"I... I was also about to ask you to leave your life as a thief behind and live with me somewhere far away from all this madness!"
This proposal completely caught Ace off guard as he wasn't expecting Alina to have such ambition. Furthermore, he could literally feel how badly she wanted this to happen.
At this moment, without waiting for Ace to respond, she removed the veil from her face, which she had been wearing since she was 12, and no one had seen her face ever since.
Because of a peculiar custom of the Royal Bloodline of the Silver Ice Clan and revealing her face to a man signifies something massive.
A nation-toppling gorgeous face like a fairy was revealed in front of Ace. She has a perfect heart-shaped face with snow-white skin, a small nose, and full pale pink lips. Matching with her sensual, silvery eyes like pearls and long silver hair, she was simply breathtaking.
Alina's face was now no longer the face of a child which Ace remembered, and she had turned into a fairy maiden. She was no less gorgeous than Eva, but Alina still lacked her womanly and devilish charm unique to the enthralling devil!
Nevertheless, if Alina could gain a higher-level bloodline, then she would be no less deadly in charm than Eva.
However, Ace was concerned about her appearance, but the sentiments he had with her ran too deep in his heart. She was the very first girl in his life. Even if he doesn't want to admit it, he knows Alina resides in his heart just as much as Eva does.
Alina directly looked at Ace into his nostalgic eyes, and her pink lips parted, "Live with me. We can be together and won't have to care about anything else. I wasn't sure about it before, but now I am. I will leave everything behind for you and will be dead in the eye of the world, and the sky stealer will forever vanish into the legends. We can even cultivate in seclusion and increase our lifespan."
Then her eyes suddenly trembled. She hadn't thought she would have such an act of courage, but seeing Ace and hearing him gave her a sense of crisis.
Despite knowing Ace might not agree, she still wanted to ask no matter his response as this was probably her biggest wish, and she knew if she didn't ask right now, she wouldn't be ever again.
Meeting with Winter and Lillian's words also implicated her decision as well.
Ace couldn't help but think about Alina's words carefully. It wasn't like he hadn't thought about such a peaceful life. Even Eva might want this life, but she knows him too well to say something like this and come between his ambition. She just wanted to be with him and help him with everything she had.
Nevertheless, Ace knew a peaceful life was something everyone wanted, and Alina's words were his past wish as well. If she had said it just ten years ago, Ace might've agreed in a heartbeat.
Ace knew what he had to do now, leave everything to fate. He sighed as he looked at Alina and replied, "I'm flattered, Alina, really, and you have now grown into such a lovely lady from the little brat I remembered who loved to eat and play all day long.
"But before you tread on this road, I think you should know something about me and then take your time to think it over before you choose something you might regret."
Alina felt her heart tremble at this moment as she had a foreboding feeling all of a sudden. But she braced her heart for what was to come, but she clearly wasn't ready for it.
Ace revealed, "After you left, I wanted to find you and appear as someone capable to your family. So, I need the power, and that's when my journey began, and I left the outer city and entered the inner city to find more information and resources." A gentle smile appeared on his face, "There, I met with this crazy girl, Eva..."
Ace started telling Alina about Eva and his story without hiding any details. But the more Alina heard, her expression went paler, but she just listened without interrupting.
But seeing Ace's gentle expression as he told her about Eva, she felt extremely uncomfortable since she thought that expression was for her and for only her alone!
Yet now, seeing him talking about another woman with that same or even more lovable expression made her heart almost burst out of her chest. This feeling was even more terrible than being separated from him and then missing him every day.
However, the worse part came when, with a perplexed expression, Ace told her about Eva bound her life with his with a special devil race's ritual called the Devil's Love which was a sort of marriage ceremony.
Alina felt she fell into an abyss the moment she heard it, and her aura turned on like a raging tidal wave, startling Ace, and his word came to a stop right when he was about to tell her sealing Eva.
Alina's eyes were filled with despair and killing intent as her aura was at her peak yet extremely chaotic. She was clenching her fist as she uttered with clenched teeth, "S-she tricked you into marrying her!?"
Ace found it quite disturbing to see this terrifying reaction. She seemed even more excessive than Eva when she learned about the women in the Thief House. But he felt guilty as well and felt he owes her an explanation.
'Why is dealing with women so difficult?' Ace thought bitterly and even regrets telling her the truth now. But he knew he had to tell her the truth, or this spell an even bigger disaster for him when she learned from someone else or, worse, met Eva!
But first, he had to calm her down, "Well, she indeed tricked me. Since I was still too naïve at that time and I didn't know much about these rituals at all. But she didn't harm me, but just bound her life with me at the expense of if I died, she died as well, and if she died, nothing would happen to me. She has done that on her instincts because of a peculiar factor of my cultivation technique."
Ace bitterly told her about that blasted charm of his!