Lakshman watched the girls walking past him from behind without making it known to them that he was specifically observing them. Once they passed him, he shifted his head the other direction to watch them go before her heard his sister’s voice speak to him.

“What’re you doing, annayya?” Asked Indira, looking curiously up at him while carrying a small bag in one hand.

“Oh. Nothing in particular,” he excused, turning back and smiling at them while acting nothing was wrong.

“Really? I could’ve sworn you were eying those girls over there,” said Priya, a look of interest on her face.

“No, I didn’t,” he said and let out a light chuckle.

Priya, however, was not deterred by his pretence and said in a knowing voice, “Drop the act, annayya. You’re a powerful warrior, but you suck at lying.”

This made him blink in surprise before asking doubtfully, “I—I do?”

“Yes,” she said with a nod of her head, and he sighted in resignation. “So, why’re you interested in the girls? I doubt it’s anything to do with just what they were chatting about, am I right?”

Her brother was amazed by his sister’s sharpness, which was remarked with praise by Asura inside of his mind, who said, “Your sister is really sharp. I can see a strong future for her if she’s able to develop whatever other skills waiting to be unlocked.”

Silently agreeing with his past-self’s words, Lakshman nodded in agreement and said, “When the girls passed by, I suddenly had this strange feeling come over me, especially from that girl the group’s attention was focused on.”

“A strange feeling?” Indira asked, tilting her head a little out of curiosity while looking cute.

“You felt something like that?” Priya asked uncertainly. “Maybe you just imagined it? I mean, the girl’s cute and all, so maybe it was, you know, the feeling that men get when they see cute girls?”

“Chelli!” Indira protested, looking alarmed.

“Huh?!” He exclaimed, looking troubled. “What are you saying so suddenly?!”

“Oh, you know,” said Priya in an obvious tone that gave her brother a worrying feeling. “Since you aged down two years and had been away from your wives, I feel like your interest has reverted, probably?”

“What are you on about, Priya?” He asked her, starting to worry in the direction this conversation was headed in.

“Well, I’ll be sure to let Vodinalu know about your new interest, annayya,” said Priya, and she smiled sweetly at him.

“Wait! What?!” He exclaimed, looking shocked.

As he was about to protest, she grinned and said, “See you at lunch,” and grabbing Indira’s hand before sprinting away towards the academy.

“Ah! Priya! Wait!” Lakshman called after her urgently, feeling very concerned.

Just as he was about to chase after them, he saw Priya turn and wink at him while sticking her tongue out at him in a cheeky manner. At the same time, Indira turned around as well and smiled sheepishly, making him realise that his sister had pulled a prank on him. He breathed a sigh of relief and smiled wearily at them before waving them goodbye.

“Geez. Is this what they call pulling a prank on your sibling?” He wondered aloud in amusement.

“You’re so silly to get pranked like that by your sister,” scolded Asura inside his mind, “although props to her for the way she played you. Good on her, and Indira for playing along nicely.”

“Asura, are you praising my sisters a lot more since we returned?” Lakshman asked inside his mind.

“What’s wrong about praising their ability to prank you around?” Asura asked, and his current-self admitted it was understandable.

However, Lakshman was still troubled by the strange familiarity feeling he got from the girl. He was especially troubled by the fact that he got the feeling the moment she uttered the word “lucky” as if it was some sort of trigger for him to react to the word. Unfortunately, without any clue about her background and history, all he could do was speculate wildly.

“Phintex Raja,” he said in a quiet voice, causing the surroundings to get affected by something strange.

Everyone appeared to be going about their daily business like usual, except that the colour of the surroundings turned grey. A moment later, a Phintex Raja appeared out of nowhere in a kneeling position in front of his master.

“It’s so good to see your return, master,” the man wearing a mask said quietly.

Lakshman nodded in acknowledgement and said, “Here are my orders. Follow that girl in the bright clothes, gather information about her, her background, her history, anything and report it to me directly.”

“Yes, sir,” said the man before he vanished from the spot as if he was never there.

As he disappeared, the colour in the surroundings returned back to normal and appeared as if nothing had happened. Lakshman turned in the direction where the girl and her seemingly friends were headed in before opening a Phoenix Portal and leaving through as he returned back home.

