Revelations (1) [Bonus chapter]

"Your relationship with Iris, your affairs with Seris, your flings with Rosalind, and your liaisons with Verda, I knew about every. Single. One. Of. Them," Lilia uttered each word with deliberate emphasis, driving her point home like a series of blows from a hammer on a nail.

As those words reached his ears, Alex's mind spun as the shock overwhelmed him.

Much like Iris, Seris, Rosalind, and Verda were women with whom he had cheated on Lilia.

Verda and Seris were women with whom he had relationships while they still lived in the city of Vivante, located at the heart of the Eswald territory where each patriarch of the family resides. Meanwhile, Rosalind was the former head maid of Alex's mansion, preceding Anna.

Keen to keep his adventures hidden from his wife, Alex took every precaution, meeting these women in secret, sometimes traveling great distances just to see them. Yet now, faced with the revelation that Lilia was aware of everything, he realized his efforts had been futile.

Forcing himself to calm down, Alex mulled over the situation. 'If she knew and never said anything or left me, I guess nothing will change right now. But how did she know?!!' he wondered.

Rosalind, he could deduce, despite his efforts to keep things discreet. With her proximity, Alex found it difficult to resist temptation, sometimes giving in to impulses in locations where they ran the risk of being caught. And then there was also Alice, with her God's eyes, she could have saw what he might be doing with Rosalind and snitch on him.

He wouldn't put it past that little creep to do something like that.

However, things were different with the other three women. Lilia shouldn't have been able to know about them, and he actually couldn't think of how she managed to find out about his relationships with them.

Instead of just wasting his time to think of a problem he obviously couldn't solve, he decided that it was better to ask her directly.

Looking into the captivating scarlet eyes of Lilia, he asked, his voice barely a murmur, "how did you know about my involvement with these fours?"

"It's a secret," Lilia said with a playful smile. "But you should know, there's nothing you do or have done that I don't know about," she added, maintaining the same smile.

"...."

"...."

A strange silence enveloped the carriage as Alex and Lilia locked eyes with each other.

"That sounded hella creepy," Alex remarked.

"Yeah, that didn't come out as I intended," Lilia nodded in agreement.

The couple stared at each other for a moment before bursting into laughter.

"So why didn't you say anything, even when you knew I was with other women?" Alex questioned in a much calmer and lighthearted tone.

"Well, your mother did warn me that something like that might happen," Lilia shrugged nonchalantly.

"Wait, what?" Alex looked at Lilia incredulously.

"It happened just before our wedding..."

****

Eighteen years earlier, just a few days before Alex and Lilia's wedding.

"Thank you, Rosalind," Ava said as she graciously picked up the cup of tea placed before her. "You can leave us alone," she instructed.

Rosalind, a stunning beauty with midnight blue hair and eyes, and a voluptuous figure dressed in a maid uniform, bowed to Ava and exited the room, casting a contemptuous glance at Lilia before she left.

Lilia noticed the maid's glare but chose not to react, focusing instead on her soon-to-be mother-in-law.

"I apologize for leaving you to handle the wedding preparations. There was something I needed to deal with," Ava said apologetically as she sipped her tea.

"You don't have to apologize, I understand, and Amelia, Talia, Celine, and Marina helped me a lot with the preparations," Lilia smiled as she lifted the cup of tea before her.

She stared at the golden-brown liquid in her cup with a cautious look and reluctantly brought it to her lips.

For some unknown reason, the maid who had just left seemed seemed to hate her guts, so Lilia wasn't entirely trusting of the tea she had brought. However, seeing Ava drink from the same tea, she concluded that Rosalind must not have poisoned it.

'Oh, this tastes delicious,' Lilia exclaimed, her scarlet eyes lighting up with amazement as she savored the tea.

"Glad to hear that the girls helped," Ava smiled. "Where are the little ones?" she inquired a second later.

"They've been begging all week to go to the amusement park, so Alex took them there," Lilia replied, her face beaming with a big smile.

"Speaking of him," Ava said, her expression turning serious, "in a few days, you'll be marrying my son, so I suppose I should give you a warning."

Lilia arched a brow and set down her cup of tea. "A warning? About what?" she inquired.

"I'm not sure if you're aware, but my son has a certain... tendency to be a womanizer," Ava said with a concerned expression.

"That's what I've heard," Lilia replied calmly, her demeanor composed despite the unsettling revelation.

"If that's the case, then I suppose you understand where I'm coming from," Ava sighed. "I can't say for certain if it will happen, but there's a possibility that even after your wedding, he might engage in extramarital relationships with other women. It doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't love you anymore; it's just..."

"His nature?"

"I wouldn't go as far as to say that it's ingrained in his nature, but you understand what I mean," Ava clarified. "Are you comfortable with that?"

"Well, it doesn't really matter," Lilia shrugged.

"Why is that?" Ava inquired, raising a brow.

"As long as he still loves me and my daughters, he can be sexually active with anyone, I don't really care about that," Lilia answered. "Though I won't openly express this to him; I'd prefer he doesn't make a habit of chasing after other women," Lilia chuckled softly.

"I suppose that settles it," Ava said, rising from her seat. "Come on, let's go. We have a wedding to prepare for."

****

Back to present

"I can't believe it," Alex exclaimed, facepalming in disbelief. "My own mother thought I would be cheating on my wife," he muttered incredulously.

"Was she wrong though?" Lilia questioned.

"No," Alex sighed heavily. "I suppose she was right."

Lilia giggled playfully, "Well, if it helps, you lasted longer than I expected before starting to chase after other women."

"No, it doesn't. It actually makes me feel like a scumbag," Alex admitted.

"Haha..." Lilia giggled once again, her laughter echoing melodiously through the carriage.

After a moment, she ceased laughing and adopted a curious expression. "Since you finally came clean about Iris and her daughters, I've been meaning to ask: where are they? They suddenly vanished, and no one knows where they are."

Alex stiffened briefly before taking a deep breath and sighing. 'I suppose I should tell her what happened.'

"You remember that I told you it was Felix and I who found the lust artifact, right?" Alex began, his voice tinged with hesitation.

"Uh-huh," Lilia responded, her curiosity piqued.

"Then you should know that after that..." Alex began to recount to Lilia the events that unfolded after they found the artifact.

He started by describing how they divided the treasure found in the treasury, with him taking possession of the artifact of lust while Felix claimed everything else. Alex then narrated how Felix, after depleting his own share, attempted to reclaim the artifact, which actually led the bastard to try killing him, though, Alex lied and said that Felix failed his murder attempt and that's why he was alive.

He wasn't ready to tell her that the current him is a fusion of the previous Alex and someone named Jack from another world, and it remained doubtful if he will ever tell about this fact.

The more he spoke, the more Lilia's demeanor shifted. Her once curious expression slowly gave way to an icy coldness, replacing any trace of warmth from her face.

By the time he was relaying the news about Iris and his daughters being ensnared in a cursed forest by Felix, a stifling Killing intent permeated the carriage.

The killing intent emanating from Lilia was so dense that it was almost palpable.

Unbeknownst to her, she inadvertently tapped into the remnants of Zid that she could still use, unleashing a surge of energy that filled the carriage with immense pressure.

Fortunately for Alex, neither the killing intent nor the pressure coming from his wife was targeted at him. However, despite this, large beads of sweat formed on his forehead simply due to his presence in the tense atmosphere.

His anger and reaction when he thought Niya almost killed his wife paled in comparison to the overwhelming reaction Lilia was experiencing.

The pressure emanating from Lilia was such that a few seconds later, the metal and wood of the carriage groaned under the strain, and...

Crack