Chapter 334 - Kazehaya Sora

"How is it? Is everything fine now?"

Homura Ryuu asked as soon as Ara entered their room. He lay on his side on the futon with his head propped with his elbows. In front of him on the cushion were documents strewn as if he was reading them just now.

However, this was not what made the wife stop by the doorway and stare.

It was the fact that the Koutaishidenka wore his kimono haphazardly, revealing lots of skin. Aside from that, his raven hair was equally messy, the tendrils outlining his handsome face, highlighting his ice-blue gaze framed with his eye-glasses.

"What? My handsomeness rendered my wife speechless?" he asked teasingly as he held out his hand, beckoning his wife towards the bed.

"Why are you wearing those?" Ara asked with a chuckle as she joined Ryuu on the futon, kicking the documents to the side before landing in his arms. "And since when did you learn to start spouting flirty lines, huh?"

"What are you talking about? Haven't I always been flirty with you? I just wore the gasses to add sėxiness," Ryuu countered, rendering Ara speechless once more.

Well…

"You're right," Ara agreed in amazement afterwards.

From the beginning, Ryuu had been dropping her lines. Just like when they first met again in this lifetime, Ryuu had told her she was beautiful.

Ara looked smug. "Hmmm you're that desperate for me to find you sėxy and lovable?"

"Of course. I'm always, always desperate when it comes to you," Ryuu answered, and Ara had forgotten how to reply, overwhelmed by diabetic-inducing sweetness.

Instead, she placed her arms around his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. Their kiss started with  light, playful ones, but eventually evolved into deep, scorching ċȧrėss which led to their bodies intertwining, relieving the all-consuming heat of their passion.

An hour later, their clothes lay strewn at the foot of the bed while they lay nȧkėd under the bedsheet. The two wore satisfied grins on their faces as they embraced.

"So?"Ryuu prompted afterwards.

Ara still hadn't answered his question earlier. He was talking about her talk with her father of course.

"It was… alright," Ara answered with a fond smile.

After taking her father to his sleeping quarters, Ara stayed with Alistair longer to talk. They didn't really have a specific topic at the beginning. They talked about anything and everything like two people who haven't seen each other for a long, long time. But in the end, they still opened up about things that mattered. As her brother, Alistair, and as her father, Perun, he apologized again even if she told him not to. He apologized for keeping her in the dark believing she would be safe that way.

On the other hand, she took the opportunity to apologize to him as well. She had always talked about being open, but in the end, she was the biggest hypocrite of them all. She said sorry for always taking things for granted, for not being brave enough to face her fears and have the initiative to communicate.

Ara knew clearly that her failure to talk to Alistair back in Ritz contributed a big part to her ȧssassination. If she had talked to him properly, she wouldn't have had those silly thoughts and had been more vigilant. She wouldn't have walked into an obvious trap. Due to her own insecurities, a shadow lurker was able to attach itself into her incomplete soul which made matters worse.

No, she didn't regret her death in Ritz anymore. She was fated to die there and then in order for the pieces of her soul to reunite, but she still mourned the unnecessary deaths of her friends. Their blood would be forever staining her hands. Remembering them would always cause a throbbing emptiness in her heart.

"What's the matter?"Ryuu asked and Ara smiled.

Ryuu had truly become quite sėnsɨtɨvė to her moods recently and could easily tell when something's bothering her.

"I just remembered my friends in Ritz," she said, and she felt her husband's hold on her tighten.

She had told Ryuu about them before, and so he knew about her loyal vassals. She had even showed him her drawings which he praised so much.

"Don't feel sad. Horgall, Midas, Lucius, Rubic, and Sven would live on with your art," Ryuu reminded her.

He also knew her plans to be a comic artist, and he supported her dream. Ara's nostalgic smile became bigger, and she sighed heavily.

"What's with the sigh just now?"

Ara chuckled. "Nothing. I just wondered if I can really be a comic artist."

"Of course you can," Ryuu answered readily. "You can be whatever you want to be."

"Yes,"Ara agreed softly.

Both her father and her husband told her the same. She knew that they would do everything in their power to make her dreams happen. However, after her graduation, it was also a fact that she had to do that very difficult quest in order to attain the future she ever dreamed of.

"Speaking of which, I already fixed father's documents so he can stay here whenever he wants,"Ryuu said.

"Huh? What documents?"

"The documents you're lying down on,"Ryuu reminded her, which made Ara's eyes widen as she sat up and shifted to take the wrinkled stack of paper on the bed.

"Oh no! They're crumpled!"

Not to mention that they were also slightly moist thanks to the couple's intense lovemaking just earlier. If she knew they were important documents, she wouldn't have kicked them to the side and sat on them.

"Relax, they're just copies,"Ryuu ȧssured her.

Nonetheless, she was unhappy to have messed it up. She took them in her hands and read their contents. "Er… Kazehaya Sora?"

Ara was confused.

"Yeah,"Ryuu grinned. "That's father's name here on Earth. He will be Gin-nii's older twin brother."

"But… How will this be possible?" Kazehaya Gin was a very popular person.

He was Homura International's CEO. Everyone knew of him and his background. Aside from Aoi, there was no other brother listed in his information. Suddenly having another brother – and a twin at that would be very difficult to explain.

"Well, father will be the 'sickly' older brother who never went out of the house. The Kazehaya House has already been informed of this so there will be no problems."

"And they are fine with that?"

"Of course! Who would dare say no to both Perun and Stribog?" Ryuu ȧssured her. "Dolya had performed large-scale hypnotism as well earlier. Starting tomorrow, everyone in Tokyo will know Kazehaya Sora's existence."