The throne room doors open, and Lucien enters with l.u.s.t, holding his arm like a proud wife. That scene always leaves a bitter taste of envy in Tyrion's mouth.
"Lucien, my good son-in-law!" Tyrion gets up from his throne and smiles at him, a performance that can't be considered less than average.
"Tyrion..." But Lucien doesn't even try to fake anything, which makes the Naga King even more upset. "What do you want?"
He tries to contain his anger as he sits on the throne again. "You know, I just wanted to see my beloved daughter... it's been over a week since I've seen her, and a father has such needs."
'I can't hear this s.h.i.+t.' Lucien comments to l.u.s.t while being sure Tyrion is one of the worst fathers who ever lived, so anyone who knows him would never believe such words.
He also has to contain the urge to attack Tyrion while smiling. "Kamala is exhausted… you know, we've been focusing all our energies on the wedding."
"Ya, ya..." Tyrion nods. "I won't blame you for that, so it's okay, you can retu-"
Before he finishes speaking his words, screams are heard down the hall. "My King, my King!!"
The messenger manages to repeat the same level of despair as before; in fact, now he's even more scared because, before, his life would only be at risk if Tyrion got very angry at the bad news, but now his life is really threatened based on his performance skills.
Even Lucien takes the opportunity to train his performance by looking surprised by that scene. l.u.s.t even praises his curious expression.
Tyrion punches the arm of the throne before speaking in an angry tone to the messenger. "Why do you disturb my reunion with my good son-in-law?!?!"
*Glup*
Everyone can hear the messenger make a strange sound as he gets confused. But as Tanu gave the signal for him to come, he continues as planned and explains the situation of the Nagas bases in Mermaid territory.
Tyrion uses all of his performance skills to seems upset and worried. Then he looks at Lucien. "What do you think about it?"
Lucien shrugs. "Well, I'm not Naga, and I just got here recently... I don't know what to think about it."
"Hmm..." Tyrion made a sympathetic expression. "But as our new prince, you must start partic.i.p.ating in our politics. One day you will help Kamala rule our great kingdom, so you must start defending it now."
"Indeed." He nods. "If we really need that territory, we should fight for it."
"I agree!" Tyrion smiles. "Since the Mermaids' royalty is leading the attack, I will personally lead our troops into combat... Could you take care of Kamala and Mira while I'm there?"
[I'm already taking care of them.] Lucien quickly thinks.
But before he can say anything, Tanu bows in front of the throne. "My King... forgive me for interrupting you, but as your adviser, I must say that it is inappropriate for your majesty to lead the troops personally."
"Why?!" He quickly asks. "Isn't the Mermaid royalty at the front too?"
Lucien is impressed with the level of effort they are putting into that performance, so he does his best to partic.i.p.ate in the game as well.
"But it's not their Queen at the front..." Tanu comments. "It would look bad for us if our King goes to face a Princess."
"So..." Tyrion makes a thoughtful expression.
The messenger trembles with fear but still does as Tyrion ordered him. "Forgive me for meddling in, but… well, wouldn't it be proper to send our Princess there too? She's more than prepared to handle the situation."
"Hmm... yeah, Kamala is really prepared for it..." Tyrion starts to speak but then looks at Lucien with a sorry expression. "But my daughter is busy right now… I couldn't send her on that mission while she's about to get married."
[Oh, come on!] Lucien starts to get really impatient.
But he sighs and continues the game. "I could go."
"..." Tyrion and Tanu gaze at him with a thoughtful expression, not wanting to make it clear that it was the intention from the beginning.
Then l.u.s.t speaks. "As a new prince, it would really be a good opportunity for Lucien, as you just said."
Tyrion nods. "It would be really nice... But I don't think Kamala would let her beloved husband go to the front alone."
"Then we'll do it together." Lucien comments. "We could solve this problem quickly and get back to continuing the marriage."
"It looks really perfect..." Tyrion comments. "But it would be very dangerous too..."
Then he takes out a small box of his storage ring. "I couldn't send you to the front without proper protection."
He opens the box, and colored light s.h.i.+nes brightly from two small gems. "These are my last instant teleport gems, but I think this is a good opportunity to use them."
'Instant teleport gems are rare treasures anywhere in the universe.' l.u.s.t comments in Lucien's mind. 'The ability to travel between worlds so quickly is really amazing, and... you could go back to your wives with it.'
'But the Leviathan is still around, and we don't know what she plans…' Lucien responds.
'Indeed.' l.u.s.t agrees. 'One thing at a time; now let's focus on dealing with this disgusting man.'
Lucien steps forward and accepts Tyrion's small box. "I will do my best to bring this treasure to you intact and solve our Kingdom's problems as soon as possible."
"I'm sure you'll do your best…" Tyrion smiles. "My good son."
"When do we travel?" Lucien wastes no time getting straight to the point.
"I will prepare my best special troops right now," Tyrion responds. "Then I will send a messenger to let you know when everything is ready."
