“Huh?!” Exclaimed several voices all at once.

The owners of the voices were William, Natsu, Martin, Maxwell, Fred, and Vikram. Lakshman was a little take aback by the name and looked around with curiosity while Gram appeared to be the least interested. Ward, on the other hand, was looking around with great interest and nodded his head as if he understood why the prince called it that.

“It is understandable. Quite the nice name you’ve given it,” commented Ward telepathically, expressing his interest.

“Why Arena of Solitude?” Lakshman asked curiously. “I mean, does it have some kind of history?”

“It’s a natural made cavern that our people transformed into this big arena,” replied Bolten with a smile.

“It was some seventy-years-ago when we discovered this cavern during the construction of the castle and slowly worked it into an arena shape,” explained Santa from the side as if they needed an explanation on its history. “Since then, we often used this as a place for duels, tournaments and the such.”

“Although, that was before the alien invasion began,” added Erza, looking meaningfully at her brothers. “Since their invasion, we had dropped all forms of sport and only use this as a shelter in emergencies.”

“I see,” said Lakshman, nodding his head in understanding. “That explains why you named it Arena of Solitude.”

“It certainly has the capacity to hold the many people that currently dwell in the capital,” stated Ward telepathically in understanding as well.

“Indeed, when you consider that it’s an isolated shelter, it certainly fits well with solitude,” said William, nodding with an impressed look on his face.

“That’s a silly way of thinking,” commented Vikram, causing them all to turn to look curiously at him. “I mean, this is just an arena! Couldn’t you think of calling it Castle Arena, or Underground Arena, or something that sounds sensible than giving it a fancy name?”

This caused the three royal siblings to look at one another before let out a light laughter that surprised the Sonic Hero.

“To be honest, we do agree where you’re coming from,” said Bolten, a smile on his face, “but the head of construction at that time was a bit eccentric, and he decided to give it that name. Since we got accustomed to calling it that, we didn’t bother renaming it.”

“But, don’t worry, Vikram! We feel your concerns,” added Erza with a similar smile that her eldest brother wore.

Vikram, after hearing that, could only laugh in exasperation and mutter, “This doesn’t make me feel any better.”

Meanwhile, Bolten turned to them and said, “Well, this is the place we’re going to hold our training from now on in addition to attending the Hero Academy since you still have much to learn about our world, policies and so on.”

While they nodded their heads in assent, Santa suddenly announced, “Actually, today we’re going to be joined by another person that had recently been receiving excellent records at the academy.”

As he said that, the escalators from behind began to move and two appeared to descend to their level before stepped onto the firm ground. One of them was a Royal Guard while the other was someone they did not recognize, who was male and he was wearing a neat assortment of casual clothes. Upon arriving, the stranger appeared to be startled upon finding them there.

“Eh? Second price? All of you are here already?” The man asked in a surprised voice. He quickly changed his mannerism and said, “I’m sincerely sorry for being late!”

“No, no. You’re not late. You got here on time,” said Santa with a smile, looking towards the Royal Guard that escorted the stranger in and felt satisfied when he nodded. “We got here just now as well.”

As the stranger straightened up, Bolten asked Santa, “So, this is guy you’ve been telling me about for the last week?”

“Yes!” Santa said eagerly, turning to face his brother with excitement. “You know, he recently transferred to our branch of the Hero Academy because his home was gone in the near destruction of the Drabalz City. Since he got here, he scored the highest marks in the academy history and even had fifteen consecutive winning streaks on Thursday’s class battles!”

“Really? That’s quite impressive,” said Bolten, turning to smile at the stranger. “What’s your name?”

“My name’s Mike Druken,” the man gave a prompt response. “I am an orphan that was looked after by my uncle in Drabalz City, but in the recent destruction, he passed away and so I moved here to improve my skills and get back at those aliens for the damage they caused to my family and to the rest of my neighbors!”

His expression was firmly set with a fierce fire of determination kindled in his eyes, which they all noted.

I’m sorry to hear your loss,” said the first prince in an apologetic voice, which he quickly changed to that of energetic voice as he said, “but it’s good that you decided to use that anger to fuel your strength in becoming stronger to defeat our enemies! I like that attitude of yours!”

As the man bowed graciously, Santa smiled and said, “Yeah! That’s why, since I’ve seen how determined he was and that he had great results, I thought to include hi min our regular training sessions. You know, to give him an extra edge that he needed?”