Once he was back, he was greeted by the splendid view of the sea washing gently against the sandy shores of the open land that he owned. Behind him was his house in the background was a forest filled with trees, making the whole scenery a wonderful place to be at.

“It sure feels good to know that I’ve purchased a good land and established a great house in a wonderful place,” he sighed contentedly with a small smile on his face.

“You want to hold that thought because something’s coming this way,” said Asura inside his mind warningly.

“Right,” agreed Lakshman quietly as he also sensed something powerful was approaching them.

He looked on ahead in front of him to see that the ocean was calm and crystal clear like always. However, a few seconds later, something appeared in the distance before its appearance made it evident of what it was; a massive wave of destruction. It was rocketing towards him at an incredible speed, cutting the ocean on its path of destruction.

“Oh,” said Lakshman, looking a little taken aback.

“That’s a really powerful wave,” commented Asura inside his mind, sounding impressed.

“Well, it’s not powerful enough to scratch me,” his current-self stated confidently.

As the wave approached him, he clenched his fists and activated his powers. Instantly, he was surrounded by a majestic golden-red aura that soon formed into an energy shaped warrior with a phoenix head. Both he and the energy phoenix head looked on at the incoming wave while his family members hurried outside, reacting in shock at the sudden attack.

“What’s that?!” Ondine exclaimed, looking alarmed.

“Oh, my goodness! It’s so powerful!” Sonia remarked, blinking in surprise.

“Relax, everyone!” Lakshman said coolly, and they turned to look at him. “I’ve got it under control.”

Without further ado, he took a fighting stance and so did his energy-based warrior form, ready to strike. Then he unleashed his right arm forward with the full intention of smacking the incoming wave of destruction in an upward angle. As predicted, his energy arm collided against the charging wave and sent it soaring high into the sky, where it broke through the atmosphere of the planet before dissipating its energy and disappearing from view.

“No sweat at all,” commented Asura with a snort.

“It wasn’t that powerful for the likes of us,” said Lakshman with a smile. Then he focused in front from which the wave came from and asked, “Now, who’s the one that fired it?”

“We’re about to find out,” said Asura coldly.

Lakshman nodded silently as he could sense the presence of something moving in his direction. Whatever it was, the creature was moving in the same trajectory as the attack it had unleashed on him previously. Soon, he could see that something massive was moving beneath the waters until it drew close enough to break out and revealing to be a massive monster with spiky scales all over its hardened body with a fearsome head before letting out a roar so loud that the wind blew wildly in all directions, buffeting both Lakshman and his wives while threatening to uproot the trees behind their house.

“Leviathan,” said Lakshman in a quiet voice, staring in surprise at the sight of the familiar monster.

“Oh,” said Asura shortly, sounding baffled. “I forgot about that one.”

“Is it the one that I knocked out during my battle with the Calamity Titan?” Lakshman asked curiously.

“Probably. You’re not seeing others like it popping up around here, right?”

The monster finished roaring and seemed to turn its head towards where Lakshman stood and for a fleeting moment, Lakshman felt as though the monster was looking directly at him. This fact amazed him because both of them were a few kilometres away from each other, where the monster was more clearly visible than him. Although, he had to admit that he was probably the only one standing in the open field apart from his wives, who were standing near the house where they could be easily missed by sight.

Suddenly, the monster screamed and discharged a violent lighting that charged straight at him. Momentarily surprised by the sudden burst of wild lighting, Lakshman sighed before aiming his right hand at it before clicking his two fingers together to create a loud sound.

In that instant, a sudden burst of magic energy was released from him and it soared straight towards the incoming attack. The moment the they collided; the wild lighting froze as if it was put on ice before it shattered into tiny particles of light with the sound of breaking glass being heard in the background. Simultaneously, the energy surrounding him was also extinguished due to the behaviour of the Maga Distrab spell, which cancels all effects from the point of activation.

“I think this confirms that you’ve got the hang of using Voiceless Incantation freely,” remarked Asura confidently.

“Yes, but this is frustrating,” said his current-self, looking irritated. “It hasn’t even been a day since my return, and I’m already involved in another battle!”

“Oh. Are you perhaps saying you want to take a break?”

