“Aisha, you don’t want to sleep with Sieg or Clive, right?”
Aisha didn’t reply. She simply embraced Arus in her arms, a discontent expression on her face. It was like everything we’d seen—how talkative she’d been—had been a lie.
“You love Arus and ended up together as a matter of course, right?”
Aisha remained silent.
“But you knew that if you came out and said you loved him, Lilia would object, so you kept it a secret, right?”
Still, Aisha said nothing.
“Or did you just want to try it out? You’re only interested in the sex?”
“That’s not it!” It was Arus who reacted to Sylphie, not Aisha. He spoke with a desperate expression on his face as blood dripped from his nose. “That’s not it at all! When I told Aisha I love her and wanted to marry her, she turned me down at first. But I kept telling her how much I loved her, and eventually she gave in and agreed to sleep with me just once, even though she knew it was bad. She slept with me because I kept nagging her. I… I’m the one who messed up!”
After hearing that, Sylphie turned back to Aisha. “Hey, Aisha? Can you tell me the truth?”
Aisha looked down after Sylphie said that, but then she gritted her teeth and raised her head.
“It’s true, okay?! I love Arus!”
“Since when?”
Who was it that posed the question? I got the feeling it came from my mouth, or maybe it was Lilia. It might’ve been Roxy.
“Since he was born, since the first time I saw him, I just knew he was special to me! As he grew up, that feeling got stronger and stronger. I tried to hold myself back, okay?! I mean, this is Arus we’re talking about! We’re over ten years apart… I know that! He’s supposed to be like my little brother, so feeling this way about him is weird. And he’s the eldest son, the heir! He’s gotta get married to a girl from a good family and help secure stability for the Greyrat family. I know all of that, but he told me he loves me!”
We’d finally heard the whole story of what’d transpired. They were in love, like any couple. The only difference was that they were aunt and nephew.
I’d never tried to have that kind of relationship with Aisha. Part of it was I simply never felt that kind of attraction to her. She was my little sister. She wasn’t one of my wives. I drew that line in the sand and never crossed it. Aisha must’ve decided engaging in that kind of relationship within the family was off limits because of my behavior.
But she loved Arus. She’d watched over him and fallen in love.
I had no idea how she felt when she’d first crossed the line. Maybe she did it with him truly believing it’d be only one time, but Arus couldn’t hold himself back after that. As a guy, I totally understood. That’s just how it was at first.
Aisha, finding herself being pursued so passionately, couldn’t say no. After all, she wanted to be with him too. They wanted to be together.
As a result, they’d ended up having sex every day in secret.
“This isn’t like you at all, Aisha,” Roxy muttered.
Aisha suddenly turned toward Roxy and yelled. “Then what was I supposed to do?! I mean, I love him! There’s no changing that! I want to do everything and anything I can for him! I… I… I love him…”
Aisha’s words grew quieter the longer she continued. She was crying while holding Arus in her arms.
Seeing them like this reminded me of when Roxy and I slept together on the Begaritt Continent.
“No, I understand how you feel,” Roxy said.
It wasn’t just Arus. Aisha also couldn’t control herself. It was rare for her to act like that.
Sex is a part of who we are as humans. Even if you know it’s a bad idea, there are times when you can’t hold yourself back.
“Brother.” Aisha wiped the tears from her eyes and looked up at me, her voice calm now. “I really am sorry about how things transpired, but I love Arus, and he loves me. I don’t mind if we have to wait until he comes of age. Please let us get married.”
Her serious voice caused everyone in the room to go silent.
Sylphie turned around to look at me with a gentle expression on her face. “What are you going to do, Rudy?”
I was the one who had to make the call?
Well, it made sense. I was the one who’d called for this meeting, after all. But was it really my place to decide? I looked around. The vibe in the room had shifted. People seemed to feel like it was fine now. It wasn’t good that they’d slept together in secret. Even if it wasn’t the kind of thing you wanted to broadcast to people, there must’ve been a better way to reveal it, like laying the groundwork with the family before things came out in the open.
Arus and Aisha loved each other. Sure, Arus was still young, but it didn’t seem like he was forced into being with her. Why not allow it? Was there really any need for me to attack them further? That was the feeling in the room.
Objectively speaking, I couldn’t come up with many reasons why it was so bad.
Then what was this feeling? The disgust bubbling up from deep inside of me?
“No. I can’t allow it.”
“Huh?” Sylphie raised her voice in confusion.
What, did I say something odd?
No, think about this clearly.
Aisha was one thing. Arus had pursued her, and she’d done the deed with him despite knowing it was a bad idea. That was her choice. Leaving aside whether it was a good or bad one, she’d made the decision to do this. When things went badly, she’d tried to protect him.
But what about Arus? Was this really his decision? It was common for men to think with the lower half of their body. When they let their junk control them, they typically did things without thinking about the aftermath. Thinking with your balls, so to speak.
When I first married Sylphie, I’d legit only ever thought about sex. Looking back on it now, part of the reason I’d married her was because I didn’t want her to get away. I didn’t like to admit that, but it was true.