Chapter 261 - Affinity
"Why did you hide the fact that Rion was your companion animal? And why did you even order him to hide that fact from me?" Adeline fisted on her waist and asked Theodore angrily.
Theodore pouted his lips trying not to be intimidated by his cute little Princess. But he couldn\'t help but be a little scared as he had seen her slapping Azriel yesterday. He knew that he had done wrong by hiding an important fact from Adeline and he didn\'t want her to slap him because of that.
Arion felt sorry for the almighty Devil Prince so he came to his rescue, "Adeline, my name is Arion by the way. You have been calling me by the wrong name all this time."
Arion\'s trick worked. Adeline quickly turned around and asked, "Your name is Arion?"
Arion nodded his head and said, "Yes."
Adeline gave an apologetic grin and then held Arion\'s head and apologized, "I am so sorry… I thought your name was Rion because that\'s what I understood from Theodore\'s letter. I am so sorry for calling you by a wrong name all this while."
"You don\'t have to apologize to me. I am sure that you could not understand Theodore\'s handwriting properly. I know he has bad handwriting." Arion smugly complained even when Theodore was giving a death stare to him from behind.
And then he added, "But I like the name Rion as well. I am already used to it by now."
"Awww…" Adeline looked at Arion as though he had just melted her heart. "Could you get any more lovable?" she said while smiling and scratching Arion\'s neck. She hadn\'t fed Arion yet so she began to feed him.
And without even turning around to look at Theodore, she asked in a threateningly calm voice, "Theo, are you still going to dodge my questions, or are you going to talk without me asking any further questions to you?"
Theodore then instantly answered in a panicked voice, "Er… I didn\'t tell you because I didn\'t want you to reject having Arion around you. And I definitely didn\'t want you to think that I was always keeping an eye on you through Arion."
And he came clean with the main motive behind giving Arion to her, "Though the main reason for gifting him to you was to ensure your safety. Arion makes sure that no harm will befall you even when I am not around you. With him around you, I am not worried that much about your safety."
"And now that the two of you have formed this close bond, I am more than glad about my decision." Theodore walked closer to the two of them and he also began to feed Arion. He chuckled and then added, "Now I am sure that Arion would choose you over me if it wasn\'t for the oath that he took."
"You\'re not wrong…" Arion mumbled as he munched on his food.
Adeline burst out into laughter all of a sudden because of the way Arion replied to Theodore. And Theodore was relieved to see that her anger seemed to have subsided.
And Adeline asked Theodore as she was filled with curiosity, "Tell me more about Arion. When did you two meet? How did you meet? Everything."
Theodore was finally ready to tell everything about Arion. His pupils dilated when he began to speak, "There are several magical beasts that dwell in the Heaven realm. Most of them were created by our father of course. Arion is also one of them. He is a magical beast with a strong affinity towards chaos."
"Affinity? What does that mean?" This was the first time that Adeline was hearing something like this so she was bound to be confused.
Theodore hummed for a while and then tried to make her understand in a simpler way. "It means how well your body and soul can harmonize with something naturally. In Arion\'s case, if he is asked to… he can create chaos as easily as breathing."
Adeline looked at Arion and was skeptical that someone so sweet would be able to create chaos as Theodore had described. She glanced at Theodore to see if he was smirking but he looked very serious.
Theodore gave example about himself to make her understand about affinity even more. "Take me for example. I also have chaos affinity. If I want to then I can make everyone around here fight each other within a matter of a few minutes."
Adeline gave an instant glare to Theodore so he said a bit softly, "Of course, I won\'t do that here. But I\'m just saying."
Adeline smiled and asked, "What other affinities are there then? And do all of your followers have such affinity as well?"
Theodore nodded and answered, "Yes, all of them have chaos affinity. I chose all of them because they have the same affinity as mine. It is easier to make them work for me as they have the same goal."
He took a handful of grains and answered her first question while feeding Arion, "All of the beings of Heaven, angels, nymphs, beasts, and even plants have two major affinities. One is hope, which is also referred to as the light. And the other one is chaos, which is known as the dark. Our purpose in this universe was decided by father based on our affinity."
Adeline somehow felt bad for Theodore as his affinity sounded as though no one would choose that knowingly. So she asked, "Do you get to choose your affinity or are you born with it?"
"We are born with it," Theodore replied with a smile on his face.
But Adeline mumbled while feeling sad, "I guessed so. No one would ever choose to be able to cause destruction, would they?"
"You don\'t have to feel bad for me." Theodore pinched Adeline\'s cheeks and gently pulled them upward to make her smile.
And he said, "If I was given a chance to choose, I don\'t know which affinity I would choose. But I never regretted having the chaos affinity. It is the universal truth that good and bad cannot exist without one another. So father never differentiated between his children based on their affinity."
He shrugged off his shoulders and added, "And I know that my purpose is equally necessary as my other siblings with hope affinity. So I never really felt bad because of my affinity. Nor did I ever envy them."
Theodore gave a playful smile and said, "If it is any consolation to you then I would say that my job is even easier. Spreading chaos is much easier than giving hope."
Adeline chuckled and shook her head, "Of course you would say that." And she added, "Well I guess it worked out well for you. Being a Devil Prince and having the light affinity would have been contradicting."
Theodore clapped and exclaimed, "Yes, exactly! I am in a place where I get to use my affinity without any hesitation. So yes, you can say that everything worked out well in the end."
Adeline was curious about the other two siblings of Theodore that she knew and she asked, "What about Lucifer and… Azriel?"
"Lucifer obviously has the chaos affinity.. And…" Theodore puckered his lips and spoke softly, "You might not believe it but Azriel has an affinity towards the light."