Erich awoke the next day and was not surprised to see that Erika had chosen to sleep on the sofa. He did not say a word to her as he got out of his bed and climbed into the shower. After all, he did not want to wake the woman up, and immediately engage in an argument because of it.


    He then spent the next five minutes cleaning himself off from the sweat that he had umted during his sleep. After feeling refreshed, Erich stepped out of the shower without wearing a towel, only to find that his young bride had awoken from her slumber, and was terrified to see her new husband was standing naked in front of her.


    Erika shrieked in horror at the sight of Erich''s naked body. Having never seen a man undressed before, she was not the least bit ustomed to the sight, and quickly hid her eyes beneath the nket that she had slept with the night before.


    In response to this, Erich simply scoffed, as he pulled on a pair of underpants, before mocking Erika for herck of experience.


    "Ohe on now, this can''t be your first time seeing a man naked? I thought all of you entertainers were sleeping with your producers?"


    Erika popped her head out from under the covers with an enraged look on her face, as she sighed in relief after seeing that Erich had begun to properly dress himself. She then corrected his usation with a rather offended tone in her hyper feminine voice.


    "Of course not! The Empire started cracking down on those scumbags decades ago! By the time I entered the industry, all of those creeps had been arrested! I can''t believe there is someone who is still so uneducated as you!"


    Erich simply scoffed in response to this before throwing more shade at his new wife. It was clear by the tone in his voice that he did not see her as anything more than a burden.


    "You can take a shower now, oh and you might want to buy some more hair dye, because there is none in there..."


    This callous remark ate away at Erika''s insecurities, and though she did not want to respond to such an oafish thug and his taunts, she could not help but do so, albeit in a hushed voice.


    "It is not dyed...."


    At first Erich thought he had misheard the woman, but judging from the flustered expression on her cute face, he felt as if he had indeed heard things correctly, and was quick to interrogate the young pop sensation about the validity of her statement.


    "Hold on.... What did you just say? Are you seriously trying to tell me your hair is not dyed like everyone else in the industry? So what, does that make you a mutant like myself?"


    It was clear that by using the term mutant to refer to Erika, Erich had struck a nerve, because she immediately threw her pillow at his face, which he was quick to dodge, before she began to scream her insecurities at him.


    "I''m not a mutant! Don''t you ever call me that! I was just born... Unique!"


    Upon hearing this, Erich stood in disbelief as he gazed upon the beautiful young woman in a new light. Things were starting to make some sense to him regarding her hostility towards mutants, which was extreme even for a discriminatory society like the Germanic Star-Empire. He was so shocked by this discovery that he had to sit down in a nearby seat and think it through, after which he was quick to voice his disbelief.


    "You''re a self hating mutant.... But wait, I have never heard of you being born with pink hair before. How the hell did you manage to conceal it from the public? I mean if people knew you were one of us, you never would have taken off in the pop industry like you did! Hell, I can''t stand that bubblegum crap, but even I had heard of you, before you even started harassing me."


    Erika simply harrumphed and looked away from Erich, clearly not willing to answer the question, especially after he had dared to call her a mutant for a second time. Instead, she responded to him with a deliberately callous tone in his voice.


    "Like I would tell a mutant freak like you!"


    Erich was stunned beyond words, this woman waspletely in denial about reality, if what she said was true, and her hair was naturally pink, then she was what society deemed to be a mutant, and would normally face intense discrimination like he had been subjected to while growing up in the Empire.


    The only thing he could think of to exin all of this was that the girl''s father was someone very important, and one who actually cared for his daughter''s wellbeing, unlike Erich''s father, who looked at him like he was literal garbage. The man must have gone to great lengths to hide Erika''s identity from the public.


    Actually, it all made sense now why Emrys had chosen Erika to be Erich''s partner. She was a mutant just like himself, and in this new era, there was no way the Empire would allow a non-mutant to breed with a mutant. If anything, they would have the mutants marry one another, and have families, where the children were heavily gically modified so that they did not carry their parent''s abnormalities.


    Upon realizing this, Erich decided he would not ask Erika any more questions about her past until she was ready to open up to him. Instead, he simply stood up from his seat and walked out of the room. Just when he was about to exit through the doorway, Erika called out to him, stunned that he did not continue to engage in a such a fruitless argument with her.


