“Ah! That was great!” Lakshman exclaimed brightly with a satisfied smile on his face.

“I’m glad you enjoyed the meal,” commented Emilia gratefully.

“Were you not having any great meals in whatever world you were in?” Tetra asked curiously while Emilia and Sumara carried away the tray full of empty plates.

He nodded and replied, “Kind of, yes. The food didn't taste as good, it was somewhat spicy, and I didn’t have much of an appetite to eat there.”

“My goodness,” she said, looking worried.

“Are the people of that world barbarians that couldn’t grow enough good food for you?!” Silvera demanded furiously. “Stupid people treating you this way! It’s unacceptable!”

She was clearly furious about the fact that her husband did not receive the best kind of food that a wife would prepare. He and the others noted this, and quickly glanced sideways at Erza, who only smiled bitterly at her complaints.

“Sil,” began her husband softly and gestured towards Erza as he finished with, “Erza’s right here.”

“Yes, she is. So?” She asked back, looking confused as she glanced between him and Erza.

“He had been in her world all this time, silly fool!” Cantia commented, eying her exasperatedly. “You know, going to another world that Erza had mentioned quite a few times in the past?”

“Ah!” Silvera said as realisation dawned on her by Cantia’s explanation.

She quickly turned and looked sorrowfully at Erza and exclaimed, “I’m so sorry, Erza! I didn’t mean to sound offensive or anything! I mean… I… uh…!”

“It’s okay, Sil,” said Erza easily with a cool expression on her face. “I, too, feel your pain now that I know great food and realised the average quality of food that we had been providing him with back in that world. I should be the one apologising for it as it was kind of my fault for not realising this back then.”

“No! You shouldn’t apologise!” Silvera replied, looking deeply troubled and wondering how to calm the situation.

“That’s why one shouldn’t lose their temper so easily,” said Cantia leisurely while waving a finger as if she was lecturing a naughty kid.

“Cantia,” said Lakshman in a stern voice, but he was smiling as he eyed his two wives, who were looking a little sad. “You two should really stop worrying about what’s over. The past is the past. Nothing can be changed, unless time travel exists obviously.”

“Yes, but…!” Began Erza in a quiet voice before she and Silvera glanced at each other with an expression that suggested that they did not know what to speak next.

Thankfully for them, Venezuela took it upon herself to change the subject by asking, “Speaking of time travel, how come your appearance seems to have changed?”

“Yes,” said Sonia from beside her, looking at him up and down thoroughly to check him properly. “You look like you’ve grown younger somewhat. One… two years?”

At her tentative question, Lakshman smiled and replied, “I’ve noticed it too. In fact, when I arrived in the Alzard World, I somehow seemed to have grown younger to how I appeared when I was eighteen-years-old. It’s almost like time travel had happened to my body upon my arrival over there.”

“Really?” Venezuela asked, looking amazed.

“That’s so strange,” said Sonia asked, looking puzzled.

“Does that mean you’re now eighteen-years-old or twenty-years-old?” Cantia asked curiously. Then she smiled cheekily asd she asked, “Or perhaps you’re thirty-years-old now?”

“Cantia…” her husband said wryly with a half smile on his face at her humour.

“Ladies,” said Ondine softly, and they turned to look at her. “His age shouldn’t matter since we would love him even if he returned as a kid! Isn’t that right?”

“Returned as a… a kid?” Tetra asked, looking surprised.

“Lucky as a kid. Mmm. That would be something,” muttered Sonia with a slight blush appearing on her cheeks.

“Who’s a kid?” Asked Sumara, who had returned from the kitchen to join them.

“Ah, I was just saying that we’d love him even if came back as a kid,” explained Ondine cheerfully.

Sumara blinked in confusion and asked, “What brought on such a statement?” After getting the explanation, she smiled and seemed to reminiscence as she said, “Ah, yes. Lucky as a kid. He was cute, innocent, and very much always followed what I told him to do.”

“Yup! He was definitely cute and so innocent!” Tetra added brightly.

“And a bit of an air head,” supplied Ondine with a sweet smile.

“An airhead?” Lakshman asked, blinking in surprise. “I was?”

She nodded and said, “Oh yes. Very actually.” As he was taken aback, Ondine went on to explain, “Remember the times when I and Tetra often had disagreements and argued with one another for a while?” When he nodded, she went on to state, “it was because we were trying to garnish attention from you and doing so, we sparked war between us due to trying to keep you to each oneself.”

“Really?” He asked, looking surprised. “I didn’t know.”

“Like I said, you were an airhead and didn’t notice it one bit,” she said sardonically that made him smile wryly, “and matters just became complicated when Emilia later joined and started hogging you to herself whenever I and Tetra got into one of heated arguments.”

