Lakshman’s proclamation of wanting to get the meeting started caused a strange occurrence of silence that stretched for a few seconds. Just when it was getting tense, the King of Ashtra Kingdom, Steve, wanted to lift the mood and coughed naturally loudly to get everyone’s attention on him.

He put on a convincing smile and addressed everyone with, “I think Lakshman is right. Why don’t we take our seats and commence this meeting without further ado?”

There was another momentary pause in the room, where the King of Mardana Kingdom, Athurus, glanced at him, then at Lakshman and then back. He finally sighed and nodded silently in agreement before slipping back into his chair. It looked like everything was returning to being peaceful, but there was one refusal to follow this convenient exit from the previous event.

“Wait!” Zen Phylon, the Phoenix Emperor, said by raising his voice and got their attention. He turned to Steve and asked, “Steve! Are you telling us to simply ignore and let go of what Athurus had just done?! He offended the honour of our king!”

To this, Athurus snorted and folded his arms while closing his eyes, showing that he was not interested in the least bit to involve in this conversation. Zen was furious upon seeing this, but he still looked towards Steve to uphold some face and justice for the offense his king, Lakshman, had received.

“Zen,” began Steve softly, “I can understand your concern, but you should also understand that Athurus had done because of there being a potential fake masquerading as the Phoenix Titan.”

“I understand that,” replied Zen in agreement with a nod of his head, “and I’m not saying it’s bad, but he should at least apologise after finding out the truth!”

“Well…” Steve began weakly and glanced sideways at Athurus, who continued to act as if he was not involved in this conversation.

Just then, Lakshman told his Phoenix Emperor, “Drop it, Zen.”

“But! Lakshman!” Zen said, choosing to use his christened name instead of the nickname he was accustomed to calling him with. “Being called a fake and then not apologising for it is downright unfitting for a king! It’s despicable!”

These words caused a stir in Athurus, who opened his eyes and glanced towards them with his eyes narrowed in a shrewd manner. Lakshman raised an eyebrow in amusement by the firm belief of his Phoenix Emperor and then let out a chuckle as if he found it funny.

“It’s okay, Zen. Really,” said Lakshman again in a calm voice. When Zen was about to protest again, he held his hand out and said, “Besides, I don’t want to listen to empty words. It’s annoying,” and looked back in Athurus’s direction.

These words caused the King of Mardana Kingdom to narrow down his eyes further to look very furious. Before anything more could be said, Steve coughed loudly to distract them and requested that they get started with the meeting.

“Very well,” said Lakshman with a nod of agreement while Zen fell to stand behind him with a displeased expression on his face. “The first thing that I want to tackle is the aftermath of the war between us and the demons.”

“Correction!” Said an attendant from Athurus’s side by raising his hand. “Don’t you mean the battle between you and the Calamity Titan?”

Lakshman smiled as he understood what the man was trying to direct them to and asked, “Is that so? I was under the impression that the soldiers that lost their lives were at the hands of the Calamity Titan’s minions. More specifically, experimental monsters that were unleashed on the battlefield, rendering any effort put by our forces against them useless. As such, many lives were… paid as the price for our lateness.”

There was a moment of silence that followed his words before the advisor of Athurus asked, “That is true, however, as you mentioned. Lateness. We have found out after extensive investigation into why the Nine Pillars of Power were missing in action while the war commenced. As such, it falls on your lack of quick appearance that resulted in the loss of so many lives.”

“That is true. I admit the fault of our lateness,” said Lakshman, which caused the others to begin muttering while his wives and men looked on with worry, “but I would like to point out that we were completely unaware of the time outside the different dimension world we were training in.”

“What were you doing at that time?”

“I… was training in the middle of a sun,” replied Lakshman with a smile, causing all those opposite him to become confused.

“W-What?”

“Training… in the middle of a sun…?”

“What does that even mean?”

Lakshman looked on at their confused muttering before explaining, “I had situated in a centre location and conjured an energy ball around me and modified it to compose it with a similar structure of a miniature sun.”

There was a moment of stunned silence before someone exclaimed, “What?!”

“Is that possible?!”

“Unbelievable!”

“C-Can it be… done…?”

To that, Lakshman simply grinned and replied, “You don’t know until you try. Will anyone try later? I can put on a demonstration,” to which no one moved a muscle as the very thought of such a feat scared them.

The advisor adjusted his glasses and coughed before saying, “We are diverting from the topic at hand.” Then he flipped through his pages and said, “It is evident that the Nine Pillars of Power were late in their arrival, which resulted in the death of many soldiers. I wish to point out that the majority of the soldiers were those provided by the Mardana Kingdom and as such, we demand compensation for our soldiers that died, which will go to their families.”

It was at this point that Athurus finally moved by unfolding his hand and spreading them in a “See what I mean?” gesture as he said, “I did do my part in providing support for the war despite the rocky relationship I have with the Phoenix Titan. And yet, despite us requesting politely for compensation, the Floria Kingom’s Queen was refusing and kept trying to haggle the amount as if we were in the market buying food supplies.”

“What?!” Venezuela flared up in shock, infuriated by what she had heard.

“Was it not you who kept on trying to cut down on the compensation and saying it was beyond what you could pay?” He asked her immediately.

“I… Well…” she began hesitantly, her thoughts racing as to what she should say to not cause a scene.

That was when Lakshman raised a hand towards his wife in a gesture of shielding her as he looked at Athurus and said, “As the King of Floria Kingdom, such a duty falls under my control. So, I request that you pardon my wife’s past conduct since I am back.”

