When Sol heard that Anastasia Invidia was currently present in Lustburg, he could not help but chuckle bitterly as it felt like all the pieces of a missing puzzle were perfectly aligning themselves for him one after another.
This was definitely not a feeling he really appreciated in the least. But in this case, he had to know why she was here in the first place.
Anastasia was a powerful knight who shone brightly on the battlefield many times over and slowly built up her reputation as one of the most powerful beings in the Mortal Realm.
The only reason she was not the current Crown Princess of Envilya was that she was not a Blessed. Even so, her influence and power were unmatched by any other entity in the kingdom of demons except for the church of Humanitas.
She was also the daughter of Pandora Invidia, the current queen of Envilya, and a previous member of Mars’ team.
Those two were the very reason why the church of Humanitas could not take total control of the Kingdom despite their power being superior than the current royalty, at least that was what he had read on paper.
Not only was it forbidden, but the populace supported the royal family quite a bit.
Why did such a bigshot come to Lustburg as a diplomat but refused to show herself openly? It was a red flag no matter how he thought about it.
His mind began to move as he made some possible conjectures but no matter how he looked at it, Envilya needed their help.
Now, Sol could use his position as king to make clear who had the upper hand in this inner conflict of the kingdom of demons in order to make them fold more easily. He would have done so if it was a normal diplomat.
But as she was a princess and one with important political power on her sleeves, he decided to play the gentleman for now.
Sol smiled as Sheherazade flew from his head and landed on his shoulder, “Ohh! Are you going to meet that talented woman you spoke about? Can we follow you?”
Sol gently shook his head to deny her. There were some things he needed to do on his own, “Not this time. We might have some unpleasant discussion.”
He had to be firm here. After all, he didn’t want to spoil her too much. But, seeing the disappointed expression on her face, he decided to relent a little to the cute and adorable fairy, “Don’t worry. I will organize a meeting for you later on when this situation is sorted out.”
“Yessss!!”
Isis chuckled after hearing this discussion of theirs. Seeing this scene, it was hard to remember who was the oldest of the two.
“We won’t disturb you. Either way, I do want to rest a little before that wolf decides to challenge me.”
Sol felt a little conflicted when he heard this piece of information but ultimately said nothing. Setsuna was strong. She was an A+ rank after all. In terms of pure talent, she was not that much inferior to a divine beast. But Isis was simply at a different level.
If she went all out, even Sol was not sure he could beat her head on. Even if Setsuna had grown quite a bit, she was not a Duke yet and that alone was a great handicap in itself.
Of course, he had no intention of stopping that fight from happening. He believed in Setsuna and the strength of her mind. He knew that she would not crumble because of a simple defeat. She was his knight after all.
“Ketia, fetch a carriage for my companions. Also, I want you to assign a few maids to her for some shopping tomorrow. In fact, bring Lilin with you.”
He ignored the butler and focused on Ketia as he gave his orders. Ketia did not even think about bringing up that Milia had asked her to follow him.
She nodded almost instinctively and this was despite the fact that Sol was not even trying to intimidate her.
“Hey! My clothes are alright, okay?”
“So you are telling me that you are going to wear the same clothes, every single day?”
Divine beasts could create their own clothes using mana. This was very useful as when they shapeshifted, normal clothes would be completely destroyed. But still, even if she decided to use mana for the purpose of her clothing, it would be interesting to have her move around the kingdom and interact with the populace on her own.
Isis had never really managed to walk around in populated settlements without having to hide her face and aura when she was in the Astral Realm.
But here, in his kingdom, he would make damn sure that she became as happy as possible.
Shopping as she wished without having to hide, was the first step toward this.
Ideally, Sol would have wished for Setsuna to follow as well, but since her sense of duty was too strong, she would act as their knight and guard without having any fun herself. Thus it would’ve just been a waste of time to throw her into the mix.
“Your highness, then, if you would follow me?”
“I know the way.”
Sol simply vanished there and then, leaving a completely bewildered butler and a bitterly smiling Isis behind.
———
Sol had not been the only one to observe the fireworks.