“Emilia?” Sonia asked, turning to look at her in astonishment.

None of them could imagine that the graceful and dignified Emilia was capable of doing such things.

Emilia, for her part, looked embarrassed with red colouring her cheeks as she said, “Back then, I was a bit of a naive child and got carried away by my feelings when I saw the opening that those two gave.”

“Well, we’re sorry to give you such an opening!” Tetra fumed, eying her with daggers, causing Emilia and Ondine to chuckle and the others to look amazed.

“Wow. A lot of things happened after I left, haven’t they?” Sumara asked, looking amazed.

Sonia, who was looking amazed, let out a deep sigh and said in a resigned voice, “I wish I was there. It sounds fun.”

“Well, I was busy being a princess so I couldn’t go anywhere without father’s permission,” lamented Venezuela quietly with her shoulders slumping slightly.

“Hey! Cheer up! We’re together now and having a good time now, right?” Cantia asked cheerfully.

“Yes. You’re right, Cantia,” agreed Venezuela with a smile.

Sumara looked around at them and said, “Yes. We’re having a good time now, but back then as his teacher, I faced some strange troubles.”

“Strange?” Venezuela asked curiously.

“What’s wrong, Sumara?” Ondine asked curiously. “Was Lucky causing you trouble?”

“Hey! I wasn’t a bad boy!” Lakshman said quickly, seeing them looking at him as if expecting such a thing.

“You were an innocent kid and an airhead, so maybe you caused trouble without knowing it?” Sonia asked cheekily.

“Yes, and innocent kids are often playful, so you probably did something along those lines?” Cantia asked with a wink.

“Really? You did that?” Silvera asked with slightly furrowed eyebrows.

Lakshman blinked in surprise at his wife’s words and said, “I’m innocent! I swear!”

Seeing him being played around with by the women, Sumara chuckled and said, “No. It wasn’t trouble he caused me, it was more of a setback that caused me delay in teaching him. You see, during my time as his magic tutor, I witnessed some strange things. Sometimes, he learned things quickly, and at other times, it took him quite a while to learn. There were even times when he would simply forget what I taught him a while ago and somehow was unable to recall any of it, even the spell that I worked hard to teach him,” explained Sumara with a troubled face.

Upon hearing her words, everyone appeared to be surprised. Even he, who was the subject of the topic, was equally surprised, but he quickly recovered and understood why that was.

“It must've been the doing of the Decisive Player.”

The Decisive Player was a spiritual being who had once inhabited his body during his childhood, but had departed after having saved his life in exchange for his. At that time, Lakshman learnt the awful truth that the Decisive Player had done to him, controlling the level of information, memories, and power that he had access to with the reason being that he would not get carried away with pride and become a problem for society.

“I just didn’t want to see you, a man who saved me from complete annihilation, becoming like the Phoenix Titans before you,” the Decisive Player had said at that time with a distraught look on his face.

Of course, Lakshman was hurt knowing that an individual that he trusted after learning about his existence had been controlling him from the shadows, had done such an awful thing to him. However, he soon reasoned after gaining a certain level of maturity that what the Decisive Player had done was indeed a necessary thing. After all, he would later learn that an evil entity also inhabited in him that the Decisive Player had been suppressing with force, and this being was a destructive one as it only sought to crush and destroy all things for the sheer pleasure of it.

“Thinking back on it now, I really owe the Decisive Player for saving me from turning into one of my past selves and get to be together with my loved ones like this,” he thought appreciatively.

“That idiot,” muttered Asura bitterly inside his mind. “I didn’t save his life just so that he would throw it away later to save mine, or one of my future selves.”

“Asura…” thought Lakshman softly and inwardly made a bitter smile.

He had just come out of his reverie when he heard Sonia asking Sumara, “Really? He had bad memory?”

“I thought that too, but I just couldn’t get to the bottom of it and simply left it as him just being different from other kids,” said Sumara

As she glanced at him with a troubled look, he smiled bitterly and said, “I probably didn’t pay much attention to things and took my lessons too easily,” and then laughed in a feigned embarrassment.

“Mmm. Yes. I suppose so,” she agreed, although she appeared as though not completely convinced.

Realising that keeping her hanging and concerned like that was troublesome, he decided to bring up a topic that he had been meaning to raise since arriving back home. So, he turned to Erza and proposed the question that had been burning in his mind for a while.

“Erza, I’ve been meaning to ask, but… how is it that you came back?”

“What do you mean, Lucky?” She asked, looking confused. “I came through the portal just as soon as you left through it.”

“Huh?” He asked, looking startled. “You entered it? Wait! So, it was your voice that I heard calling my name before it closed.”

When he said that, she widened her eyes in surprise and said, “Really? You heard me calling you?” As he nodded, she smiled warmly at him and said, “That’s great. I was… worried at that time that… I wouldn’t get to see you again, especially since the portal to the opening to my world had also closed.”

