The Engagement
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Item description: Potion, a common healing item in the world of Fantasia, can heal superficial wounds and broken bones up to a certain duration, however, it can only be consumed again after 3 hours from the first consumption.

(***)

Momo was shocked to find her lips sealed up by Alex, she froze while the older man hugged her tender body with one hand and another on the back of her head, his mouth deeply taste the strawberry of Deviluke Princess.

"Ah!" she finally recovered, quickly pushing her body away and easily freed herself from his grasp, the strength of Gid's daughter was not something you want to mess with.

Losing the sweet and soft taste from his mouth, Alex blurry eyes slightly disappointed, but soon he shut them down while softly breathing.

Momo grasped her lips with trembling hand, stared wide in horror and had the feeling to burst into the tears.

Her first kiss had been taken... by someone she just knew for a day, how could this happen?

She looked at the teapot beside her, realizing the culprit behind of this, the usually gentle and adorable face turned gloomy and grim, she lifted her tail and a blitz of thunder burst out from the pointy end, struck the teapot and destroyed it in an instant.

All she wanted was a good evening chat, she never expected will lose her first kiss in the process.

Complicatedly looking at Alex who had been diving in the world of dream, she wondered if he was conscious when robbing her precious, but the thought of this act was an accident only making her more annoyed.

I meant, can you really just pretended the kiss didn't happen?

She sat there in silence for a while then walking out of the tent, feeling horribly depressed.

In the next morning, Alex awoke with a slightly dizzy head and sweet taste in his mouth, thinking that was probably the honey he drank last night with Momo, Alex grasped his head, couldn't remember what happened after the third... maybe the fourth drink? He didn't even know when Momo left or he went to sleep.

'God, it's like having a hangover...' Alex inwardly cursed, then he said, "System, what happened last night? My memory is hazy..."

Alex's constitution had always been low tolerant, he usually never drank many, probably two or three, and mostly the lighter ones.

"Alex, you got drunk and forced yourself on Momo."

"Ah, I see..." Alex shook his head in bitterness, even almost laughed to himself.

Got drunk from drinking honey? Boy, his friends would have laughed so hard if they heard this.

Well, in his defense that was an Alien Honey, so... that's different... probably.

...

...

Wait...

"System can you repeat the last word?" Alex rose from the ground, his face full of terror.

"You forced yourself on her," the system's tone was full of indifference.

"What?!"

"You forced yourself on her."

"I hear you alright!" Alex's face immediately became pallid, he spoke in a stuttering manner, "I... I... rape her?"

"Wait... wait that's not possible, her strength could easily overwhelm me, how even I had the chance to do anything with her?"

"Well, technically, you caught her off-guard then sneaked a chance to kiss her."

"W-what happened afterward?" Alex said in a terrified tone.

"She broke free then destroyed the teapot with her tail and left."

"Oh, damn it, I am the worse, thank god it's not beyond kissing, but still... I have done something very terrible..."

"You're right Alex... the Devilukeans' proposal custom is by kissing the future bride in the lips, so based on this, you and princess Momo are engaged."

"Wait, what?" Alex immediately frowned, collecting his forehead, "that doesn't seem right... I think it's not the way you said."

"Well, what is it then?"

"I..." Alex scratched his head, deeply pondered, "damn, couldn't remember it, last time I read 'To Love Ru', or watched the anime was before I hit the college..."

"Alex, I have no reason to lie to you, what I said is true... when Lala suddenly transported into Rito's bathroom, they accidentally kissed, thus started the entire fiancee thing."

"No, I don't remember it that way..."

"Alex, I have no reason to lie to you."

"Oh, fine!" Alex stood up and walked out of his tent.

The morning chirps usually brought the good rhythm to his heart, waking up in the morning and preparing to go to work, but right now, all he felt was restless.

Momo was obviously a beauty, she's charming and sweet, but her current age was a big no for him; if he remembered correctly, she should be still 14... 5 years younger than Shizuka... but that's not the problem...

Alex knew he's no longer on Earth, nor anywhere near America, but he still carried some of the laws because it sounds reasonable and he agreed with them, in this case for example; the age of marriage.

Both genders must be at least 18, but some exceptions apply for the female and they still could get married in the age of 16 or 17.

Momo was nowhere near those requirements, and Alex didn't know precisely Deviluke Planet's law regarding this.

"They could have been married at the age of 15... but a proposal of engagement could be done at any time..." the system said.

