Love Beyond the Ashes

Getting a Ring

Zeta pov: Mumei-senpai decided it would be a good idea if I proposed to Ela. I wasn't so sure about this. Mumei seemed to have forgotten what was going on currently.

"Are you sure I should propose now?" I questioned Mumei nodded

"If you're still worried about money, there is a bank nearby that we could use." I covered her mouth before she could say anything else.

"We aren't going to rob them..." I said Mumei was taken aback by what I said.

"Rob them? I was going to suggest we withdraw money from my account... She said

"Look Zeta, I don't mind murdering the peasants of this rock," Mumei said.

"Aren't you the guardian of them?" I asked if she just giggled.

"I'm kidding. I'm not just a ruthless monster! " She laughed.

I thought about it. She was literally made to be a ruthless monster, but she gained emotions, so now she isn't the vessel she was intended to be.

"It's Calli's job to gather the souls of the damned anyway." She sighed.

"Wait, didn't you... Nevermind..." I mumbled to myself.

She tilted her head to look at me "What are you on about?" She asked her eyes to instill fear into my bones

"Like I said, I'm not talking about anything..." She smiled as I spoke.

"Good, and also, who's getting the bill?" Mumei asked as her gaze turned to Lui-nee

"I'll do it, Mumei-chan!" She said, grabbing some money.

"We could always dine and dash," I suggested.

"Fair idea," Mumei said, telling Lui we were going to do that. The two of them shifted into birds and flew away, leaving me to just run away as normal.

"Good thing they won't remember we were here today." Mumei said I looked at her confused.

"Why?" I asked if she had a bunch of guilt on her face.

"Don't worry about it..." Mumei said as she dragged me to the jewelry store.

"Alright Zeta, buy your penguin girlfriend a nice ring," Mumei laughed.

"Okay!" I said I already knew Ela felt a chill when Mumei called her a penguin, but everyone knew that's what she was.

"Everything in here is so shiny!" I said, my eyes began to glow. This was a thief's dream. Not that I'd steal these, but I could pawn them for so much money.

"I love this ring!" I said Mumei came over and gazed at it.

"Do you want to buy it?" She asked. I pondered it and told her I'd look around some more.

"Mumei-chan, do you think Chloe would like this necklace?" Lui asked.

"Yes," Mumei said, looking at her sister slyly, "I thought you said you didn't like Chloe." She giggled.

"I don't want to give her a gift!" She said I rolled my eyes at the obvious lie.

I began searching again All these looked really good, but then again, I needed a ring that would fit Ela's finger. Luckily, I knew the size she needed because I may have measured her one night when she was asleep.

I didn't know if Ela would want a sparkly ring or a boring plain gold one. I enjoyed the sparkly one more, but Ela has different preferences than I do.

Ela also has some weird tendencies. She always wanted to be the opposite of me. We could never have the same interests. She does that just to spite me I have no clue where the pettiness came from whatsoever since I haven't done anything wrong.

That means if I like sparkly and shiny things, she likes dull and boring things. I don't know if that means I'm dull and boring in her eyes, but in my eyes, she's shiny.

I saw a few rings I really liked, so I had to choose between them all. I wanted to get the most expensive one since Mumei was paying for it. I quickly went and got her

"I want this one," I said, pointing at the ring.

"Okay, I'll get it," she said, grabbing the staff and bringing them to get the ring.

She settled everything, getting the ring and
the necklace. She spent over $7,000 on us I began to question how she got so much money but she's the guardian of civilization, so I'm sure there was some scheme to do so.

"I'm so nervous..." I sighed as we left the store.

"Don't worry about it; she'll love it!" Mumei said. I sighed, biting my lip hard.

"I'll give you the benefit of the doubt..." I mumbled

I really wanted Ela to know how much I love her since we've been together for months, but I didn't know how to put my affection into words.

"Zeta, let's go back to the council." Mumei said I wanted to go to one more place, though I thought I should give Kaela flowers too since that is kind of romantic.

Even though that was boring, I am proposing that this feels like the only occasion where giving flowers isn't the laziest gift you could ever give someone.

I genuinely wanted to make today special. Maybe I'd wait until later today to propose so we could enjoy our anniversary. Maybe we should wait to give our gifts I didn't know, since I have never really done this before, proposing on an anniversary wasn't something that always happens.

"Zeta, you need to plan out the rest of the day. Let's go get you some reservations," Mumei said.

Ela liked it when I took initiative, so she would be happy that I did all of this for our anniversary. She was expecting me to forget about Mumei-senpai. He was helping me a lot. However, this was a battle I had to complete. I wanted to make her my wife.

"Mumei-senpai, did you propose to Fauna and Kronii?" I asked. She shook her head.

"They beat me to it," she nervously laughed.

I knew I wouldn't be as confident as those two, but if I played my cards right, she was saying yes for sure