Having understood why Aphrodite sought him out, Alaric finally exhaled in relief.
After all, among the gods, the only one who governs emotions and has reached the level of a principal deity is Aphrodite herself.
Other gods either rule over specific laws, things, or actions.
Very few deal with the mysterious realm of spirit and emotion, and among those, only she possesses such overwhelming divine power.
Thus, Aphrodite alone could directly sense someone with such abilities.
As long as he handled her, Alaric was confident he could remain hidden under the watchful eyes of the Olympian gods.
The goddess's next words reassured him even further.
"Come to think of it, you humans are peculiar," she said, examining Alaric with a curious gaze.
"You are clearly human, yet it seems my divine senses cannot detect you. How is that possible?
If I hadn't been constantly observing this child Pandora to understand love, I might not have even noticed you."
So that's the advantage of being an outsider.
Excitement surged through Alaric.
What did this mean?
In truth, as long as a person exists in this world, no matter how well they hide, all their actions are still recorded by the world.
The principle of prophecy-based magic is simply tapping into these world records to retrieve specific information.
The gods operate on a higher level, they possess administrative privileges, able to access any information within their scope.
If they wish, nothing within their domain can be hidden from them.
But Alaric was different.
He didn't belong to this system. Even if external actions were recorded, crucial internal information wasn't stored on this server.
No matter how high the gods' privileges, they couldn't bypass the server to affect him, let alone the fact that his data belonged to a higher-level server: the Chaotic Sea.
In other words, even if the gods sensed that something had occurred, they could only know that "someone" did it.
Who that someone was, what they had done, their detailed profile, all of this remained inaccessible.
Naturally, Aphrodite was curious why Alaric couldn't be probed.
But Alaric claimed it was due to magic, and as agreed, exchanged his "secret", magic, with the goddess, explaining this unprecedented power, at least from the perspective of the current gods.
With divine power backing her, Aphrodite wasn't overly interested in magic itself. But she was extremely intrigued by Alaric, who wielded it.
"So human intelligence can achieve this level? Truly remarkable," the goddess said, her eyes sparkling.
"I once thought a god had to be strong and beautiful to be attractive. Now I realize, cleverness is far more appealing.
Just 'swish swish' a few spells, and anything can be done. That's elegance."
"Heh, if only a few 'swish swish' spells could let me defeat the gods you speak of, then that would be useful."
Though he thought this, Alaric was pleased that magic had improved the goddess's impression of him.
Then he suddenly noticed a loophole in something Aphrodite had said earlier.
"So… why are you so interested in Pandora? Learning about love from her? Aren't you the goddess of love?" Alaric asked.
Aphrodite's reaction was like a kitten caught by the tail.
"Wh-who… who said I wanted to learn… learn about love from Pandora? A mere mortal, how could they possibly teach me… me, the goddess of love?
That was just a slip of the tongue. Yes, a slip of the tongue! You, forget it, right now!"
Her overly defensive reaction only raised suspicion.
"So, does the goddess truly understand what love is?" Alaric asked deliberately. "You don't mean you can't even grasp the concept within your own domain, do you?"
"Who… who says I don't understand!" Aphrodite flared, her face flushed with a thin anger that only made her more alluring.
"Love is… isn't it just two beings of opposite sex coming together to procreate and raise offspring, while enjoying the physical pleasure of reproduction?"
By the end, her cheeks were even redder.
Alaric shook his head.
"That won't do, goddess," he said in a disappointed tone.
"All I heard in your words was desire and reproduction. Love itself doesn't exist in your definition. How can that be called love?
As a goddess, being ignorant in your own domain is unacceptable. Or are you, the goddess of beauty, merely moonlighting as a love goddess?"
This was practically a direct accusation that Aphrodite was all show.
Angry yet unable to refute Alaric, Aphrodite gaped helplessly before letting out a small, coquettish huff.
"Mortal, don't sully the goddess of love and beauty! If you think you understand love, then explain it!"
From her perspective, this young man had only experienced a brief romantic dalliance with Pandora, something she had observed the whole time.
As the goddess of love and beauty, having seen the affairs among the gods on Olympus, her understanding of relationships should be far richer than his.
So if a mere mortal couldn't articulate the meaning of love, wouldn't that prove her point?
She didn't realize that, unlike this new goddess who had seen only a few human couples, Alaric had already traveled through multiple worlds, been loved by dozens of women, and even lived among billions of humans.
His understanding of love far surpassed this naive goddess.
Thus, he began to explain eloquently.
"Love originates from affection toward certain things, but it's not that simple.
It's an intense attachment, closeness, yearning, and selfless devotion between individuals. It often contrasts emotion with desire.
While love includes emotional and physical components, physical desire is merely an accessory, not essential.
Emotional connection is the soul of love, the core and foundation."
He even illustrated with classic love stories like "Romeo and Juliet" leaving the goddess blinking in surprise.
It was natural that Alaric had this advantage.
Unlike gods born alongside fire, thunder, oceans, sky, the sun, the moon, or death, love is a concept developed later, unique to sentient human beings.
Comparing their understanding of love, Alaric and Aphrodite were like two players. Aphrodite had immense potential but was still in the tutorial village.
Alaric's character might not have as high potential, but he had already completed the main storyline.
The comparison clearly favored Alaric.
However, if Aphrodite could live until the twenty-first century, she would undoubtedly surpass Alaric in understanding love.
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