Despite the thought of getting some sleep, she actually had difficulty sleeping that night. Her sleep kept being interrupted by thoughts such as what would happen at the meeting, what would be expected off of her, what kind of people she would meet, what she would be asked, and how she would be needed to respond without causing a scene or embarrassing herself, especially bring shame to her king, the Phoenix Titan.

As such, she found herself having a fitful sleep and woke up feeling really tired in the morning. Despite that, she did her best to freshen up and look as good as she could be, even though there appeared to be small dark circles around her eyes, indicating her lack of a good night's sleep.

“Is something wrong, Lina?” Lakshman asked her from beside her.

“Uh. No. It’s nothing. Nothing at all,” she stammered nervously and tried to suppress her desire to yawn by sighing.

He could tell that she was feeling nervous and noticed that she was lacking in sleep, so he smiled and thought, “Good girl. Even though she’s nervous and sleepless, she still came. She’s got guts just like I had expected.”

“Good on her, but it’ll prove to be difficult for her to handle the situation in her current state,” warned Asura.

Lakshman nodded in understanding and decided to set a precedence by saying firmly, “Don’t be so nervous. There’s not a single person in here that will cause you any harm or trouble.” Then he turned to everyone in the room by asking, “Isn’t that right, everyone?”

They reacted to his question with surprise as they also realized the hint of a threat in his words. This caused the Mardana Kingdom’s side of people to fidget nervously while their king looked on with a furious look on his face. The people on the Ashtra Kingdom’s side were more relaxed and appeared to smile softly towards the newcomer.

Steve, their king, also smiled and said graciously, “You are right, Lakshman. This is a meeting between the kingdoms of the Human Continent! There’s no way we would allow conflict to occur between us! We persevere to preserve peace and harmony of our people.” Then he looked towards Athurus and asked, “Don’t you agree, Athurus?”

He was giving Athurus a cold look that made the Mardana Kingdom’s King get the message and sigh heavily.

“Of course! I’m not a warmonger! That’s the reason why I am trying to settle a dispute through peaceful negotiation instead of bringing forth a full-on conflict,” said Athurus firmly by folding his arms and looking firm. Then he looked towards Lakshman to take back the spotlight by saying, “but the Floria Kingdom is making it difficult! What do you want us to do?”

“Calm down, Athurus,” said Steve calmly as he acted as the mediator between the conflicted kingdoms. “Sit back down, please.

We are here exactly to do just that.” As Athurus sat down while throwing Lakshman an angry look, Steve began addressing everyone there.

“Lakshman has raised a valid point. The Phoenix Clan had been the protectors of the Human Continents for several centuries, predating the point from when the Emperor of the World united the world under his rule. Each time a war or conflict occurred between the other races, the Phoenix Clan would be the first to charge into battle and protect us despite suffering many casualties. In fact, the last heavy casualties they had sustained was in the Human Demon War that happened over 300-years-ago. We had faced a powerful foe at that time that no amount of our warriors could fight against despite sending a large number of soldiers to the front lines.

The Demon Emperor, Revanasura, proved to be an opponent we were unprepared to face off against. If it weren’t for the combined efforts of the Phoenix Emperor, Sword King, and Monkey King, we could have been defeated and lose our continent, our homes, and our homeland. That is why we are eternally indebted to the Phoenix Clan for their sacrifice to save the humans from possible destruction.”

“But I supplied my men in this war to fight against the threat of the demons!” Athurus said, raising his voice as Steve finished as he felt threatened that the King of Ashtra Kingdom would side with Lakshman.

“Yes. Yes, you did. I’m not denying that,” agreed Steve coolly with a nod of his head, “and that is what the crux of the matter is because many of our soldiers and the Phoenix Clan members lost their lives.”

“Are you saying that we should not be compensated just because the Phoenix Clan had good deeds in the past?” Athurus demanded furiously. He pointed to Steve and said, “Steve, I don’t think you’ll understand. You supplied a short number of soldiers and didn’t suffer as much as we did, so you did not need to ask for compensation. But comparatively, we sent out many soldiers and that caused us a lot of loss of life. How can you so simply compare the heavy losses we lost to the lives lost by the Phoenix Clan?”

His words caused a heavy atmosphere to fill in the room as the real problem was finally pointed out. In the war, both the human soldiers and the Phoenix Clan members lost their lives. However, the key difference between them is the racial difference. The Phoenix Clan were powerful, strong, and would make up numbers by their sheer power, whereas the humans had to rely on their innate ability, talent, and skills along with having numbers as their advantage.

So, the concern for racial difference caused them to feel very concerned about the inevitable consequences it might result in. Athurus was clearly demanding them to count only the lives of the soldiers he lost without worrying too much about those that died from the Phoenix Clan because there were more human casualties than the other side had.

“Athurus, you are very extremely rude,” said Steve coldly, his smile fading.

