I tried something different, please tell me in the comments if this is okay or I should revert to the old style of writing.

Other than that. Paypal is here, donate if you have a spare dollar or two. Twitter is here, @PuffyPyjamas. I will be posting updates about both my novels and the two translation projects I am working on, also, I will give my opinion on all the manga, light novel, web novel, games, T.V shows, and anime you could think of. Also, I will be starting two more series this Christmas, updates about them can also be found on my twitter.

Comment about any typos, grammatical errors, or omitted words. Thank You for spending your precious time with me. ENJOY!

The very same day, at about 8.30 P.M.

Toru and Sylvia were walking through a dimly lit corridor, their fingers were intertwined and breathing was synched. Toru"s expression was calm while Sylvia was barely managing to hold back her tears.

After the match with Sylvia concluded, a messenger arrived at Toru"s location, informing him about this special summon. It seemed that it was the same for Sylvia, so they decided to head over to the meeting room together. Just before this, Sylvia was crying while gripping Toru"s shirt. She said that she wasn"t feeling regret over the series of events that had occurred, but it could very well end up in them losing their lives.

It was quite hard for Toru to comfort her after doing what he did during the match, but he had decided that he would be sincere towards everything that this new life had to offer, so he said the words he needed to say from the bottom of his heart.

"Don"t worry Sylvia. I"ll protect you."

Unlike before, his words were filled with more conviction and determination, and Sylvia sensed that as well. She stopped crying after a few minutes, gripped his hand strongly, and nodded in his direction with a resolute smile dawned upon her beautiful face.

Toru turned his head to the right, Sylvia"s height was comparatively smaller to Toru"s, so he had to incline his head downwards to glance at her expression. It was exactly as he had expected, her expression was grim, but she wasn"t trembling, nor did she show any signs of being frightened. The grim expression probably arose from the fact that she would have to explain herself in front of her brother and other people that might be present in the room.

Toru increased the strength of his right hand and led her to the room where they were supposed to meet Vernyx. The door was a simple one with no special carvings or murals on the wood, they were hesitant at first, but this was where they were directed to go. Toru raised his other hand and lightly knocked on the door that would most probably lead to a very complicated battlefield.

"Who is it?"

A voice came from the other side of the door. As m.u.f.fled as it was, Toru was able to hear it due to his abilities. He had already figured out the ident.i.ty of one of the people who would be present in the room, accompanying the next king of the country.

Toru nudged Sylvia to say her name, she panicked but calmed down momentarily following her bizarre inhaling and exhaling exercise.

"Sylvia Silbinas Athena. First Princess of The Wise Kingdom ATHENA."

Sylvia announced her name and position in a voice which would be audible to the audience within the room. Toru scratched his ears which have been hurting for the past week because of all the screaming and cheering involved in the festival.

"Toru. Silver-ranked adventurer."

Toru followed Sylvia"s example and announced his name and rank in a loud voice. Immediately after he did, approaching footsteps could be heard from the other side. They started distant and light, but as seconds went by, the footsteps turned heavy and intimidating. The door was slowly opened from the inside, Toru and Sylvia deeply bowed towards the man who had done them the honor of holding the door for them, and then proceeded to enter inside the room.

The door was closed behind them, and the person who performed this action circled them and approached the far end of the room where two sofas, arranged so that the two faced each other, came into their line of sight. The room itself was almost empty, except for the two sofas, the only other inanimate object present in the room was the tray that had tea and tecups placed on it, and a small table which was kept in the corner of the room for future use.

Toru and Sylvia, their bodies separated, walked towards the sofa prepared for them. Both the sofas could accommodate three people, and one of the two sofas was already filled. Toru and Sylvia stood before the sofa in question, Toru took a peek at the sixth person in the room, who had opened the door for them, and immediately afterward, fell onto one knee and lowered his head.

"King of The Wise Kingdom ATHENA, Silbinas Athena. Crown Prince of The Wise Kingdom Athena, Vernyx Silbinas Athena. Crown Prince of The Great Empire Hades, Julius Hades. Great General Bernard Lenach. It is an honor for a commoner such as myself to be in the presence of the greatest and most renowned people of two nations."

Toru said so and bowed his head even deeper. His voice was indifferent, even monotonous. However, there was no lack of respect or etiquette which could be observed from his conduct.

"Raise your head. This is an informal meeting. You can stop being so uptight."

The King"s voice was low and heavy. There was a certain presence behind his words, each word he uttered carried so much strength that Toru was somewhat impressed. He raised his head and proceeded to stand up. After bowing to the King, he led Sylvia to the sofa behind her and made her sit on one of the three cushions, he placed himself beside her soon after.

"I"ve heard that you"re already acquainted with everyone here except me?"

The King was sitting in the middle with Vernyx to his right, and Julius to his left. Bernard was calmly standing behind the sofa with his hands behind his back. All of their eyes were fixed on Toru. From Toru"s perspective, it seemed as though they were beasts ready to prey upon their target. If one were to ignore Jullius" existence, then the other three on the other side of the room were all monsters. At first glance, their combined strength easily surpa.s.sed that of the Nirvana, the strongest beast in existence. However, Toru sensed that there was more to those three than what met the eyes.

"Yes, Your Majesty. I have had the honor to converse with all three of them."

Looking at a blunt and seemingly heartless person like Toru speak in such a polite and formal tone somehow gave Julius the chills. Julius had seen Toru act like himself on many occasions. From his point-of-view, Toru was a person who would say just about anything to anyone without any concern for position, rank, and power. This politeness just didn"t click with Julius, making him irritated.

"Now… Before we begin our discussion… Sylvia?"

"Yes, Father."

