The three human kingdoms continued to discuss further regarding the details for the compensation and scheduling the next date and time for their next meeting before bidding each other farewell. Both the delegation from the Mardana Kingdom and the Ashtra Kingdom returned to their respective kingdoms through the teleportation system the Phoenix Titan arranged with the Phintex Rajas.

The Phintex Rajas, despite being a covert part of the Phoenix Clan, were all King Ranged and were able to use teleportation spells for the transported parties instead of their usual warping system. This was how the kingdoms people continued to visit each other for meetings, sending and receiving messengers, and exchanging various information.

Once the delegation of the Floria Kingdom left the room, Lina Pricemark heaved a deep sigh of relief.

“You did well, young miss,” said Zen, the Phoenix Emperor, with a smile.

“Yes! That was an impressive speech you gave to the opposition!” Venezuela said happily.

“I concur,” added Erza with an equally happy smile like Venezuela.

Lina was taken aback at being congratulated and praised by three of the most important persons there other than her king and felt very happy and nervous.

The others also began praising her and began looking at her with admiration. It was her first time attending such an important meeting and being a young noble, but not only did she surprise everyone with her ability to move the audience with her words, but also grip them tightly with her presence.

“T-Thank you… sir… madams…!” She said finally after feeling some nervousness.

“Relax, Lina. You did great,” said Lakshman from beside her with a smile.

Towards his compliment, she could only smile weakly since she was feeling very tired and drained from the nervousness and the shortage of sleep of the previous night. She could not believe just how nerve wrecking such a meeting could be until now, so she was amazed that she was even able to do as well as she did. However, she was still feeling down because of one aspect of her effort.

“I still couldn’t drop the compensation idea,” she lamented quietly with sadness.

“What?! You’re still on that?” Zen asked incredulously. “Get over it! You did all you could!”

“Zen’s right, Lina,” said Erza with a smile. “The compensation is something that could not have been avoided at all, but you actually managed to deter the original intentions of the Mardana Kingdom and even made it clear of the balance that must be maintained! That is very impressive in my opinion!”

“Ah…! T-Thank you, but… I wish I could’ve done more,” expressed Lina with a look of frustration on her face.

“Give it up, Lina,” said Lakshman with a small smile. “It’s like what Erza said; it would’ve taken a miracle to completely squash the notion, but it’s okay. I, personally, view it as the payment for my mistake of involving the world in my personal problems.”

“So… it is true…? That the Calamity Titan and you are…?” Lina asked, looking nervously at him.

Instead of giving a proper reply, he merely smiled sadly at her, but it was all the answer that she needed. She looked away and looked conflicted because of her own feelings. One part of her felt sympathy towards him for the struggle that must have happened in their family while the other part made her wish he had been more decisive.

This suddenly made her realise what she was thinking and shook her head immediately to clear away such negative thoughts. To her, what had happened, had happened, and digging up the past would not solve any problems, so she opted to focus her energies on what to do next for her people and her kingdom as the future Queen of Floria Kingdom.

“So, what will we do next, your majesty?” Lina asked Lakshman after she reached the end of her thoughts.

“We will get you up to speed with the goings in and out of our kingdom,” he replied with a grin.

“Uh… Okay,” she said in understanding and asked, “in that case, may I return to my classes?”

To this, he shook his head and replied, “Of course not. Your classes to become a well-versed queen are more important than your classes at the academy,” which shocked her and it even showed on her face. “Starting from now on, you are to attend the Astral Academy twice a week while dedicating the rest of the week on your education to becoming the Queen of Floria Kingdom.”

For a moment, Lina came to a stop and looked as if she did not know how to take such a news. Then, as the realisation slowly dawned on her, she looked horrified and wailed, “NOOOOOOOO!!!” with tears in her eyes.

Ever since then, her daily life became hectic as she had to juggle her schedule by attending lessons of her kingdom’s rulership, history, culture, internal and external structures of the world while also attending Astral Academy twice a week.

After the meeting, instead of going straight back to the academy, she was led away by both Erza and Venezuela. The two wives of the King of Floria Kingdom began taking her on a tour around the castle, getting her to meet various people there. This included the castle’s top chef, the magicians trained for the army, and Cantia along with her platoon of warriors she was training at the courtyard.

