There was a moment of silence as Lakshman registered the words that his best friend uttered. Then he widened his eyes and exclaimed in a loud voice.

“What?! War?! Has he lost his mind?!”

“It seems so, yes,” agreed Dominic with a sigh.

Lakshman stared at his friend with a look of disbelief on his face before turning to face his wives.

“Why didn’t you tell me about this? Why did you hide it from me? Vena? Erza?” He asked the two of them with a hurt look on his face. Then he glanced around them to his other wives while asking, “Even the rest of you were silent about this. Why? Why did you think to hide something so important from me? I am not a nobody. I am your husband and more; I’m this kingdom’s king! Why?!”

His desperate pleas for answers from them caused his wives to look uncomfortable while fidgeting with their hands. Erza was the first one to recover somewhat and try to speak softly to him.

“Lucky, we didn’t intend to hide it from you. We were prepared to tell you once we sorted it out.”

He stared at her for a moment in silence as her words reverberated in the air.

“I see. So, that’s how it is,” he said and finally smiled much to everyone’s surprise. He rose to his feet, walked over to Erza and placed his hand gently on her head and said warmly, “You’ve all been working hard for me. It makes me so happy. I’m really glad to have such wives by my side.”

She blinked up at him in surprise before blushing red while the rest of his wives looked embarrassed by him praising them in front of others. While this was happening, Shalany was smiling happily while covering her mouth with her hands, Nara was staring at them in amazement while Dominic opened his mouth in shock.

“Wow. They were doing their best to give you a rest and sort out the problem on their own,” commented Stuart in amazement. “That’s very noble of them.”

Just then, Dominic rose to his feet and exclaimed, “Lucky, aren’t you the least bit annoyed at them? They hid something this serious and important from you!”

He wanted his friend to get fair with his wives from the injustice they had done to him, but he did not think his friend would be so willing to let it go. It confused him and that was the reason he was reacting like this.

“Maybe a little,” admitted Lakshman after a moment of thought, “but that’s no reason for me to get angry at my wives. They were, after all, only doing what they thought was good for me and were doing their best to carry out my responsibilities without issue. So, I should be happy for their effort instead of criticising them.”

Dominic blinked in disbelief and asked, “Huh? You’re being serious? Like, they were doing things behind your back and kept you in the dark when something dangerous is going on. How can you just let them off so easily?”

This made Lakshman look at his best friend with a raised eyebrow before saying, “They’re my wives, Dom. If they did something behind my back, it just means that they worried what I might do if I knew about it. Right?” And he asked the question to his wives, whom he glanced at over his shoulder.

His words made them look very uncomfortable and even embarrassed, especially since the first time they did something without his notice caused them to lose their lives. As such, they were not so ready to meet his gaze and instead hung their heads in shame.

He continued to look at them for a moment before snickering and turning back to his friend as he began saying, “In any case, it’s also my fault for not suspecting that my wives might’ve been keeping some things from me. So, you can’t really put all the blame on them. In fact, when you think about it, if I had not fallen through that portal into the void, things might’ve been different now.”

“Don’t say that!” Dominic exclaimed, shocked by his friend stating things that could very well be put him to blame for. “Those were things you couldn’t do anything about, and you didn’t mean to fall through it. You have to look at the bigger picture; you saved our world from destruction.”

“You’re right,” agreed Lakshman with a smile, “and you should look at the bigger picture of their actions as well. They did it with good intentions in mind and so we should accept it and instead focus on what must be done from here onwards.”

“I… Yeah… That’s true,” agreed his friend finally, taking a glance at his own wife, Shalany, who nodded in appreciation with a smile on her face.

“Oh, cheer up, will you? It’s not the end of the world!” Lakshman said, patting his friend on the shoulder much to Dominic’s surprise. “This person I met in that other world would tell me the same thing to me whenever I would get annoyed or serious needlessly at whatever unexpected situation I faced.”

“Oh. I see,” said his friend, looking dumbfounded. “I suppose that person is a free willed guy then?”

“Very and energetic too,” replied Lakshman, remembering his interactions with Vikram in Alzard World. “Anyway, I’ll think of something by tomorrow so wait for my call.”

“Sounds good,” agreed Dominic with a nod of his head and a smile on his face.

A few minutes of convening with one another, the Chand family departed from the Rutherford household and returned to their home on the outskirts of the Floria Kingdom near the ocean. Upon their arrival, they were met with Valerian, who was seated on their porch with his eyes closed as if he was sleeping.

