I Am The Game's Villain

”Why would her sister tell you about it at all?” Lisandra asked, her brow furrowing slightly. ”If it was this important, this hidden, why hand it off to you?”

”Who can say what goes on in Princess Merithra’s mind at any given moment,” Amael said, sighing. ”But if I had to guess, she simply wanted to pass the responsibility to someone who would actually use it. Someone who would be here.”

”That seems rather careless,” Lisandra said, something almost offended in her voice on behalf. ”It was a gift from her sister, wasn’t it? Something that personal, just handed off—”

”It wasn’t exactly a gift,” Amael said. ”And Enigma’s wish was never really about ownership. She wanted this place to survive, for the island to remain hidden, for the beasts to be left in peace. She didn’t much care who carried that responsibility forward. Only that someone did.”

”And now that someone is you,” Alphonse said.

”Yeah.” He nodded briefly.

”But what exactly is there to tend to?” Lisandra asked, genuinely confused now, scanning the vast, untouched wilderness below. ”It’s already hidden. The beasts seem to be managing themselves well enough. Can’t you simply... leave it alone and let them live?”

Amael shook his head slowly.

”Enigma didn’t hide this island only because she wanted privacy,” he said. ”She hid it because she understood what would happen if anyone with the wrong intentions found it.” He paused. ”These aren’t ordinary beasts. Some of them are old enough and powerful enough that they’d be considered weapons by anyone looking to use them. Eden’s people. Opposing forces. Anyone building toward a war.” His silver eyes moved across the distant treeline. ”She kept them safe by keeping the island invisible. That protection doesn’t maintain itself, it needs someone here.”

”So you’re a guardian,” Alphonse said raising a brow.

”Something like that.” He glanced between them and smiled. ”Though as of today, I won’t be handling it alone.”

Lisandra stared at him for a beat, then slowly crossed her arms. ”You are just offloading your responsibilities onto us.”

”What I’m doing,” Amael said, entirely unruffled, leaning back against the rocky wall with his eyes returning to the view, ”is offering you the single best hiding place in the known world. Hidden from every Gods, every kingdom, every person who might have reason to look for you. You can rest here.” He tilted his head slightly then. ”Of course, if you’d prefer to leave, that option exists whenever you want it. But you won’t find better anywhere else.”

”And you?” Alphonse asked him. ”Are you going back to Celesta now?”

”No.” He shook his head. ”I’ll stay here for now. But I can’t make it permanent, I need to show my face in the outside world occasionally, otherwise my paranoid father will actually start looking for me. And if he looks hard enough, long enough, there’s always the small chance he stumbles onto something he shouldn’t.”

He knew the place was well hidden and safe but he didn’t wish to take any risks in losing it.

”So that’s why you never just stayed here forever,” Lisandra said, in understanding. ”You wanted to.”

”It would have been much simpler,” Amael acknowledged. ”But my situation doesn’t allow for simple.”

”So you’re staying with us now?” Lisandra asked him almost hesitantly.

”Planning on about a month, at least,” he said.

”A month?” Alphonse raised an eyebrow. ”Didn’t you just say your father would worry and start searching if you were gone too long?”

”A month to a God is approximately what a minute is to us,” Amael said. ”I could stretch it considerably longer if I wanted to. I just have some people I need to see eventually.”

”A whole month,” Lisandra said, and then the full implication arrived and the color began rising in her face as she looked around. ”Together? Here? Sleeping?” She looked at the single straw bed and her voice climbed slightly. ”On that?”

”Together,” Amael nodded, his expression serious, maybe too serious. ”One bed. We press together for warmth, it gets cold at altitude during the night. Body heat is the best solution.”

”L—Like absolute hell it is!” Lisandra’s voice cracked on the last word, her face now thoroughly, completely red from the neck up.

”Then build your own,” Amael said, extending one arm toward the vast wilderness spread below the entrance. ”Plenty of materials down there. Though I should mention—” And here the faintest ghost of a smile appeared— ”It isn’t exactly a normal forest. But I’m sure two former Demigod rulers of warring kingdoms can manage.”