Once the meetings with the people were over, she was immediately put to a test with a written examination. This was a test to check up on her current knowledge and wisdom to accommodate her future education appropriately. The test took an hour and when it was complete, Erza and Venezuela went over the answers and had mixed feelings about the results.

“How did I do, madams?” She asked them at the end of it.

“Well… You certainly know your basics,” commented Venezuela with amazement, but her tone shifted slightly as she added, “but… when it comes to the higher-level ones…”

“Please! Don’t say anymore!” Lina exclaimed, hiding her shame with her hands, causing the ladies to chuckle.

The next phase of her training was for her to stay with Lakshman, help him with his workload by arranging things, reading through documents, and sorting things out. Although she did it with great determination, her king did not tell her that he could do all of this himself and save her the trouble, which was raised by his deceased childhood friend.

“She’s basically a replacement in doing the job that Erza and Venezuela were doing previously,” commented Stuart curtly. “Are you doing this on purpose?”

“No, I’m not,” replied his friend with a wry smile. “This work will help her control some of her loose feelings as she sometimes demonstrates when going overboard.”

“But she showed great control with her behaviour, speech and body language in that meeting though?”

“That is true, but I prodded her to focus her mind and do what must be done, otherwise she’d be just sitting there feeling all nervous. A ruler must not have that, and they cannot show this in front of the others less they take advantage of your moment of vulnerability.”

“And you think digging through piles of paper, sorting them out and exhausting herself by reading through them will help?” Stuart asked doubtfully.

“It will discipline her mind and help her focus on the task at hand instead of letting external factors trouble her,” said Lakshman confidently. “Remember, Stuart. A well organised mind with great discipline can overcome all kinds of stress and obstacles by focusing all your strength, skills and power only on the needed and discarding the needless.”

“Wow. That’s deep,” his friend replied, looking surprised.

“My dad told me that while we were going down a twin labyrinth during one of our travels,” said Lakshman, a look of fondness on his face as he remembered the journey he had together with his father and his friends.

The travels he was referring to occurred between his return to home and turning sixteen years of age. Together with his father and his adventurer friends, they went out on a journey to try and conquer two labyrinths. Fortunately, they came across a Twin Labyrinth and it was there that they were tested to their limits in combat against many dangerous and powerful monsters as well as avoiding the numerous life-threatening traps scattered throughout the labyrinth.

“Ah. You mean when you, your father, and several others went out and returned two-years-later?” Stuart asked, and Lakshman nodded in agreement.

Lakshman nodded and replied, “Yes. It was there that we ran into the last monster of the labyrinth, a Blaze Serpent.”

“What?! A Blaze Serpent?!” Stuart exclaimed in shock.

“Yes. The monster was strong, fast, and had skin so thick that it made it nearly unharmable by our attacks. It did not help matters when the area was filled with lava and fire while only a small portion of it was land that we could stand on. The smoke made it difficult to focus, and the fumes from the lava made it difficult to breath.

I was doing a better job than the rest, but I was unfocused because I was worried for everyone’s safety. It was then that dad told me to focus only on the end and forget them because my concern for them was holding me back. So, I did what he said, and I was able to gain the upper hand and deliver the final blow, killing the monster and vanquishing the labyrinth.”

“Wow. That’s amazing,” commented Stuart with amazement. “That’s rough, buddy.”

Lakshman shrugged and replied, “It’s fine, but I learnt my lesson since then to stay focused and it helped a lot since.”

“That’s good,” his friend said happily, and Lakshman grinned at him.

Meanwhile, Lina carried out her duty to help with his work and also followed him to the many meetings he attended and even spoke on his behalf by presenting ideas of her own on the spot. Such a thing first occurred when he met up with the owner of the image production company that was on the verge of closure. It was here that she demonstrated her capabilities as a negotiating genius by presenting the owner terms and conditions for helping with his business to promote the sale of their photo taking products for everyone.

