The minute Ashton became more serious, his tone changed and became much calmer. He looked down in sorrow. “I’m just fighting a battle with myself, aren’t I?”
I didn’t know what he meant, but I still found his sudden sorrow interesting and looked up subconsciously.
After successfully diverting my attention, he smiled and said self-deprecatingly, “Do you want to know about the ridiculous ideas I’ve been having recently? I started thinking about going back to the past and making different choices. Funny, isn’t it?”
I smiled and didn’t reply.
Sometimes, being imaginative was a good thing. At the very least, it meant that Ashton was beginning to let go of his dark past. Whether it was realistic or not was another story, because all I could ever really sense were whatever perverted thoughts he was having in his head every night.
“You should get a new hobby,” I said absentmindedly. He clearly had way too much free time on his hands.
Everyone was the same. The moment someone became too free, they would begin to overthink. The more one overthought, the more one would lose control of their emotions, and that was dangerous.
His smile became even brighter. “I’m happy with the life I’m leading right now. Having a wife and kids is my favorite hobby.”
His words were so pure it was almost as if I could see the altar and the priest asking us to exchange our vows.
I started to suspect if he had gone anywhere recently, like a sweet-talking 101 class, perhaps. He had recently become much too smooth with his words.
I was certainly touched, but based on what I knew about him, there was an underlying innuendo directed at me. The moment I agreed, I would have to pay the price.
I decided not to do that.
Instead, I pulled my hand out of his grip again and became serious. “Let’s talk about the actual issue right now. It’ll be hard to do it at home.”
I silently gave myself a pat on the back for getting rid of the lovey-dovey atmosphere that was beginning to develop.
Ashton sat up straight, slightly disappointed at his failed plan. “It’s not like we can stop Audrey from ever falling in love and getting married, right? Since we’ll have to go through this sooner or later, then we might as well keep an eye on him since young. We’ll be able to get a proper look at him and lower any risks. It makes sense, doesn’t it?”
Something sounded a little bit off with what he was implying.
Wanting to raise the boy who was going to marry our daughter in the future sounded pretty strange to me.
“Are you kidding me?” I said in surprise. “Kids are fickle creatures. Audrey’s only six! Are you going to adopt every boy she gets interested in?”
“Well, I must say I haven’t thought about that,” Ashton said seriously. He actually started thinking about it out loud with a frown on his face. “I guess it’s not a problem to have ten, or maybe twenty. Ah, but if Audrey gets John’s bad habit of falling in love with everyone he meets, then I’d need to recalculate where my money is going.”
“Hold on now!” I stopped him hurriedly. “Are you thinking of raising a harem or something? Ten or twenty? What I meant was that you’re wrong for thinking that you can reduce the risks of her getting hurt by doing this. Kids grow up and they change throughout their whole lives. How could we force her to marry someone simply because it’s the safest option?”
Ashton looked at me before nodding seriously. “You’re right. We’ll have to keep it a secret from her, then.”
My mouth fell open.
That was definitely not what I meant!
Ashton suddenly started to look more and more like a dragon, and Audrey had become the treasure trove he was protecting from pirates and princes alike.
Danger had helped the human race evolve, but it seemed to have the opposite effect on Ashton.
Everyone was their own individual. Even if we gave them clothes, food, and a roof over their heads, that still didn’t give us the right to decide their whole lives for them. It seemed more ridiculous the more I thought about it.
I really hope he was just joking out of concern for Audrey.
“These are all secondary,” Ashton said again. He had gotten rid of his previous attitude and sat with his fingers intertwined on top of his lap. His stare pierced through the gap between the door and the driver’s seat as he glared at the car in front of us, which Shaun happened to be inside of. “That kid is determined. He’s not going to take the easy way out, but he’s also extremely versatile. What happened today might leave a mark on him. Both you and I know that the seed of hate flourishing in him is only a matter of time. There are two ways to settle this: first, we could make him disappear forever.”
