The next day, Lakshman woke up early before anyone else for some reason, and sat upright on his bed. Ever since the children had come into their lives, their mothers had been sleeping in the same rooms while the twins shared a room. That left only one room, the master bedroom, which Lakshman would occupy by himself.

Sitting upright in bed, he glanced around at the room that he used to sleep with his wives. He remembered how troubled he was upon waking up each morning to find that the bodies of his wives had him pinned to the bed. This caused him to remain still and silent as he did not want to wake them up. The fond memory made him suddenly feel a little lonely, which he showed by smiling bitterly.

“What’s the matter? You woke up early,” said Stuart, who had been floating around in the room as the transparent spirit that he was until he sensed his childhood friend wake up. “Worried about the meeting?”

Lakshman shook his head and said, “No. I just thought I’d get some training done before Emilia and Ondine wake up and begin breakfast.”

“Training, ah?” Stuart asked, nodding in understanding. “Is it to do with that rival battle between you and the Dragon Titan?”

“Kind of,” replied Lakshman vaguely, which made his friend look puzzled.

Without further ado, he got off the bed and straightened his bed hair and opened the room windows to let the morning sunlight into the room. Smiling happily at the warmth it presented him with, he then gently opened the room door and departed by making as little noise as he could. He went down the stairs quietly and easily reached the main door, which he gently opened to ensure it did not make much noise.

“I’ll be back,” he muttered to no one in particular and left by closing the door shut behind him.

An hour later, another door on the second landing opened and out of it came Emilia and Ondine. They were yawning and stretching their arms from sleeping in a single position for a long period of time. Then they headed down to the kitchen to begin preparing the breakfast for everyone once they all got up.

Another hour later, sounds began coming from the rooms upstairs, which was the indication that the others had begun waking up. Emilia and Ondine heard it but continued to work away at preparing their breakfast, which was nearly done by that point.

“Good morning,” greeted Sumara as she appeared in the kitchen to help them.

“We’ve been expecting you, otherwise I would’ve cleaned the dishes,” said Ondine with a smile.

Sumara chuckled and replied, “Of course you would, but I did say I would like to do what I can to contribute towards the cooking… although, I wish I could cook as well.”

“In that case, how about you cook lunch for us tomorrow?” Emilia suggested.

Sumara was taken aback by surprise at the unexpected suggestion before asking, “Really? I can cook tomorrow?”

“Yes,” said Emilia with a smile. She saw the hesitation in Sumara’s face and said, “Relax. You’ll do fine. We both received cooking lessons from Lakshmi after all.”

“I was there too,” chimed in Ondine happily.

“Yes, only to eat what we made with the notion of taste checking it,” commented Emilia with a cheeky smile.

Ondine began indignantly and said, “No way! Well, the food you made did taste good, but I didn’t just eat! I also cooked a bit.”

“So, will you help Sumara in cooking tomorrow so I can rest?” Emilia asked back without hesitation.

“I… Uh…” began Ondine hesitantly.

Emilia was the main chef of the household, but she felt confident that she could make breakfast fairly easily. However, the thought of making lunch worried her because it had been sometime since she last made lunch or dinner. She, like Sumara, left the cooking to Emilia because they deemed her cooking skills to be above theirs.

“What’s the matter, Ondine?” Sumara asked shrewdly. “Don’t tell me you’re worried?”

“Well…” began Ondine, looking worried before letting out a sigh as she did not seem it worthy to hide her thoughts. “Sorry, Emi. I doubt I can cook as good as you as I haven’t retained the teachings that Lakshmi imparted on us.”

Her words made Emilia laugh and say, “Relax. Ondine. I’ll be here, and I’ll let the two of you cook.” When both Ondine and Sumara glanced at each other worriedly, Emilia sighed and added, “Imagine what Lucky would say when he finds out that you two made lunch for him.”

“Oh!” The two women exclaimed, suddenly seeing the bigger picture of them cooking and began nodding in agreement. “I’ll do it!” They said in unison, which made Emilia laugh and return back to preparing the breakfast.

A few minutes later, Ondine was done with her work and said, “Okay. I’ll head up and wake Lucky up since he’s got that really important meeting to attend today.”

“Alright,” said Emilia and Sumara together, and Ondine left the kitchen and went up the stairs.

Upon reaching the main room, she realised that it was slightly opened and wondered if her husband had woken up. So, she called his name and pushed the door open to check what he was doing. Initially, she was surprised to find that there was no sigh of him even though the blinds were drawn back to let the room bask in the sunlight.

Wondering whether he had gone to the rest room, she had come back out and was about to head to the rest rooms when she heard the main door to the house open and instantly sensed that it was her husband. So, she went down with a smile on her face as she came to the conclusion that he had gone out for some training.

“Although, how come I didn’t sense him at all until he returned?” She thought to herself.

“Welcome back,” she greeted her husband with a cheerful smile.

“I’m back,” he greeted her with a smile.

However, the energy was not shared by his wife upon laying her eyes on him. His clothes appeared to be covered in red stains which looked awfully like that of blood. The colour drained from her face as fear suddenly shot up in her heart, and she hurried to her husband to check on him.

