“Illic, come, sit down.” I say as I take a slice of bread, put on some cream cheese on it, then some honey and tip it with a few green veggies that are good for the body. Everything has some essence in them, and the dishes on the table were specially grown, so they had more in them that normally, which would be nourishment for the body.

Putting the bread on a clean plate, I push it forward for Illic to take. He stands there in the room, looking at my enchanting body, which I still can’t believe I have, but I just moved in a way I’d ‘practiced’ in my free time previously, it seems like it works.

As he hears the sounds I produce, he comes forward and sits down, his face stern yet soft, truly, how could the previous Alaric not know about it all this time? Well, it wasn’t fully his fault, Illic didn’t do a good job showing it, and later on, he lost interest as Alaric became infatuated with the stupid Hinny. Illic was never entrapped in her charm, which made her per interest in him.

She somehow got him into her team, even if he wasn’t all hot about her, he still helped her and severed any ties that were between him and Alaric for the sake of making it clear it was a little crush of the past, nothing more.

Well, luckily this little crush has been going on for years by now, and it’s at it’s peak. If I don’t do anything now, then it will only dwindle from here on, till it is no more. Illik takes the bread I offered him and eats it, his mouth forming a small smile as the fork with a small piece of bread enters his mouth, that’s my chance to act cute “Say, why don’t you just eat it with your hand? It’s so slow to eat it with fork and knife, and we’re alone, so there is no need to act.”

Illic thinks for a second before he nods and takes the bread with his bare hand to his mouth and bites. Yep, he is definitely into me, or at least past Alaric, which is me anyways. The cold-faced beauty that was thought for years in his childhood by his stern parents about manners, suddenly lets go of them just because his crush tells him to?

Well, there wasn’t much to lose anyways. He wasn’t the heir to his fathers dukedom, nor was he talented in magic or the knightly way – which falls on the same doctrine, which differentiate the different ways of essence application. The three doctrines are Magic with Mana, Cultivation with Qi and Religion with Faith. Everything else falls into free-form essence weaving, although free-form essence weaving often has its origins in one of the doctrines.

Illic being the third son of the duke from five is one of the reasons why I dare ask what I do – “Say, Illic, why don’t you marry into my family?”

This single question made Illic instantly put down his bread and look at Alaric with some shock “There is no young lady in your family… is this about your stepmother- “

“Illic, no. I mean myself, why don’t you marry me?”

This brought even greater shock from Illic as he didn’t properly comprehend, he was about to ask when Alaric stopped him “I see the way you look at me, Illic. At the beginning, I didn’t understand and kept on. With time, I understood but didn’t say anything, thinking you were confused. Later, I thought deeply about it.”

“Alaric- “

“I’m not finished. I thought deeply about it, and in all honesty, I never had anyone I liked even close to as much as I like you. I want to try being with you, I wanted to take more time for all this… but I plan to leave and close the marquisate.”

Shock after shock, Illic couldn’t hold it and stood up, halfway gripping Alaric’s wrist.

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Alaric, instead of the expected pull back, turned his hands and grabbed Illics wrist just as his was grabbed “I am serious about what I just said. I will leave the marquisate and the kingdom in total, but I… I am not sure about my feelings yet, I just know that if I leave, I want to leave with you. I know that you are tied to the duchy and can’t leave the family registry easily, so I ask you again, do you wish to marry me, into my family, take on my last name, and traverse with me?”

I say that with every ounce of seriousness in me. I could go the route of instantly dropping the bomb and tell him about my year-long crush on him, but that’d make no sense. He’d just be confused with the new information and not be able to decide quickly. Telling him I want to explore my feelings while still giving him my last name and marriage means that even if I don’t eventually fall in love with him, I’ll still be with him, or more like he’ll be with me.

Illic looks me deep in the eyes and tries to find a sliver of doubt, but there is none, so he asks slowly “Do you truly mean it? If I marry into your family, I will be your responsibility, while I also… take on a part of what you own, truly. This…”

Using all the force I have, I pull the taller boy close to me, he’s barely two years older in this new body of mine, while my previous one would be his big brother, well older one, he’d still be taller. Giving him a tight hug, my loose robe somewhat slips down and the thin night gown touches the outer garment of Illic. My head only reaches to be next to the shoulder, so I bury my eyes in and try to act as quite as I can while I don’t die out of embarrassment.

“I am serious,” my voice comes out somewhat muffled, warm breath on Illic’s shoulder, tingling him a bit “I want to give you my last name, you will be mine and I will be yours, the same for what we own. Although I am not sure about my feelings, I still trust and want to be close to you. I have learned a lot of things in the past years, whenever people thought I was a drunkard with no future, that was my stepmother’s involvement.

In truth I was studying old languages and other things like that, I found out that I am somewhat talented, and now, I want to go to the wider world. I want to open a shop under the Silent Travellers Emporium, offering my knowledge as a service, but not here in this small kingdom in the corner of the southern continent, which restricts my further path a lot.

Illic, would you be willing to marry into my family, and go forth into the world?”

Illic’s loose hands clench somewhat till he brings them together and hugs Alaric, his ears red and eyes teary, something I had never seen before, even during the game, whenever I matched him, he would just accept it over time. I guess because I never did the drastic route, he never fully opened up. This is a chance to ensure he isn’t embarrassed about doing so.

I look up into his eyes and see he’s somewhat trying to supress his tears, so I take my hand up to his face and massage the sides of his eyes, loosening them “Let it out,” I say, somewhat weeping too, this isn’t an act of mine, he has been my crush for the last years whenever I played the game. It never became an obsession of mine, but I guess my loneliness from my past and the shock of transmigrating is still there “don’t hold back in front of me. I know… you have struggles with these things, but please try to relax when it’s just us, ‘kay?”

Illic’s gaze becomes even softer than before and he nods, a few tears flowing down his cheek. I gently press his head into my shoulder, so he can let it out. In know why he’s reacting so strongly. Since he was born, he was only the third child of the duke and was taught to always be stoic and serious, never lose composure and he was made to vigorously train all the time. Unfortunately, he wasn’t talented in magic, but not only that, he also had an affinity for shadow-essence, something dearly despised in the kingdom, causing him to never train in it.

That’s a sub-affinity of darkness, it focuses on stealth and strong attacks. Any assassin with the affinity was bound to do well, but Illic didn’t just have a small affinity, no, his affinity was very strong and has only been supressed because of the light-affinity essence prevailing the kingdom. This would be easy to circumvent if he had built even just one circle, but he was also a 0-Circle equivalent, just like Alaric.

He had been keeping his affinity a secret when he awakened it, and just never accepted any testing from his family, telling them he had not awakened any affinity, which wasn’t rare. You would only awaken an affinity naturally if you are compatible with it; others could just get an affinity when they align themselves with it later in their path.