SON OF THE HERO KING

On the bed, his doppelganger sat with a calm and empty smile. Aside from him, Milia and Setsuna stood further apart than when he initially left this room. It seemed to be a safe distance of sorts.

Finally, he could feel that the concentration of mana seemed a little higher than before. Not by much, but with the current situation this was enough to catch his attention.

The conclusion he came to after a short analysis was, "Did the two of you have an altercation?"

Silence was the answer he received. He looked at Setsuna\'s hesitant eyes as she debated whether to inform him or not. After all, no one liked snitches.

Thankfully, Milia didn\'t put her on the spot, "Forgive me, your highness. I acted a little excessively."

\'A little?\' Setsuna scoffed inwardly but didn\'t voice her thoughts. Since Milia decided to say the truth then she didn\'t have to meddle in it.

Listening to Milia\'s explanations, Sol pinched his eyebrows in thought. Truthfully he didn\'t want to intervene too much.

From the day she showed her fanatic gaze after she revealed her identity as a Finger, he already knew that she had a somewhat excessive obsession with him.

Thankfully, even though she seemed to show the traits of what was commonly called as yandere, she didn\'t wish to harm him or have him only to herself.

\'I am extremely blessed.\'

The problem in the current situation was that most of his lovers had a certain level of madness and obsession within them.

They all loved him. But they didn\'t necessarily like each other.

Lilin and Lilith\'s relationship was cold.

Camelia and Lilith were rivals.

Setsuna only trusted Camelia and was at odds with Lilin.

Medea only had good relationships with Lilith.

As for Milia, from the way she spoke, he knew that she could watch all his women burn without hesitation nor sadness.

His headaches grew stronger at this thought.

\'How did those harem protagonists manage to make all the members of the harem act without any frictions?\'

Sighing wistfully, he thought about how he seriously needed to have more male friends before speaking to Milia and Setsuna.

"Milia, Setsuna. I have no illusion about making all of you the best friends in the world. Each of you is an independent woman who can think and act for herself… "

This was something that both pleased and aggravated him. In stories, he always hated reading about those helpless girls having to be saved by the hero every ten chapters.

The problem in his current situation was that in case of danger, there was more chance of him being the helpless prince needing to be saved.

"... But let\'s be real. Each of us is going to live for very long if nothing happens..."

In this world, it wasn\'t that difficult for humans to live for more than one hundred years. Though, without a special type of partner reaching two hundred was practically a dream. The same went for beastmen.

The only exception to this rule were human hybrids like Sol, witches like Medea, and finally Apostles of divine entities like Camelia.

Still, no matter how long their lifespan was, they had about one hundred years together.

\'I wish this was a world where training for immortality was the norm.\'

"...Right here, right now I will make a rule. While I can understand disputes and differences of opinion, no fights are allowed."

He seriously needed to reunite all his women and put down some rules. This was necessary if he wished for them to live happily.

"Understood?"

Silence settled between the two before they nodded. In the first place, the relationship between the two of them wasn\'t that bad. So this was just a hiccup.

"Once again, I am sorry for going too far."

Milia slightly lowered her head to Setsuna as she apologized. Setsuna on the other hand waved her hands.

"No problem. I admit that I also provoked you a little. So it was kind of my fault."

The apologies were a little awkward but Sol was satisfied.

"Now that this is out of the way, let\'s discuss the situation."

Sol immediately began to recount everything that happened while he was sneaking around.

The more he talked, the more Milia was impressed. She already knew about his dimension, but she had to admit that it went past everything she had ever imagined. This was the perfect power for an assassin and/or a spy. Even her shadow and illusion powers were rather inferior to it.

Finally, once he finished, he faced Milia and continued,

"I did not see anything of note aside from the office. I did not see uncle Gerald either. Nor did I see anything suspicious."

Milia pondered a little, before speaking, "Your highness, as we thought the situation with the Highland is tilted in our favor. The Highlands are always neutral. But it seems like this generation they are willing to throw their lots with the royal family."

Sol nodded, "It\'s indeed as we thought. Lilith concluded a deal with the duchess Milaris, the Gorfards are clearly problematic. So…"

"So your visit to the Travers tomorrow will be the most important in our plan."

"The Travers…"

Sol murmured this name while thinking. Out of the four Duke families, if the Highland were the oldest, then the Travers were the youngest.

From what he knew the first Duchess Traver was a dwarf. The subsequent Dukes or Duchesses after her were thus all half-dwarf. They were also faintly related to one of the council members of the dwarf kingdom, Greed Dike.