“What’s Val doing here? Didn’t he know that we won’t be home today?” Tetra asked curiously.

“Oh no. We never told him since we got the idea last night only, and he never came afterwards to know,” stated Emilia, looking concerned.

“Dear me. How long as he been out here like this?” Ondine asked with concern.

They walked towards the porch and as they neared, Valerian suddenly moaned and opened his eyes to look at them. He looked groggy as it seemed like he was asleep, but he snapped out of it immediately upon recognising them and jumping to his feet with energy.

“Sir! Madams! You are back!” He called happily, looking sincerely glad to see them.

“How long were you out here, Val?” Emilia asked with worry.

“I…?” Valerian asked, puzzled by their question before noticing his surroundings and becoming surprised. “Wow. It’s already night. I must’ve slept a long time.”

“A long time, I take it,” guessed Ondine with a stern look on her face. “Seriously, Val! Why were you waiting out here for so long?! You should’ve returned home!”

“I… I am sorry,” he apologised with a sad look on his face. “I just… I didn’t know where to go.”

His words were simple yet they carried a heavy weight of the loneliness that he felt on the inside. He had no home to go to, and he no longer had anyone to depend on other than the Phoenix Titan and his family. As such, this was the only place he knew to come to because he considered this place to be welcoming of him.

“I am sorry for causing trouble. I will take my leave,” he said, looking dejected and was about to go past them.

Lakshman placed a hand on his shoulder to stop him and said, “Stop, Val. Come have dinner first.”

Valerian looked tempted by his offer, but he curved his temptation and refused by shaking his head.

“No, sir. I should not cause you any more trouble by me being here. Please, have a good night.”

His firmness made Lakshman raise an eyebrow and reply with strong firmness of his own, “I wasn’t asking.”

He gripped the Storm Titan’s shoulder and began steering him towards their home. Once they got inside, the women headed upstairs to check on their babies while Lakshman and Valerian took seats in the hall. There, Lakshman took this opportunity to scold Valerian about feeling alienated from the world and try to treat this as his new home.

“I may not be able to provide accommodation due to our home being full, but you are more than welcome to stay and eat with us. You are our comrade, Val. It’s the least we can do to look after our friend,” said Lakshman insistently, making Valerian smile feebly with happiness. “As for accommodation, let’s leave tomorrow morning to the Spirit Turtle and request Amaranda to for you stay there.”

“Ah. You do not need to concern yourself with my wellbeing, sir. I am more than capable of leading my life in the ocean. I do not necessarily need a roof over my head to stay under,” declared Valerian, trying his best to shoot down the offer his was given.

“You sure? There is no need to hesitate to make your demands with me.”

“I am sure, sir. If ever a time comes that I need it, I will personally come and ask then.”

There was a moment of silence before Lakshman breathed a sigh and relented by saying, “Fine. Suit yourself.”

Lakshman did not like forcing someone to do something they did not like, especially if they were someone close to him. He considered Valerian to be a comrade, since he was named the new Storm Titan, and also felt great responsibility since the poor guy was the last of his kind left alive.

Just then, Emilia, Ondine and Sumara came downstairs and headed into the kitchen while Venezuela and Erza headed over and sat down next to their husband.

“Bring me up to speed on what’s happened since my departure,” said Lakshman, and they nodded in assent.

They began explaining one by one the details of what had happened since he fell through the portal. The first was the world order had returned to normal and that the other races from the other continents began putting all of their efforts into restoring the damages done to them. The Phoenix Clan assisted in supporting everyone by exchanging Magic Scrolls to everyone to quicken their restoration and build stronger relationships with the other races around the world.

Once the Phoenix Clan was done with their restoration, they left the races to tend to themselves and began focusing their efforts in restoring the damages done to the Human Continent. It was then that the Mardana Kingdom began demanding high amounts of support and compensation from the Phoenix Clan for the many of their soldiers that lost their lives.

“At first, the demands seemed reasonable so we agreed to compensate them,” explained Erza with seriousness on her face, “but things went downhill from there when word slowly got out that you let the Calamity Titan go and a rumour that he is your long lost brother started circulating around, causing some of the people to become infuriated and emotional. This led to the Mardana Kingdom suddenly increasing their compensation by saying that the Phoenix Titan had colluded with the enemy and escaped to avoid facing justice.”