“No. Not a break necessarily, but I would like to spend some quality time with my family since I never was around much for the past two years,”

To that, Asura sighed wearily before saying, “Once upon a time, I would’ve found your feelings trivial but… after all the losses I faced, I do understand your feelings. But, like the saying goes; Evil does not rest, and heroes cannot rest. You should know that by now.”

“Right,” agreed Lakshman dully.

While they were having their small talk, the monster was staring in their direction with a shocked expression that any monster would make, although it was difficult to tell due to its fearsome facial features. However, it reacted violently by letting out a roar so powerful that an immense sonic boom occurred in the area.

“Argh!”

Lakshman’s wives exclaimed in shock and immediately clapped their hands over their ears to protect themselves from the ear-splitting roar. Unlike them, Lakshman shrugged it off with by narrowing his eyes and looking seriously at the monster.

Suddenly, he felt as though he was missing something, and sure enough, he heard his wives exclaiming in serious voices.

“Oh no! The babies are going to have their ears blown out at this rate!” Emilia exclaimed, sounding scared.

“Let’s cast a soundproofing spell! Hurry!” Ondine suggested in a serious voice.

As they all nodded in agreement, Emilia, Ondine, Sonia, Tetra, and Silvera all aimed their forearm at their home while keeping another arm over one ear as they shouted, “Sound Dwarf!”

In an instant, a solid barrier completely enveloped the house, making it so that no sound would penetrate through it and disturb the occupants. Seeing his wives react quickly to the problem at hand pleased him, but he instantly became very angry at the thought of the danger that his children were almost exposed to due to the monster.

“Damn you…!” He said in a cold voice, his eyes flaring up angrily at the monster. In an instant, he surged with incredible power and kicked off the ground to soar straight at the monster while shouting, “You’re disturbing our peace!”

He flew so fast that he reached the monster in an instant and delivered a punch straight to the side of the monster’s jaw. The attack was so impactful, the monster was blasted out of the ocean to fly several meters in the air for several more meters before crashing into the ocean. Lakshman hovered there for a few seconds and watched as the body of the monster slowly sank into the watery depths while swirls formed where it had sunk.

“That takes care of that,” remarked Asura inside his mind.

“Maybe, but it nearly put my babies in danger! This… bastard…! I want to pummel him for what he nearly wrought!” Lakshman exclaimed, still feeling very angry towards the sinking monster.

“Now, make sure the monster is dead!” Asura ordered in a firm voice.

“No. I have to check on the kids. I’ll worry about that thing later,” replied Lakshman defiantly.

He heard Asura sigh and say, “Suit yourself, but it’s never safe to have such a monster nearby.”

“I know,” said Lakshman shortly, and he glanced down at the ocean one last time before he headed back to his home.

Once he touched down, he found that all of his wives were gone, presumably gone inside to check on the kids. He hurried inside and entered their room to see that the mothers were in the middle of cuddling the babies and trying to calm them down. It appeared that the initial attack had indeed reached them and disturbed the babies, causing them to cry very loudly from fear.

“It was so sudden and unexpected,” the startled Mariana explained to Lakshman when asked about it as she had been watching over them. “This really loud roaring sound started coming in, and the babies woke up and began crying like their life depended on it. They were really scared, but luckily the sound died down within a few seconds.”

“That ‘within seconds’ was the doing of your wives,” said Asura inside of his head. “Thank goodness for that.”

Instead of feeling happy, Lakshman felt frustrated at himself and thought, “Yes. Good on them, but what was I doing at that time? I had completely forgotten that it might affect my kids! I was careless!”

Feeling depressed by what had happened, he said in a sad voice, “The mothers reacted quickly, but I, their father, didn’t do anything. I had completely forgotten about them in the heat of the moment,” and feeling dejected, he wondered aloud, “Do I even have the right to be… their parent after this?”

Mariana looked sympathetically at him and said, “Don’t say that, Lucky. It’s not your fault. Not everyone is perfect.”

Seeing him continue to look sad, she reached out a hand and placed it soothingly on the side of his cheek before speaking in a soft voice.

“Listen to me, Lucky. When you were born, both of your parents, Lakshmi and Indira, had no idea how to look after you. That’s why they hired me, but even so, I knew only so much about babies, there is lot more we don’t know about them. Take for example, your father.”