“Lucky! What happened to you?! What is all this?! Why are you covered in blood?! What happened?!” She began demanding him in a high fearful voice, patting him here and there and checking for any injuries.

“Ondine. Hey. I’m totally fine. First relax, will you?” He asked her, looking calm despite the high tension his wife was filled with.

Her shouting filled with fear caused the rest of his wives to react with concern. Emilia and Sumara came out of the kitchen while Venezuela, Tetra, Silvera, Erza, Sonia and Cantia came out of their rooms and dashed towards the entrance. They took one glance at his blood-stained clothes and were immediately dashing towards him with worries looks on their faces.

For nearly a minute, they began fussing about and pulling him to make him sit down to inspect him for any wounds and such. Emilia, Erza, and Venezuela were even prepared to cast healing magic on him without hesitation.

“Relax, all of you! I’m completely fine!” He raised his voice against their constant fussing, causing them to jump back in surprise and look at him. He indicated the blood stains on his clothes and said, “This is just part of my training! Seriously! I wasn’t involved in some dangerous things or anything of the sort.”

“But…! There’s so much blood…!” Emilia said, taking into account of the stained shirt and then looking at him with concern. “What did you do?”

“Uh… I was… um… fighting myself in a heated battle,” he told them awkwardly after a moment of hesitation.

“You were… fighting yourself?” His wives repeated, looking both worried and suspicious.

“Really? Is that true, Lucky?” Ondine asked him suspiciously. “You sure you didn’t do something dangerous without our knowledge?”

“Stop that, will you?” He asked back, looking indignant. “I seriously injured myself while fighting myself as part of my training. After all, engaging in gravity training isn’t exactly helping me, so I thought to fight a duplicate of myself to increase my skills instead. That’s all. Plus, you can check that I have no injury on me at all! I’ve already healed myself using Restoration, so stop worrying!”

His wives continued to look at him with worry before they sighed and began scattering after saying they were pleased that he was not hurt at all. Then he was scolded by Emilia, who looked the most hurt by his appearance and told him not to do anything so dangerous that made him lose so much blood.

“Really. You’re all silly,” he told them with a laugh and began hugging each of them to console them. “I promised I’d return, and I did, didn’t I? I also promise that nothing bad will happen to me now. Okay?”

They did not immediately reply when he began hugging them, but as he continued to plead with them, they grudgingly nodded in agreement. Then they dispersed, and Lakshman headed upstairs, where he met up with his sisters, who looked shocked on seeing his appearance.

“What in the world happened to you, annayya?!” Priya exclaimed while Indira rushed over to check him with worry.

“I’m fine. I was just training with a copy of myself that I conjured, and I ended up like this, but I’ve already healed myself,” he assured her while rubbing Indira’s hair softly in a way to calm her down.

“Fighting yourself…” said Priya quietly with a strange look on her face. “Is that the latest way of torturing yourself?”

“It’s called training!” He retorted indignantly, which made his little sister to shake her head and sigh wearily.

Then she took hold of Indira’s hand and began dragging her away, but not before Indira told her older brother to get rest since the training seemed to have been very intense. Lakshman waved at her and entered into his room before closing it shut. Then he breathed a heavy sigh just as Stuart appeared floating in front of him.

“Honestly, their intuition was pretty spot on,” he said with an impressed look on his face. “They had good reason to worry because of what you did. If only they knew the dangerous things you did…!”

“Drop it,” said Lakshman in a firm voice. “I need to do that training.”

“Is it because you got this bad feeling that something will happen?”

“Yes. I got this bad vibe this morning, which is probably why I woke up without meaning to.”

This made Stuart sigh and say, “Whatever, but heed the words of your family and don’t push yourself too hard. Maybe you’re overreacting because of the meeting that you’ll be involved today.”

Lakshman shook his head and said, “Perhaps. But still, it won’t hurt to do some training just in case.”

“It won’t hurt to do training that does serious injuries to you?” Stuart asked sarcastically, which made Lakshman smile. “Honestly, that part of you hasn’t changed at all! Always preparing for the worst even if you get hurt in the process.”

“Yes, and each time my worries were always proven to be true as I faced off against foes that seemingly were as powerful or even more powerful than me. Just take the Calamity Titan for instance,” replied Lakshman with a thoughtful look on his face. “Anyway, in the future, I should just wipe away the blood stains and such to not worry them again. I’ve learnt my lesson.”

“You should’ve had that thought from the start,” scolded his childhood friend, to which Lakshman agreed with a nod of his head.

He then got bathed, changed into a pair of new clothes and headed down to the welcoming smell of their breakfast. After having a great quantity of food due to the training he had done that morning, he, Venezuela, Erza, and Cantia prepared to leave. As they left, the others followed them from behind and bid them goodbye with worried looks on their faces.

“I’ll be back as soon as the meeting is over,” he assured them with a smile, causing them to nod in understanding.

Lakshman opened the Phoenix Portal and directly appeared outside Dominic’s house, whom they had planned to go together with. Sensing his arrival, both Dominic and Nara came out of the house, and they appeared to be dressed and ready for the upcoming meeting.

“You’ll be joining us, Nara?” Lakshman asked curiously, surprised to see him all dressed neatly.