“That is an excellent idea, Santa, because the rest of the students might not be able to keep up with the training we’ll be doing from now on,” replied Bolten, praising his brother and watched him smile triumphantly.” He turned to Mike and said, “It’s a pleasure meeting you, Mike. My name’s Bolten, first prince as you probably know already, but do please call me Bolten since we’re comrades training together.”

“I am humbly grateful for your leniency, first prince— I mean, Bolten,” said Mike, then quickly corrected himself when he saw the severe look in the first prince’s eyes. When he straightened up, he looked towards the others as they began introducing themselves to him.

“My name’s Vikram! Nice to meet you!”

“William’s my name.”

“Ward,” said the Walmeky Hero shortly, causing Vikram to accuse him of being lazy, which Ward ignored.

Bolten watched the scene of them introducing each other in silence, nodding his head in satisfaction when the second prince asked, “So, brother, what kind of training did you have in mind for us today? The usual?”

To Santa’s question, the first prince shook his head and said, “No. Today, I want to try something different.” While they looked at him in puzzlement, he turned towards Lakshman and asked, “Lucky, what’s the training that you normally do?”

Lakshman was startled when the prince suddenly started calling him by his nickname, but he recovered a moment later and replied, “Strength and speed training while occasionally sparring with opponents.”

“I see,” said Bolten, momentarily looking as if he was thinking about something.

“What’s going on, brother?” Santa asked, looking at his brother with apprehension on his face “A-Are you p-possibly thinking of having this man train us?”

“That’s right,” said Bolten in a firm voice, causing the fear of the second prince to come true.

Santa was shocked, but he quickly became angry and turned to blame Lakshman with, “You! What have you done to my family?!” While Lakshman appeared to be confused, Santa went on to blame him by saying, “You’ve clearly done something to trick my brother into believing whatever story you created about yourself, but you won’t deceive me! I’m different!”

“Santa—!” Bolten began, but Santa cut him by saying, “Don’t interfere, brother! It’s clear you’ve been hoodwinked!”

“Hoodwinked?” Bolten asked in a quiet voice, smiling a little at his younger brother’s paranoid attitude towards the Solaris Hero, glancing around with a dubious look on his face.

Lakshman looked down at him while Asura laughed inside his mind before saying, “Hahaha! This man is amazing! Truly, the biggest idiot I had ever seen in my last life or this life!” Managing to calm down a little, Asura still chuckled a little as he said, “So, what are you going to do? Clear the misunderstanding, or scare him for good measure?”

“Scaring people too much will make me look like the villain,” replied Lakshman in a firm voice. “I’ll try something.” Then, he outwardly sighed and said in a flat voice, “I’m sorry to disappoint but I haven’t done anything of that sort because I don’t need to. If I had, then you’d all be under my control, and I’ll be the ruler of this world. It’s as easy as that.”

His response shocked the second prince, who glared at him and said, “You fiend! How—?!”

His mouth moved but no word came out, making him widen his eyes in shock. He clutched his mouth and moved it several times as if he was trying to speak, but no sound came out. Instead, it looked like he was being silly by mouthing non-verbally whatever it was he was trying to say.

This made everyone realize that he had lost his voice. At the same time, they felt a chilly aura coming from the side, causing them to turn and see that it was Bolten who had used a magic spell to silence his brother. As they saw, he wore a deadly serious look on his face that caused several of them to shiver in sudden fright. Santa widened his eyes with horror and mouthed words that he could not say out loud due to losing the ability to speak.

“Santa, I’ve let you have your way until now but you’re crossing the line there. First, you show him a great deal of distrust and, now, blame him for something that is nothing but your illusion! Get your senses straight, or are your eyes blinded by pride like our dear father?”

Eying his younger brother with such lethal coldness caused Santa to become feeble and lower his head in shame.

“It’s fine, Bolten. Please, give him his voice back,” said Lakshman, feeling sympathy towards Santa even though he had been about to be falsely blamed for something that was nothing but an assumption.

“You sure?” Bolten asked, looking quizzically at Lakshman.

Seeing the hero nod his head in assent, the first prince and clicked his M.E.D. and returned Santa his ability to speak.

Relieved that he got his voice back, the first thing that Santa did was ask, “Brother…! Why…?”