Just like that, a week went by, and the future Queen of Floria Kingdom was making good progress by being competent and quick on the uptake to learn new things. Lakshman was happy with her progress, but he was not happy with the progress he was making on his end.

He was feeling very frustrated that his training in the morning seemed to be going nowhere. Ever since returning home covered in blood and scaring his wives, he began to heal himself to leave no scars and wipe himself clean with magic to leave no traces of the damage he took during each training. Eventually, the day of his challenge with the Dragon Titan had come.

“Odd,” commented Lakshman to himself, looking up from his papers to look at his assistant.

“What is odd, sir?” Lina asked, who had shortened her calling him from ‘your majesty’ to ‘sir’ to simplify things.

“Lagron didn’t come yet,” he said, looking puzzled.

Ever since the morning of the challenge day arose, he had been ready to face his rival since the ancient times. However, for some unknown reasons, the Dragon Titan was nowhere to be seen. It felt like another normal day instead.

“Lagron? Do you mean the Dragon Titan, sir?” She asked, looking confused. “Do you need him for something?”

He shook his head and said, “Well…! We did agree to have a competition today,” and he explained about the challenge that he and the Dragon Titan had agreed to a few weeks ago.

“Oh,” she said, reacting with surprise and a little worried. “Will you be battling it out here?”

He noticed her concern and put it to rest by saying with a smile, “No. The world would not be able to handle our powers once we clash. Even if the Magic Titan and the magicians around the world cast their strongest barrier spells, I doubt it could contain a handful of attacks from us before shattering and putting the world in danger. I’ve already put the world at risk with my personal problems once, and I’m not keen on doing that again, so we’ll be fighting each other in a separate dimension.”

This piece of information amazed her and she exclaimed, “Wow…! Another dimension…!”

Lakshman was not listening to her as he decided to contact Amaranda, the Magic Titan, and see if she knew where he was. So, he activated his telepathy to speak with her but for some reason, he just could not. No matter how much he amplified his power to reach her with his telepathy, he just could not get in touch with her for some reason.

“That’s strange. I can’t get in touch with Amaranda either,” he commented, feeling quizzical.

“Amaranda? As in, the Magic Titan?” Lina asked for confirmation.

He nodded and stated, “Yes. I just tried to contact her with my telepathy, but she just wasn’t around. “Let me try using World Sense to check her whereabouts.”

As his protégé watched in astonishment, he activated his Phoenix Eyes and World Sense. In an instant, his eyes became golden colour with red crown shaped irises and it felt as if he was one with the world itself. With his current state, he was able to detect the presence of all those he was looking for. Even if they were using the strongest spell to disguise their presence, he would be able to sense them and their location.

He remained silent like this for a moment while Lina watched his glowing eyes with nervousness. Then the eyes changed back to being black eyes, and he heaved a sigh.

“Did you find them, sir?”

He shook his head and replied, “No,” which surprised the young girl.

“How can this be? Are you saying they’re… not in this world?” She asked before realising what she just said and apologised with, “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean that just now!”

But, to her surprise, he nodded his head in agreement to her words and said, “Yes. They’re definitely not in this world. Which means, the idiot is still training in that world.”

“The Dragon World?” Lina asked, and he nodded in assent.

“Well…! In that case, you should go and do some training, sir!” She suggested firmly.

He chuckled and replied, “No need. I’ve trained all that I can. No extra training now will get me stronger.”

“What?!” She exclaimed, looking shocked. “You’ve trained… all that you can? Are you saying that… you reached your… limit?! How is that… possible?”

This made him smile and tell her, “Lina. I do have Phoenix Blood in me but… I’m mostly human.”

He was telling the truth. Since the ancient times, his pure phoenix blood had been reduced by each generation as they married other persons from the Human Race. After an uncountable number of centuries, his mother only had a small portion of Phoenix Blood in her, which became even smaller for him.

He suspected this after remembering how unstable his powers were as a kid, and how close he came to dying due to possessing immense power in a weak body. Worried for his children’s safety, he checked each of them just to be sure and was relieved when they had healthy bodies but was saddened by the fact that they acquired only a measly amount that would put their strengths above those of their respective races, but they would not be classified as being part of the Phoenix Bloodline anymore.

