Chapter 101: Chapter 101: Change in the Relationship

Mila

Mila didn’t know how to feel. On the one hand she'd wanted this proposal for a couple years. On the other hand, Aalam had just brutally tortured someone she’d been trying to make a friend for three days straight; was not in his right mind, making the entire proposal pretty much invalid; and, instead of showing an expression of love and anticipation, he was glaring at her like he wanted to kill her.

Overall, it wasn’t very romantic.

“It’s a simple question, Mila. You either say ‘yes’, or you say ‘no’.”

With the now rather immense power difference, Aalam glaring at her was rather terrifying, and Mila didn’t know how to respond. Given his effective Aura stat was quite a bit higher than hers, however, Aalam could easily sense this and she was not in the right headspace to use memories to alter her emotions.

In that case, with someone like Aalam, brutal honesty was the way to go.

“No.”

“Why?” Aalam closed the small box holding the ring and it disappeared back into the Left Hand of the Runescribe’s subspace as he stood back up, towering over her.

“Because you aren’t in your right mind now and you obviously don’t want me to answer yes.”

“So, you’d answer yes if I wanted you to?” Aalam looked somewhat confused and Mila felt her heart start to beat faster.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I like the idea of spending the rest of my life with you.” Mila decided she should probably clarify. “At least when you’re not in a berserker state.”

“Then why did you partner up with me during the tutorial when you knew I was in one?” Aalam was still glaring at her, but the intensity had lessoned a bit.

“Because I didn’t want you to get yourself killed and there wasn’t a better option.”

“So, even if there was no chance of us reconciling you’d still want me to do well?”

“Of course.”

It was then Mila realized what was going on. Aalam was testing her. He’d been observing her for months, and he was now using her new favorite interrogation tactic against her.

He’d gotten her emotions in a mess by throwing her across the room and with what he’d done to Isaiah. Then he’d further put her off balance with the proposal. This meant she wasn’t able to hide her emotions from his more powerful aura, so he could ask her questions and tell when she was lying.

“Damn.” Aalam turned around and walked away, aware he’d been seen through. Then, as Mila stayed sitting at the edge of the main room, he walked down into the warehouse and came up with several qi and mana potions, which he proceeded to telekinetically pour down Isaiah’s throat.

“Did you get his consent before doing that to him?” Mila’s voice was rather soft, but Aalam’s raw Perception stat was 2,880. Nothing in the inheritance could escape his notice.

“Of course.” Aalam didn’t even turn to look at her, instead summoning all twelve of the Left Hand of the Runescribe’s needles to start practicing writing runes. “I don’t hate Isaiah and, while beneficial, it was obvious that ritual was going to hurt.”

Mila highly doubted Aalam would have correctly conveyed just how much pain Isaiah would be in, but, as long as he had asked, Isaiah was unlikely to want to kill him at least.

Aalam then turned to look at her again, the twelve needles still moving, and his expression was less angry and more contemplative. “I know you are now in a state where you can lie through your teeth, but I figure that trick won’t work again, so I might as well ask. Why did you target me in the first place?”

“Ooh, so it’s finally time for this conversation,” Nana Xara sent, sounding way, way more excited than Mila felt, and Mila contemplated cutting the woman off before deciding against it. She was pretty sure what was about to happen wasn’t something she’d want to have to explain to the woman in the future.

“The truth? I was enjoying the freedom I was gaining during my time at college and I didn’t want to have to seduce new men all the time.

“If I attached myself to you, it seemed likely my superiors wouldn’t want me to leave. And you seemed like someone I could be mostly myself around, which was a bonus.”

Aalam looked interested, even forming his next rune behind his body instead of all around himself. “How weren’t you yourself?”

Mila took a second to think, not to try and lie, but just because she wasn’t exactly sure. She had definitely been different around Aalam than other people, more blunt, less likely to hold back her thoughts on anything, and more explicit with her emotions, but that was just adapting her communication style to him, something she did with everyone, not hiding a part of herself. If anything, she was hiding a lot less.

“Mostly, there were just some things I didn't talk about. Otherwise, I didn’t really have to change much at all. You liked me for me.”

Mila felt herself start to tear up as Aalam nodded.

“Makes sense. That’s probably why Diana wanted to give you a chance even though she knew you were a spy.”

“Wait, what?” Mila’s tears stopped as her emotions shifted from sadness about what was about to happen to surprise.

Aalam looked at her with a slightly confused expression again. “When I said I was going to propose, she said I had to wait until she talked to you, but you left the day before you were supposed to meet.”

Mila thought back. Diana had sent her an email to make a lunch date for the day after she left, but that had been a relatively normal thing for them, so Mila hadn’t thought anything of it. “What did she find out?”

“That you were a spy from the start.” Aalam’s facial expression changed to show anger again. “According to her, she'd had suspicions for years, but it wasn’t like China respected intellectual property anyway, so them getting my inventions before I patented them wasn’t much of a loss, and she had no way to confirm her suspicions, so she didn’t want to offend you. Then, when China was the first country to have stolen my Trojan, she looked through the data before I did and found who your grandfather was, and then who you were.

