Chapter 908 - Which One Do You Love More?
"No… this can"t be," Adele muttered in disbelief. "It"s impossible. How… just how?"
Raymond looked at William and Belle with a complicated look on his face.
"Belle, did you already know about this?" Raymond inquired.
The black-haired beauty turned around to look at her father and nodded her head.
"Yes," Belle answered. "We first met in the countryside a year ago. I didn"t recognize him right away. How could I? His looks from before were completely different from his looks now. However, due to an unexpected turn of events, I was able to discover his ident.i.ty and the rest was history."
Raymond now understood why his daughter had suddenly broken out of her depression and became lively after spending some time in the countryside. It was because she had met the boy who had given his heart to her, and the guilt she had been harboring disappeared completely.
While Belle"s parents were digesting the information that their daughter had shared with them, William lightly nudged Belle to make the latter look at him.
"Which one did you love more?" William asked with curiosity.
The black-haired beauty smiled mischievously before answering William"s question.
"The old one," Belle replied with a smile, before whispering in William"s ear. "The new one is a womanizer so that is minus points for me."
William smiled after hearing Belle"s answer. Although his past self was nowhere near as handsome as his current self, he wasn"t too shabby looking either. As for the part of him being a womanizer… this was completely unfounded!
He wasn"t the one actively hitting on girls left and right. His current circ.u.mstances were just a bit complicated, especially with the culture of Hestia, as well as his memories of Asgard.
He didn"t choose the harem life, the harem life chose him!
(A/N: Yes. The author had nothing to do about why things ended up this way. I am innocent, Your Honor.)
"So, you are that boy," Adele said with a complicated expression on her face. "I know that it"s a little late, but I want to thank you for what you did back then. Our family is indebted to you and your sacrifice."
William nodded. This was already in the past, so he didn"t think much of it anymore. For him, as long as Belle was living a happy and healthy life.
A few years ago, she was very busy with work. It was a very crucial time for their company, so she left Belle in her husband"s care and focused on their family"s business.
Adele never had the opportunity to meet the person that had given her daughter a second chance at life. Seeing that the person that was supposed to be dead was right in front of her, she couldn"t help but have a sudden change of perspective when it came to matters of life after death.
"Belle, do you know that he doesn"t have the capability to travel between his world and ours?" Raymond asked.
This time, he took the initiative to ask the questions instead of his wife. Adele, on the other hand, was more than happy to let her husband do the talking. Although she had managed to regain her composure, she still felt embarra.s.sed about how she had rejected William"s attempt to deepen his relations.h.i.+p with her daughter.
"Yes," Belle replied. "Even so, I won"t change my mind. I will wait for him, no matter how long it takes."
Raymond eyed William because he knew that once his daughter had made a decision, it would be extremely hard to change her mind.
"William, I no longer have any issues with you becoming Belle"s fiance," Raymond stated.
"However, as a father. I have to take my stand when it comes to the variables surrounding your relations.h.i.+p. I know my daughter won"t budge no matter what I say, so I want to have an agreement with you."
Raymond paused before continuing what he wanted t o say.
"Five years. Within five years, you must find a way to bridge the gap between your world and this world," Raymond said. "If after five years and you still haven"t found a way to travel between worlds, please, free my daughter from your hold. She doesn"t deserve to be lonely for the rest of her life."
William and Belle stared at each other. Both of them understood the uncertainty that they would face in the future. With no definite way of being together, their relations.h.i.+p would undergo the test of time.
"Belle, what do y–."
William wasn"t able to finish his words because a delicate hand pressed over his lips.
"Five years," Belle said. "Within five years, find a way for the two of us to be together. If you can"t find a way, I will come and find you myself and strangle you at the first opportunity I get. Do I make myself clear?"
"Yes," William replied with a helpless smile. "I will do my best. So, wait for me."
Belle nodded. "Make sure that you don"t forge–."
This time, it was William"s hand that pressed over Belle"s lips to stop her from continuing her words. The word, forget, had become a taboo in William"s dictionary.
Belle also realized this, so she didn"t continue what she wanted to say. Instead, she gave William a kiss on the forehead and rested her head on his shoulder.
Raymond and Adele sighed in unison. They needed some time to digest everything that they had learned from their talks with William, so they decided to leave the library to return to their own room to have a private discussion.
William and Belle, on the other hand, went to the Half-Elf"s room to spend time with each other.
Just as the two lovebirds were about to engage in pa.s.sionate kissing, Belle"s phone suddenly rang.
William lifted himself enough to move behind Belle to give her a hug, while the latter accepted the video call from her best friend Paula, who had been suffering from the onslaught of questions from her friends and acquaintances.
"I finally managed to get in touch with yo–" Paula"s words stopped in her throat when she saw that her best friend, Belle, wasn"t alone.
Right behind the black-haired beauty was William who was looking at the camera with a smile.
Just like the two lovebirds, Paula wasn"t alone. Hana was right beside her and was staring at Belle"s and William"s image that was being shown in the video call.
"Do the two of you have any idea of what kind of mess the university had to deal with after the two of you left?" Paula asked in a grumpy tone.
"Don"t know, Don"t care," William replied. "If anyone comes to me looking for trouble, I"ll make sure that they will be troubled for life."
"You idiot red-head! The members of the gang you beat up earlier are part of a big organization!" Paula stated in an anxious tone. "They are the rulers of the underworld that runs this city. Now that you"ve hurt their members, they will not stop until they have dealt with you.
"What I am afraid of is that they will not stop with just you. They may also target Belle"s family. This is a serious problem. How do you plan to deal with this? If something happens to Belle, I swear that I will fight you to the death if I have to!"
William raised an eyebrow after hearing Paula"s words.
"Do you know the name of their organization?" William inquired.
Paula nodded. "The name of their organization is called the Black Gate. I can tell you with certainty that their big shots are now having a meeting on how to deal with you at this moment."
"Black Gate? Alright. Thank you for the information," William said before kissing Belle"s forehead when she turned to look at him. "I"ll be out for a while."
"Will you be here before ten?"
"I will. So, make sure to wear that nightgown we bought earlier. I want to…"
Belle blushed before reluctantly nodding her head. Although they couldn"t do anything inappropriate, that didn"t mean that they were not allowed to spice up their relations.h.i.+p.
It was not only Belle that blushed after hearing William"s words. Even Paula and Hana felt their cheeks burning because of the things that were playing inside their heads.
The black-haired beauty felt regretful that her intimate moment with William came to an untimely end because of the news that her best friend had shared with them.
The moment William left the room, the smile on his face disappeared and was replaced with an expression that was out for blood.
"Optimus, find every member of Black Gate and their affiliates in the city," William ordered. "Make sure to not leave even a single one of them behind."
< Understood. >
That night, under the cover of darkness, the once powerful Overlords of the underworld were wiped out from the face of the city.
When morning came, stories about the eradication of the organization known as the Black Gate had spread among the other organizations and gangs in the underworld.
According to the rumors, a red-headed teenager was seen at several of the scenes where a one sided slaughter took place.
After doing an extensive investigation, they were able to uncover the incident that sparked members of the Black Gate to go to the university where Belle was studying.
They also saw the video recordings of William single-handedly beating the gangsters of Black Gate, which made the leaders of the other gangs and organizations shudder.
Because of this, they issued a decree that no matter what happened, they were not allowed to touch the red-headed teenager, the black-haired beauty, and her family.
They were afraid that if they poked the hornet"s nest, the calamity that befell Black Gate, would happen to them as well.