The World's most Overpowered Side-Character -
Chapter 101: Can I Love You?
"You're back." Usami woke up after smelling Sara's cooking and looked around to see everyone else already gone and none other than Sol sitting in his usual spot and Ikaris soundly asleep with her head rested in his lap, he looked up from his book at her and nodded, then went straight back to reading again. "How was it?" She asked curiously.
Her, Bruce, and Eris had not been made privy to exactly what Sol had been up to more than the fact that he went out by himself to fight incredibly powerful opponents ever so often, the fact that he was a demigod now was proof of that.
Sol looked up from his book again, replaceing Usami still staring at his hair and nodded with himself taking a deep breath and suppressing his mana until his hair turned brown again. "It was disappointing." He replied honestly.
"A disappointing fight took you two whole days?"
"No, my opponent was disappointing, I gained what I set out to gain, but my opponent was a pain in the ass, an immortal fool." He answered again and she nodded and raised her leg resting her chin on her knee and smiling at him. "What?" Sol raised a brow.
"It's just... You're such a nice person sometimes, really chill and easy to get along with, and then other times you're a real jerk, I don't know if I should take that as a red flag or start liking you under the assumption that you're a good guy, y'know?" She chuckled at him, and Ikaris turned and looked at her after the compliment.
"Well," Sol thought about it for a bit.
"You can think whatever I guess, it won't change the way I see or treat you, what does change my perceptions of people are their actions, and right now you have my respect for setting aside your weaknesses and seeking strength when everyone else seems to be trying to avoid the evident truth around them, searching for a way out without sacrificing their body for the power they need to do it."
"Oh," Usami lowered her gaze and held her exposed cheek, covering her mouth as a small blush from his sudden compliment ran across her face. "Thank you-"
"Usami, come look!" Eris barged through the entrance of the tent excited, grabbed her by her arm yanking her out of her comfortable posture and dragging her outside.
"That was nice of you." Ikaris turned and looked up at Sol, stretching her arms and legs with a quiet yawn. "Do you have a fancy for her?" She asked jokingly.
"That couldn't be further from the truth," Sol held on to her hand and continued to stretch her while she groaned in pleasure and yawned again. "Usami was controversial when she just came to Arkadia, she was weak, self-centred, manipulative, and sought to hide in the shadow of others, but as it stands she is currently the best example among the heroes of growth, well, aside from Dina."
"Dina has grown the most." Ikaris sat up and straddled his lap, taking the book from his grasp and setting it to the side. "But enough about them, they are all enjoying the pool outside, I want to focus on you, and I want you to focus on me." She pressed her torso against his and leaned into his neck, biting and sucking on his skin.
"You just woke up-"
"And I am extremely aroused after we spent the entire night in a hot bath and then you stretched my remaining fatigue away." She whispered in his ear. "I would love to be... hnn~" She moaned expectantly when Sol's hand instinctively groped her asscheek while he reached for her hair and pulled her head backwards.
"You shouldn't tease me like this, Ikaris." Sol sunk his fingers into the soft exposed flesh of her ass and growled against her breasts, pulling her head further back until she was arched on top of him, but then he released her and she snapped forward when Arla came walking in.
"...Did I interrupt?" Arla paused as soon as she saw them.
"Absolutely..." Ikaris slightly shook on top of Sol with her face steaming and her breath heavy as she rested her forehead in the crook of his neck and weakly held on to his shirt. "Sorry, it was my incentive that led to, ahem... Did you need something?"
"The one time I decide to not have my ears on high alert I stumble across this scene." Arla blushed and mumbled. "I was trying to avoid the others who wanted me to join them in the hot-bath that appeared overnight." She explained and Ikaris slightly sobered up and looked around at her.
"You tend to shy away from others who wish to share any kind of skinship with you, or even just want a regular interaction why is that?" Ikaris asked, and Arla fixed her coat over her shoulders and walked further into the tent, sitting on her sleeping bag and relaxing as she looked at them.