"How do you know? I don't think they ever said this..."

"Lala's age at the beginning of the story was 15."

"Oh, yeah... how could I forget..."

"So, you just have to propose Momo and got married the next year."

Sure, it's not like it was already creepy to propose a hand of a teenager...

Momo's resting a place was strangely a big pumpkin, a twice bigger than his tent.

Alex cleared his throat and raised his hand to knock on the door...

...

Actually, he had been standing there for about five minutes now, hand awkwardly hung before the door.

"Alex, you were the richest man in the world and tasked to slay dragons, yet you can't handle a young woman?"

"Oh, come on, I am not exactly a pro in proposing a woman's hand, so I am sorry for being a little nervous!" Alex whispered loudly, "and killing dragons is still terrifying."

"Alex, what are you doing?" Shizuka suddenly appeared behind him, giving the latter quite a jump of his heart, snapping his head toward Shizuka with complaint eyes.

"You sure have a bad timing..." Alex twitched his eyebrows, he took a deep breath and calmly said to Shizuka, "did anything suspicious happen last night?"

"I killed several Wild Hogs and Ms. Deviluke's Seed Shooters killed several goblins."

"Oh, I didn't have the chance to check out my status this morning, thank you for the hard work Shizuka, I really appreciated it..."

"It's my job, Alex, no need for gratitude..." Shizuka said in a faint smile.

"How can I? Every action no matter how small it was will always deserve praise," Alex pondered for a while, then said, "here give me one of your kunai."

"For what?" Shizuka said but still did it nonetheless.

"I am going to make something for you..." Alex picked the kunai and stored it inside the system, then he bought a 3 meters steel chain and fused them both with Technology.

"Here," Alex took out the new weapon, giving it to her while saying, "this is a Rope Dart, or Chain Kunai, whatever you want to call it, you can pull, twin, bind, pierce, hit, or slash your enemy from the distance, require several practices to master the technique but I believe you can."

"Wow, thank you, Alex..." Shizuka mumbled, immediately couldn't wait to try and practice it.

"My pleasure..." then Alex opened his status and checked his level while Shizuka dashed out toward somewhere.

'Oh, close to level up, nice...'

"Mr. Star!"

From the distant, Dick came out from his tent and called him out spiritedly, it seemed yesterday's troubled bad been solved.

"Hey, had a good night's sleep?" Alex lifted the corner of his lips.

"Yeah..." Dick sheepishly smiled as he scratched the back of his head, "I, Jason and Damian had talked about it, and we arrived at the same conclusion."

"And that is..."

"We will quit this job..." Dick's face was red in embarrassment, but he quickly said, "but, of course after we finished our deal."

"Of course, otherwise, you won't get the money..."

"No, no it's not just about the money... well, we do need it, but it's not the most important..." he said in conviction, rigid seriousness bestowed the callous face, "we don't want to let you down, Mr. Star, that's why we will fulfill our deal."

Alex was a bit startled with this... but then he chuckled, said in comfort, "You already not."

"What do you guys want to do once you got back?"

"Well, assuming we survive and had the money... I think I am going to start a delivery company... Jason said he wanted to become a mechanic... while Damian became a merchant."

"Those three are respectable jobs, I do wish for your survival, and later come home with glory..."

"Thank you, Mr. Star, you're a good man..." Dick let out a grin.

"Here, your ammunitions was a bit low, I made some more..." Alex took out 9 clips of rifle ammo, the youth was surprised by this sudden wealth, "where you get them, Mr. Star?"

"I don't get them... I made them... it's just a combination of gunpowder, iron, and several other things... it's cheap anyway..."

"T-thanks Mr. Star, I am going to distribute them to the rest!" Dick ran toward his tent in enthusiasm, earning a chuckle from Alex.

"Now... where was I..."

"Propose Momo Bella Devilluke!" The system chirped in, quite loud.

Alex's elated heart suddenly went dark again... couldn't help staring at the pumpkin house in front with a hint of bitterness.

Oh... how much he wished to be drunk right now...

(***)

Momo was fixing herself in the front of a mirror, twirling her hair as she thought, 'Yes, best forget about everything, just consider last night like a bad dream, you don't stay in this world forever.'

'Get out there and greet Alex like your usual self... he already has a quite burden, don't need to add upon it.'

She stared at her own image with a serious expression, then she traced her lips, slightly saddened of the last night event.

