Chapter 244 37
The principal's office of the Arcuz Grand Academy fell silent after Raphael said his second condition. Azalia was dumbfounded and didn't know what to say to Raphael's request.
"Hmm… I think I misheard your second condition. Can you repeat it one more time?" Azalia still couldn't believe what she had heard.
"I want you to marry me." Raphael repeated his words. He didn't look like he was joking.
"Are you kidding me?" Azalia asked again. Although she saw Raphael's serious face, she hoped Raphael was not serious with his request.
"I am serious, and you must marry me if you want this world altar fragment." Raphael understood that the conditions he said sounded very strange for someone she had just met. So it's only natural that Azalia has a hard time accepting it.
"I'm sorry, but I can't accept your condition. you better replace it with another request." Azalia flatly refused. She declined the request quickly after a boy's poker face suddenly appeared in her mind.
"I can't change my condition. If you want this thing, then you have to marry me. But if you don't want to, then don't expect you to have it." Raphael said coldly. He had no intention of changing his condition because he had thought about it since seeing Azalia's face in the friendly match. Marrying Raphael was a dead price for Azalia to get the world altar fragment.
"Do you think I can't take that world altar fragment from your hands? If I can't get it in a good way, then I'll take it by force!" Azalia released her power and prepared to fight Raphael.
"Are you sure you want to fight with me?" Raphael smirked, took out an iron ball with many carvings, and was enveloped in a thick golden light.
Azalia's beautiful face sank after seeing the object in Raphael's hand. She knew that thing because she had seen it several times in the divine realm.
"Angel Golden Orb? You brought that artifact from the divine realm?" Azalia said in disbelief.
The Angel Golden Orb was a god rank artifact of the angel race with terrifying destructive abilities. Only important people in the angel race were allowed to use it because the orb's power was dangerous. That artifact could summon divine punishment, and its destructive power was like a catastrophe. If Raphael used that orb, he could easily wipe out a kingdom from the Clorius continent.
"As expected of a Divine race Princess. You are not only beautiful and strong but also very knowledgeable. I'm not wrong if I choose you to be my wife." Raphael smiled in satisfaction and gave Azalia a sincere compliment.
"Don't talk nonsense! Who wants to be your wife!? Do you think that artifact can stop me? If you think so, then you are wrong! The artifact might injure me, but it won't put my life in danger!" Azalia roared angrily after hearing Raphael talk about the marriage. She didn't want to think about it because she wanted to focus on the survival of the people of her race.
"I know this thing won't be able to stop you, but it can give me time to destroy this world's altar fragment. I believe that this thing is essential to you after I heard your story because it concerns the survival of the divine race on this continent. wasn't I right, Princess Azalia?" Raphael threatened Azalia.
Raphael's first condition was to determine how important the world altar fragment was to Azalia. Once he found out, he could use that thing to force Azalia to agree to the second condition. Raphael had been thinking about this plan ever since Azalia and Hikaru's fight ended.
"You!" Azalia trembled after hearing Raphael's threat. She didn't know what to say in response. Azalia felt that she had fallen into Raphael's trap.
"I'm not asking you the impossible, am I? I just asked you to be my wife. Isn't that still within the scope of your ability? After all, we are a perfect couple. We are both from the divine realm and are members of the royal families of our respective races! We can preserve our race in the new world later!" Raphael tried to persuade Azalia to agree to his terms.
"Besides, you must also know that the Rubelia Kingdom has used the world altar fragment to summon heroes. Once used, it would take years to fully replenish the power of the world altar fragment naturally. But I can help you speed up the process. I will also come with you to retrieve the world altar fragment from the Rubelia Kingdom." Raphael gave another lure to Azalia.
Azalia pondered, and this time she didn't reply to Raphael right away. She wasn't thinking about Raphael's words but was comparing which was more important between the survival of her race or the person who had recently disturbed her sleep.
If she agreed to Raphael's condition and were willing to marry him, Azalia would get one of the world altar fragments. While the fragments in the Rubelia Kingdom she can take easily. Azalia would also get two fragments of Ziel for free. After that, the world altar in her hand would be complete.
As Raphael had said earlier, the world altar fragment in the Rubelia Kingdom had lost its power. It would take a very long time for Azalia to replenish it with Fornius and Aghares. If Raphael's words were true and he could speed up the charging of the world Altar's power, it would help her.
But if she had to marry Raphael to obtain the world altar fragment and his help, she felt she couldn't accept it. A certain boy had filled her heart and mind at this time. It made it difficult for Azalia to make a decision.
After thinking for a while, Azalia still couldn't find the answer. She didn't think that Ziel's weight in her heart was equal to her race's survival. Azalia was confused with her heart because she had only met Ziel a few times, and they had never even had a romantic conversation. But Ziel's existence became very important to her without her knowing it. Azalia gritted her teeth and replied to Raphael.
"I can't give you an answer right now. give me a few days to think about it." Azalia had to think calmly about the answer she should give to Raphael.
Azalia still has the responsibility to maintain the survival of the people of her race. Her parents entrusted them to her and her older brother, Azael. But now Azael is gone, so Azalia has to shoulder the responsibility alone.
On the one hand, Azalia wanted to take the people of her race to another world quickly, but on the other hand, she also wanted to pursue her happiness after only realizing it.
