Chapter 37: Be my wife
The garden fell into silence.
The female reporters standing in the distance all stopped talking at once. Every lens turned toward Elowen, who was bowing her head before Erik, the bouquet in her hands trembling faintly.
Erik looked at her and asked:
"Apologize for what?"
Elowen raised her head. The moment she saw his face, every word she had rehearsed all afternoon instantly fell apart. In the end, she could only say what had truly been weighing on her heart.
"I’m sorry for failing to protect you in the Trial Space."
Erik furrowed his brow slightly. Elowen hurried to continue, as though stopping for even a second would drain all her courage.
"I once said I’d stand in front of you, but in the end, the one who got hurt was me. You had to lure the monster away alone, fight alone, and then keep pushing forward. Even though you said it wasn’t my fault, I still felt so useless."
Erik was about to speak when Elowen shook her head.
"Can you let me finish?"
He was quiet for a moment, then nodded.
"Go ahead."
That single word helped Elowen hold on to her last bit of courage. She gripped the bouquet tighter.
"I also want to apologize for what happened in the car."
"In the car?" Erik blanked.
Elowen’s ears turned bright red. She looked him straight in the eye, her emerald gaze already glazed with a thin layer of moisture.
"I was too hasty. The moment I saw you come back, my mind almost went completely blank. I just wanted to hold you, to kiss you, to make sure you were really still by my side. But then... you stopped."
A tear slid down her cheek. Elowen quickly wiped it away and tried to force a smile.
"That’s when I realized maybe I’d been too forward, and it made you uncomfortable. If you don’t like it, I won’t do it again. I won’t hug you without permission. If I want to kiss you, I’ll ask first. If you don’t want me to touch you, just tell me."
Erik’s expression gradually turned helpless. By now, he finally understood what was going on.
But Elowen still wasn’t finished.
"I know I’m a lot to deal with, and I get jealous easily. In the future, there’ll definitely be other Succubi by your side. I’ll try to get along with them."
She lowered her gaze, her fingers squeezing the flower stems until her knuckles turned white. When she lifted her head again, tears had already spilled past the corners of her eyes.
"I just love you too much, Erik. I don’t want to lose you."
The night breeze drifted through the flower bushes. Apart from the rustle of leaves, there was no other sound in the entire garden.
Erik looked at the woman before him, caught between amusement and heartache.
Just because he had paused a kiss to go buy a ring, Elowen had scared herself to this extent.
What bothered him more was that those words didn’t stem solely from insecurity. This world had taught Elowen to believe that the moment he found her bothersome, she had to pull back every desire she had, including the right to embrace the person she loved.
Erik exhaled and stepped closer.
Elowen instinctively tensed. He didn’t scold her. He simply raised his hand and wiped the tears from her cheek.
"You’re overthinking it. I’ve never hated you, and I didn’t stop because you were too forward."
Those emerald eyes widened.
"Then why?"
Erik glanced at the cameras in the distance, then at the extravagantly decorated garden before him. He let out a soft laugh.
"Because if we’d kept going in the car, I felt like it would’ve been too casual. We’ve signed the Contract, and we’ll be living together for a very long time. Some things matter, and I wanted to do them properly."
Elowen didn’t fully grasp his meaning yet, but her stiff shoulders gradually began to relax.
"So you’re not angry with me?"
"Never was."
"And you don’t find me annoying?"
"No."
She hesitated before asking again:
"I can still hug you whenever I want?"
Erik laughed.
"Of course."
Elowen’s lips trembled. Tears welled up again, but this time not from fear. She wanted to throw herself into his arms, yet she forced herself to stay still because there was one more thing left to do.
"Then..."
Elowen took a deep breath, handed the bouquet to a handmaiden beside her, and pulled out a small box.
The reporters outside immediately buzzed with excitement. Meira straightened up, watching her daughter intently.