*Tap* Tap*

"Hello, Ms. Deviluke?"

'Oh, it's Alex! Why do he come so early... don't tell me he conscious...' Momo became panic, stood up from the chair while patting her face, 'alright, Momo, don't jump into conclusion... maybe he just wants to say hello, then it's very rude for you to keep him wait there.'

'Right, right, he definitely won't remember last night, you need to be confident...'

"Wait, Alex!" Momo sweetly shouted, then she looked at the mirror again, confirming nothing wrong in her appearance, she dashed into the door and opened it.

"Hi, Alex, good morning!" she spiritedly said, her lips had been widely smiled.

She didn't look upset at all... good, less guilt-trip inside.

Alex lessened his tension, coughed for a bit and said, "Good morning to you too Ms. Deviluke."

"What can I do for you?"

He hesitated for a bit, said, "Can we talk in private?"

Momo's smiling face stiffened, her eyebrows twitched before she said, "Of course, come in!"

Oh no, he really remembered it... what should she do?

Alex strolled into the pumping-like house, glanced at the comfy place that had a queen size bed at the center, one cupboard on the left, and a make-up desk on the right, she also had a small table with two chairs at the corner.

"Do you want to drink something?" Momo said.

"Yes... oh, I mean no... I just want to talk..."

"Ok?" Momo walked toward her bed and sat on the edge.

Alex looked at her and once again admitted that her beauty was wondrous, props to her mother gene; if she was as older as Shizuka or more than her, he wouldn't be this nervous.

Staring at her purple eyes, Alex was difficult to form a correct words, time to time he had opened his mouth but once again shut them off.

Momo still wore a smiling face, but deep inside, she's also nervous, thought, 'Oh, no, he really remembered...'

Alex walked back and forth, then finally took a deep breath, said, "Ok, I am going to start with an apology, for what I did last night."

"..." Momo sighed, then she said in a low tone, "how do you know?"

"The system told me... in any case, it's truly ill-mannered of me, and I know that my apologies couldn't undo it," Alex bent down his body to 90 degrees, "I am very sorry, Ms. Deviluke, it's not within my intention to harass you."

Momo twirled her hair as she looked to the side, she truly had no idea how to respond when facing a polite mannerism, granted the servants back at home was also apologize like this, but none of them had made a mistake involving accident like last night...

"What solution you have to fix it?"

Alex took another deep breath, "Ms. Deviluke, I know the custom of Devilukian; when someone kissed you in the lips, that meant a proposal of engagement so-"

"Wait, what?" Momo widened her eyes, slightly gaped her mouth, said, "who told you that?!'

"It's... the system..." Alex wrinkled his eyebrows, "was it not?"

Momo immediately went silent, she knew who's this system Alex mentioned, it was an AI that would help him through the ordeal, she had seen many kinds of them before, just she didn't know why this system told a lie?

The engagement rule of Devilukian was a person had to touch the female's breast and confessed his feeling at the same time, and they could cancel it in the same manner, therefore, whatever custom this system spouted was not Devilukian's rule.

Momo felt like she should tell this to Alex, but then she saw his sincerity at the matter in hand, she suddenly felt like to play around for a bit, might be also venting her anger.

"It's true, technically, we engaged!" Momo crossed her arms and cast her face to the side.

Alex sighed, bitterly crying with waterless tears inside, he wanted to get married, but... with someone probably older than her...

"And, I don't mind to marry you," Momo faced him again with slanted lips, said, "as long as you fulfill my wishes!"

Great lord, it's in a plural term.

"First, I wish for you to also summon my twin sister, Nana!"

Nana Astar Deviluke, the second princess of Deviluke Empire, had the ability to speak with animals.

Alex had seen her points when he was trying to summon Momo before, she had the same price; 500,000 points.

While it seemed like a pain the ass, but he didn't really mind, though probably had to wait for a while.

"Fine..." Alex bitterly said.

"Second, I wish for you to defeat my father!"

Hearing this, Alex's blue irises snapped open almost immediately, couldn't help but stared in disbelieve.

Excuse me, do you still remember who's your father was? He's the strongest race in your world, do you think I had a shred chance to contend with him?

But Alex startled a bit, said inwardly, "System, can I travel into their world?"

"Not through conventional method!"

"Meaning?"

"Alex, do you know Doraemon's space pocket?"

"It's a gadget with function like a small portal that led to a special space that could accommodate an infinite amount of items."

