Olana suddenly burst out laughing, a genuine, lodic sound that seed entirely out of place given the dire situation of the city around them. It was as if she had just heard the most absurd, ridiculous comnt in the history of the apocalypse.
If anything, she wanted the total opposite; she wanted to cling to him like... forever! She saw him as the ultimate winning ticket in a cosmic lottery.
"Then..." Hye was startled by her reaction. He couldn’t tell if this was a masterclass in acting or if she was genuinely wishing for a permanent bond. When he gave it more thought, he remained sceptical.
Soone who had lived her life as a princess of a very wealthy family, accustod to giving orders, surely wouldn’t voluntarily choose to spend the rest of her life taking orders from him. It defied everything he knew about human—or alien—nature.
"All they need is just to get to the better side of you," Olana said, her laughter dying down into a serious, urgent tone. She knew she had to kill all the sprouts of doubt inside Hye right now, or else they would fester into a paranoia that would ruin everything later on.
"Better side of ? But I’m just a nobody!" Hye said, his confusion deepening. He felt weirder the more she spoke. To him, he was just a guy with a second chance and a lot of summoned monsters.
For the first ti, Olana felt like Hye—despite his tactical brilliance and combat prowess—was really slow-witted when it ca to these matters.
"Listen, consider it like a betrothal gift," Olana said. If he was acting ignorant because he was genuinely dense about these matters or if he was doing it on purpose to test her, she didn’t care.
She decided to speak blatantly and without a shred of embarrassnt. "Consider it a gesture from my family to tie the two of us together. They are recognising you as my partner, and they want to secure that bond with assets that will help you rule."
"..."
Hye’s eyes suddenly widened the mont he realised the weight of what she was proposing. The gears in his head, usually reserved for tactical manoeuvres and kill counts, ground to a halt as they processed a completely different kind of manoeuvre.
"Are you sure?" he couldn’t help but ask, peering into her eyes just to be sure he grasped her intent clearly. This wasn’t just a business deal; it was a claim. "You want to be my woman? But you’ve seen the state of things. I already have lots of won, and in my past, I even had children! My life is complicated and shrouded in blood. Are you ready for that?"
"That’s expected," Olana replied. Her face didn’t show any outward sign of change, but her tone carried a faint, fleeting note of sadness.
Deep down, she had hoped to be the first to truly hunt down his heart, but she recalled how dazzling and powerful he had been in the stories—even if those stories were from a future he was currently rewriting. Expecting a man like him to be unattached was quite the fantasy.
"I’ll ask you to consider this carefully, as once decided on these matters, there is no turning back..." Hye was genuinely surprised by her proposal.
He knew he was destined for greatness—he was counting on it—but at this point, he still felt like a shrimp trying to survive the predators of a vast and mighty ocean. Having a princess of a rchant empire offer herself was a variable he hadn’t fully accounted for.
"Listen, you know I ca from a wealthy and authoritative family," Olana said, stepping into his personal space, her voice gaining a firm, business-like edge. "We are the elites in the rchant circles. If I dare to brag about one skill I have learned from my family over all these years, it is having a good eye for hidden treasures. And you... You are the most priceless treasure I have ever laid my eyes on! I am investing in you because I know the returns will be astronomical."
"Ok," Hye muttered. For a mont there, he felt a bit weird, a strange prickle of heat rising in his chest. "You know, from where I co from, it’s always the man who proposes to the lady," he couldn’t help but say those words, trying to regain so semblance of control over the conversation.
Olana totally ignored his remark. "I don’t give a damn about tradition if it ans closing the deal of my lifeti!"
"As you wish," Hye said, finally relenting. He didn’t mind adding another pearl to his collection of beauties, especially one as sharp and resourceful as her. "But let be clear about this: we won’t make any detours this month. No family visits, no artificial planet inspections. Not until the Archlord is dealt with."
"But..."
"I know what you aim for here," he sighed, slowly shaking his head. "Do you think I will grow to the top of the universe from just one adventure? I get how urgent you may feel to secure your position, but let clarify this for you: If I ever care for you, it will be for you, and not because of your family and what they can do for . If I were looking for leverage, I should have picked a beauty from the Hescos long ago!"
"..."
Hearing his words made her fall silent for a long ti. She realised she was panicking and missing the whole point of why he chose the people he kept around him. It was just as he said; if she wanted to have genuine personal ties with him, she needed to get closer on a personal level, not by using her family as leverage or a power booster.
She looked at him and realised now why all the ladies she had seen on his side so far—the ones who truly had his ear—ca from unknown origins or races she wouldn’t have even batted an eye at before. They were there because of their loyalty and their presence, not their dowries.
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