    "Hey! Where are you going? Are you not going to ask me anymore questions?"


    Erich simply scoffed as he heard this, and said his thoughts out loud, without even bothering to look back at his wife.


    "I could not care less... If you need me, I will be on our beach, enjoying the tropical weather."


    Erika simply pouted when she saw her husband walk out the door. She could not believe that she had been forcibly married to such an asshole. However, the more she sat alone in the room, the more she wanted to follow after the man, until finally she got dressed in her bikini and chased after him.


    ---


    Erich was sitting in the sand with a beer in his hand as he watched the waves crash against the shore. He had a pair of sunsses on, and wore nothing but a pair ofpression shorts, as he sipped from the ice coldger.


    At least one of the perks that he had been given since he had been revived for the second time was that his mansion was stocked with an absurd degree of alcohol. Naturally, those at the highest levels of society were beyond the rules that were meant for the plebs, but this was true for just about any civilization that had ever existed.


    In fact, in Earth''s history, there was an abundance of examples where politicians within so called democratic countries were quite literally above thew. Never actually being convicted of the multitude of crimes theymitted on a near daily basis. This was the nature of humanity. Those who wielded political authority enjoyed the perks that came with having a position of power.


    Thus, Erich was currently enjoying what would definitely be considered an illegal quantity of alcohol for any normal citizen, but in all honesty, he did not care about the hypocrisy of it all. He had a wounded heart that needed nursing, and the best way to do so was through copious quantities of alcohol.


    By the time Erika had finally found the man sitting alone on the beach with nothing but his thoughts, he had already consumed an entire twelve pack of his favorite beer. When Erika saw this, she was quick to criticize her husband for his drinking habits.


    "You know, you should not be drinking so much. Even with our enhanced gics, it is not a healthy habit."


    As the young pop sensation said this, she began to collect the bottles that her husband had drunk thus far so that they could be properly recycled. And despite her nagging, Erich did not say a word, instead he watched as several aquatic mammals jumped out of the water and did somersaults in the air.


    Though this sight brought a smile to Erika''s face, Erich''s expression waspletely numb as he took another giant gulp of the beer bottle currently in his hand. Seeing that the man was almost robotic when it came to expressing his emotions, Erika could not help but criticize him once more for hisck of humanity.


    "What the hell is wrong with you? Even a sight as exciting as that fails to put a smile on your face! Are you even alive at this point, or are you some kind of walking corpse?"


    For the first time since Erika had met her husband in person, she saw a smile appear on the man''s face. But it was not one of joy or excitement. Instead, it was incredibly bitter, as if the man had just swallowed the most poisonous substance known to man.


    This smile was not just bitter, but was also filled with a deep sense of sorrow, the likes Erika had never seen a man express before. And she had to examine it in great detail just to make sure she was seeing things correctly, because she did not know a human being could make such a pitiful expression. Then the following words that Erich spoke hit her heart like a brick travelling at Mach 3.


    "I wish I wasn''t... I was dead and gone, and I should have stayed that way! But the Empire brought me back... Why? Because they needed a fucking propaganda piece! What a fucking joke...."


    After saying this, Erich''s expression turned wrathful as he stood up and threw his beer bottle towards the ocean''s surface. Due to his enhanced gics, the bottle travelled at speeds well over 200 kilometers per hour before crashing against the water and exploding upon impact.


    Erika did not know how to respond to this sudden disy of raw emotion. She had never seen a man when he was at his worst, and she had not suffered loss before, unlike Erich, who seemed to repeatedly endure such torture. After all, her family had fled from Suebi before the battle begun, and were alive and well. Despite most of the people in the world dying in its defense.


    She could only stand there in silence as Erich continued to sulk while staring at the ocean, whose waves continued to move as if it were a living entity. In the end, Erika''s body moved without her mind''s approval, and she reached around her husband''s back and hugged him tightly. She did not know why she had done it, but perhaps what Erich needed most right now was the warm touch of another human being.


    The young couple stayed glued together like that in silence for some time. While their marriage was one of political convenience, and they both had conflicted emotions for one another. In this one instance, they were able to connect on an emotional level, even without a proper exchange of words.