“He was hammering on the point that you were a dangerous being and not to be trusted by that incident. Which put them to demand more compensation because of the emotional trauma their people suffered when this news got out,” said Venezuela heatedly, looking very annoyed.

“I see,” said Lakshman simply, looking thoughtful about all that he had just heard. “Seems like Athurus has some kind of vendetta against me or something. Odd. I don’t remember ever offending him other than having to speak firmly against him to put him in his place.”

From the opposite chair, Valerian suggested, “Sir, it seems that this person is possibly the one responsible for spreading bad words against you out in the public.”

“I think so, too, Val,” agreed Lakshman with a nod of his head.

“Then, what should we do, sir? Capture and imprison him? Maybe discipline him?”

This made Lakshman chuckle and say, “He’s not a kid to be disciplined, and I hate the thought of imprisoning him. Anyway, it wouldn’t look good to do any of these since there is no evidence to support our claim.”

“You could put him under a truth speaking spell and make him tell the truth,” suggested Venezuela.

Her husband shook her head and said, “That would only reinforce the doubt that everyone seems to have about me now; that I am a cunning, ruthless man. They would also be less likely to trust anything that gets revealed about my involvement in it unless it is done by someone else.”

Venezuela blinked in surprise before she placed a hand on her chest and said, “In that case, allow me to handle this matter of getting the truth out to the public.”

Once again, her husband shook her head and said, “I’m not interested in finding out the truth or spreading awareness of it.” When his wives and comrade looked surprised, he explained, “It’s the people’s choice of believing what they should or want to believe, and they’ve decided to take the easy way out by believing what was convenient for them at this point in time.

So many have lost their lives, so many families are shattered by the death of their loved ones, and rumours about a possible underhand play by the Phoenix Titan that linked him to the Calamity Titan. At the same time, the Phoenix Titan is not around as he seemingly vanished right after the battle while the Calamity Titan apparently left with his life intact. You can see why it makes more sense for people to believe in these rumours rather than use their heads.”

Venezuela and Erza looked upset while Valerian exclaimed, “That is absurd! How can they be so stupid?!”

This made Lakshman smile and tell the young man that was actually way older than anyone there, “You don’t have much of a say in this Val since you did that, too.”

“W-What?” Valerian asked, looking stunned while blinking in surprise. “W-When did I…?”

“Soon after you woke up from your deep slumber, you went straight to battle me and even possibly attempt to kill me,” said the Phoenix Titan, causing Valerian to become pale with shock. “Why was that? Isn’t it because you firmly believed that I or rather, the Phoenix Titan and the Phoenix Clan were the ones responsible for the destruction of your Water Clan? You never once stopped to think what I might gain by fighting your people when your clan isolated itself from the rest of the world and never wished to be part of the mess that was happening back then.”

“I… Uh…” began Valerian weakly, feeling guilty and ashamed by his past behaviour.

Lakshman looked at him for a moment in silence before smiling and saying, “Relax. I’m not pointing fingers at you. I’m simply stating how fickle the mind can be for anyone. The only difference is in your case, you were being manipulated while the humans are choosing to believe the false rumours instead of having faith in the one that had fought for them many times in the past.”

Valerian blinked in surprise before he nodded in agreement and said, “That is true. They are unfaithful.”

To that, Lakshman scoffed it aside with a wave of his hand and said, “I don’t care, but I can’t ignore their foolishness. Once it appears, the trust that was built will slowly crumble and turn into ashes. Building it back up will become a tougher task. Since it’s come to this, I must begin thinking what I must do for the future…!”

As he spoke, he looked grim as if he was contemplating something beyond the comprehension of the people sitting with him. They waited in silence for him to speak up first and simply watched him quietly. A moment later, he finally let out a weary sigh and looked at his two wives.

“I’m going to announce my return tomorrow,” he told them much to their surprise. Before they could speak in protest, he held his hand to stop them and continued saying, “I get the feeling that there is much more going on behind the scenes, but I cannot figure things out by keeping myself hidden and, truthfully, I dislike doing things in roundabout ways. Just because others think that way about me doesn’t mean I will do it that way.”

They stared at him with amazement before his wives smiled and Erza said, “Yes. You’re right.”

“We’ll go on early and arrange to welcome you once you arrive,” said Venezuela with a smile.

Lakshman nodded with satisfaction and went back to thinking about his next move with a serious look on his face.