SHK CH 578 (Patreon)

Sol’s relationship with Nuwa was…Well, it was very complicated to explain. All in all, the two of them had spent only a few days together before Sol left for the Astral realm.

Then, when he came back, Nuwa was already on the battlefield and he could not spend time with her. When the war finally started, Sol was too busy to even have a proper relationship with his lovers, much less Nuwa.

As if this wasn’t enough, unknown to everyone else, Nuwa was possessed by Echidna who technically was the enemy of Lustburg. She might not have killed Blaze and Mars personally. But there was no denying that she was the main cause of this situation. After all, she attacked Lustburg first.

He still didn’t even know how to announce it to Lilith and the others and he knew the more he waited the more this would be dangerous. This was no different from a stupid bomb waiting to blow up. This whole set up was leading to one of the most cliche situations where, while giving their all during an important fight, someone had their deepest secret revealed and that secret fucked up everyone.

He knew that Camelia could see souls the same way Isis did. The moment Camelia sees Nuwa, she immediately understands everything. There was even the possibility of the enemy discovering it or Echidna herself appearing at the worst timing.

Sol could see this coming miles away and he knew that he needed to make a decision fast about how he would deal with Nuwa and Echidna. The good thing at least was that destroying Echidna’s soul without hurting Nuwa was not complicated in the slightest.

Either way, because of all those problems, here they were in a situation that was extremely awkward no matter how they looked at it. Well…At least, Sol was awkward.

Nuwa had no intention of considering all the possible ramifications of her current situation. She had never been one to think too much about things she could do nothing about after all.

Sol could not see the slightest feeling of fear or worry coming from the young girl in maid uniform and he found himself impressed. This was a level of carefreeness that went past all limits.

“How have you been?”

“Good.” Nuwa’s eyes looked at him curiously. She didn’t understand why he was asking her this question. Her time had been very good without the slightest bit of exaggeration.

After she defended the base from the attack she had been rewarded handsomely and even proposed a position of Lieutenant in the army with a land as noble. This was something she knew many people aspired to. She was not stupid and she could see the looks of envy mixed with the respect she received at that time.

But Nuwa had simply refused. She did not want to be a noble. Even more so a noble with an entire land to manage. It seemed like so much work to do for not much. She was fed well in the Tower, she was around people she liked and she was treated well. She had no reason to lose all this.

As Nuwa explained all this to Sol while the four of them walked toward the transportation circle. Well, only three of them were walking. Sheherazade was still ooing and cooing as she observed everything while sitting on his head.

Even Isis seemed to be quite starry-eyed as she observed the fortress. She was interested in the barrier that was covering this place as while it wasn’t powerful in her standard, it was still quite well done.

I…Well. This is quite weird.

Sol was reminded once again that both Sheherazade and Isis were undoubtedly the most stable and carefree people that were close to him and Nuwa seemed to be in the same position.

In particular her disinterest in power because of how much work it would have reminded him of well…Himself? It seemed like so long ago but the truth was that not long ago, he had not even wanted to become the King of Lustburg and now, he was on his way to try and conquer the world.

“Heh…”

“Anything funny?” Nuwa asked as she raised her head at him. After all, she was quite petite when compared to Sol.

“Nothing. I just realized I have been thinking too hard about something that in reality was quite simple.” He chuckled once again and patted Nuwa’s head. Who simply closed her eyes and enjoyed the caress while taking another chip.

Indeed. He had been thinking too much. So entangled in his threads that he had forgotten that sometimes, the simplest things had the simplest solution.

“Say, Nuwa. Do you want to sign a contract with me?”

“Sure.”

A bitter smile spread on his face. He had asked bluntly and Nuwa simply answered bluntly. Then looked at him curiously. “I thought it was already decided that we would sign a contract?”

“Heh…Indeed.”

Man, I feel so dumb.

Sol sighed and dismissed those feelings. Sure it was great that they managed to settle on this rather fast but there was another problem which was admittedly not so much a problem.

“What kind of contract should we sign?”

He spoke out loud. A lust contract was…Sol frowned and looked at Nuwa who seemed more like a squirrel than anything else with her mouth stuffed.

As funny as it seemed, a Lust contract was all but about lust. It was a contract made based on love and the vows were not dissimilar to marriage vows in his old world. For the contract to even work, both participants needed to be truly in love with each other and if their love vanished, the contract would also vanish.

Did he love Nuwa? The answer was self-evident. He barely even felt lust for her. Nuwa was definitely a beautiful woman but he had long since gone past the level where he would get excited just because a woman was beautiful.

Her personality and action were endearing and she was a loyal member of his house. But if he had to be honest…She looked more like a loyal pet to him. Something cute like a hamster. Taking out a treat from his dimension he gave it to Nuwa who immediately accepted it and started munching on it. She was eating in such a cute way.

Yeah, definitely a hamster.

He might be able to develop greater feelings for her in the future but definitely not in six days and he could definitely not use Medea’s time dilation for this or it would mess up all his preparation.

Then, “Nuwa, do you love me?”

“Hum…?” She swallowed and asked curiously, “What is love exactly? But I do like you. I think. You are warm and I like having my head patted. It gives me fuzzy feelings. Is it love?”

Sol gave another bitter smile and pinched her cute face, “Forget it. Don’t worry about it.”

This was all the answer he needed. At this moment, Nuwa was no different from a blank sheet. In this situation, he would feel like he was abusing an innocent child if he made a Lust contract with her.

Thankfully — It wasn’t as if there was only one kind of contract and looking at Nuwa, the best contracts with her were more than evident.

Either a Sloth or a Gluttony type contract.

His eyes shone. This was…Quite interesting. Up to now, he already had individual contact with four goddesses and at this point, he was one hundred percent sure that whatever type of contract he chose, one of the goddesses would try to talk to him.

Then the final question was…Were Gula and Acedia on Luxuria’s side or on Invidia’s side?