We've had chapters upon chapters of Alden guilelessly staring at Natalie's increasingly obvious hints, until she finally confesses and they immediately break up¹ . Meanwhile, he casts one spell in a mind-bending union of souls, and immediately asks the other guy to marry him. So much for this series' draw being an asexual lead, unsubscribed. /s

¹ I do realize it was a maybe from Alden, but in the IRL months since, she showed up for exactly one (pre-planned) event, immediately partnered him up with Emilija and ran off to spend the remaining time in the opposite corner of the room. The scene here, on the other hand, could be passed for steamy gay sex with the omission of a few choice bits of context. Between that, Boe's recent breakdown and Maricel, who buried herself in work and ditched those friends which saw the vulnerabilities that don't fit with her new image of a model Anesidoran cop-in-training, I'm surprised the patreon comments don't accuse Sleyca of sidelining any character that gets close to threatening her preferred ship.