Bolten glared down at him coldly and said, “Santa, let me get this straight. This man, as we all figured out by now, is the strongest man alive on this planet. He is indeed capable of controlling this entire world with a snap of his fingers, so you are correct in what you were thinking. But, at the same time, you’re completely wrong about him because if you had been under his control… if you had realized that… you wouldn’t have raised the doubt that you did moments earlier.”

This made Santa widen his eyes in surprise and turn to look at Lakshman, who shrugged his shoulders and said, “I am already a king in my world with a lot of duties to uphold, so I’m not interested in taking over another world and struggle in governing two worlds at the same time. I probably could but… I know it’s draining, and then I won’t have time to spend with my family. So, I’m not interested in ruling your world or anything.”

“You heard him,” said Bolten, looking down at his brother, who wore a face as if he was just smacked across the face. “You’re the one at fault here, Santa. Apologize to our hero.”

The second prince looked aghast at his brother and asked, “G-Give him… an apology? Brother…! Are you—?”

“I am serious!” Bolten said, cutting across his brother with tremendous force of power that made Santa flinch. “Now, apologize.”

Santa, who deeply loathed what he was about to do, took a deep breath to steady his mind and say in an apologetic voice, “I’m sorry for ever doubting you! Please…” he momentarily hesitated, a sense of humiliation causing him to falter the words, but a glare from Bolten made him rapidly blurt out, “find it within your heart to forgive me!”

There was a moment of tense silence that followed this statement before Lakshman said with a smile on his face, “I’ll forgive you on the condition that you please put some trust in me, second price. I’m not your enemy.”

Lakshman meant what he said, but he could see the distrust in the second prince’s face and felt nothing he could do would ease the man. As such, the best thing for them to do was move on from that situation as it was delaying the training they were supposed to have already begun.

“Santa, you will sit with Erza and watch from the spectator seats,” said Bolten, issuing the command to his brother, who meekly accepted it and went off together with Erza to take their seats in the rising platform. Having seen them off, Bolten turned to Lakshman and said, “Well then, instructor, please train us properly.”

“Huh? Instructor?” Lakshman asked, looking at them in surprise. “You want me to train all of you?”

“Of course!” Bolten replied as if that was the obvious thing. “What do you guys think?”

“I think it’s a good idea? He does possess far greater combat experience than the rest of us put together,” commented William with a wry smile.

“He’s got the talent as both a warrior and a master!” Natsu said firmly, smiling at the prince for knowing what he was doing.

“Yes. I think training under you will really improve our performance as a whole,” commented Maxwell with a firm look on his face.

“I’m fine if the rest are fine with it,” said Martin nervously.

“I’m okay with whatever it is I must do so long as I get stronger!” Mike said with determination.

Lakshman listened to their replies and when they quieted down, he sighed and said, “Okay. I’ll train you but, before that, I will warn you that I’m a strict teacher so don’t think of quitting anytime soon.”

At this statement, Vikram actually laughed and said, “I doubt you’d be as strict and scary as my teachers at school, so relax and let’s get on with this!”

This made the Solaris Hero smile and reply, “Alright. Let’s begin the training.” As they all looked eagerly at him, his smile widened as he said, “All of you attack me all at once.”

There was a moment of stunned silence that followed his proclamation before they shouted, “What?!”

“Are you sure?” Natsu asked, looking worried.

“Y-You’re not doing this to show off… right?” Vikram asked, suddenly eying him wearily.

Their comments made Lakshman laugh and reply with, “Think none of that. This is just my way of determining your characteristics as a group rather than fight you individually. Besides, I do like to see the coordination you can come up with when facing against an opponent such as myself. So, don’t hold back thinking I’m your ally; I’m your enemy now!”

With that, he began to surge with power while radiating golden-red aura that surrounded while the arena shook with an intense tremor. Their expressions became serious at the power he was unleashing, especially the killing intent he was directing towards them with that sinister look on his face.

“Oh? Even you can make that expression, ah?” Asura commented inside of Lakshman’s mind.

“I’m doing my best to imitate you,” replied Lakshman in a simple voice. “I need to make them feel threatened to draw out their potential!”

Then, copying the wicked smile that Asura always wore during battle, Lakshman spread his arms out a little and said to them, “Now, show me what you got!”