Elowen opened the lid. Inside was a ring crafted from silvery-white metal, its center set with a crystal that pulsed with distinct waves of energy. She raised the box with both hands.
"Erik, I know I’m not good enough yet, but I’ll try. If you’re still willing..."
She was just about to perform the customary proposal ceremony of this world when Erik suddenly smiled.
"Hold on a moment."
Elowen froze.
"Huh?"
Erik looked at the ring in her hands, then reached into his spatial bracelet.
"Seems like we had the same idea."
A small velvet box appeared in the palm of his hand.
Meira went rigid. Sarna’s eyes flew wide. A handmaiden behind them unconsciously dropped the cloth she was holding. The nearest female reporter stared at the box, seemingly forgetting she was broadcasting live.
Elowen still didn’t understand why everyone was reacting this way. Not until Erik opened the lid.
Inside was also a ring.
It was simpler than the one she had prepared. A silver band, its center set with a small crystal that gave off a soft, gentle glow.
But what stole Elowen’s breath wasn’t the ring. It was the person holding it.
"Erik..."
He took another step forward. Under the gaze of every single person present, Erik slowly lowered himself onto one knee on the grass.
The entire garden seemed to freeze.
A female reporter brought her hand to her mouth, her voice shaking:
"He’s... kneeling before a Succubus?"
The cameraman beside her was equally stunned, but his hands held the camera steady out of sheer instinct.
Tears instantly rose in Meira’s eyes.
She had lived long enough, attended countless Pairing ceremonies, and witnessed many powerful Succubi kneel before men. They offered rings, wealth, and precious cultivation resources, all just to beg the other party to accept becoming their Partner.
Among them were Awakened strong enough to level entire buildings, and those who held fortunes a family couldn’t amass in generations. Yet before the man they wished to Pair with, they still had to kneel and plead to be chosen.
Meira had never once seen it the other way around.
Sarna standing beside her forgot to breathe as well. She looked at Erik kneeling, then at Elowen. A bittersweet feeling swelled in her chest. She was envious, but the joy she felt for her best friend still curled the corners of her lips upward.
Elowen had completely lost the ability to react. The ring box in her hands slowly lowered, her emerald eyes wide open.
"You..."
That was the only word she could manage.
Erik looked up at her. He didn’t understand why a simple proposal had shocked everyone so deeply. Elowen was the person who would share his life, not a servant or some object delivered after a Pairing. She deserved a proper proposal.
"Elowen."
Just the sound of her name made her tears pour down.
"I don’t want you to stay by my side just because the Contract bound us together. And I don’t need you to treat taking care of me as an obligation."
Elowen raised one hand to cover her mouth, trying to hold back the sobs. Erik kept his eyes locked on hers.
"You can be jealous. You can hug me whenever you want. If something’s bothering you, just tell me. The person I want by my side is Elowen, not some perfect Succubus. Just you."
He raised the ring box. Light from hundreds of floating crystals overhead reflected in his dark eyes.
"I want to give you the full respect a wife deserves. Elowen, will you stay by my side as my wife?"
Erik’s voice wasn’t loud, but the microphones around the garden captured every single word with perfect clarity.
"Be my wife."
Elowen’s legs gave out. She sank to her knees before him, her trembling hands cradling his face.
"Yes!"
The answer burst out alongside her tears.
"Yes, Erik! Yes!"
She laughed and cried at the same time as she threw herself into his arms. Erik caught her, and the two of them nearly ended up sitting together on the grass. Elowen clung to his neck, tears drenching her face, but her smile never once disappeared.
Erik smiled too, gently patting her back.
"Let me put the ring on first."
Elowen immediately let go and held out her hand so fast that several people nearby couldn’t help but laugh. Her fingers were still shaking violently.
Erik took the ring from the box and slowly slid it onto her finger.
A perfect fit.
Elowen looked down at the ring, then looked at him. Tears spilled over once more. This time she didn’t hold back, throwing her arms around Erik. He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close.
