The next morning, Ezra and Cantia left for the kingdom early to get preparations under way for his publicised return. Venezuela stayed behind because she wanted to be at his side upon being received. This way, there would be no doubt that he was truly the Phoenix Titan and not some random person attempting to masquerade as the saviour of the world.

“Plus, I thought my presence beside you upon arrival will dispel some of the bad rumours about you since the populace still seem to have faith in me,” said Venezuela over their late breakfast.

This made her husband smile bitterly and reply, “If only things were that easy.”

They knew from the beginning that they never had any sort of luck and all that they achieved was from hard work. True, her position as Queen and his ascension as the Phoenix Titian were meant to be and inevitable, but improving social standards, helping to free the slaves, and saving the world required hard work.

“I just hope we are more lucky this time,” she said and winked.

He laughed and said, “You’re funny, Vena.”

After finishing breakfast, they bid everyone farewell, and he gave a goodbye kiss to each of them. When he saw the worried looks on their faces, he chuckled and joked with them.

“Nothing will happen to me. Don’t jinx it,” he told them with a smile while patting each of them gently on the head. Then he waved at them and said, “See you later.”

He turned to Venezuela, who was waiting for him, and extended his hand with an invitation of, “Let’s go.”

Smiling and nodding in agreement, she moved over, wrapped her hands around him and hugged him. Then he cast a barrier around them before surging with power that caused the wind to suddenly blow wildly around them.

Just then, there was a powerful wave from the ocean before a man burst out and soared high through the air. As they landed in front of them, he was revealed to be Valerian, the Storm Titan.

“Val, what are you doing here?” Lakshman asked, clearly surprised to see him.

“I want to come with you,” replied Valerian seriously. “It it is true that you are surrounded by bad rumours, you will need support and I believe I can provide cover in your stead.”

This made Lakshman raise an eyebrow in amusement and ask, “Provide cover? From what? The rocks that people might throw at me? I don’t believe my reputation had come down to that level just yet.”

“I don’t know about any of that but I’m coming along to provide support, sir,” Valerian said stubbornly.

Lakshman sighed and said, “You’re not my underlying and it’s not like I can’t handle matters on my own. So, don’t needlessly bother with this.”

Despite his words, Valerian remained determined to come with him. This made Lakshman sigh again before Venezuela spoke to him.

“I think it’s fine to bring him along.”

“You do?” He asked her, feeling uncertain.

She nodded and stated, “He’s a member of the Nine Pillars of Power, a Storm Titan, and as such, his appearance right now would be a great way to introduce him to everyone.”

“Ah,” he said, realising what she meant and nodding in understanding. “I suppose that’s fine.” Then he turned to the Storm Titan and said, “You can come along, Val. I’m also going to announce you being the Storm Titan so appear at your best.”

“Understood, sir,” replied Valerian with a nod of his head.

“Also, stop calling me sir. We’re comrades. People hearing you call me sir will think odd about our relationship.”

“Yes, sir.”

“I just said,” began Lakshman wearily.

“My apologies!” Valerian quickly apologised, looking sorry. “I’ll be careful… um…”

“Don’t be so formal,” said the Phoenix Titan wryly. “It doesn’t matter if you don’t call me by my name but please avoid calling me ‘sir’ in front of everyone. It’ll embarrass us.”

“Yes, si—oomph!” Began Valerian before he covered his mouth.

Lakshman shook his head while Venezuela laughed. Then he said, “Let’s go,” and kicked off the ground to soar high into the air with Valerian soon following them.

“It feels like forever since you last flew me around,” commented Venezuela as the barrier kept the wind from buffeting and disturbing their clothes.

“Which is why I decided to go there by flight when you told me you’ll come with me,” replied Lakshman with a smile, earning himself a kiss on the cheek from his wife.

“You’ve certainly changed somewhat since your return,” she remarked. “You were a bit rigid towards our attempts to get your attention, but now you’re proactively showering us with love. Did something happen in the other world?”

She was concerned for his well-being and was worried something bad must have happened in the other world for him to change this much.

He smiled bitterly and responded with, “I… If I don’t change now, then I would’ve wasted the second chance that I got to be with you all.”

Venezuela blinked in surprise before smiling warmly and hugging him more warmly.

“You overthink, Lucky. We’ll never feel bad about you because we fell in love with you even before our memories of our past were unlocked. So, don’t ever feel that you’re neglecting us since we know that situations have caused all of this trouble on us. Like this one for instance otherwise we’d be happily going shopping or travelling the world if we had the chance.”

She finished off her sentence while grumbling about their missed opportunity. He looked at her and smiled before speaking kindly.

“After this is over, we can travel around the world. This, I promise,” he told her, and she looked at him with worry.

“Lucky, don’t do that. You’ll get our hopes up; if something comes up that’s very important...,” she told him without looking at him.

He was hurt by her words as the times he had to drop his promise to them to peruse the important matters that suddenly kept popping up on him. This made him feel momentarily ashamed, but quickly shook it off with rising determination.

“There is nothing more important than me fulfilling my promise with my wives!” He told her with great determination.

She turned and looked at him with great surprise. The look in his eyes made her feel that he really meant to uphold what he meant towards them. This made her feel very happy inwardly, but she could not help but behave cheekily with him.

