Chapter 364: Facing Your Fears
"Do you love her, Jason?"
"What the hell are you even asking me right now?"
"I’m asking if you love her! She was telling you about having children, and she even kissed you! That isn’t something people just ask for no reason! You have to know that someone feels something for you before you bring that up! You have to have a connection! If... if you love her, then just say it."
Gina looked down at the floor when she said those last words, and her hands were squeezed so tight that she thought she would bleed! There were tears coming to her eyes, but she promised that she wasn’t going to let them fall, and she waited for Jason to speak. Jason was looking at Gina with absolute disbelief on his face. What in the world was going through her mind right now? He had never even mentioned being in love with Riyala, so how the hell did she come to that conclusion!? Jason felt some irritation building in his heart at that moment, but he released a sigh to calm himself, and he spoke.
"Look, Gina, I care about Riyala. She helped me a lot when I was trying to bring you back to life. But I don’t love her, not the same way I love you. I’ve never even thought about being with her like that. Come on, I don’t want us to fight like this. Not now."
Jason spoke with as much sincerity as possible while hoping that it would get through to Gina, but he could see a few teardrops falling from her eyes. Jason quickly tried to take a step closer to Gina, but Gina suddenly turned away from him and began heading for the exit while using her sleeve to clear her eyes.
"Gina! Where the hell are you going!? Talk to me for fuck’s sake!"
"Just leave me alone!"
Gina cried back to him in anger before vanishing through the exit, and Jason leaned back against the balcony wall and released a tired sigh. What the actual hell was all this!? Why wouldn’t she just listen to him!? They just got out of a massive battle, and Jason really didn’t want to get into another fight like this!
’Wow, looks like there’s trouble in paradise. You know who would never have these sorts of troubles? A Casanova like me! If you never commit to one woman, then you never have to worry about how many you have!’ [A/N: He’s not wrong!]
An idiotic voice suddenly spoke up from Jason’s Alternate Dimension, and Jason didn’t even bother to respond to that nonsense. He shut down the mental link he had with Esdat so the bastard wouldn’t be able to talk to him anymore, and he looked up at the full moon tiredly. Jason knew that Gina was just angry. Gina always tended to want to be alone when she was angry, and she would isolate herself from everyone, so Jason knew she would calm down after a while and come talk to him again. But Jason decided that he would go look for her and talk to her. This was absolute madness, and he didn’t want her to go around thinking that he didn’t love her!
"Uhm.. Sir Jason."
A voice came from the balcony entrance, and Jason turned to see a servant girl standing there. She was very young, and she had a look of wonder in her eyes as she looked up at Jason. Jason managed to smile at the young girl, and he asked her what she needed. The young girl’s cheeks burned red once she saw Jason smile at her, and the girl rushed to bow.
"T-The King has requested your presence for a meeting. It would mean a lot to him if you came."
"Lara, what are you doing!?"
Another woman suddenly came through the entrance, and she reached down and pinched the girl’s ear in anger when she finally caught up to her! The woman was also a servant in the castle, and she was the one whom the king had actually sent to give Jason the message. But the little girl had run off because she wanted to talk to Jason before the woman!
"Sorry! Sorry! Triya, it hurts!"
The woman finally let go after she was sure that the girl had learned her lesson, and she gave Jason a smile and quickly apologized for their misconduct.
"I’m really sorry you had to see that, sir. The king requests your presence in –"
"I know, this little one already told me, but I’m pretty busy right now. Is it important?"
Triya nodded really quickly.
"Yes, it is. I promise it won’t take up too much of your time. The King and all the nobles are gathered together for the meeting."
Jason was surprised to hear that the nobles had also been gathered. Jason had met a few of the nobles earlier, and he could tell that they were very much against the Sovereign’s rule, so he didn’t have anything against them. Jason released a calm sigh, and he decided that maybe it was better to give Gina some space to calm down. Jason sent one of his phantoms through the shadow to follow Gina and make sure she was okay before he told the servants to lead the way.
....
[With Gina]
The entire city seemed to be alive with excitement as Gina walked through their midst. Many of the civilians living in the surrounding towns had come to the main city once they heard about the Sovereign’s death, so there were thousands of people around partying and drinking while dancing around the campfire. Gina ran a hand across her eyes to get rid of the tears that were still there and she simply waved and smiled at some of the civilians who recognized her from her previous battle. Gina was scared. This was something that Gina had always tried to deny in her own heart, but there was no way she could deny it anymore. Gina knew that she had been too hard on Jason. He hadn’t done anything wrong, and he tried to explain things to her as calmly as possible, but Gina just couldn’t listen to him. Listening to him made her own fears come to the front of her mind, and the only thing that she could do at that moment was to run away.
"Hey, Gina! Over here!"
Gina heard someone shout her name from the side, and she smiled when she saw one of the female superhumans coming towards her. The woman was holding a large bottle of alcohol, and Francis Ludd, the straightforward green-haired boy from the SMD battle division, was standing beside her to make sure she didn’t fall over from how drunk she was! All the superhumans from the battle had also freshened up, and they were given high-quality robes to wear for the function. Their wounds had been healed by Riyala, so there was no need for them to rest at all, and they were able to join the party immediately! The woman smiled at Gina and spoke loudly!
"These people are amazing! Their alcohol is so good, it’s better than anything on Earth! I don’t even know what it’s called, but I’m taking a gallon with me!"
Gina laughed softly at the woman’s excitement, and she told the woman that the dragonborn called the drink ’firerum’.
"Firerum! That sounds amazing!"
The woman began dancing again as she headed back towards the large bonfire to party with the dragonborn, and Francis watched her go with an exhausted look on his face before he turned to look at Gina with a worried expression.
"Is everything okay, Gina? You look like you’ve been crying."
Gina blinked in surprise at that question, but she just smiled at Francis and told him that she was fine. Gina didn’t feel like telling anyone about her personal matter with Jason, so she just lied.