Knowing the final answer and seeing the resignation, Arvin immediately released his deadly grip.
Thud!
Ordion's body slumped to the classroom floor. He coughed violently, greedily gasping for air while clutching his neck, which was red and clearly marked by Arvin's finger imprints.
However, the pain only lasted for a second. At the exact same moment Ordion fell, Arvin emitted high-level healing magic from his palm without even chanting a spell.
A soft green light enveloped Ordion's neck, and in the blink of an eye, it healed the pain and bruising the youth had just suffered, allowing him to breathe freely again.
Ordion looked up, staring at Arvin with his breath still hitching. Fear, confusion, and anger swirled into one.
"W-Why did you have to be so rough with me just to ask that?!" Ordion asked hoarsely, unable to contain his frustration. "You nearly killed me!"
Arvin returned the gaze with an innocent face. "If I hadn't taken such extreme measures, I'm certain you would never have been honest with me, especially not in public!" Arvin stated firmly, answering the question without a shred of guilt. "Sometimes, fear is the only way to squeeze the truth out of someone."
Ordion clenched his fists against the floor. He lowered his head in shame. "So, what now?" Ordion asked again, his voice sounding resigned and trembling. "Now that you know I truly like you... what are you going to do to me? Will you torture me for daring to declare my feelings to you? Mock me in front of everyone? Expel me from this academy? Or... will you actually kill me because I dared to harbor feelings for someone who is already married?!"
Facing the desperate barrage of questions from the youth below him, Arvin did not respond with words.
Instead, without anyone's knowledge, not even Ordion, who was still looking down, Arvin's right hand moved slowly. He withdrew a pure gold ring set with a transparent blue gemstone from his dimensional storage.
Then, the most unthinkable thing happened.
Instead of answering the questions with insults or a blow, the most arrogant and feared 'King of Terror' in the academy suddenly lowered his body. He knelt on one knee directly in front of Ordion, who was still sitting on the floor, witnessed live by every student in Class 1-C and dozens of others peeking from the hallway.
The atmosphere in the corridor and the classroom, which had been tense due to the threat of murder, suddenly turned silent for a completely different reason. Time seemed to freeze.
Ordion, noticing the movement in front of him, slowly lifted his face.
The red-haired student was so shocked his breath hitched again. He saw the person who had just been choking him now kneeling calmly before him, holding a gold ring in his hand.
Arvin looked directly into Ordion's eyes, which were rounded in perfect circles.
"Ordion," Arvin called, his voice much softer this time yet remaining firm, "if you truly have feelings for me as you just admitted... are you willing to marry me?"
BOOM!
The question immediately sent everyone into a frenzy, as if an invisible magic bomb had exploded in the classroom.
The sudden proposal, delivered without warning and in front of dozens of students inside and outside the class, was a massive success in creating an uproar. The jaws of the spectators dropped. Several female students nearly fainted at the sight of such senseless, brutal romance.
Even Ordion himself froze like an ice statue. He had never expected, never dreamed, that Arvin, the handsome student he had worshipped from afar for so long, would openly and without a shred of shame propose to him in public.
"A-Are... are you serious, proposing to me like this?" Ordion stammered, checking his reality, feeling as though this was merely an illusion created by his brain as it neared death. His heart was still beating incredibly fast, this time not from fear, but from the explosive euphoria in his chest.
"If I weren't serious, why would I waste my time kneeling and doing something this ridiculous in front of you and everyone here?" Arvin replied calmly, gazing intently at Ordion's face, ignoring the frantic whispers around them.
Arvin nudged the ring slightly forward. "So, are you willing to be my third spouse, standing by me alongside Allen and Alrain?"
Faced with the offer to be the spouse of the teenager he loved so dearly, and knowing the fact that Arvin had also accepted Alrain, something happened in Ordion's nervous system caused the red-haired teenager completely silent.
He bowed his head deeply, hiding his disarrayed face, his shoulders trembling violently.
And suddenly...
Fwosh!
A vortex of intense, massive fire suddenly exploded from within Ordion's body, sweeping through the surrounding air.
The spontaneous awakening of magical power right before everyone's eyes caused an even greater uproar throughout Class 1-C. The heat wave forced the students watching nearby to step back several paces, shielding their faces with their arms.
Even though the temperature at the center of the vortex was hot enough to melt iron, Arvin, who was still kneeling on one knee, didn't feel it at all.
The blue-haired teenager seemed to possess an absolute shield. The deadly heat felt like nothing more than a warm breeze brushing against Arvin's skin, easily neutralized by the high-level ice element affinity flowing through his blood.
Amidst the protective, invisible flames, Ordion stared at Arvin with ragged breath.
"Alrain?" Ordion asked with a trembling voice, confirming what he had just heard from the mouth of the man he adored. "Has he... has he already become your spouse?"
Arvin looked directly into Ordion's eyes, his blue eyes radiating absolute honesty. "Yes, he has officially become my spouse, along with Allen!"
Hearing that confirmation, an immense relief flooded Ordion's heart. His emotions, which had momentarily exploded, were now under control. The fire emanating from his body slowly receded and instantly vanished without a trace, leaving behind air that still felt warm.
The red-haired student lowered his gaze again, staring at Arvin's handsome face, which miraculously remained faithfully kneeling before him with the ring in his hand.
"Are you proposing to me... only because of his request?" Ordion asked softly, seeking certainty of his own value in the eyes of the 'King of Terror.'
"To be honest, yes!" Arvin answered bluntly, without a hint of hesitation or any intention to sugarcoat the truth. "Initially, I intended to come here to see you because he asked and pleaded with me all night."
Ordion flinched slightly, but Arvin's sentence wasn't finished.
"But besides that..." Arvin continued, his voice now softening yet sounding incredibly convincing. "Your cute face, your attitude, your loyalty, and all your struggles... I acknowledge them, Ordion!"
Ordion knew very well that Arvin never spoke in boasts. The blue-haired teenager in front of him tended to speak bluntly without caring about his listener's feelings. If Arvin said he acknowledged his struggles, then it was an absolute truth.
The red-haired student could no longer hold back his feelings. He smiled, the brightest and most sincere smile he had ever shown, one he had only shown once since he first set foot in the academy.
"But, are you sure you want to make me your third spouse?" Ordion asked, confirming once more. "You know? I am just a student from a commoner background on a scholarship at this academy."
"Yes, I am very sure!" Arvin answered firmly, completely disregarding the social hierarchy that shackled this world. "So, what is your answer?"
The joy welled up in Ordion's heart as he nodded enthusiastically. "Yes, I am very willing to accept your proposal!"
Hearing that consent, a smile spread across Arvin's lips. Amidst the silence of dozens of eyes acting as silent witnesses in Class 1-C, Arvin began to recite his sacred vow.
"O God who holds the universe..." Arvin's voice sounded heavy and solemn in the classroom. "I, Arvin Vedegra, wish to marry this person whom I love deeply. I want to bind a vow of life and death, forever with him. May You bestow Your blessing upon our marriage, and let our fates be intertwined as one!"
After uttering the life-and-death vow that echoed with authority, Arvin gently reached for Ordion's left hand. He immediately placed the pure gold ring set with the transparent blue gemstone onto the third spouse's ring finger. The fit was perfect.