“My dad?” Lucky asked, looking confused. “What did he do?”

“Oh, being clumsy and careless while carrying you,” she said, and he widened his eyebrows in surprise.

“Really?”

“Yes. The number of times he would hold you really tightly, or the times when he would not hold you properly out of fear of crushing you and nearly dropping you from time to time. I’d say he wasn’t that good with carrying you like me and Lakshmi.”

Lakshman did not say anything at this latest revelation about his father, only able to blink in amazement. He could not believe that the so strong and proud father of his would struggle so much to carry his own son.

Mariana watched him for a moment before saying, “So, does that make him a bad parent?”

“Um…” began Lakshman slowly without a proper answer to give and fell silent instead.

Seeing his reaction, the family maid smiled softly and said, “Of course not. It’s not his fault he couldn’t hold you properly. No one could blame him considering he was a trained warrior, an adventurer that fought monsters on a daily basis for a living. So, he would have his drawbacks in holding you, especially since you were cute, soft, and cuddly; very different from what he would normally face up against. Same goes for you.”

As she addressed him suddenly, he looked at her in surprise as she went on to state, “You share similar faults with your dad, but that goes for everyone as well. Nobody is perfect, and you can’t blame yourself if your kids slipped from your mind. When was the last time you spent a week at home looking after or playing with the kids?”

“Probably very minimal,” she answered for him without waiting for him to answer. “That doesn’t mean you’re at fault because you were out there, training to become stronger and powerful to face up against foes that threaten the safety of everyone and the world at large. Faced with that kind of threat, it’s no wonder you don’t have the time to spend with your family.”

“But… But I…” he began weakly, unsure of what to say as he felt troubled by the facts.

“So, what do you do? Get depressed over what you missed out on?” She asked sceptically, and he looked at her weakly. Then she smiled and said, “Of course not. What you’ve got to do is be positive and make up for the lost time. Take time off and spend some quality time with the people that you didn’t get to be with while you were focused on important matters at that time.”

Lakshman was amazed by her words and realised that it made sense. It was also exactly the kind of words of wisdom that he had been looking for since he was feeling down at the lack of time he was able to spend with his family.

Mariana shifted her hand from his cheek to placing on his shoulder before saying, “Remember, Lucky. It’s not always important to chase after problems. Sometimes, it’s worth taking a break just to relax and spend a good time with those you are fighting for.”

He looked at her with a new heart fuelled by hope and said, “Yes. I will definitely remember it.” Then he moved to hug her warmly and said, “Thank you, Mariana. I truly appreciate your advice.”

“Don’t mention it,” she replied sweetly and hugged him back.

After they separated, and he saw that the babies were being taken care of by his wives, he left the room. While going down the stairs, he heard Asura begin talking inside his head.

“Those are some strong words to live by,” he said, referring to what Mariana had said. “If someone of her calibre was there at my side in my lifetime, maybe… things would’ve been different. My brother might not have wanted to leave my side, I would’ve learnt to appreciate my wives, and that great tragedy… it wouldn’t have occurred.”

As he finished lamenting in a sad voice, Lakshman smiled and said softly, “It’s okay, Asura. Your life is an example to learn from, and I’m doing my best to make sure the past mistakes don’t get repeated.”

“Yes. That at least makes me feel glad that my life had some value in the end,” said Asura wryly.

His current-self shook his head at the sadness that was filling his past-self when he suddenly sensed a strange presence nearby. At first, he assumed it must be the Leviathan coming back to fight back, however, he soon realised that the presence felt different and was actually not moving. It appeared as though the presence was coming from close by, so he hurried out of the house and headed towards it, which was where the beach was located.

As he drew closer to the beach, he saw the shadow of a person lying face down on the sandy shores. Upon reaching closer to inspect the person, he noticed that the stranger was a man wearing a strange assortment of garments and was unmoving as he lay face down on the sand.

“Wait a second. Is it…?” Lakshman began asking when his voice was trailed away by the sudden gust of wind, which buffeted him while the waves washed back and forth where the unknown individual lay as he remained unconscious and unmoving on the sandy beach.