What do you do when your aunt kidnaps your lover and leaves a message taunting you to follow her on a wild goose chase?
If Sol was back on earth and still had access to the internet, he would have loved to put this on a thread and read the eventual answers that could get him out of this troublesome and headache-inducing situation.
Sadly, there was no such thing as the internet in this place so he had to make do with it the old-fashioned way.
Directly discuss with people face to face and come up with a possible solution.
"So… What do I do?"
Milia gave a humorless laugh at the question that was thrown at her. This was quite a weird situation and Milia had honestly never expected that she would have to deal with such a problem in her lifetime. After all, she had never imagined Lilith to act so mischievously or even childishly in the first place.
"This…" She was utterly, completely, and in every sense of the word lost for words.
In the end, she simply chuckled lightly and smiled. There was not much else to do other than to comply with her machinations. "Do you know where they are currently?”
After all, if someone like Lilith wanted to hide, she doubted they would be able to easily find her.
Sol took out one of the daggers and twirled it in his hands. "This thing is basically keeping a constant track of her whereabouts. I just have to follow it to reach her."
Sol was quite flummoxed by the intricacy of these weapons. After all, they were entirely made out of energy. Even then, Lilith was able to keep them constantly active despite the distance between the object and her.
This reminded him about how sword intent could still keep affecting a person even years after the skill was cast in some Xianxia novels that he had read. He idly began to wonder if it was possible to use this phenomenon to teach her sword style to more people.
But he shelved that idea aside almost immediately. Lilith’s techniques were too dangerous to spread to people indiscriminately. It went completely against the current system since one only needed talent in a sword and enough mana and a strong body to be able to learn her techniques. It didn’t discriminate in the capabilities of one’s capacity.
“So, what now?”
Milia mused for a while before giving a look toward Clara. She was the secretary of the king, after all.
“Your Highness. I believe you should follow the Queen. This could serve as a way for you to get some much-needed relaxation. Now that we have prepared everything, your presence isn't much required to advance with our plans."
A king, as any leader of a force, did not have to do the whole job alone. His only job was to supervise and give the necessary orders when it was time for him to do so.
Sol had been quite high-strung during the last two weeks. But after dealing with the Black Knights, there was not much he could do outside of signing paperwork. Work that could be left out to be done by others.
“Having you two as my support is really something I appreciate wholeheartedly.”
Milia gave him a light bow with her face becoming slightly flushed due to Sol’s complement. Meanwhile, Clara’s ears became a shade of deep red and fluttered slightly after hearing his compliment. It was a new effect that he had never seen before.
It seemed that those ears acted like the tails of dogs when true elves were feeling happy.
‘They are really cute.’
He chuckled and stood up from his seat. “Well, this is a golden occasion in a way. I never visited outside of the capital like ever. I guess it’s as good a time as any.”
It was funny in a way. He had explored two dimensions, his mind space, and two territories, and even got a glimpse of the Divine Realm of the goddesses, and fought in the void of space, however, he had never gone outside of the capital of his very own Kingdom.
‘Who should I take with me? What cover should I use to roam around?’
He thought for a while. The inner child in him lost all restraints as he decided that, indeed, he should have some relaxing fun for a while.
He remembered how Lilin told him that she worked as an adventurer for some time after leaving the Capital and experiencing the outside world for herself. It seemed that Lilith and his parents alongside the whole hero team also did the same thing when they had gone outside of the confines of the capital.
‘Perhaps, I can give it a try as well?’
Back then when he had no intentions of taking the responsibility of a King seriously, he dreamed of becoming an adventurer and simply visiting the world and its wonders, witnessing all of it for himself and experiencing them with his body. Fighting against monsters, getting rewarded, climbing in ranks, and facing new and interesting trials with comrades he would make along the way.
Of course, he knew that this was just him romanticizing and exaggerating everything by a lot. There was nothing beautiful about being an adventurer and risking your life every day for meager and marginal rewards.
But… with his current level, adventuring was nothing more than a walk in the park. Even if he, for some reason, met a King-ranked individual, he had the confidence to hold on for a while or simply flee without any problems.
Not everyone was Lilith after all. The chance of meeting someone like her were so astronomically sma…
Sol stopped himself and shook his head, ‘Begone motherfucking death flags!’
He was now starting to worry about his movements. ‘Should I prepare to fight a god or something like that?’
This seemed the only way this trip would go without a hitch.
Laughing at his own silliness, his thought moved toward a more positive direction.
‘This would be a great occasion to spend some quality time with Setsuna and the others.’
He had noticed her hesitation and fear during their discussion a few moments ago, and it was the perfect occasion for them to spend time together.
Having some fun with Sestuna as an adventurer, playing Lilith’s silly game, and taking Camelia back out of her wicked grasp, while visiting Lilin and perhaps taking her along with him as well.
Furthermore, Setsuna wasn’t the only one he had been neglecting lately because of a lack of time.
“Very well, I have decided. Milia, Setsuna, and Medea will follow me.”
An assassin, a swordsman, and a mage who could play the role of a healer, and with him as the invincible tank.
Could there be any better adventurer party than this?
If he added Persephone they would even have a true Healer. This would become the perfect adventurer party.
Now if there was a problem then it was — How to convince the shut-in Medea to walk outside under the sun and go on an adventure with him.
Meanwhile, hearing Sol’s brilliant idea, Clara could only show a baffled look on her pretty face. What the hell kind of monster were they going to hunt with an adventurer team like that?
[1]: Simple chapter today. I am going to Morocco on the 22nd. Moving like a headless chicken to prepare for everything.
(AN: So, there will be an adventurer arc with all girls from Book 1. This is honestly something I always wanted to do back in Book 1 lol. When I started SHK, outside of the pure smut Theme I had in mind. I remember mentioning an academy. Sol was supposed to either become an adventurer and visit different kingdoms or move into the academy. If I went Adventurer's way, he would visit all queens (because there would have been no kings. Wolf King and Dwarf King were created way later) and he would have added them to his harem. This is also why I mentioned how Lilin was an adventurer. Lol, for the Academy, he would have the Four Heir of the four duke houses and each of them would have an S-rank partner. Phoenix/Tiger/Dragon/Tortoise. Yeah I know, cliche as fuck. But it seemed fun.
In that plan, Sol would have had a closer relationship with Athena and Ares. In the end, I deleted those plans for no particular reason. I guess it was because there were too many Academy novels at the time so I feared SHK wouldn’t get popular. I wonder how it would have turned out if I went ahead with the plan.)
