With his business finished after meeting with Marilia and Wolfenstine, Lakshman returned to the castle. He used the Phoenix Portal to appear back in his working room to find that Erza and Venezuela were not alone.

“Hey. You’ve returned,” said Dominic, rising to his feet with a greeting radiating his satisfaction upon seeing his best friend. “Erza said that you went out.”

“Yeah. I went out to do some things,” said Lakshman with a smile, walking around his desk and resuming his seat.

The Sword Titan looked curiously at him and asked, “What things?”

“Meeting with Wolfenstine and Marilia,” he said, to which the three other occupants of the room nodded before he finished with, “and I’ve met with my successor.”

“Oh. You met with your successor,” said Dominic with a nod of understanding.

It took a moment before his face froze at the words finally digested while Erza and Venezuela looked startled by their husband’s words.

“Your successor?” Erza asked, looking surprised.

“What do you mean by a successor?” Venezuela asked uncertainly.

“Well, I would need one when I step down as king,” their husband said casually with a serene smile.

There was a moment of silence in the room as they stared at him with dumbfounded looks on their faces. Then all of them expressed their extreme shock and disbelief by raising their voices till the room was filled with their words.

“What?!”

Lakshman winced and rubbed his ears while saying to them, “Oh, come on. Calm down. There’s no need to shout so loud.”

“What do you mean there’s no need when you said something so shocking?!” Dominic demanded, looking shocked.

“It’s like Dom said!” Erza expressed her concern, looking very alarmed.

“Lucky! What do you mean by ‘step down as king’?!” Venezuela demanded, a scared look forming on her face.

The three of them looked towards Lakshman for answers, and the Phoenix Titan looked back at them with a cool look on his face. Then he began explaining what his intentions were, and why he was doing that. They listened silently while remaining completely silent themselves to truly understand what he was thinking.

When he finished speaking, Venezuela groaned, Erza sighed and Dominic clicked his tongue and said, “Dammit! I should’ve taken care of these matters way before they reached you! I should’ve done my role as the Sword Titan!”

To that, his friend smiled and said, “Dom, would you mind answering why you never actively involve yourself in politics and the general problems of society?”

“Because there’s no need for a great power, such as myself, to get involved,” said Dominic as if it was obvious. “After all, if a member of the Nine Pillars of Power would casually walk into any kind of situation and start handling it, then the effect of us holding power will slowly fade as well as make the people think that we will solve every single problem which we won’t and can’t as that’s not our role.”

Lakshman smiled and said, “Wise words, which are surely the same words your master told you in the past?”

Dominic nodded and said, “I questioned my master, the previous Sword Titan, as to why we never got ourselves involved with the society as we could do better that way. That’s when he explained that if we extremely powerful beings start getting involved, it’ll cause great misunderstandings within the people. We’re not adventurers nor mercenaries for hire; we are something greater, something that works to protect the world.”

“Yes. We’re not adventurers nor mercenaries; we are the protectors of the world like the Emperor of the World envisioned so many centuries ago,” stated his friend with a smile, “so you are actually doing good by minding your own business and not interfering with the daily activities of the people.”

“You’re right, but I always feel conflicted that we tend to make a move once something major happens. It makes me think that we could just dive into the problem itself and sort it out before it had the chance to spiral out of control.”

“So, you’re willing to dictate, dominate, threaten, and destroy the freewill of the people?” Lakshman asked curiously.

“I…” began Dominic and hesitated, looking uncertain.

In the past, when he firmly believed that justice must be upheld, he would have done so without hesitation. However, after being hammered with the lesson of a balancing factor known as freedom, he began to be unsure of himself of what he must do. As such, he was left feeling conflicted while things he disliked continued to happen right before his eyes.

“I don’t think that’s the right thing to do,” he finally finished with a sigh.

His words that ended with him sighing made Lakshman laugh and say, “That’s right. Not just because it’s wrong; but because it projects a bad image of us to the people. Remember that despite being extremely powerful beings, that doesn’t guarantee that we are invincible nor our descendants can escape persecution by the people.”

“You’re right,” his friend agreed with a nod of his head with a dark look on his face.

He suddenly imagined a scene of where he was not around for his family and if he had done something like dominating and such, then he could see his wife and children paying the consequences. That was why it was imperative that he remained out of the problems that the people face unless it involves things on a larger scale. Then the people would be more accepting since there was the firm belief that the Nine Pillars of Power are greater entities that will only act in a way to preserve the world and protect it and them in the process.

“I hate this,” he remarked coldly.

“It’s a pay off,” said Lakshman with a sad smile. “If you want something, you must pay something equivalent.”

Dominic looked sullen for a moment before he looked at his friend and asked, “That’s for sure, but what does this have anything with you stepping down as king?”

Lakshman’s smile widened as he said, “It’s everything I just said, except with me being the king that will slowly be feared instead of respected. The fact that the people were moved to belief false rumours about me just goes to show the true nature of the humans. They believe that now that I am the strongest warrior in the world, I will do whatever it means to take over the world and subjugate mankind to my will.”

“After all, I did it, so surely you can do it as well if you really wanted to,” said Asura in his mind with a snort.

“I see. So, you want to step down and pass on the crown to someone worthy and that someone who belonged to a human race instead of someone that was, say a human with phoenix blood or a Phoenix Titan,” said Dominic in understanding.