“Yeah! I want to witness this so-called important meeting,” replied Nara casually.

“Um. Sure, but you’ll need to change your appearance.”

“My appearance? What’s wrong with my appearance?” Nara asked back, and he began checking himself to see if anything was wrong with him.

“It’s your beast form, stupid,” chided Cantia, pointing at the scary beastly face and features that he had as part of the Simhara Beast Clan.

“Ha?!” Nara exclaimed, looking at her as if she was out of her mind. “I’m a proud member of the Simhara Beast Clan! Why would I, a proud ruler of the clan as well as the War Titan, have to change my appearance to appease a bunch of humans?”

“You idiot! You’ll scare them obviously!” Cantia replied while narrowing her eyebrows with seriousness.

“Ha!” Nara snorted coldly and folded his and folded his arms defiantly. “It’s not my fault that they’re scared of my proud looks!”

His attitude suddenly made Lakshman realise that, despite the good nature that Nara possessed, he still had a great amount of pride in himself. He even considered it to be very similar or even rivals the amount of pride that the Dragon Titan, Lagron always exudes.

“Nara, do as the lady said,” said Dominic from beside him.

“Oh, not you too, Dom!” Nara reacted incredulously.

“Normally, I wouldn’t care, but the current situation is tricky to handle, so we don’t need to put more pressure on an already tense situation. Do you understand what I mean, Nara?”

At his close friend’s words, Nara appeared to think about it before relenting and saying with a sigh, “Fine. I guess I’ll do it since you’re also supporting it, Dom.”

He placed a hand on his chest and muttered, “Mon,” which caused a sudden burst of light to occur that nearly blinded them. It lasted for a few seconds as they covered their eyes and when it subsided, they saw that Nara had shrunk some height and looked very humanlike, with a handsome face with sharp features that matched with his normal face.

“Wow. You’re actually pretty handsome,” commented Cantia in surprise.

“Thank you. Thank you. Thank you,” replied Nara with a smile before adding, “although I look even better in my normal form.”

“Yeah. Whatever,” sighed Cantia before turning away while Venezuela eyed him with an impressed look on her face while Erza stared at him in amazement.

Lakshman opened a Phoenix Portal, and they walked through it to come out at the castle courtyard. They were greeted by several soldiers, including Zen Phylon, the Phoenix Emperor. After a brief greeting and learning that the other two kings had already arrived and were waiting for them, the group made their way towards the meeting.

On the way, Erza spoke with Nara and asked out of curiosity, “Nara, I’ve always wondered why you and your clan always appeared to be in a hybrid beast-human thing. Is that your beast form, or this is your humanoid form?”

“No. This is my human form,” he told her with a troubled look on his face. “It’s kind of like a natural thing for us to transform into this since when we were kids.”

“Then the form you appear normally in is the humanoid form?”

“Yes.”

“Then, does that mean you also have a beast form, or you don’t have any at all?”

“Beast form?” He asked back, not understanding.

“Um… Cantia, what do you call it?” Erza asked, turning to Cantia for help.

“Burst Form, Erza,” replied Cantia simply. “We appear in the beastly forms, but that’s not how we call it.”

“Wait. You call our Burst Forms as beast form?” Nara asked, looking very surprised.

“Uh. Sorry. I just didn’t know what else to call it, that’s why I’m asking,” Erza quickly apologised and explained her intentions. “So, is it true that you also possess a Burst Form?”

“Yes, although, admittedly, I never had the chance to use it other than against one of the Nine Testaments of Darkness,” he said, and he suddenly cracked a fierce smile. “Maybe I’ll do it here if those people stir things up. Ouch!”

He winced when a loud knock sound came from the top of his head where the hilt of Dominic’s sword had landed against. Not liking where his friend was heading with his thoughts, Dominic pulled his sword out in an instant without anyone’s notice and slammed the hilt on top of the War Titan’s head.

“Keep your head straight and don’t do anything stupid,” he said strictly to his friend.

Nara clicked his tongue and said while rubbing his head, “Fine.”

Lakshman and Venezuela chuckled before the Phoenix Titan said, “Everyone. Focus. We’re here.”

They appeared at a dead end, but continued to walk towards it. Nara initially panicked at seeing everyone walk seemingly at the wall, but was very surprised when they suddenly walked straight through it. Sighing to himself, he appeared normal and followed them through the wall to arrive in a large brightly lit room with people already there.

Upon hearing the sound of their arrival, the already gathered people stopped talking and turned towards them.

“Greetings, everyone,” greeted Lakshman with a smile as he stood at the front of his group.

“Lakshman! You’ve returned!” Greeted Steve, the King of Ashtra Kingdom upon recognising him.

“Hey, Steve and thank you. How are you?” Lakshman thanked him and asked him in return.

However, their conversation was interrupted by the King of Mardana Kingdom, Athurus, who asked, “Hey! Are you really Lakshman?”

“Yes. I am. Why the sudden question, Athurus?” Lakshman asked him, turning to look quizzically at him.

In response, Athurus snorted and suddenly pointed his hand at him and shouted, “Guards! Arrest that imposter now!”