“Is that so? Then, what about saving the world?” She asked leisurely.

He blinked in surprise before becoming hesitant, Lucky said, “Um… Well…”

Lakshman was distraught with confusion, which made her lose her composure and let out a chuckle. Then, while he was still confused, hugged him tightly and began caressing his hand with hers.

“Oh, Lucky. You’re so adorable!” She said lovingly.

“I quite agree,” added Stuart to the confusion that his friend already felt.

Meanwhile, Valerian who followed them from behind, raised an eyebrow with a confused look due to not understanding the context of the romance occurring in mid flight between the husband and wife.

Just like that, the three of them flew through the air and soon arrived at the entrance gate into the capital of Floria Kingdom. The guards were alarmed at their sudden arrival and quickly prepared their weapons while being ready for an imminent battle.

“Stand down!” Venezuela ordered them with a commanding tone that a queen would use on her subjects. “You are in the presence of your king!”

“Huh?” The two guards exclaimed, startled by her commanding voice before looking at her and recognising her much to their horror. “Wait! You’re—!”

Just then, there was the sound of marching footsteps before several whistles went off. This startled the guards, who looked at one another before moving away as the main entrance gate swung open fully to reveal a large mass of people arrived there.

A moment later, Ezra stepped forward and greeted him with, “Welcome back, your majesty. We have been expecting you,” and she knelt down and everyone else behind her followed suit in kneeling respectfully to their king.

Lakshman stared at this unexpected greeting with a shocked look on his face. This was totally out of his expectations because he had requested her to make it simple like the one Felix gave him after returning after ten years from suddenly disappearing. Venezuela, who sensed his feelings, nudged him with her shoulders and muttered, “Lucky.”

Her nudge snapped him out of his shocked state and caused him to clear his throat and say importantly. “I have returned.”

From there, he was led to a roofless carriage decorated with remarkable ornaments that gave a great sense of importance to it. Surrounding the carriage were people wearing the uniform of the royal army as they acted as his escort into the capital.

Once he entered inside the walls, there was a sudden shower of confetti of flowers that fell down gently from the sky. At the same time, there was a huge cheer that came from many onlookers that lined up along the main road towards the castle.

“Look! It’s the Phoenix Titan!”

“He’s come back!”

“He really came back!”

“Cheers to our hero!”

“Cheers to our saviour!”

“Cheers to the Phoenix Titan!”

“Long live his majesty!”

Those were some of the many cheers that erupted from the masses and rained upon him. In return, he smiled graciously and waved at them on both sides of the road. Inwardly however, he felt conflicted about the whole arrangement.

“You certainly are getting one heck of a welcoming party!” Stuart commented, grinning broadly as he glanced around.

Lakshman sighed and thought, “I need to have a word with Ezra after this.”

“Oh, lighten up,” said Asura inside his mind. “Treat this just like the numerous times our people hailed us upon returning victorious from war.”

“Yes, but still…” thought Lakshman feebly, “this is way over the top.”

“Get used to it,” scolded Asura mercilessly.

Thus, Lakshman subdued his feeling of embarrassment and continued to act out his role as the king while they slowly progressed towards the castle. After finally arriving there, he got down and was escorted again by numerous guards along with his wives and Valerian into the castle.

As he arrived at his office, he saw Cantia waiting there and she grinned at him while asking him excitedly, “How was the welcome, Lucky?”

He did his best to smile back and replied, “It was very touching.”

She became very happy from his reply and turned to say to Erza, “Erza! Did you hear that? He feels very touched by this!”

Erza, in turn, made an expression of great happiness and said, “I am glad to hear it.”

“Oh! Don’t be so modest!” Cantia said cheerfully and turned to her husband. “Did you know, Lucky? Erza was going around hurriedly trying to arrange everything as quickly as possible while also supervising the details and such.”

“Yes, she has,” said Zen Phylon, the Phoenix Emperor, who had stood beside him this whole time in silence. “We were thoroughly shocked when she announced that you would be making your official return today and not many were on hand due to everyone taking rest. But she got things going so quickly by waking everyone up and arranging so many things so quickly. I’m sure it would’ve made my predecessor proud.”

By predecessor Zen was referring to Felix Phoron who was the Phoenix Emperor before him. This made Lakshman think wryly that Felix would probably have been impressed by the amount of money and effort that probably would have been used in getting this arrangement ready and would have scolded them if he was still around. But he did not voice his thoughts out loud when he heard his wife speak.

“Ah. It’s for the sake of our saviour that this much is only fair and… it is only right that a wife does her best to show her husband for what he is to everyone around,” she said proudly, making him feel very warmly for her which in turn made him decide against scolding her for going overboard.

The guards opened his office, and they entered through it and stopped in front of the desk. In the meantime, Lakshman walked around the desk and slowly approached the glamorous chair that he had used to sit on in the past while working. He never considered it till now that it was a grand chair and that it really made whoever sit on it become very impressive and important.

He continued contemplating about the chair for a moment longer before breathing a sigh and finally taking the seat. Then he faced his subjects and smiled as he spoke the words that would become the trigger for the things to come.

“Right. Let’s get to work.”