"Before I decided to become a mage and join the subjugation army, I was victim to many terrible crimes and different forms of abuse, awful things happened to me throughout my childhood and teenage years because...
I have always had a mature body, even now that I am pushing my early thirties I have yet to replace any way or reason to open up to others, except you." She looked at Ikaris and then focused on Sol.
"Me?" Sol lowered his head and turned his gaze slightly to the side confused.
"I am sorry for ruining your mood but I figured it was either I explain this now or wait another ten years for an opportune moment." Arla raised her knees to her chin.
"I was not always able to protect myself, even with potent magic I was weak and fragile, my own family, supposed friends of my family, and strangers; I was targeted for years and had no way of seeking or asking for help, I was trapped in an endless cycle of horror." Her nails dug through her coat into her skin as she spoke.
"Substance abuse as a child, I was sold so many times... passed around by my own father, used and then thrown out on the streets, I have a very strong phobia of being touched, this is why I distance myself, hate others, hate myself... except you."
"So why am I the exemption then?" Sol asked, glossing over her trauma to save her from reliving it in detail.
"You are the first man I have met who did not stare at me as an object or tool of pleasure, you barely even look at me at all let alone with lustful eyes, and it makes me feel at ease around you, even on the day we fist met when I kissed you, I might have come off as an outgoing or promiscuous woman then, but I was simply entranced..." She blushed and hid her face again.
"That is why I was so interested in courting you at that time, but my advances were quickly rejected, so I settled with remaining as close as I could to you, and then lady Ikaris when she stopped trying to hurt me.
"You do not see those around you for what they are perceived as or what they look like, instead of seeing my body you stare at my soul and intentions, in my eyes Master Vestic you are a fine man who would never harm me, so I have come to trust you unconditionally..." Arla looked up when she heard shuffling, and found Sol right before her sitting while Ikaris was at his side.
"When was the last time you were hugged, Arla?" Sol asked, and at the mension of such a foreign sensation the mage immediately broke down and began sobbing.
"Um... when I was our years old my mother hugged me for the first time on her deathbed before passing away~" She sniffled and watched Sol open his arms while Ikaris's gaze bore sympathy toward her. "I can't -"
"Come on," he gestured. "If you can't trust anyone else, and you feel safe trusting me then by all means, go ahead and trust me, I won't betray your trust." Sol opened his arms wider and watched her slowly crawl from her ball toward him.
"Is this truly okay?" Arla looked at Ikaris with her tears already streaming down her cheeks, and Ikaris gave her a nod.
"I do not agree completely, obviously, but I like you Arla, if a hug helps then I can allow at least that much, it will not be the end of the world." Ikaris had a complicated smile as she watched the half-elf dive into Sol's arms and let out a loud sigh as her hands locked onto him and her quivering lips curled into a smile.
"Wow, she's as soft as a baby." Sol looked at Ikaris surprised, but the unimpressed goddess pouted and summoned a knife over Arla. "O-oi!"
"I jest," Ikaris looked away and the knife vanished while her pout grew. "A little..."
"Here I am, unsatisfied after the implied act of releasing my tension and I have to watch you embracing another woman, this is unideal, I want to break some skulls and blow something up now before I hurt her."
"Sorry, I'll make it up to you, after we're done here." Sol smiled at her feeling his body get squeezed as Arla released all the years of loneliness she had endured because of her fears of being subjected to abuse again. "Arla...?" Sol looked down at her when he started feeling her mana radiating like a beacon and her grip loosen.
"Master Vestic~" She nuzzled against his chest, folding herself in his lap and locking her fingers weakly behind him as she looked up at him with her eyes rolled over with enough mana flooding through her body to short-circuit her brain as she lost herself.
"Master Vestic is a beautiful soul, can I love you, even if you only shoulder me as a friend, am I permitted to adore you?"
"What the hell is going on in here?"
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