"What you are doing is putting yourself in her stead, But… You aren’t her. She is… a different form of existence. And if what she says is true, then she is either lying, or there is something I do not understand here, and I believe it is the former." "…" "…" The women just stared at him in silence, and Nux, who knew what they were thinking, continued his explanation. "Think about all this from this perspective, Why now?" The women narrowed their eyes. "We know that she has been observing me for a long time now, and not once did she appear in front of us before. Why did she only appear when I was able to sense her?" "You called her, didn’t you?" Shadow questioned. This time, however, Amaya stayed silent. Now, she was slowly understanding what Nux was trying to say. "I arranged everything in order to lure her out," Nux admitted. "According to me, the ’entity’ who was observing me didn’t want any attention, so it would stop me from using the Eternity’s Relic, and that is what she did. That is what any normal being stalking me would do, But… She supposedly knew everything about me. She should know I would never attract a Supreme World’s attention on my own. She should know all of it was just an act. She had no reason to come out." "She said it herself, didn’t she? She just came out because you wanted to meet her," Shadow answered. "You think there would be a time when I wouldn’t want to meet a beautiful stalker who had been keeping an eye on me for such a long time?" Nux questioned as he tilted his head. Shadow turned silent. "As someone who knows me the most, she should know that I would always appreciate her approaching me on her own rather than me finding out about her myself." Then, a frown appeared on Nux’s face as he stared at his wives and, "Do none of you find it odd that she appeared right after I found out about her existence?" He couldn’t understand. Was he looking too deep into it? Did Vulpiana’s actions affect him more than he thought? Nux wouldn’t lie; it was a possibility. His reaction, his… apparent distrust, might have been fueled by Vulpiana, but… But in no world did Nux believe that that woman wasn’t at least a little bit suspicious. Something was definitely wrong about her, and he knew he wasn’t the only one who had such thoughts. He stared at Amaya, who had lowered her head, and called her out, "Amaya." He could sense Amaya’s emotions—doubt, suspicion, and confusion. He could sense it all. "What if… this was the right time?" After a small pause, Amaya came up with an alternate theory. For the first time in her life, she was trying to defend a woman who clearly seemed interested in her husband. Nux frowned at her question, and the Devourer elaborated, "If she knows you, then it must mean you two would have encountered each other at some point in the future. What if that happened after you got the ability to sense her? What if in the future, while you were roaming around the Universe, you managed to sense her existence, and, curious as to how someone at your level managed to do that, she appeared in front of you? What if today was the day of your fateful encounter? After all, she did wait for 10 years before finally appearing in front of you. What if, unlike what we are accusing her of, she is simply trying to follow through with the events that were supposed to happen in order to not ruin her relationship with you?" "…" This time, Nux was the one who turned silent, and the Devourer didn’t stop. "It would make sense, no? Even if you recall your conversation with her, She didn’t exactly reveal anything big. She only told you she was the Seer, then she answered some of your questions, and then asked you to let her meet Lord Azriel. All those things would have happened even if you were meeting for the first time and she had no prior information regarding you. What if she made sure your first meeting went exactly like it was supposed to?" Amaya completed, and Nux paused for a moment. "…so what you are saying is that this is how our meeting was supposed to go?" "Well, not exactly, since it wasn’t natural and was arranged by her, but to some extent, yes. At the very least, this should create fewer deviations in the future." Amaya shrugged; she didn’t know how time worked, so she wasn’t sure. "Your theory has one problem." "What?" "This could never have been the day of our fateful encounter." "Why?" "I spent the last 10 years in Yrniel. We only returned to Outer Space a few months ago, and ever since I found out about the Transcendent following Astaria and others, I have never once left their side. I didn’t exactly have the time to roam around the Universe." "There is also a possibility that she found you when the Supreme Worlds told her to but was intrigued by your existence and followed you. You, who sensed her, did everything you did right now, and that led to your fateful encounter. If this is the case, then your encounter with her today was even closer to what was supposed to happen originally." Another possibility. "But then this changes all the conversations we were supposed to have," Nux answered. "She would ask all sorts of questions like, ’How did you find me? How did you appear next to me?’ Blah blah. If she wanted to keep our first encounter similar to how it was supposed to be, she would have acted surprised by my appearance—something that shouldn’t be difficult for someone like her." "What if—" "Amaya, listen to me." In the end, Nux called out. "We can sit here all day and discuss millions or billions of possibilities of what was supposed to happen and what did happen, but the problem remains the same. We do not understand Time. We do not understand what sort of existence that woman is. You can continue to come up with a certain possibility, and I’ll probably come up with a way to counter it. It’s a waste of time. Let me trust my instincts on this one."