As it stands, he was the last remaining member alive from his original family’s Phoenix Bloodline from the ancient times.

“To think that the bloodline will die with you just as this is the last incarnation of the Phoenix Titan. It’s ironic, don’t you think?” Asked Asura coolly.

“Well, this was the last and final chance that the God of Life granted us after my death 8000-years-ago thanks to the efforts of the Decisive Player, so I should really do my best to not let anyone down,” replied Lakshman firmly.

“Yes. We’re saving the world and defeating evil… at the cost of our loved ones. How is that fair?” Asura remarked in a depressed voice.

His words also caused Lakshman’s mood to instantly go down as he remembered his failure to protect his family, friend, and the people of the Rodfox Kingdom when they needed him the most and then the loss of his Felix, the previous Phoenix Emperor, and Darian, the Sword Titan, as well as countless others that he befriended along the way.

“What is it, sir? Why are you suddenly… sad?” Lina asked, noticing that her king’s mood suddenly went down.

He remained silent for a moment before he expressed his concern of losing his loved ones despite him trying to do good. This caused her to also be saddened for a moment before she surprisingly put on a smile and gave him a positive reply.

“Sir, I don’t know if it’s my place to say this but… my grandmother always used to tell me fairy tales of heroes, knights of bravery, doing good and bringing justice to the world all around and the stories always depicted their journey to be filled with dangers, suffering and depression. Yet, they continued to strive forward by enduring it all in the name of reaching their goals of bringing peace and prosperity throughout the land. That’s why she always told me: Those who carry the will of freedom and justice, will always walk on a fiery path because the end goal is that rewarding.”

He looked up at her in amazement as his mood quickly elevated by the inspiration that the girl’s grandmother’s words gave him.

“Your grandmother’s right. It does feel like I’m always walking on a fiery path, but my achievements are so much more gratifying than getting it the unlawful way. There’s also the afterlife you’ve got to think about since every soul is judged by the God of Judgement,” he told her with a smile.

“That is true,” she agreed with the same smile as him.

“So, how is your grandmother doing these days?”

“She passed away a few months ago,” she replied with a sad smile, and he instantly regretted asking such a question.

“Oh. I’m… sorry to hear that,” he said awkwardly.

“It’s okay, sir. She died with a smile on her face in her sleep from old age, just as she had always wanted to. Besides, she wouldn’t be happy to see me wallowing in her passing and would be very happy to see me getting on and succeeding in life like she always wished me for. Time won’t wait for anyone after all.”

He nodded in agreement to her and smiled as he said, “Yes! You’re right! So, let’s get this over with and get some well-deserved rest!”

“Yes, sir!” She agreed energetically.

So, the two of them continued to pile through the documents in front of them and eventually, it was nearing evening. Lakshman felt good that day and decided to go home early because he was feeling a little perplexed. The challenge between him and Lagron was on his mind, and he was slowly getting this feeling that going home early was for the best.

“Well then, see you tomorrow, sir,” wished Lina as she was about to depart from the castle to her home.

“Want to come home with us today, Lina?” Venezuela asked her suddenly.

“P-Pardon?” Lina asked her back, who had not expected to be invited to their home. “I can… come…?”

“Well, you are our husband’s protégé and everyone wants to meet you as well, so… come and stay the night. We can talk about a lot of things,” said Venezuela with a smile with Erza nodding her head in approval next to her.

“Oh. I… would be happy to visit the home of his majesty,” replied Lina, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

It seemed that she was very excited to meet the family of the Phoenix Titan, so her excitement showed on her face with a very excited expression fit for her age. This was remarkable for them to see because of the high level of maturity she usually showed for a fifteen-year-old.

“Alright. Let’s go home,” said Lakshman with a smile after informing a Phintex Raja to notify her family and opened the Phoenix Portal soon after.

He, together with Venezuela, Erza, Cantia and Lina, walked into the portal and walked out to arrive a few meters away from their house. It was here that they were stunned to see someone waiting for them as he sat on the porch.

“You finally show up, fool!” Lagron greeted them with an excited grin on his face.