Outside the garden, the nearest female reporter finally collected herself. She looked straight into the camera and took two deep breaths before she could get a full sentence out:
"You are watching live... Lord Erik has just taken the initiative to propose to his Succubus Partner."
The news swept across the city in a matter of minutes.
...
At the central plaza, the massive crystal display screen that had been running advertisements abruptly switched to a live feed. Hundreds of people below stopped in their tracks all at once.
On the screen, Erik was down on one knee before Elowen.
A Succubus student holding a cup of water stood frozen.
"Wait... What is that man doing?"
Her friend beside her watched without blinking.
"Proposing."
"I know it’s a proposal! But why is he the one kneeling?"
The plaza quickly erupted into noise. An older Succubus covered her mouth, and a female Awakened passing by stopped dead in her tracks to stare at the screen.
Online, the comments scrolled so fast they were nearly impossible to read.
[Am I seeing things?]
[He actually knelt before Elowen?]
[A man went out and bought a ring for a Succubus on his own?]
[I’m crying. I don’t even know why I’m crying.]
[He said she can be jealous...]
["The person I want by my side is Elowen, not some perfect Succubus."]
[Stop repeating it! I can’t take it!]
One comment quickly shot to the top.
[Is this really a man?]
Right below it, someone replied:
[Maybe the Goddess saw how much we’ve been suffering and sent an angel down?]
Within seconds, that reply had already received thousands of upvotes.
Beneath the screen, a female Awakened silently watched Erik slide the ring onto Elowen’s finger, her eyes gradually turning red.
She had once prepared a house, a vehicle, and cultivation resources to propose to her Partner. She knelt before him, offered everything she had, then was so happy she couldn’t sleep just because he agreed to nod his head.
She had never once imagined that a Succubus could be treasured by a man like this.
"I’m jealous of Elowen," someone nearby muttered.
Another person laughed bitterly.
"Who wouldn’t be? But she’s Meira’s daughter, her compatibility with Erik is over ninety percent, and she even took a hit for him in the Trial Space."
The woman who had spoken first fell silent for a moment, then sighed.
"Fine. At the very least, she deserves it."
A few scattered laughs rose from the crowd. Only one person hadn’t smiled from start to finish.
Saraya stood less than thirty meters from the screen. Her golden hair draped over her shoulders, her face deathly pale. Both her hands were ice-cold.
On the screen, Erik was holding Elowen. The ring on the silver-haired Succubus’s finger caught the light beneath the floating crystals.
The chatter around her poured into Saraya’s ears without pause.
"I used to think men like that only existed in novels."
"Erik cooks for his Partner, protects her, and now he even proposed on his own..."
"If someone treated me like that, I really wouldn’t need anything else."
"Elowen must’ve saved the entire world in a past life."
Every single sentence made Saraya’s fingertips tremble harder.
Three months.
Erik had once been so close to her. He used to cook, used to sit outside her room through the night when her hunger surges hit, used to pay for expenses she never even bothered to ask where he’d found the money.
Back then, Saraya took all of it for granted.
He wanted to bond with her, so he should put in the effort. He should prove he was worthy and patiently wait until she accepted.
Now, that very same man was kneeling, placing a ring on another Succubus’s finger with his own hands. The tenderness in his eyes as he gazed at Elowen was something Saraya couldn’t tear herself away from.
On the screen, Erik reached out and wiped the tears from his bride-to-be’s face.
Saraya’s chest felt like an invisible hand was crushing it. She shook her head, every trace of color gone from her lips.
"This can’t be..."
Her voice was so small that no one around her heard it.
Saraya stared at the smile on Erik’s face. Memories of the past three months surfaced one after another, but this time she no longer saw a man trying to win her over. She only saw the things he had once done in silence, things she had dismissed and thrown away.
"Erik..."
A single tear slowly rolled down her bloodless cheek.
"Why?"