something like this would happen?
“I guess some external variables had a hand in advancing my awakening.”
She gave a smile and hoped that it was reassuring enough.
‘What should I do now?’
This was completely outside of her plans. If he did not remember anything, he was just a simple mortal right now.
Her heart began to beat widely. Should she strike him down and steal the power of Origin? Her powers embodying the concept of Dawn made her the closest to Origin after Chaos and Order.
She could even perhaps obtain [The End]. Since she had stolen the divinity of [The Night].
Furthermore, he had killed her in the past. It wouldn't be wrong to do the same to him, right?
'Ugh. Let's control myself right now.'
She sighed and banished those intrusive thoughts. She did not wish to make him her enemy and she would benefit much more from being an ally of his anyway.
This might in fact be an opportunity for her. If she managed to make him grateful to her now, she would have someone reliable on her back down the road.
"It seems like you might be in need of my assistance."
She realized that she had been the one doing the talking all this while Sol simply continued to observe her with a cold and impassive expression on his face.
She only blinked once and suddenly she felt a hand had been placed on her head. She was startled to realize that Sol was already pressing down on her.
She could feel the power contained in his arm. He only needed to press a little and her head would burst like a balloon.
"Haha. What might be the matter here?"
"I am not in the best mood currently and I really hate mysterious secrets and roundabout talks, you know? You seem to have been some kind of big shot or a powerhouse in the past but you see the thing is, right now you are just a weakling."
Aurora's eyes twitched but she did not move or rebut his statement.
She had indeed forgotten a fundamental problem. She was the Goddess of Dawn no more.
Currently, she was just a helpless Holy Daughter of Castitas.
Stealing his divinity? She should be happy if she didn't get blasted to death right now.
'Hah… So many bad memories are resurfacing all of a sudden.'
She had been a very powerful goddess when she was in her prime back then. But she was helplessly killed with no way of resisting by the very hands that were currently restricting her like this.
She had thought that this was the end for her but she had received a second chance at life.
There was no way she would squander it. Even more so since she did not know if she could come back to life once again by some chance.
“Well— There is no need to lose your temper.”
She slowly took a step back to show that she was not being hostile to him or anything of the sort.
“I can’t really tell you more. Revealing my name to you is not complicated but the bigger the secret is the harder is it to dissimulate.”
Sol narrowed his eyes, “Who are you?”
“Again the same question all over again.”
She seemed tired but she answered nonetheless, “I am many things. I am a ghost of the past. I am someone whose sole wish is to survive the incoming disaster. I am a coward who wishes to live and also someone who once stood at the very peak before being betrayed. But for you? I can become your greatest trump card.”
Sol gave her a deep look before the coldness vanished from his eyes and a smile graced his lips,
“Is that so?”
Goosebumps crawled on Aurora's skin. She thought that she had gotten the hang of making human expressions but she had to admit that the switch of expressions that Sol showed her was rather startling.
She had definitely felt his killing intent a few moments ago. There was no doubt in her mind that even now, he was observing her and deciding whether she was worth keeping alive or not.
“What can you help me with, I wonder…”
“Well— Let’s just say I am very good at keeping secrets.”
It was in a moment like this that she was happy to have stolen the power of [Night].
She began to explain her plan and powers and the more she did so, the more Sol's killing intent changed into curiosity.
“I see… Indeed. If your power is as impressive as this then it would definitely be helpful. But— the problem here is… I do not trust you.”
She was not surprised. if her plan failed or if she betrayed him midway, Sol would face very grave repercussions for his actions.
There was no way he would readily believe her in such a tense situation. Even more so since she was indeed highly suspicious at the end of the day.
“I guess you will have to take a leap of faith in this case then.”
He shook his head, “Sorry. But I stopped giving my confidence and trust to others unconditionally long ago. So why don’t we make a deal instead…”
She was confused by what he meant but, the moment he placed a finger on her forehead, she immediately tried to bolt backward. Her instincts were screaming at her that whatever was about to happen was something she would definitely not like in the slightest.
Sadly for her, she realized that she was completely unable to move from her spot.
“I won’t apologize. It would only be hypocritical. But I will definitely pay you back and will try to make it fair for you if this deal were to be fruitful.”
Her eyes widened as she felt words being written on her subconscious. Like a binding oath, she could feel that her very soul was being restricted and her destiny was being twisted in a direction she had no control of.
‘How is this even possible!!?’
This was something that should only be possible for the gods. But right now she did not even feel divine energy emanating from him much less the power to forcefully use destiny as he saw fit. Was it related to [The End]? or something more?
She did not know the answer to that query of hers.
“What did you do?”
Once Sol retreated his finger and she was once again free to move, she inspected her body but found that nothing changed outwardly.
But she knew that this was only in appearance.
He gave a sad smile to her before responding in a leveled tone, “I tied your life with mine through our Karmic thread. It doesn’t matter how far I am or what the possible reason is. The moment I die, you will follow me to the grave. Furthermore, the moment you betray me, in any form or way, you will also die.”
“You…”
“Do not worry. I have no intention of forcing you to do anything you do not want to. As long as you do not betray me… Nothing will happen to you.”
This was definitely not the way she had envisioned their first meeting would go.
(AN: This might the worst chapter I wrote this month. I don’t know. I just felt weird writing this. Sigh, perhaps I am just feeling tired. Readers will judge if the chapter was good or bad. The arc is coming to an end but I have many small regrets regarding it. I recognize I made things too complicated. Brought forward many plot points that should have been introduced slowly later in the story. More than anything, I definitely think that I didn’t give enough screen time to Lilith. Still, I will do her right— I hope.
The next volume will be a happy moment with no stress for Sol (and hopefully me as well). I was surprised to see that many people really liked the Beach arc, festival arc, and Pandora’s freaking arc. I thought readers would say it was a filler so I tried to keep them short. I realized that my dude Sol needs some moments to just enjoy life with his lovers and have some fun.
I think in February I might slow down a little. Perhaps 5 chapters a week. Writing a chapter every day without making a pause isn’t easy and honestly taxing on the mind. Some days I just didn’t want to write and just wanted to have fun but couldn’t do so. Well, it’s my job so I can’t really whine about this. But I don’t want writing to become a chore for me.)