Sylvia raises herself from the spot beside Toru and heads over to the tray to prepare the tea. Normally, there would be servants present for this sort of thing, but the people from the Royal Family wanted to keep this conversation secret

*WHAM*

*WHAM*

*WHAM*

There were three waves of reverberating sounds generated from something hitting another thing in the air. However, there was no physical object around the position from where the sound had just originated. Four people in the room understood what took place.

If one had a certain amount of ability to manipulate mana, it would be possible to see that three red waves collided with a blue wall and got dispelled.

The King smirked, Crown Prince sneered, and Great General seemed pleased. Toru looked at their expressions and sighed in resignation. He then proceeded to straighten his posture, placing his hands on his knees, he looked at the three people with inquisitive eyes. The three of them took a long breath, and so did Toru.

Immediately afterward, the temperature of the room dropped below freezing temperature in an instant, or so it would seem.

*THUD*

*THUD*

Two limp bodies fell on the ground, a tecup was sent rolling down the floor, but in the next instant, it was crushed into extremely fine particles. The rest of the utensils followed soon after. The tray itself was crushed under the killing intent of these three monsters. A single drop of sweat rolled down Toru"s forehead, but he calmly wiped it off with his sleeve. Until now, he had been using his killing intent to ward off the overwhelming amount of killing intent generated by the three pillars.

Toru could go on the offensive with his killing intent and try to suppress his opponents with brute strength, but this tactic had a high-risk factor, if he were to overwhelm the strongest people in the nation right here, the concept of Athena Festival itself would become redundant. As such, he decided to keep his defense up and just wait for this barrage of attack to pa.s.s.

After about three minutes under the constant pressure of killing intent, Toru heaved a sigh of relief as the people in front of him had seemingly wiped themselves out. It was a lie, and Toru knew the reason as well, but he decided to leave it alone.

"Now we can talk."

The King said so and fixed his posture. Vernyx and Bernard followed suit and fixed their postures and clothes.

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"About what you did before. Why?"

All the people in the room were super calm, the atmosphere felt so relaxed that it was scary for Toru to disrupt the sweet silence. Bernard silently walked over to the sofa, picked up Julius"s unconscious body and placed it beside Sylvia"s body. He then proceeded to sit where Julius was sitting a few minutes prior.

"What are you referring to, Your Majesty?"

"Your public show of affection for my daughter. You were bold enough to kiss her in front of the whole Royal Capital. You do know who she is, right?"

The King"s tone had turned casual, he had stretched his arms and crossed his legs with the right leg over the left. His eyes had a sharp glint in them, a.n.a.lyzing eyes were fixed on Toru"s being. He felt uncomfortable, but couldn"t rebuke the King of the entire nation.

"She is a girl, Your Majesty."

"That she is, but before that, she is a Princess and a daughter. As a father and as a King, I can"t just hand my daughter over to someone like you."

The King narrowed his eyes further and his aura thickened. Toru was looking at The King with calm eyes, but the state of his mind was in chaos. One wrong word and his life could be in certain danger. Toru took advantage of his super-perception, the time around him decelerated considerably. He was ready to fight all three of them right here, and he was certain that if he were to utilize all the resources at his disposal, he would be able to win.

"What can I do to make you acknowledge me, Your Majesty?"

A clear smile brandished upon The King"s face, he replied Toru without a moment"s hesitation.

"Show me your strength, boy. And not just during this compet.i.tion, I will be looking forward to your display during the real battle."

The King said in an enigmatic tone. Toru made a mental note that this man was much more complicated and mysterious than his son. Toru couldn"t comprehend how a man in his prime was exuding such a fierce and commanding aura, but once he considered all the factors involved, it wasn"t all that surprising.

Toru glances at Sylvia"s unconscious body and nods in acknowledgment. He locks eyes with the King, asking him something with his eyes rather than his words.

"Leave her here. Since she"s out of the compet.i.tion, she will have to do double the work. We will do as much as we can from our side to cover up this scene. No conversations were heard by the audience, so we can exploit that loophole to somehow convince the people that what happened was just an accident and nothing more. Needless to say, the complete truth about your relationship will stay in this room, not to get out until it is the perfect time."

The King answered Toru"s query, to which he nodded and proceeded to ask the final question that was bothering him.

"I"ll leave that to you, Your Majesty. However, what about the Princess" engagement with Crown Prince Julius? I doubt that breaking off the engagement just like that would do good to the relationship between the two nations."

The King leaned on the sofa for a few seconds and replied in the same calm and superior tone that he had maintained since the discussion began.

"The match-ups for the next round will be announced tomorrow. I will have you fight Prince Julius. If you win, it would prove Prince Julius"s incompetence, making the procedure for breaking off the engagement quite simple. And if you lose, it would prove your incompetence. You will be banned from meeting with my daughter ever again."

Midway during that sentence, The King"s voice turned extremely cold.

His voice could even give Shirone a run for her money,

Shirone was the coldest person Toru has ever known. Not that she was cold towards him or her three sisters, but her att.i.tude towards each being except these special four was a sight to behold.

"Understood, Your Majesty."

Toru said so and bowed his head once again. Following that, he was dismissed from the room. With seemingly nothing to do, Toru decided to head over to the inn he was staying at to get a good night"s rest. He was somewhat aware of the hectic events that he would have to deal with soon, so he called for his numerous servants and thoroughly instructed them on what to do.

With his groundwork in place and all the events behind the scenes being taken care of by other people, he entered into the land of dreams, only to wake up the next morning.

Bio: I am an editor currently affiliated with confused translations and Gakusei translations, on top of that, I am a big anime, light novel, manga, and web novel enthusiast.

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