"I still don\'t understand why would my great grandfather accept to add someone of another race in the royal family."

Sol wasn\'t being racist. It was truly baffling. No matter how he saw it, the Travers family were basically insiders or spies working for Greed Dike.

"Your great grandfather, Uranus the Tyrant King was someone rather… unconventional. During his years on the throne, all his closest ministers were magical beings more precisely beast kin. He called them… Kemonomimi. If I recall well."

Sol twitched a little before asking with a weird expression on his face.

"Why is it the first time I hear something like that?"

If he had any doubts about the previous rulers being otherworlders, then now those doubts changed into conviction.

He knew about the great number of magical beings working as a close aid to Uranus. It was also one of the reasons the Lustburg kingdom was such a melting pot of different races and that racism wasn\'t particularly rampant despite the continuous war against Wratharis.

"Ara?" Milia tilted her head before understanding.

"This kind of information, while not particularly secret, isn\'t something a serious professor would teach to his students. Even more so when said student is the crown prince himself. What\'s more, to better serve you, I used my time to make research about all the previous kings and queens, their habits, their powers, their personalities, their weak points, their bad points, their preferences, their… "

Sol looked surprised as he watched Milia ramble so much. On his side, Setsuna was pointing her finger with an expression that seemed to say, \'Now you understand why I reacted strongly.\'

He had to admit that the current Milia looked a little creepy, but,

\'She is pretty cute.\'

He didn\'t know what it meant about him when he found such a sight cute.

"... Their favorite foods, their…"

"Enough, I understand. You are basically a master when it comes to the knowledge about the previous rulers. Anyway, let\'s go back to the core of the problem."

Milia blushed heavily after she was cut off, she couldn\'t believe that she showed such an embarrassing sight to him. Thankfully, he showed no signs of disgust. Otherwise, she would have just killed herself.

"I-I am sorry. Your highness. I don\'t know what happened to me."

\'So cute!\'

In his mind, Milia was always this serious and steady woman who sometimes spoiled him too much. Seeing her blush and stammer as she acted like a little girl was a sight that soothed his heart greatly.

This also made him understand once again that even the people closest to him had different sides to them that he did not know.

It would be stupid of him to presume the opposite. Seeing the naked body of your partner didn\'t mean that you saw his or her naked heart. It was important to not become complacent if one wished for a long and happy relationship.

"Hahaha~ No worries. I must say that it was rather entertaining."

It was when just as he was about to begin teasing her,

*Knock* *Knock* *Knock*

An old and calm voice sounded after three knocks on the door,

"Your highness, may I enter?"

Sol waited a few seconds before signaling Milia to answer, "You may."

"Then, excuse me."

The door opened and a giant muscular old man opened the door.

\'He easily has more than 2 meters.\'

Watching this man wearing a butler uniform that perfectly showed his bursting muscles, the old man gave a bow in a perfect show of courtesy before continuing,

"Your highness, I am the head butler of this humble abode. My master, the Duke, hopes to invite you to a banquet prepared in your honor. It will take place in the dining room at exactly midnight."

\'Even when he bows he is still taller than me.\'

Sol thought idly without being surprised at the excessive polite actions.

Even though the host was the Duke. Sol was still the crown prince and as such the Duke couldn\'t just force him to come to the dinner.

Though, if he didn\'t participate, it would be a way to say that he was dissatisfied with the Highland family and with how many spies there were, it wouldn\'t be a surprise if all the other nobles of importance learned about this before the sun was out.

\'Politics is truly a pain.\'

Thinking so, he stayed silent and let Milia speak in his place. Even though he didn\'t really care, since his maid was present, she automatically became his representative and he should only answer to people of important rank. A butler obviously didn\'t qualify.

"Tell his lordship the Duke that His highness will be happy to participate."

"It\'s much appreciated. The maids will come shortly and help you in your preparations."

Giving another bow, he waited for Milia to permit him before he left.

Once they were alone, Sol sighed inwardly.

\'Thankfully I was born as the crown prince.\'

Being born with a low position in a world where monarchy prevailed wasn\'t funny in any way.

\'Well, it isn\'t like my old world was any better.\'

There were no perfect worlds. Sol refused to delude himself into thinking that his old world was better than this one just because democracy was the norm. In fact, it was way more dangerous and horrible.

\'It\'s ironic how a world without magical monsters is more dangerous than the one with them.\'

He chuckled at this dark thought before focusing on the situation in front of him. This banquet would be very important for him and the kingdom.

After all, \'Having one more family on my side means having less blood in my hands by the end of this week.\'