"Okay. I'll give you three days. You should think carefully about my request and give a satisfactory answer. Otherwise, you will never have your hands on this fragment." Raphael quickly agreed. But he gave another threat at the end of his sentence.
"You don't have to threaten me because I'm a person who doesn't like being threatened." Azalia stared coldly at Raphael and released her killing intent.
"Ahaha… I didn't mean to threaten you at all. I'm just reminding you. So please don't forget what I said." Raphael immediately corrected his words after feeling Azalia's anger toward him.
"I'll tell you after three days, so you don't have to remind me. But before that, there's something I want to ask you." Azalia suddenly remembered something in her mind that made her curious.
"How did you get to this continent, and what is your goal of becoming the principal of this academy? I heard you became the principal because the King of the Beast Kingdom recommended it, but I don't believe it." Azalia asked. She wanted to know how Raphael escaped from the divine realm and fell into the Clorius continent. Azalia never knew that the angel race was able to cross the world as Azalia did.
Azalia and the people of the divine races were able to cross from the divine realm to the Clorius continent because her parents and the people of the divine races at that time sacrificed their lives to destroy space and allow them to escape from that realm.
At that time, the angel race should have been extinct, and Azalia had never heard of them doing the same thing Azalia's parents did to send the people of the divine race away from that realm. But it turned out that one person from the angel race survived, and Azalia happened to meet him on the Clorius continent. Of course, it aroused curiosity in her.
"Ooh, you're already curious about your future husband?" Raphael smiled and thought that Azalia was getting attracted to him.
"No need to talk nonsense and just answer my questions!" Azalia snorted. Her face was red with irritation at Raphael's overconfidence.
"Haha...are you shy? Alright, I won't tease you anymore." Raphael laughed in satisfaction after seeing Azalia's blushing face. He thought that Azalia blushed at his words. Then Raphael's face became serious and answered Azalia's question.
"That incident began when my father, the king of the angel race, and other higher-ups performed a ritual secretly to open a portal to another world when that primeval god invaded the divine realm. But my father and the people of the angel race thought that the ritual failed because the portal didn't appear after so long they waited." Raphael started to tell the chronology to Azalia.
"What do you mean by they thought it failed? Did the ritual work?" Azalia couldn't help but listen to Raphael's explanation seriously.
"The ritual was successful, but the portal didn't appear where the ritual was taking place but in my room. Even though I'm the prince of the angel race, I don't really like socializing with other people. I prefer to stay in my room or read a book in the library. That's why I'm not that famous." Raphael paused his explanation for a while and then continued it again.
"But one day, a portal suddenly appeared in my room. I tried to approach it, but I was sucked into it. When I opened my eyes, I was already on this continent?" Raphael ended his explanation of why he got stranded in that world.
"What happened since then? Could there be a time difference in the portal that made you late to this continent?" Azalia asked.
"Why would you think that?" Raphael smiled and asked her back.
"Because I feel that the time you were sucked into the portal wasn't much different from when we fled to this continent through the space crack. Your arrival time on this continent should be earlier than ours. But none of my race has seen you hundreds of years ago." Azalia felt that Raphael didn't know much about the events on the Clorius continent hundreds of years ago.
"I fell asleep somewhere in ruins. A few months ago, I was found by one of the mages of the Beast Kingdom and brought to the palace. They took care of me, and I woke up from my long slumber not long ago. After that, I learned quite a bit about the incident that involved the divine race hundreds of years ago and recently happened." Raphael answered Azalia's confusion.
"Ah, I also accidentally found this world altar fragment in the Beast Kingdom's treasure vault. I didn't expect to find an interdimensional artifact that had been lost from the divine realm on this continent." Raphael added.
"I understand. So what is your goal in becoming the principal of this academy?" Azalia's face suddenly became serious, and her eyes stared intently at Raphael.
"I don't want to lie to my future wife. After I got up, I heard about this academy. I showed my power to King Regulus and asked him to give me the post of the principal to me. Unexpectedly he gave it with pleasure." Raphael smiled proudly.
"I'm not asking about it. I'm asking about your goal of becoming the principal." Azalia repeated her question impatiently.
"Ooh…I want to form my army. I want to make those students strong with the miracle liquid and prepare them to fight against those ancient gods as my pawns." Raphael smirked and said his aim honestly. But before Azalia could reply, Raphael continued his speech.
"But I think I have to completely change my plans because I'm going to another world with you." Raphael smiled refreshingly. Azalia snorted and ignored his words, but she seemed still curious about something.
"Wouldn't it be better to summon heroes with world altar fragments if you wanted to create a strong army?" Azalia added another question.
"Heroes are strong. But after I learned it, each fragment of the world altar could only summon four heroes. The amount is too little for me, and I don't know if there is any particular effect if the heroes drink the miracle liquid." Raphael stopped his words and pondered for a while. After that, he continued his explanation.
"If they die in the process, wouldn't that be for nothing? The world altar fragment had lost its power, and I didn't get the troops I wanted. Wouldn't that be very detrimental to me? But now I don't think much about it because I'm going to another world with you. Isn't that so, my future wife?" Raphael smiled and looked at Azalia with eyes full of desire.