Sitting in the true office of Arachne Milaris was a young woman wearing a black bodysuit and a few pieces of armor covering the bare minimum. She had long purple hair adorned with a golden rose and her purple eyes shone with splendor even after she watched the firework slowly die off. It was a long time before her eyes returned to their previous cold brilliance.
“I must say, my country should seriously take some notes and try new things like this.”
Arachne did not speak, she was not particularly interested in the festival. The only reason she had put money into this was because the news of war was putting pressure on the citizens and making them uneasy. She planned to fund a few more festivals like this in all the major cities of Lustburg to further relax the dreary atmosphere settling throughout the kingdom.
“Why are you keeping this form?”
The purple-haired girl laughed at her words, “She is pretty, isn’t she? I really did a good job with her. Beautiful, smart, kind, strong. I like immersing myself in her personality. She has such a beautiful way of seeing the world. Sigh. If only…”
‘Anastasia’ spoke until this point before shaking her head.
“You lament the fact that she is not a Blessed, I suppose…”
“Even though it might be cruel, that is so. Thankfully, the second daughter, Minerva has a great talent when it comes to <<Acting>> so I am not really disappointed.”
The two women continued to chat as if there was nothing wrong with what they were speaking. They were mostly silent, but sometimes they would just reminisce about the past.
“I wonder if he will come.”
“Are you that impatient to see him?”
“It’s Mars’ son, you know? I always wanted to meet him. But after the stunt those bastards from the church pulled, I didn’t have the courage to do so.”
“You are pretty pathetic, you know that right?”
“What can I say? The last war against Lustburg ended with our strongest Queen getting killed. Since then the royal family never recovered.”
Arachne nodded to her words. This was the result of the fight between Mars’ grandfather and the queen of Envilya as he lead the army against the kingdom of demons.
As a result, both the royal family of Lustburg and Envilya got incredibly weakened.
For Lustburg, the nobles managed to take control of the royal family. For Envilya, it was the church that did so.
“Mars is really incredible. I wish I was able to revert the situation as he did. Haha, sometimes I wonder if I am truly Blessed like him or if the Blessed of Lustburg are just built different.”
“I sadly do not know enough about Blessed to answer this question of yours.”
‘Anastasia’ or rather, Pandora disguised as Anastasia simply shrugged. Even the Blessed themselves do not know much about how it works out for them anyways. No need to be sorry about that.
Pandora had never really been curious about the origin of her blessing either. Demons, like angels, were discarded divine beasts who had their thrones usurped by a new generation of divine beasts.
She knew her place very well and did not seek more than she needed to. She had managed to become a powerful King rank succubus and she believed that her powers were not far from rivaling the previous Nightmare queen’s.
“By the way, I have never asked you this, but how is his personality? What do you think of him?"
Arachne tilted her head.
Her view of Sol had been changed repeatedly in a very short time frame.
In the past, because of her resentment, she simply hated him and viewed him as a sheltered prince who would never become equal to the splendor of his father.
When they met during the traditional Duke visit, she realized her bias and began to view him as a child with a potential no lower than that of Mars’. But ultimately, that was it.
After the attack on Lustburg and Lilith slowly stepping away from power, she deduced that he would become a reliable King. Though one that would need much support from his surroundings to stabilize his position.
But now… After returning from the church and witnessing his return from the Astral Realm, she realized that he had gone beyond everything she had ever expected him to accomplish.
So. What did she think of him now?
"He is a monster that keeps growing without showing any signs of reaching his limit."
Talented people would always exist out there.
Geniuses were really not that rare in the realms.
But in every generation, there would always exist those few oddities that broke all semblance of common sense and created their own rules.
In her opinion, Sol was such a monster of this generation.
The new wave would always push the old one aside.
Arachne closed her eyes. No matter how much she did not want to admit it…
She knew that one day, Mars would not be remembered as the Hero King anymore, but simply as the father of Sol.
What the two friends did not notice though — was that they had never been alone from the start.
Unknown to them, all along, a third individual had been sitting right next to them and listening to their discussion.
Quietly, calmly, pondering how to best make use of the information he had obtained with a cold and calculating gaze.
The fun had just begun…
