It had been a few hours since their encounter with the heir to the empire, and after grabbing lunch at an oriental restaurant nearby, they were on their way to their true objective.

Hazeel stared at Leo’s face as they walked side by side through the city of Aogawa. They had moved away from the port and marketplace, and were now in the city proper. Even though they were on their way to the castle of an unknown man, and he knew about them seemingly long before they arrived, Leo was still unfazed by it all.

However, this was only half of the man she fell in love with, and her heart warmed whenever she remembered when he had finally opened up to her about his past. Despite the fact that he was currently preoccupied with the his official lover, it mattered not to Hazeel. In the goblin village she had grown up in, a chief took on multiple partners at once to maximize fertility and produce more warriors for the village. It was a sacred right of those with power, and she viewed this as being no different.

Never a man of many words, Leo usually let his actions speak for themselves, and only spoke at length in one of three situations. First, when he was truly offended or pissed off. Second, when he had to be a diplomat. Lastly, When he spent time with those he cared about.

She had come to learn all these sides of the man when he finally rescued her from her personal purgatory of the goblin village, and the endless cycle of declining challenges for her… hand in marriage?

Unfortunately, it wasn’t something so romantic, and mostly it just boiled down to being the first male in that village to gain access to her reproductive organs. Once again, she felt gratitude to Leo for stirring up her desires once more. After the deaths of the prince and princess, she had felt little desire to do anything, including living. It was only after a reckless mission had gotten a friend injured that she stopped putting her eggs in that basket.

She didn’t even feel like leaving her tent most days, being content to just booze herself up every day of the week, and gods know it had poisoned her. She became dependent on alcohol for a time, before becoming sick of even that and burying her stash herself as a form of trying to get clean.

Even then, she still felt no desire for life, nor any for death. She spent her days in the limbo of apathy, torturously tolerating her own existence as the village chief. But that all changed the day her hunters picked up two men. The first, would come to be known as the traitorous Brago, and the second was the man who stirred her heart once more.

Leo, or who she knew as Leon at the time, appeared to be a young man whose countenance reminded Hazeel of the prince she used to teach. At first, she truly did intend to kill him using her champion. However, after their talk in Hazeel’s tent, she grew more and more curious of the boy, and felt something she hadn’t in fifteen years: desire.

She wanted to know more about him. She wanted to teach him. And more importantly, she wanted to be his friend. She didn’t want to have him fight her champion, but the deed was done. Yet, imagine her surprise when the boy defeated her champion. It made her blood boil, and she challenged Leo for herself.

And when he pinned her down… Hazeel had heard rumors that since elves have a long lifespan, their bodies change to find sexual stimulus in more and more extreme situations, but never believed it to be true until she found her lust igniting after being subjugated by the younger man. Though Leo had yet to do the deed with Hazeel, she felt it was just a matter of time before it happened.

Nonetheless, it did make her a bit nervous to meet Vanessa, and become lovers with her and Leo both. She had never embraced another woman, and she was hesitant to start now. However, if it was for Leo, she would at least-

“Wow boy, I wish my wife would look at me with half the intensity that lady looks at you with!”

“How’s about telling us where you found her? I’d definitely vacation there during the next Rainbow Week!”

“If you need a room, any inns around the castle will have soundproofing. Use that to your advantage!”

Hazeel’s face lit up crimson at the comments from a group of drunk people that had stepped out of a tavern. She cautiously looked Leo’s way, who now had his head fully turned to her.

“Did you want to say something?” His seemingly innocent gaze meeting Hazeel’s eyes was too much for the wood elf, and she quickly disengaged.

“Nothing at all!” Hazeel stormed towards Scarlet Castle, eager to get away from Leo and his prying eyes. She noticed that, while she had been off in her own little world looking at him, dusk had already started to set in.

“Come on, I can see the gates now and we’ve been walking long enough.” Leo grabbed her hand from behind, and Hazeel’s vision began to distort as she recognized the familiar feeling of Leo’s unique transportation ability.

He called them ‘black holes,’ and allegedly only he and others who held an aptitude for photon manipulation could see them. Apparently, the fact that she wasn’t immediately motion sick from the transfer showed that she had potential, but Leo said that she’d have to actually train in order to access such powers, a thought she was looking forward to more and more as the days passed.

They reappeared in front of Scarlet Castle, and he let go of her hand, beginning to walk off. Hazeel quickly shook off her daze and reached for his hand, holding it tightly in a lover’s embrace.

He looked back to her, but she avoided his gaze. “I was just thinking it would be nice to do something like this every once in a while, you know.”

Leo just chuckled, the sound reminding Hazeel of a deep bell. For all intents and purposes, she didn’t think it was productive to fantasize while walking, but the way he had opened up to her in a way that no one ever did made it difficult for her mind, and she loved him all the more for that.

