Chapter 308: Chapter 308 Two Rulers_1
"You have indeed grown, I mean...," Melifilia paused deliberately, "in terms of cheek."
"Thank you," Aiden answered nonchalantly, "so what’s your reply?"
That’s just how people are; once you break through the bottom line, you can become fearless in everything you do. As long as you throw yourself to the ground, nobody can hit your face—especially when you’re facing a deity.
Having personally experienced the "games" arranged by Melissa, Aiden became fully aware that he had never truly been Melifilia’s guardian but just a pet dancing in the palm of her hand.
He had once genuinely believed that he carried the duty of guarding a deity, and he had even expressed to Melifilia the theory that mortals must monitor deities to grasp their right to exist. In the end, Melifilia never actually cared about the mortals’ imprisonment.
But no matter how disheartened he felt, it didn’t change reality; he could only come to terms with the gap between himself and the deity.
The most important thing for him was to figure out why Melifilia insisted on staying in the prison.
He had to relentlessly ask because it was too important for him. His reason for coming to this world, his current predicament, and his future outcome were all closely linked to the goddess before him.
Even if the answers he got from Melifilia’s lips were lies, they could still serve as key clues for him.
"You really are persistent," Melifilia laughed, "Alright, since you did quite well this time, I’ll have a ’heart-to-heart’ talk with you."
"Are we going to play a game while we talk?" asked Aiden.
"Let’s play this, then!" Melifilia exclaimed, pulling out a rarely used chess set from the toy box.
"Chess?" Aiden frowned slightly, "I can’t beat you at that."
With Melifilia’s calculating abilities, Aiden had virtually no chance of retaliation in such games.
"Let’s modify the rules. If you can kill all of my pawns, that will count as your win," Melifilia said calmly.
"Why?" Aiden was puzzled by the rule.
"The greatest pleasure I get from this game is turning pawns into queens," Melifilia smiled, "If you kill all the pawns, you cut off my greatest source of pleasure, and I’ll concede defeat."
"You really are a typical hedonist," Aiden shook his head, starting to set up the chess pieces before making his first move, "doing anything to please yourself."
"I’ve told you before, pursuing pleasure is my driving force," Melifilia replied, making her move, "even staying in this prison is just for fun."
"So..." Aiden picked up a chess piece and paused, "you’re still sticking to the old narrative?"
"This time I’ll be more specific," Melifilia barely glanced at the board, spending most of the time observing Aiden’s face, "First, let’s start with acknowledging your guess; by your standards, Melissa... can indeed be considered an extension of me."
"By my standards? That sounds like this extension of you is not so simple," Aiden narrowed his eyes.
"To be exact, I haven’t lied to you. She can be considered both an extension of me and one of my followers," Melifilia explained.
"What does that mean?"
"Figure it out yourself... I’ve already revealed enough," Melifilia suddenly resumed her cryptic act.
Aiden thought for a moment and then suddenly realized something, "Could it be that she is another person whose mind has been ’assimilated’ by your power?"
"Oh my, you’ve actually thought of that?" Melifilia suddenly stopped the chess piece she was moving with her telekinesis.
"You..." Aiden stared at Melifilia for a while, "Melissa is actually a ruler too, isn’t she?"
"Why would you think that?"
"It’s simple role reversal. If I were to lock myself in a prison but could leave a ’clone’ outside, I would at least leave more than half of my power as insurance, although I really can’t see through what you would do," Aiden said slowly, "You mentioned before that you possess more than just the power of ’wisdom’."
"Alright, I said I would tell the truth, so I’ll tell you the truth," Melifilia sighed, but her face was smiling, "I indeed, did split a portion of authority into Melissa..."
"It’s the power of ’desire,’ isn’t it?" Aiden sighed deeply.
Turning a person into another version of oneself, Aidan had seen such a thing in the diary of the nameless witch. Abigail had speculated that the love goddess Melindale was manipulating the power of "desire" to gradually synchronize the thinking of the nameless witch with her own.
Last time, when Aiden realized that Mr. Bloody had taken the power of "hatred" under Melifilia’s instruction, he had already suspected that Melifilia was in fact in control of the power of "desire."
Even though Melifilia denied this, Aiden did not completely believe her.
"This..." Melifilia responded vaguely.
"It seems that’s the case," Aiden confirmed to himself.
If it weren’t, Melifilia would have outright denied it.
This time, Melifilia didn’t speak, only smiled—that should be taken as an admission.
"So, in the end, you still lied to me," Aiden looked up and questioned her, "You denied it when I asked you about this last time."
"I didn’t lie. I just said ’I’ do not possess the power of ’desire,’ it’s Melissa who has it," Melifilia defended herself with an innocent look, "Melissa is the ruler of the power of ’desire,’ what does that have to do with me, Melifilia?"
"That’s sophistry."
"You can’t say that, she and I are indeed two completely different people," Melifilia said with a smile as she moved her chess piece, "Our consciousness and memories do not communicate with each other, and I don’t know about any interactions she has had with you. It’s just that we ultimately share the same thought patterns and occasionally do think alike."
"Two controllers of power forcefully separating into two distinct rulers to act... It’s headache-inducing just thinking about it." Even though his guesses were confirmed, Aiden felt his mood getting heavier, "Since the ’desire’ power is also yours, you must remember the name Melindale, right?"
"This is really beyond my expectations," Melifilia appeared impressed, "You actually know this name..."
"So it really was you," Aiden couldn’t help but hold his forehead.
"It’s not me, Melindale is just another ’me’ from the past whose mind was assimilated by the same method," Melifilia said smilingly, "She’s a different person from me."
