Hitman x Wives-Chapter 234 - Devouts (Part 1)

Kai nodded his head at Aria's words before he pulled her into a hug. "I'm sorry for thinking that way. I was…"

Before he could finish his words, Aria put her finger on his lips, silencing him. "Don't worry about it. We both just misunderstood each other. You're the person that cares about me the most in the world and the same goes for me. So, no matter what happens, we both know the truth."

Even though the two of them did indeed understand each other greatly. Such occasions where they have small misunderstandings are bound to happen. But, since the two of them were able to talk about it and clear it, no problem arose from it.

The young couple stayed in each other's embrace for a very long time before they finally pulled away and headed back inside their house.

"Now, we need to sleep, seriously," Kai said sternly.

"Ok, I understand!"

So, with that in mind, Kai and Aria got in bed. The boy made sure the girl was in a comfortable position before he lay beside her and simply stared at her. The two were very much in contact with each other, cuddling in bed. Time passed as the two simply enjoyed their time, Kai's eyes slowly closed as he started to drift to sleep.

"Hey, Kai… Are you still awake?"

"Hm?" His eyes opened again as he stared at Aria.

"For how long do you think we can stay here, Kai?" 𝒇𝓻𝙚𝙚𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝒄𝒐𝒎

"Why the sudden question?" He asked with a sigh as he patted her head.

"Just… curious."

"Curious, huh? Well, it won't certainly be forever. Perhaps by the start of next year, we will move to a nearby city."

"Is that so… I will truly miss this place when that time comes." She murmured in response as she leaked a small sigh.

"We won't be gone forever from this place. We can come here whenever we want. It's not that hard."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I enjoy the quietness of this place too."

Kai loved his time here with Aria more than anything else before so he also didn't want to leave it. But, for the sake of their future, they had to. Life wasn't easy enough to let them do what they wanted without consequences. Perhaps in the distant future, they will be able to come back here and live a quiet life but for now, that wasn't possible and sustainable.

"We still have each other. So that makes me happy, hehehe…" Hugging her beloved tighter, Aria buried her face into his chest and inhaled his smell before she went quiet, clearly dozing off.

Kai watched her for a while before he also hugged her and closed his eyes. Slowly, the darkness of the dreamworld swallowed his consciousness. Perhaps never spouting out ever again.

***

A few hours later, as Kai was still asleep, Aria's body suddenly started moving as she detached herself from Kai and slowly descended from bed. Her usually happy-go-lucky expression was nowhere to be seen. She instead had a stoic expression that would shock Kai if he saw it.

However, since he was still asleep, he was completely oblivious to that.

Aria turned around as if she was looking at Kai before she walked toward her bag and pulled out her phone. On it, she opened her chatting app and sent a message to a particular person.

[What did you do to my dad?]

The receiver of the message replied quickly.

[Don't worry, he's fine. But, that won't be for long. You have a few hours to bring back what I wanted.]

[I will. Just make sure you keep your part of the deal. Kai is to be left alone. He can leave the temple and never come back. You must not follow him, get in contact with him, or even try to disturb his life.]

[Sure, our deal is done and perfect. See you soon.]

After seeing that message, Aria stood up. Her frown was now bigger than ever as she turned around and walked to Kai's side of the bed. The latter was completely deep in sleep.

She simply stood there as she listened to his rhythmic, calm breathing. Nobody knew what was going on in her mind but it was certainly not good. Her expression went from a frown to sadness as she tried to hold in the tears from leaking out. So, she quickly pulled out her handkerchief and wiped her eyes. Looking closer at the handkerchief, it already had many traces of tears from way before.

"Thank you for everything, Kai… And I'm sorry." She murmured under her breath before she bent down and then moved Kai's hair to the side so that she could plant a deep kiss on his forehead. Her kiss was filled with so many untold emotions that she couldn't convey through words and will probably never be able to convey them either.

After all, there was possibly the last time they would meet in their lives. Just that thought made Aria's heart sting with so much pain that she almost couldn't breathe.

After planting that kiss, she turned around and sneaked out of the room before disappearing out of sight into the luscious forest.

***

A few hours later, Kai's eyes started fluttering open. For some reason, he slept very deeply that morning and he didn't know why. However, he was now feeling refreshed. So, as he rubbed his eyes, he turned to look at Aria, only to realize that she was missing from bed.

"Aria?" Rising up, he looked around the room but didn't see Aria's presence. Aria had never woken up before him before so this was certainly odd.

Instinctively, Kai used his senses to find Aria. Shockingly enough, she wasn't inside the house nor in the vicinity of it.

Immediately, Kai felt a dreadful sensation fill his entire being as he stood up and quickly left the house he used his senses to cover the whole forest.

"Where did she go?" Kai was starting to feel colder and colder as he thought about it. He didn't sense a single threatening aura that could've come and abducted Aria or he would've certainly noticed it even if he was deep asleep. That at least meant that she wasn't kidnapped which was in itself, an absurd idea.

So, Kai was only left with one possibility. Aria had left the house on her own and went somewhere without telling him. But, that made even less sense.

"Why would she leave alone?" Taking a deep breath, Kai thought about it as calmly as he could. He was extremely worried about Aria but he knew panicking won't solve the problem. So, instead, he decided to simply do one thing… Leave to look for her.

However, he doesn't know where she went.

"Or maybe…" As he rubbed his chin, Kai realized that there was no place Aria could've gone to apart from the place where they met.

She didn't know anything about the outside world. Or at least didn't know enough to venture into it alone.

"Damn it, why did you go there, Aria?" Cursing under his breath, Kai quickly changed his clothes and picked up his weapon, Wretched Heart before he quickly left.

"Aria better be fine or I will make that whole place collapse on your head, bastard." He murmured as he moved like a flash through the forest

***

The trip back to his home was long. It took Kai almost 2 days to reach his destination and when he reached that place, he was shocked by the sight he saw.

No, it wasn't simple shock, he was completely confused which was rare for Kai.

In front of him, basked in red flames was the entire City and temple that he lived his whole life in.

Every building was now completely caught in fire as it slowly descended to the ground. In the streets, sprawled everywhere were the corpses of all the people who lived there previously. Blood covered every inch of those streets. Some corpses were completely disfigured beyond recognition.

Limbs and other body parts were thrown everywhere, completing the cursed paint of chaos. Kai looked around him with a cold frown.

"What in the hell happened to her?" The more he walked through the streets, the more his dread grew. Whatever happened to her wasn't a coincidence, Aria was linked to it and he knew it.

However, what he feared the most was finding his beloved's dead body amongst these corpses. That sight wasn't something he would ever wish to see even in a nightmare.

As minutes passed, Kai found himself getting closer and closer to the temple. However, the reason why he didn't hurry was because he noticed a few auras appearing in front of him out of nowhere.

The auras belonged to three men, clad in white, templar clothes. Their bodies were hidden under these baggy clothes and their faces were covered by a dark hood.

However, Kai knew who these people were.

'My dad's followers. The Devouts.'