“Hold up!” Lakshman said, looking shocked by what he just heard. “The portal… closed on your end as well?!”

She nodded and explained, “Yes. I was pretty much trapped in that empty space, with all those stars on all sides that I didn’t know which way was up, down, right, or left. I was stuck there for who knows how long until, finally, this new portal opened up in front of me and an unfamiliar voice called me to walk into it.”

“An unfamiliar voice?” Lakshman asked while the other ladies looked at her in amazement. “How did the voice sound? Can you, like, explain how you felt about it?”

Erza thought for a moment before she answered with, “It was a male’s voice… it sounded as male anyway since I never met that person, but they seemed to be calm, in control, dignified, and possessed a great level of authority in their voice. But for some strange reason, I somehow felt familiar with the voice, as if… as if I heard it somewhere before.”

“Really?”

“Yes, although it was just a feeling. I couldn’t be sure.”

There was a slight pause after which Silvera asked a little hesitantly, “Wait. Erza. Does this mean… you simply followed the heeding of a voice you never heard before and walked into that portal? Just like that?”

“Well,” began Erza as she formed a wry smile filled with embarrassment, “What can I say? I really wanted to be together with Lucky, and my feelings sort of… guided me into taking that chance. Looking back to that now, it seemed like a risky thing to do, but… hey, I’m here sitting with you and having a great time.”

“Yes. I definitely agree,” admitted Silvera happily.

While everyone nodded in agreement, Lakshman appeared to be troubled because he was worried about something. However, he was feeling unsure whether he should bring it up and was torn between wanting to know and worrying that it might upset her.

Seeing him looking troubled, Ondine asked, “What is it, Lucky? Why do you look so worried?”

“Oh. It’s nothing,” he said quickly, realising his mistake and trying to form a smile that did not reach his eyes.

Seeing through him, Ondine narrowed her eyes somewhat and said, “Lucky…! I’ve been with you since your childhood, and ever since you saw me naked in the bathroom, I’ve been keeping a close eye on you and am confident that I can tell how you feel just by looking at your face.”

He looked at her in surprise and so did everyone else, although it was for an entirely different reason.

“Wait! What?!” Sonia exclaimed, looking shocked. “He saw you naked in the bathroom?!”

“When?!” Tetra exclaimed, looking shocked. “When did that happen?!”

“I didn’t know anything about this!” Cantia complained, looking horrified.

“My goodness!” Emilia said, clapping her hands over her mouth and looking shocked.

Ondine suddenly realised what she had done, and her face became bright red with embarrassment. However, she quickly waved it aside with a hand as she said, “That’s not the point I’m trying to make! Lucky is worried about something, and he’s unwilling to speak about it with us.”

At her words, everyone turned and looked at him with hurt expressions on their faces.

“What’s this, Lucky? Trying to act solo again?” Ondine asked sadly.

“I thought we were a family. We’re even married now!” Silvera remarked indignantly.

“Uh…” he began, looking amazed. Then he smiled and gave in to the emotional blackmail of theirs before saying, “Okay. Okay. I‘ll tell you, so please… stop pretending to cry.”

“Yay!” Cantia cheered happily, forgetting that she was looking sad moments before.

“Huh? Whatever are you talking about, Lucky?” Sonia asked, looking a little taken aback.

“Y-You’re probably imagining things,” remarked Sumara. “Right, Emilia?”

At suddenly being under attention, Emilia jumped and said in a stutter, “Y-Yes! Y-You’re p-probably j-just i-imagining t-things!”

All the ladies stared at her horrible stuttering words and realised that it was very obvious.

“At least, I know you can’t pull pranks on me,” said Lakshman with a warm smile aimed at his stuttering wife.

“Eh?!” Emilia exclaimed, looking shocked before covering her face with her hands in shame.

Seeing that, they realised they were figured out and sighed heavily while Sonia said, “We should’ve known that Emilia wouldn’t be able to act like the rest of us.”

“I had the feeling he would figure it out even if Emilia wasn’t with us,” admitted Ondine with a sweet smile. “Isn’t that right, Lucky?”

“Yes, because I’m your husband, and I should be able to tell at least how my wives are feeling just by seeing their faces,” He said with a cheeky grin.

As they grinned back at him, his grin slowly faded as he turned to face Erza. What he was going to ask was a difficult question, but he knew he had to get to the bottom of this, otherwise, it would not sit well with him simply accepting things as they are. After all, he made the same mistake of not learning about the sad background of Erza until he went to her home world and saw first hand the difficult life she had led since childhood.

So, he took a deep breath and braced himself as he asked, “Erza… I thought… I thought that you didn’t have any romantic feelings for me.”