As her mind wandered from his smile to his lips, from his lips to his neck, from his neck to his chest, and even lower still, she had to mentally chide herself as her observations stepped into the realm of fantasies.

Gods in the universe above, how was she to resist Leo’s obvious charms? If only-

“Halt! In the name of the Gold Emperor, state your business!” Hazeel was brought out of her reverie by an awfully scratchy voice coming from an armored soldier at the gates.

She noticed he was wearing very familiar armor and had his spear pointed in their direction. All at once, the memories of being buried on the beach by a Gold Continent warship came flooding back.

Her breathing became ragged and anger began to sprout in her heart. Honestly, she would have put the man five feet under off of sheer reflex if Leo hadn’t squeezed her hand, bringing her back to reality.

“You’ll have to forgive my lover. Her temperament is the byproduct of a past war between the Gold Continent and her own nation, so she has a bit of a bad reaction whenever she is around military wear.”

His ‘lover’... Hazeel was skeptical of his especially sweet sounding choice of words, and the guard, for his part, looked genuinely sorry. “Ah, is that so? My apologies. I didn’t mean to dredge up anything bad.”

She turned to look at the guard’s eyes and only saw genuine feelings in there. Her anger deflated immediately and she sighed. “No, I’m sorry as well. When something becomes a negative symbol in your life, it’s hard to take it as anything but.”

The soldier nodded knowingly and set down his spear. “I apologize once again. Many of our people didn’t agree with the warmongering ways of our old emperor, and the revolt and subsequent uprising of the commoners and middle class changed who sat on the throne around five years ago. You have my condolences for the actions of the previous regime.”

“So a country in rebuild…” Leo muttered, and Hazeel decided to speak up.

“Thank you for your sentiments. We were actually invited here from the port by Lu Minami. We’re the travellers that have come from the Azure Continent.”

The guard’s eyes widened and he bowed deeply and with grace. “I am so sorry, my Lord and Lady. We have been informed of your impending arrival. Would you like us to send advance notice to Lord Minami that you have arrived safely?”

“Please do.” Leo smiled at the man, and he bowed once more before shooting up a signal flare and opening the gate.

“Please, follow me.” He led them through the gate and into a large, open compound. It reminded Hazeel of the Castle in Songrande, except instead of a focus on architecture, the focus was on the nature of the continent itself.

Various large trees adorned with ornaments filled the garden, and several bright red and blue flowers lined the pathway which they walked. “Spider lilies. Guess this continent really is modeled after Japan.”

Hazeel was a bit surprised that Leo had switched from the language of the Gold Continent to that of the Azure Continent, but she played along, switching to match him. “Modeled after? The gods created everything here, Leo.”

He smirked reached up to pat her head. “Gods don’t exist, Hazeel. Only god complexes do.”

Hazeel sighed and shook her head free of Leo’s hand, her ponytail swaying vigorously in the process. “You just say that because you haven’t met them yet.”

Leo snorted, “I highly doubt they’re real gods. More likely than not, they just found the secret to eternal youth.”

“Wouldn’t that be a god-like miracle in and of itself?”

“Huh. I guess you’re right.” Leo said with a shrug. “Regardless, I don’t think I’ll ever meet one.”

“Hmm… I wouldn’t be so sure.” The wood elf flashed a smile at Leo. “The gods are fickle creatures, after all.”

“Excuse me, my Lord and Lady. We have arrived.” The guard bowed and stepped out of the way revealing a curtain. Once again, a stark contrast to the azurite doors that lead to Bella’s throne room.

Pulling the curtain aside, they were greeted by a view of Lu Minami laying on a sofa, surrounded by a harem of beautiful women of all colors and species. Hazeel even spied a lone wolf-woman who was glancing at the soon-to-be Emperor with a scowl.

The myriad of different women were draped over Lu Minami, kissing his body all over and even feeding him fruit mouth-to-mouth. Hazeel was envious that he could so openly flirt with his harem, while she was relegated to holding herself back for the sake of-

“Mr. Minami?” Leo was the first to speak, breaking Hazeel’s chain of thoughts and finding the gazes of ten women and the man himself on him.

“Ah, Leo! Glad you could make it!” The son of the emperor hugged Leo as he sighed, taking the hostile gazes of the women on him. “And Hazeel! I’m glad you’re here too.” The gazes of the women switched to Hazeel as she received a hug from Lu Minami.

“Please, come in! We have plenty to talk about.” The emperor to be led the two of them deeper into the chamber, and into an audience chamber, where Minami sat on a throne.

“So, Mr. Minami. Care to explain yourself?” The man in question laughed and sat cross-legged on his throne.

“Sure! Anything for you two, after all, you’re responsible for the peace between our nations. Come, ask away! Let your thoughts flow and your curiosity be sated!”