"How many times you and Zeus have done it? Any approximate guess?" Sophia asked with a curious look on her face.

"If you consider 'one round' as 'one time', then no, I can't. But most of the time, he either finished in my mouth, or he just used my mouth and made me drink his essence."

"That thick and… slimy… You… swallowed it?" Sophia couldn't comprehend what she just heard.

"He doesn't make you drink?" Emilia asked as though she couldn't believe it.

Sophia shook her head without taking her eyes off Emilia.

"I told him to finish inside me, but most of the time, he did it in my mouth. It's not like I hate it, but I don't like it either. Because swallowing it is hard since it gets stuck in my throat every time, and it gets all gooey. However, it feels good when he finishes inside my divine space. It's about pleasure and feeling here."

Emilia tried to explain it in simple words, but Sophia stopped listening halfway. Her attention was diverted by the scars on Emilia's body.

She moved her head towards Emilia's chest and touched the scars in the middle of her chest, "What is this scar? It looks deep."

"That's where I was stabbed," Emilia also showed her hands and said, "And this is from where my hands were chopped."

Sophia pondered for a while, then asked with a puzzled look on her face, "I didn't see them before, though."

"Yeah, they appear randomly. I showed them to Nero, and he said not to worry about it," Emilia answered nonchalantly.

Sophia understood everything and why Nero made Emilia drink his essence.

When Emilia had fallen from the sky on the town 'Astracliff', she was gravely injured, and since the humans were the ones who took care of her and healed her, Emilia's body became weak. Emilia did heal and regained consciousness years later, but her body had become a human body— after the mundane treatment— with no capability of using her angelic powers. Not only that, Emilia's body was getting weak day by day as it couldn't apprehend her divine powers, so Nero was feeding her his powers.

The only reason Nero made Emilia drink his essence was to develop her body internally. Nero's blood was already healing Emilia's body slowly, and his essence was boosting that process.

"Nero said 70% of my body consists of his blood, and now I think the rest 30% is his essence," Emilia joked.

'She isn't aware of it, is she?' Sophia reasoned out everything.

——

Nero, Emilia, and Sophia— who had changed to her human form— met up again when they left the hot spring. Nero found Emilia and Sophia's faces red and noticed they were acting weird, but he thought it was the effect of the hot spring. Though it was only because they exchanged more information than they intended to.

Emilia and Sophia stayed quiet on the way back to the inn and held Nero's arm from each side. Nero was enjoying that silent treatment and thought Sophia and Emilia were getting along now.

When they reached the inn, Laira was at the reception counter. Her face cheered up when she saw Sophia and Emilia but she turned her face to the side when she looked at Nero.

"..." Nero was confused. 'I thought everything was fine between us.'

Laira had already prepared dinner for them, so they enjoyed the dinner as Laira told more stories about the town.

After dinner, Emilia decided to stay downstairs with Laira to help her wash dishes, while Nero and Sophia went upstairs to their room.

Sophia changed her form back and let out a weary sigh as she jumped on the bed. "I am so soo sooo tired."

Nero laughed as he saw Sophia lamenting, and uttered, "It looks like Emilia bored you to hell."

"Quite the country. We are on good terms now," Sophia replied with a flushed face as she recalled everything.

"Uhh…" Nero stared at Sophia suspiciously, "You are acting kinda sus. Could it be that you two did something— you know what I am talking about— in the hot spring?"

Sophia threw a pillow at Nero as he caught it and threw it back at Sophia.

"Don't let your imagination go wild. And I am sure I warned you last time to not joke about this matter. I don't like it," Sophia warned.

"It's been eons, so I forgot about it," Nero remarked as he laid down beside Sophia.

Sophia turned to Nero and stared into his eyes as she caressed his handsome face, "I love you."

Nero smiled gently and placed his hand on Sophia's hand, "This is the first time you have said 'I love you' to me, you know?"

"But you were aware of it since a long time ago, right?"

"It was obvious. Maybe… I should have chosen you at that time."

After staring at Nero's face, Sophia's gaze fell on Nero's soft lips. She slowly moved her face closer to Nero's lips to kiss him, but Nero placed his finger on her lips and said, "Change your form first."

Sophia changed her form and kissed Nero.

Nero sat up and leaned back to the slat of the bed, then pulled Sophia on his lap.

Sophia wrapped her legs around Nero and started kissing Nero passionately as though nothing else mattered to her.

After some kisses, Nero stopped Sophia and placed his hands on her shoulders before saying, "I… I met Amphy today."

"Hmm?" Sophia was lost in the pleasures of kisses, so she didn't hear it properly.

"Amphitrite," Nero averted his gaze from Sophia and continued, "She was at the hot spring, and she said she wanted my help to break her seal."

Sophia frowned her face and furrowed her eyebrows, "You don't plan on helping her, do you?"

"I don't know. She said she has been waiting for me ever since I was sealed."

"Zeus, don't forget how she threw us out when we needed her help."

Sophia hated all the girls Nero was acquainted with except the one who raised Nero. But her hate for Amphitirite was on a whole other level.