"Yes, and let's say you are inside this special space, then you sent one the character to go back to their world by holding the pocket, you can pop out in their world without trouble!"

"Or much better, you could have duplicated the pockets and create a sort of space tunnel between the world, you can travel between them as many as you wish."

"That's brilliant..." Alex widened his eyes in revelation, that meant... he had almost limitless resources to level up and gain points!

"But be aware, their reason to arrive in this world was that you had summoned them; if you sent them back and you also go there without preparation, you will possibly be stuck and unable to return here."

"..." Actually, wasn't that much better? If he couldn't get back here, then he absolutely had no responsibility to carry out his task, right?

"Alex, how is it? Can you fight my father?" Momo winked as she strolled closer to him.

God, she smelled nice...

"Momo, you know I am not exactly a fighter... and your father's level possibly close to... I don't know ninety-ish maybe..."

"Gid Lucione Deviluke is level 75!" the system immediately said.

Wow, only that much? Alex thought he's going to be higher or something...

Wait, did this mean even Gid couldn't possibly beat Bahamut?

"Yes! Even Kaguya Ookutsuki cannot beat Bahamut, her level just 90!"

Well, that's depressing, couldn't this task be getting any harder?

"Can you or not? Otherwise, we won't get married, and..." Momo put her hand in front of her lips, her pair of eyes suddenly brimmed with tears, "are you that cruel, Alex?"

"..." Alex stared at her with deadpanned expression, he took a deep breath and lashing out a mouthful of air, "fine, but that's the last wish, ok?"

"Sure!" Momo jumped beside him and grabbed her arm, appeared very affectionate.

"Err... don't be like this in front of everyone, OK? I don't want them to get any wrong idea..."

"What? Are you ashamed to be engaged with me?" she puffed her cheek in discontent.

"No, no, of course not, in fact, I was so glad... and very welcome it with open arms~"

"Then let's not hide anything~" she floated into the air while holding his right arm tightly, "or much better, let's announcing it in front of everyone!"

"What?! Wait, wait, Momo, wait..."

And there he went, being dragged toward the outside, damn you super strength!

(***)

About an hour later, the company of 3 soldiers, 1 kunoichi, 1 alien, and 1 mage traveled through the forest, thanks to Momo's plant, Jason now was being carried by a strange plant with wheel-like feet, and Momo's ability also made them easily avoid a lot of traps

"Shizuka, how's your chain kunai's training?" Alex said as he climbed a higher ground.

"It's fine," the kunoichi said with a simplistic voice.

"Was it difficult?"

"No."

Feeling the coldness inside the kunoichi's tone, Alex couldn't help but sigh, and Momo was not helping it either as she kept clinging into his arm while smiling all the way.

Alex could also feel the strange gazes the 3 soldiers gave him, it's like one of those gazes of staring at sex fiend.

Great lord, we only kissed by accident, OK?!

The plant around here was not much of different than those of Earth, or probably this was meant the outskirt of the real forest. Momo was seemed happy to communicate with them, she told him what were those plants currently thinking, some were happy to be around people, others were hostile.

Remembering what kind of states of the plant experienced on Earth, Alex thought Momo might have suffered... after all, those forest burning and illegal chopping... all kind of behavior that disrespect nature, Alex silently glad that Momo was not there.

After a while, they passed a sort of small clearing, Momo's smiling face suddenly froze, then she became extremely pallid.

"Momo, what's going, what happened?" Alex widened his eyes, couldn't help but grasped her tender shoulder.

She pointed out her hand toward the middle of the clearing, it's like a bunch of long and big leaves covering something.

It's too obvious for a trap, what is that?

Alex looked exchanged glances with Shizuka and the others, they slowly walked toward it.

And then... they caught a smell... very horrible smell...

Shizuka knew very well what smell was this... her stoic expression also fiercely changed, she grabbed Alex's shoulder, said, "Alex, we should just walk."

"I... I agree..." the two soldiers couldn't bear it, almost threw up their breakfast.

Alex looked at Shizuka, trembling inside as he understood what was that now... it shared the same smell in the butchery of dairy.

"Alright, we don't need to see it..."

Alex went to Momo, looking at her paleness, he was about to hug her and took her away from here.

"Wait..." she held her hands into his body, preventing him from the action.

"What is it Momo?" he said in a concerned tone.

"Someone..." Momo said in a stuttering tone, "someone is still alive... down there."

15