"Great!" Lucien turns and starts to leave the room. "I'll let Kamala know."
"Give her some time to say goodbye to her mother," Tyrion asks.
Lucien nods, but in his mind, he thinks something different. [Say goodbye? No need that since they will be together with me all the time.]
Tyrion is thrilled as he sees Lucien leave the throne room. He thinks his plans are going perfectly well, but he has no way of knowing he's actually helping Lucien.
"It sounds too perfect to be true, don't you think?" Tanu asks him. "I mean, he didn't even try to argue about that Leviathan or anything."
"Do you really believe in such a creature?" He asks. "It makes sense that he wants to please me, especially after our first meet. Also, I bet Kamala will ask her mom to interfere."
"I'm not sure about the creature," Tanu replies. "But yes, Mira won't like this at all... What are we going to do when she comes to complain?"
Tyrion smiles. "Lock her in some dark hole until they're gone, of course."
[It's at these times that I'm glad I'm not your wife.] Tanu keeps her thoughts just for her while remaining silent.
Then his expression gets strange for a second. "Did you notice that his aura looked like the peak Earth Realm?"
"Hmm..." Tanu makes the same expression. "I noticed it too, but it doesn't make sense, right? The last time we saw him fight, he looked like someone from the middle Earth Realm... maybe he and l.u.s.t are using some technique to hide his true strength."
"Yeah..." Tyrion nods. "This guy is really weird..."
--------------------------
Lucien leaves the royal castle and quickly returns to Kamala Castle. There, he explains the whole situation to her and her mother.
"It's really good as he won't notice how stronger we're getting!" Kamala is happy with the news.
But Mira looks concerned. "However, we're going to leave the protection of the Barrier Tree and become vulnerable to an attack from the Leviathan..."
"The Leviathan..." Kamala quickly gets worried. "I had forgotten about that d.a.m.n creature."
Lucien tenderly embraces her. "Don't worry, if the creature wants to cause trouble, we can stay in the purple world safely and use the instant teleport gems to get rid of her."
"That's probably Tyrion's plan." Mira comments. "Not about the Leviathan but about making us use the gems to come back and fall into a trap."
"Exactly." He nods. "But his plan would only work if we got back inside the city. Anyway, we just need more time to get stronger, so neither Tyrion nor Leviathan will stop us."
"Hmm..." Kamala seems totally satisfied with the plan, but Mira still looks concerned. "Something else worries me."
"Just say it, and we'll find a solution." Lucien smiles at her.
"The Mermaids..." Mira makes a sorry expression. "Our people should never go to war, let alone attack their princess while she just tries to defend her territory. Saria and her family have already suffered too much and don't deserve anything like that."
Lucien can see that Mira likes the Mermaids, but he can't really feel sorry for people he doesn't know. He actually doesn't even feel sorry for the Naga people and only has a little sympathy for them due to Kamala and Mira.
His focus will always be on his family, and he doesn't mind getting his hands dirty with anyone's blood to protect those important to him.
But since that seems important to Mira, Lucien can consider the options. "We don't really need to kill them; we just need time, so maybe you can make a deal with that princess."
"A deal?" Mira wonders about that. "I don't know if they will listen to me... Our people have been enemies before, and so the Water Spirit gave us the sacred trees and made us swear to protect this world..."
She keeps explaining. "For a long time, our people were allies, but everything changed when Tyrion a.s.sumed the throne. Blinded by greed, he began to take the territory of the Mermaids. They sought my help, but I could do nothing, and..."
She gets really sad when she remembers something. "Then happened that incident… Nea lost one of her daughters, and I couldn't even comfort her at such a sad time. Now I'm sure they hate me."
Lucien sighs while wondering how he ended up in such a situation. His only objective in this world should be to find his sisters and steal the Phoenix's magic core.
"Alright, since they're not our enemies, we can easily come to terms." He comments. "I believe all they want is their territory back, and we can give it to them."
"Mm." Mira agrees. In the short time she's been with Lucien, she's already understood that he'll do anything for those he loves and is ruthless with anyone who gets in his way, but since Saria is a woman, the chance of her being persuaded by him is extremely high.
"What about the troops?" Kamala asks. "I'm sure my father will send his most loyal soldiers with us... won't they make trouble?"
"Headless corpses don't create problems." Lucien comments in a cold tone.
But then l.u.s.t materializes her body beside him. "I just talked to Jai, our good Black Guard. He's already got in touch with many of his friends and some of them have been summoned by Tyrion to go with us."
"How do we know they are really loyal?" Lucien asks.
"Jai said that a lot of them are his personal friends, but n.o.body knows that because the King doesn't like his Black Guards to have friends." l.u.s.t explains.
So she continues. "Jai also said he can't guarantee they'll all follow us, but at least half of them are already secretly loyal to the Queen."
Mira smiles hopefully. "I'm happy with any Naga we don't have to kill."
"But some of them will still refuse to follow you out of fear." Lucien comments.
"Can you just make them more afraid of you than Tyrion?" She asks with a teasing smile.