“She was going to give you a chance to come clean, but then you ran away. She was pretty pissed at you.”

Mila felt the tears start up again. Diana had wanted to give her a chance. Granted, Aalam’s older sister had probably been afraid he’d come live with her again if Mila left and, granted, she’d probably been worried Aalam would do something stupid like release all his research for free so someone else could patent slight variations and block all innovation without talking to anyone if Mila wasn't there to listen, but the fact coming clean and still getting engaged was even an option in Diana’s books meant a lot.

“I’m sorry.”

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The surprise on Aalam’s face when she said the words hurt more than when he’d been angry at her after waking up from his coma.

“Well, at least you finally said it.” Aalam in his normal state would be somewhat angry, but also uncomfortable. In his Id state, however, only the anger remained. “I’ll say the words I haven’t been saying as well then. Let’s officially break up.”

 

Congratulations!

Your Law Larva of Shadow has advanced to middle grade.

 

Your soul is affected by your understanding of Law.

Agility +48, Perception +48, Magic +32, Spirit +32, Soul +32

 

Mila felt the tears start to flow faster, but she nodded.

“You’re still in charge, though, and you still need to get us home.” The anger in Aalam’s voice lessoned. “After that, if you’d still like to remain partners, I think that would be good for both of us. I may never want to have sex with you again, but I can’t deny you are very good at what you do, and what you do fills up most of the gaps in my skillset.”

Mila nodded again, though the tears started to flow faster, and Aalam turned away from her, the mind he’d been using to talk to her seemingly transitioning to help with his practice as the speed of his rune creation increased.

“Okay, I know you’re sad now, so I’m going to distract you with some rude questions.” Nana Xara sounded chipper, but it wasn’t her normal tone, sounding more affected and less genuine. “Why did it take you so long to say sorry?”

“Because I heavily suspected what just happened would.” As she answered the question, Mila started to use telekinesis to wipe at her eyes. “I was also afraid doing so would reactivate Id.”

“Oh.” Nana Xara paused. “Any idea what did?”

Mila thought about it for a second. “Probably the process of coming up with this plan. Either the emotions which the plan triggered or the realization he wouldn’t be able to pull it off without the Id state. We don't have enough data.”

“Aalam.” Mila just decided to ask. “What triggered Id this time?”

Aalam turned toward her and his expression was neutral while his aura showed calm. “The strong emotions when I realized I might have a way to know if you were lying to me or not. I think there also might be a time component as well, the state easier to slip into the more time has passed since I was last in it.”

Mila stood up and took a deep breath, getting herself in the mindset of a team leader again. “Do you have any clues on how to advance your uniqueness? There is a lot of documentation on Prince but almost nothing on Id.”

Aalam nodded, seemingly perfectly comfortable with the line of questioning. “I think having multiple mental forges is a requirement, though I am not positive. It just feels right.

“Ever since I acquired the Multi-Mind skill, the effects of the state have been less extreme. For example, you can stop worrying I will hurt you so long as you don’t have plans to betray me. The current version of the state makes me more rash and decisive, but it’s not like it would make me do something I would never do in my normal state, and violence against my allies isn’t really in my nature.

“Unless of course it is part of a plan.”

Mila nodded in return. “Understood.” That had been bugging her. Yes, Aalam’s autistic nature would make his id state different than that of a normal person’s, but from Nana Xara’s description of the uniqueness it had sounded worse than what she and Aalam had experienced.

Now that made sense. Multi-Mind at G rank had only been theoretical to Nana Xara, so Aalam’s solution to making the state less bad likely wasn’t something anyone else had ever tried.

She still wouldn’t trust Aalam around important people who could easily kill him, however, or pretty much any crowds, as he was likely to antagonize people without realizing it, but she wouldn’t trust him in those situations in his normal state either.

“Ugh.” Mila turned to look at Isaiah, who was groaning, and watched as he opened his eyes. They weren't the same fuchsia as before, more a vivid indigo, and the pupils were now reptilian slits.

Isaiah then sat up and looked over at Aalam. “You said it would hurt a little. That was extreme pain for three days.”

He sounded more annoyed than angry, which was a good sign, and he quickly stood up and started literally bouncing around the room, using the walls, ceiling, and floor all as spring boards to test out his new power.

“Alright, Isaiah.” Mila grabbed the large man’s attention and, done with his tests, he landed on the floor and just stood there. “I’m going to head to the new capital and talk to Roland to see if we can speed up the process of completely claiming this planet. Then in the near future my and Aalam’s souls will be heading to the Trial Tower and I’ll need you to guard Roland while we’re gone. Until that point, though, you should test your new power against Aalam.”

Mila then turned to Aalam. “Aalam, during training you are forbidden from using Telekinesis or any other power making use of your Spirit. It’s effectively D rank right now, and you won’t gain anything from a completely unbalanced fight.”

Isaiah looked at Aalam in amazement but he looked back to Mila when she turned back to him. “Before that, though, Isaiah, put on some pants.”

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