...First, I should go see Ria.
After getting away from Guy, Adelio headed first for the tower where Ria was being kept apart.
Rain and Misery were definitely weighing on his mind, but not more than Ria, the woman he loved.
He might have been shaken by a situation that felt like a sudden confession, but the most important person in his heart was, no matter what anyone said, Ria.
That had not changed even now.
If it’s Ria... she’ll be at the top by now.
Trusting the intuition people liked to call a lover’s instinct, Adelio immediately sensed where Ria was and stepped into the tower, his thoughts a little dazed.
Considering everything he would have to deal with from here on, there was no way he could stay clear-headed.
Ria, his highest priority, was already one of the biggest problems he had to face, and the rest were hardly any easier.
Rain and Misery next, then later Chronoa and Ermesia, who would inevitably have to face Ria as well...
...None of this was going to be easy.
Tap...
And then,
while those thoughts filled his head, the staircase he had been climbing had already reached its end.
Which meant the first matter he had to resolve was now right in front of him.
Keeping his lover from spiraling out of control.
"Adelio..."
Ria stood in front of the window with a distant look on her face.
She had been gazing out over the snowfield swallowed in white, but at the sound of Adelio’s footsteps behind her, she slowly turned her head.
Something about her felt slightly different from usual.
Adelio had expected her to be furious, but that wasn’t it.
The emotion and atmosphere he felt from her now were closer to understanding than anger.
"...Are you okay?"
There were several questions packed into those words.
He was asking out of concern, of course, but also what exactly this fragment of emotion and this air of understanding meant, and what she intended to do now about the fight from earlier.
"Yeah... I’m okay now."
Seeing Adelio’s expression, half worry and half confusion, Ria gave him a faint smile. She was happy that he had come to her before Rain and Misery.
Feeling the tightness in her chest ease a little just from seeing him, she continued.
"...I gave Rain and Misery some thought. I never imagined those two would change this much... and for the same reason I did."
The [Primordial Demons] had all been born on the same day, at the same time, so whether they wanted it or not, they were bound to one another by a kind of sibling-like fate, much like [Hero]es and [Demon Lord]s.
That was why some of them had formed very close bonds, like Rain and Misery, while others had become the kind of ill-fated companions found between Guy and [Noir], or Ria and [Jonne] and [Viole].
Naturally, they knew one another that well.
At least, until one demon appeared.
From the moment the demon named Adelio entered their lives, they began to change.
Just as Misery had said, others had changed through him too, just as Ria herself had.
That was why, while Ria had first felt anger toward [Jonne], now, the second time around, she had come to understand why Rain and Misery had fallen for Adelio.
After all, she knew better than anyone how irresistible he could seem in someone else’s eyes—the man who had caught hold of her when she had been wandering for ages after losing Blanche.
So she asked.
Not with the malice and hostility of [Blanc], but with the purity of [Ria].
"...Adelio. Are you going to accept Rain and Misery’s feelings...?"
A pure question.
Not a mocking one, not one laced with jealousy, but a question born of simple, genuine doubt.
Still, it unsettled Adelio all the same.
"......"
He—Adelio—still had not found an answer.
To a complete stranger, he might have looked frustrating, indecisive, maybe even spineless. That was how long he had been agonizing over it.
He had spent years with Rain and Misery always nearby, so it was hard for him to simply reject them. But with Ria in his life, he also couldn’t answer by saying he would accept them.
A perfect dead end, where he could do nothing but stay silent.
And yet,
sometimes, that silence became an answer in itself.
"...I figured as much. I guess you really can’t bring yourself to reject Rain and Misery."
Ria gave a bitter smile as she looked at her lover, who had lowered his gaze with an apologetic expression and said nothing.
"...Ria...?"
At that smile, which sounded almost like acceptance, Adelio’s eyes widened in shock.
He had been ready to quietly accept it even if Ria cursed him out or hurled abuse at him, but instead of attacking him, she merely lifted a hand and gently touched his cheek.
"Hehe, I knew you would. The you I know... has always been kind."
Then Ria lightly pulled Adelio into an embrace and whispered by his ear, as if she might kiss it at any moment.
"This time, I’ll step back a little. I know better than anyone how they feel... so giving them a chance should be fine."
"Giving them a chance should be fine." Those words could only mean one thing.
"You can’t mean... no way—"
Hearing that whisper, which was all but permission, Adelio tried to ask Ria again in disbelief, but before he could finish, her lips moved from his ear to his mouth in the blink of an eye and cut him off.
"......"
Their lips met with a soft tap, and only after several seconds of wet, clinging sounds filling the top of the tower did they finally part.
Adelio had frozen stiff like stone from the sudden and aggressive display of affection, even after their lips separated.
Ria looked at her stunned lover, smiled deeply, and spoke in a calm voice.
"But I haven’t fully accepted it. The place right beside you is mine alone, no matter what anyone says."
It was a declaration of unwavering resolve: that she would always be his first.
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