Chapter 786: She's Already Mine
She jumped in surprise and scrambled back into the darkness before realising it was me and peeked out again.
She placed a finger on her lips and beckoned me to come closer.
I wondered what was happening but I did as she asked and kept quiet as I approached her.
She then scribbled into her notebook quickly, \'That girl is looking for me again…\'
"Do you mean that Aeta girl who wants you to sing for her?" I asked, remembering the name I saw when I peeked at her stats using [Screened].
Delmare nodded, shooting me a worried look.
I peeked around the corner and I saw that very girl standing at the end of the street, blocking the only way forward as this was the only street that led in the direction of the mansion.
We would have to get past her if we wanted to get to the Noble\'s District from here.
I turned back to Delmare to see that she had scribbled on her notebook again, \'Could you help me, Aster?\'
"Of course I can. But do you want me to deal with her or should we just sneak away?"
She hesitated for a moment before she wrote in her notebook, \'Even if we sneak past her… She would just find me again tomorrow. What should I do, Aster?\'
"Well… If that\'s the case… We might as well stop the problem at the root. I\'ll confront her about it."
\'Are you sure, Aster?\'
"Well, I wouldn\'t want her to keep bothering you either. And it seems like she has something against me as well so I might as well just deal with it now."
I stepped out from the alley and started walking towards her.
The moment she saw me, her brows immediately furrowed and she glared at me without bothering to hide her hostility.
She crossed her arms and, surprisingly, stepped aside to let me pass, not even bothering to say anything to me.
I stopped in front of her but she completely ignored me and even averted her gaze.
"Hey," I called out to her.
She ignored me.
"Hey," I called again.
This time she even turned away just to show that she was intentionally ignoring me.
I decided to just say what I wanted to her, "Delmare doesn\'t like you following her around. So could you stop? She does not wish to sing for you."
She still looked away from me as she spoke, "You don\'t own her. Who are you to decide for her?"
I tilted my head, "Don\'t you know? We\'re a couple. She\'s my lover."
That definitely got her attention as she immediately swivelled to look at me with wide eyes, "What?! No… No way! You\'re lying!"
I shook my head, "I\'m serious though. And even if that wasn\'t true, it\'s still a fact that she doesn\'t want to sing for you so why are you forcing her to do so?"
She scowled at me, "You… You\'re definitely not together with her! That\'s impossible! You\'re making this up! And she\'s just shy!"
"Why would you even think so? Don\'t you think the fact that she hid behind me when you were chasing after her was evidence enough?"
"You just happened to be there! And I know what your relationship with Delmare is anyway!"
That caught my interest, "Oh? Then what is our relationship?"
"You\'re obviously blackmailing her somehow! Why else would she choose to sing only for you and no one else when she has such a perfect voice?!"
I frowned, "You\'ve heard her sing before?"
This was puzzling because if she was singing to me, I would set up a barrier with me Aeromancy around us so that her magically enchanted voice would not affect someone who just happened to be in the area.
We all know what her singing does to someone after all…
So I\'m not sure how she would have heard Delmare sing… Unless it was during the time that I wasn\'t around.
Sure enough, the girl smirked at me, "Of course I did! While you were out somewhere fooling around, I heard her sing in the corner of the school! You\'re obviously keeping her to yourself because you know that her voice is so beautiful! You even forced her to not speak at all while in school, relying on that notebook to communicate just so you can monopolise her to yourself!"
Wow… Ok… At least I can agree with her that Delmare indeed has a wonderful voice so you won\'t hear me denying that.
"Have you… I dunno… Checked with her classmates on the truth of our relationship?"
"Ha! Why would I even need to? It\'s already plainly obvious what you are doing here! Why else would she be selectively mute?!"
"Umm… You do know that she\'s not a Mahun right?"
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"She\'s a Mermaid… The reason why she can\'t talk is because she\'s constantly channelling her Somatomancy spell to change her tail into legs… That\'s why she can\'t talk…"
Yeah, I wasn\'t going to tell her that she was a Siren.
She blinked at me, looking like I just told her the universe doesn\'t revolve around her or something.
I continued, "Yeah… The singing thing? She really just only wants to sing for me… That\'s not something I forced onto her… So just so you know… You have indeed been bothering her the entire time…"
"No… No, no, no… You\'re lying! You\'re definitely lying!"
I turned and waved in the direction of Delmare.
She saw me from the corner of the alley she was hiding in and slowly stepped out before running towards me to hide behind my back.
I gave the girl in front of me a pointed look, "Let me say again. Delmare is my lover."
I turned back to my Siren and she realised what I wanted and closed her eyes to lean towards me with parted lips.
Our lips met in the centre and I kissed her deeply.
As though she wanted to make it clear that I was not forcing her to kiss me, she reached her hands up to wrap around the back of my head to pull me closer to her, deepening our kiss.
We held the kiss for a good long minute before we separated, a trail of saliva still bridging between our lips when we parted.
I licked my lips and giggled when I saw Delmare\'s cheeks blush a deep shade of red before she hid her face behind her hands.
I then turned back to the delusional girl, "Does that prove that I\'m telling the truth now?"
Her mouth was opening and closing like a fish while her eyes were alternating between Delmare and myself.
I thought that she would either continue to deny the facts presented to her or maybe even accept it and apologise, however unlikely that might be.
But what I didn\'t think she would do was to just take off and run away from us without saying anything.
Both Delmare and I blinked at the sudden disappearance of the girl before we looked at each other, both of us as equally confused and surprised by the sudden development.
Delmare started giggling first and I quickly reached out to hold her as her spell inevitably ended, transforming her legs back into her tail.
She didn\'t even panic when that happened and let herself fall so that I could catch her while she continued to laugh.
"Ehehehe~ What was that, Aster? She really just ran off like that after you kissed me."
I couldn\'t help but let out a laugh of my own, "Ahahaha~ I guess she just couldn\'t accept reality."
My Siren wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes away, "Ehehe~ That was pretty funny though~ But why is she so obsessed with following me?"
"Ah… Apparently she heard you sing on one occasion behind the school while I was away."
She let out a gasp, "Oh! Oh dear… This is so embarrassing…"
"That you were caught singing by yourself?"
"Eh? By myself? Eh?"
I tilted my head, "Were you… Singing for someone else?"
Her eyes widened, "Ah! Oh no… Ahhh… This is so embarrassing… But at least she didn\'t see it… I felt lonely that you weren\'t here Aster… So I had a small plush doll made with your likeness and sang to it pretending it was you…"
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She then reached into her bag and pulled out a plushie about the size of my hand that was basically a chibi version of me.
"Wow… Who made it?"
"Ah… I asked Mary to make it… And I think the other girls also received one as well."
This is so cute~
Well, Delmare is cuter for doing this but now I want a plushie of all the girls as well.
I\'ll have to remember to ask Mary to make one for me too~