“Do you think that her past conduct could just be ignored and forgiven just like that?” Athurus demanded. “Do you understand how many lives that she had insulted by her way of handling this matter? If word got out about her behavior, the lost soldiers’ families would be very upset by this and it would create a major problem for the Floria Kingdom. So, I am doing you a favour by keeping everything in the wraps because I can sympathize with your situation because what we are requesting is a large amount.”

Then he looked around at everyone by asking, “So, I ask everyone in the room; were we being unfair in our approach?”

There was a few seconds of silence before Lakshman broke it by saying, “Of course not, which is why I accept your conditions of compensation.”

“As I thought,” said Athurus without realizing what the Phoenix Titan had stated. “Now do you see that we…?”

He suddenly faltered as the words of his opponent finally sunk into his brain, which caused him to become completely still and silent. Then he had a befuddled expression on his face by what he just heard, causing his brain to react slowly. Even his people behind him, including the assistant, widened their eyes in alarm by the words said by the King of Floria Kingdom.

“You…? What…?” Athurus finally stammered uncertainly.

“I said I will pay for the full compensation that you are demanding,” replied Lakshman with a smile. Then he stood up and bowed to them while saying, “I would like to take this opportunity to apologise wholeheartedly for the messy way this situation was handled. I deeply regret for not being here from the beginning to handle this situation, which would not have come this far. As such, I request you to find it in your hearts to forgive our actions.”

Everyone was taken aback by his upfront apology as it was something that they had not expected to come from him. It rendered the side of the Mardana Kingdom momentarily unresponsive as it was completely outside their range of expectation. It was clear that they were prepared to go to great lengths to throw mud on him, his wife, and their kingdom, so this turn of events was mind blowing for them.

As the seconds flew by, Steve glanced at the Mardana Kingdom’s side and decided to break it after seeing that everyone there was too stunned to make a response.

“Please, Lakshman. Raise your head. No one is blaming you for what had transpired,” said Steve, smiling softly. “Even I intervened in this matter and did ask the Mardana Kingdom to rethink about it as I felt the compensation was a bit much to expect for your kingdom to pay.”

“Yes. I was informed of your involvement, Steve, and I am grateful for your help in this matter,” said Lakshman, nodding in acceptance. Then he began looking around as he continued saying, “I would also like to add that in this war, along with the soldiers, I had also lost many of my Phoenix Clan comrades, but their death was never raised. It actually pained me to think that the death of Phoenix Clan members was somehow forgotten, who had been protecting the Human Continent from the demons for many generations.”

Now this caused both the people of Ashtra Kingdom and Mardana Kingdom to look uncomfortable. They were well aware of the fact that the reason they were able to retain their full rights over the Human Continent was mainly due to the efforts of the Phoenix Clan always fighting by their side against the invaders, each and every time the Demons attempted to invade their continent.

His words actually put the Mardana Kingdom’s demand of an excessive compensation on the spot that it seemed heartless when thinking of the Phoenix Clan members lost in that war along with their soldiers. It did not decrease the impact of the numerous soldiers lost on that day, but it also weighed heavily that they lost many people that protected their continent.

The room was filled with silence for some time as Lakshman smiled inwardly at what he had achieved. He understood from the many observations of the Phintex Rajas on the recent events and what to expect in this meeting. Sure enough, the Mardana Kingdom had been on the attack as they had little time to prepare all sorts of possible countermeasures against him.

“It’s somewhat hilarious to use their fear of me and the Nine Pillars of Power to get the effect that I wanted,” he thought smugly.

“These bastards deserve what they are getting by playing dirty with the likes of us!” Asura replied, sounding as if he was smiling with satisfaction from what was happening. “Let’s see how these fools get themselves out of this mess that they brought themselves on!”

Lakshman nodded as he heard his spirit of his childhood friend say, “Nice move; putting them on the spotlight now.”

“Thanks,” replied Lakshman quietly with a smile. Then he turned towards the side wall to check the clock hanging there and said, “Anyway, the next phase’s about to begin.”

“You mean…?” Stuart asked, but before he could complete, they heard movement coming from behind.

Everyone turned towards the direction the sounds came from and saw a young girl flanked by two Phintex Rajas. She was Lina Pricemark, a student from Astral Academy and the daughter of Baron Rudius Pricemark.

“Ah! Lina! You made it and right on time too!” Lakshman exclaimed brightly, rising to his feet to go meet her.

Lina was looking around at the room nervously at all the eyes focused on her. She even gulped twice at the realization that she was in the presence of the Phoenix Titan, the Phoenix Emperor, the Queen of Floria Kingdom as well as the King of Mardana Kingdom and the King of Ashtra Kingdom.

“How are you feeling? Good?” Lakshman asked her brightly.

“Uh. Y-Yes,” she stammered nervously, still reeling from just being surrounded by so many important people.

“That’s great!” Lakshman said brightly. “Come this way and take a seat,” and he began leading her towards a chair that was just placed there in preparation for her arrival.

The people on the Ashtra Kingdom and the Mardana Kingdom looked on in amazement and puzzlement at what was going on, or why the Phoenix Titan was showing such importance to such a young girl.

“Lakshman,” began Steve by asking, “who is that young lady you’ve brought in this room?”

“Unimportant people should not be allowed in this meeting!” Athurus thundered furiously, trying to get back whatever space he could find with what he found at hand. “Please kindly let this… spectator out.”

Lakshman smiled at them and shook his head by saying, “I’m sorry, Athurus, but I can’t.” Then he turned away from Athurus’s confused expression and asked, “As for the answer to your question. Well…!” Then he paused dramatically and a few seconds later, smiled widely as he announced, “She has every right to participate in this meeting! I would like everyone to meet Lina Pricemark, my protege!”