“That’s right,” said Lakshman with a nod. Seeing his friend nodding silently in understanding, he turned to his wives and saw them looking conflicted, making him express, “A human kingdom should be ruled by a human or someone of the same race. I’m sure you two understand that.”

“I… guess so,” admitted Erza grudgingly despite looking doubtful.

Only Venezuela looked like she was about to cry, causing him to ask, “Vena. Please don’t look like that.”

“But… Lucky!” She said, moving forwards with a troubled look on her face. “I am a human with phoenix blood, where my father was a human and my mother being a member of the Phoenix Clan. Does that mean that I too am unworthy of being the queen?”

Her husband shook his head and said, “It’s got nothing to do with you being worthy or unworthy, Vena. It’s about doing what is right and fair.”

“But the… they voted for me, supported me, and even encouraged me openly to be the queen and that’s how I managed my position without fail for so long,” she stated, beginning to look hopeful.

“You’ve seen my position, didn’t you, Vena?” He asked her, causing her rekindling hope to get smothered and make her look troubled again. “I, the Phoenix Titan, the hero of the world that saved a lot of lives on multiple occasions, am now slowly being targeted with false words and yet… the people are slowly believing it. The same thing will happen to you. You’ve seen that letter containing the small details of what the nobles are plotting against you, right?”

“B-B-But I… I’m the Queen of Floria Kingdom. The people will… t-t-turn against me…?” She asked as fear slowly set in.

Lakshman saw that something was not right with his wife and asked, “Vena, what’s wrong? Are you actually obsessed with being a queen?”

“No!” She exclaimed firmly as she looked ready to cry. “I’m not. It’s just that… that I promised… father… and mother as well… that I… I’ll be a… be a… good queen.”

As she finished her words, tears began appearing on her face and slowly flowed down her face. The moment he saw the anguish in her, he leaped out of his chair and over the desk to wrap his arms around her to give her a warm hug. She blinked in surprise at this sudden movement of him.

“It’s okay, Vena. It’s okay,” he began telling her soothingly. “You’ve been a very good queen. Your parents would be very proud of you. They really will because it needs a good queen to step down because the kingdom would suffer otherwise.” Then he added with a smile, “But you see, Vena. You won’t stop being queen. You’ll still be a queen. My queen! Do you remember whom I married first?”

His words caused her to widen her eyes for a moment from being taken by surprise before she blushed.

“Come on. Whom did I marry first?” He asked her, leaning away from her to take a look at her face.

After a moment of hesitation, she finally said shyly, “M-Me.”

“Yes. I married you first, Vena, and that automatically makes you my queen!” He said and hugged her with a smile, causing her to blush but smile nonetheless.

“Lucky is right!” Erza said, speaking supportively. “Lucky married you first, so that makes you the queen! That’s how chess works after all.”

“The what?” Venezuela asked, looking at her questioningly.

“Chess. It’s a game from my world where it’s based on extreme strategy. You choose one of the two sides and you get to have pawns who are also soldiers, rocks, knights, bishops, the king and the one who stands next to the king is always the one to stand next to him since that’s where his heart lies,” explained Erza with great detail.

“Oh. Wow,” Venezuela expressed her amazement to the in-depth detail that Erza had given regarding the game from her home world. “That sounds like a remarkable game.”

“Oh, it is, but I am very bad at it since I had no one to really play it with,” said Erza with a bitter smile. Then she brightened up and said, “but the majority of the people do believe in the saying that the queen must stand next to the king since she is his heart, protector, shield, and she is also the only one that can move in any direction whereas the other pieces only have a set of moves to make or move only in fixed directions.”

“Oh. That’s amazing,” said Venezuela, looking amazed before asking, “and do you think I’ve done a good job so far as the queen that can make any move like the queen in that game?”

“Well,” began Erza as she thought about it before saying brightly, “you certainly did move while Lucky wasn’t around, and even when he was here, you still continued to make moves while restricting him in the process.”

“Wait! What?!” Venezuela asked sharply. “I restricted Lucky?”

“I could say that I was restricted,” said Lakshman with a cheeky smile, “since you hid the fact of the problems we are currently facing,” which made his wife to suddenly look guilty.

“I… I didn’t mean to hide them from you. It’s just that I was going to let you know later on,” she stated while looking embarrassed. Then she looked assumingly at Erza and said, “But Erza, you can’t blame it all on me since you and the others also agreed with me.”

“Yes, but remember, it was your decision that we followed. After all, you were the queen,” replied Erza, and she winked.

“Very funny!” Venezuela said, looking fired up all of a sudden. Then she wiped her tears away and said, “Well then! Since I’m the queen, will you listen to what I have to say now?”

There was a strange glint in her eyes that made Erza become very wary of her and say, “Ah. Actually, I think I have other things to take care of. See you later, Lucky!”

Then she made a dash for the exit, surprising everyone there. Then Venezuela exclaimed, “Ah! Wait! Come back, Erza! We’re not finished with our conversation!” and she soon followed after her.

Seeing his wives being lively and not so depressed like before made Lakshman laugh while Dominic approached him and said, “So, what’s next?”

Lakshman steadily calmed down from his laughter and said with a shrewd expression on his face, “Confronting the Mardana Kingdom in tomorrow’s meeting.”

Dominic was surprised by the expression his friend was putting on and asked, “Is this meeting really that important?”

The Phoenix Titan nodded and said with a confident smile, “Yes because that’s when my plan will truly begin.”