“I’m simply stating my anger towards you for not taking into account the soldiers we lost!” Athurus replied back in frustration. Then he looked towards Lakshman and apologized with, “Apologies up front, Lakshman, but even you must realize the significance of humans dying as much as members of your clan. After all, we’re not as powerful as your clan.”

“What did you say?!” Venezuela exclaimed, flaring up angrily while the others, including Zen Phylon, the Phoenix Emperor, stared back at him with furious looks.

Lakshman did not react and simply sat there as he shifted his gaze down at his hands that he placed on the table. He knew what Athurus was saying. The Phoenix Clan was indeed powerful and superior, even to the likes of the Dragon Clan, unlike the humans who had remained weak throughout time. Even if they had inherited the ability to perceive the Force and use it, it did not equate to them reaching the level that the Phoenix Clan reigned in.

“That bastard first raised the first flag of racial difference and now the difference in strengths as well?!” Asura exclaimed in his mind. “Bastard! If only I was there, I would’ve ripped his mouth for spouting nonsense!” Then he commanded Lakshman, “Don’t you dare lessen your will against his cheap attacks, Lakshman! Don’t forget the many great sacrifices the Phoenix Clan made to bring the world to peace and effectively let the Human Race survive! If it weren’t for us, they would’ve long become slaves of the demons! Don’t give in to this bastard’s play!”

It was a tense situation as he began berating Athurus for being insensitive, whereas the people from the Mardana Kingdom began firing back that the Floria Kingdom’s people are trying to shy away from the responsibility they have towards those that died in the war.

Lakshman was not listening to them and instead turned to look towards Lina. The young girl was startled when the shouting began and now watched the scene of several adults shouting at each other with a dumbfounded look on her face.

“What do you think?” He asked her.

She managed to hear him despite the shouting and turned to look at him with a distraught look on her face.

“This is… shocking,” she replied, looking very troubled.

“Yes. It is,” he agreed with a smile. “It happens from time to time, and to be honest, I forgot this might happen today. Completely my fault, but… as a ruler, one must face these situations head on and come out on top if they hope to preserve any peace and harmony that was the original intentions of these meetings.”

“Yes. That’s true,” she agreed with a nod of her head, looking sad. “This is all wrong. Very wrong.”

He smiled at her troubled look as he understood the kind of thoughts running through her. He had chosen her to become the next queen, and yet, here she faced the most difficult thing that would come in her ruling. Conflict, disputes, disagreements, misunderstandings, and choosing the right course of action through all of it. Everything seemed to be so difficult to do when things like these occur and that was weighing on her mind heavily.

“How will I be a good queen if these kinds of things happen?”

Lakshman smiled as he could tell that was the thought going through her mind repeatedly because it was the same thing he had on his mind when he was first recognised as the Phoenix Titan. He found the duty to be overwhelming for someone from humble beginnings, but being with high ranked people such as Felix and Darian gave him the boost he needed, especially with what Darian told him in the past.

“We do it even if we don’t like it because we’ve been given that task, and so we should do our best to fulfil,” said Darian and Marilia added, “Just imagine what would happen to a kitchen if a warrior with no cooking skills is given the task to cook? He’ll destroy the kitchen instead,” and looked at her husband accusingly while Darian coughed repeatedly while looking embarrassed.

As such, the Phoenix Titan placed a hand on the young girl’s nervous hand to reassure her and said, “You might not like it, but you’ve got to do it because you’ve been chosen, and you’ve got to try to at least do your best. Isn’t that right?”

She blinked as his words took her by surprise. His honest words of motivation made her realise her own silliness in feeling overwhelmed by this mess. When tasked with something, the objective was clear: to complete it to the best of her ability.

It made her feel a little relief when she clearly perceived what must be done. She wanted to express her opinion, but the people were being loud and noisy. This made her feel a little nervous and caused her to turn towards Lakshman.

“Um… Will they listen to me?”

Her voice was that of a young girl worried how others would perceive her to be.

Lakshman smiled and said, “They will. You already have the etiquette of a noble, now you just have to take it to the next level to face this kind of situation. Don’t worry needlessly and express yourself firmly. You have people to support you. You’re not alone in this.”

His encouraging words made her feel relieved once more and decide on her next course of action. She did so by contemplating about it before coming to a decision while nodding her head. Then she rose to her feet and raised her hand into the air without saying anything.

The shouting continued to go on for a few more seconds before the people started to take notice of her. A sole young figure raising her hand and standing silently with a determined look on her face. It made them realise that she wanted to say something, and they were being too noisy to do that. They were unused to this kind of calm way of trying to get attention that it surprised them. This resulted in them quickly going quiet until there was no more noise in the room.

Steve glanced around at everyone to make sure before turning to her and asking, “Yes, Miss Lina? Do you have an opinion that you want to express?”

She looked at him and nodded before showing her smile as she replied with a simple, “Yes.”