SON OF THE HERO KING

‘What the hell happened?’

Looking around, she immediately recognized Sol’s bedroom in Kiyohime’s castle. How could she not? After all, it was here that she lost her virginity.

But this wasn’t what shocked her. Outside the fact that she had completely passed out, what really startled her was the fact that she was lying down on the bed with two other women she recognized very well.

‘Nefertiti and Nent?’

She groaned as she tried to remember exactly what the hell might have happened. She remembered leaving Nefertiti alone with Sol so that they could sort out their relationship.

Then she wanted to relax in the garden but she bumped into Nent who proceeded to invite her to a drink.

She had followed her and then…Nothing… Total Blackout.

‘Just what the hell was in that wine?’

The good thing was that she felt no so-called headache or discomfort. So she could at least think properly.

Her movement seemed to have stirred the other two from their sleep and soon, the three phoenixes gazed in each other eyes in silence, unsure about what to do or say.

In the end, Nent was the first one to sigh and stand up from the bed.

“Shall we take a bath together?”

Neither Isis nor Nefertiti had reasons to refuse.

—--

‘Oh my goddess, you crazy bitch!’

As the three of them walked towards the bathroom; as Sol predicted, now that the drunk haze had completely left Nent, all she wanted was to scream and punch her past self before completely vaporizing her.

Nent had never so much cursed her perfect memory as she could remember absolutely everything that had happened.

From her outspoken and bitter words, her pathetic display, and her outburst before finally being treated like a child by a man that did not even have a hundredth of her age.

This wasn’t just humiliating. It went way past that level.

Still, even as she berated herself inwardly, she couldn’t hide the smidgen of happiness that was blooming deep in her heart.

‘I really softened too much.’

Nent was not stupid. With her mind working perfectly, she could understand that Sol had never been in whatsoever danger from the start. She had simply walked up into a small trap he had sprung on her as he manipulated her like a fiddle.

A normal woman might have been offended. But all Nent felt was admiration. She had really underestimated how Sol act once he was focused on a goal.

She was also happy.

Since Hansel died, Nent was under the impression that she was now all alone in the world. That there was no one left that would care for her.

Her relationship with her mother was not the best.

She did not particularly like her sisters and they were more akin to business partners.

She had destroyed so much bridge with Kiyohime that it was impossible to even hope for their relationship to come close to what it was before she fucked up everything.

Nent had been alone, sad, scared, and besieged by guilt.

This was why she had decided to resort to alcohol. She didn’t want to become addicted. In fact, no matter how powerful Hydra poison was, it was impossible to make her addicted.

Even if he did create such a poison and used it on her, she simply had to die once and come back with Nirvana to be back to normal. This was what it means to be a phoenix.

Still, while she couldn’t get addicted, she knew that she was fleeing from reality by trying to numb her mind.

But now, after the discussion with Sol, she was still sad and besieged with guilt. Those feeling might never completely vanish. After all, guilt had been her constant companion for 700 years.

Still, she did not feel scared or alone anymore.

She knew that even if the situation was bleak, there was one shoulder on which she could lean on and cry without hesitation.

‘The boy really went a long way.’

It was always so fascinating to see how people with mortal minds could change so much in such a short period of time.

The Sol with whom she had made a deal back then and the one she talked with yesterday were the same men but at the same time so much different.

She truly appreciated his growth.

—--

When they reached the bath, the three of them realized that the water was still cold. The heating system had yet to be activated since there was basically no one present in the castle lately.

“Allow me.”

Nefertiti did not let this bother her as she crouched down and put a hand in the water. Soon, steam began to rise as the water began to boil.

“This should be more than enough.”

Nent narrowed her eyes slightly at this sigh, “You have control over heat.”

Phoenix were elemental creatures with the majority of them being related to fire. But the power to control and manipulate heat itself was different from simply controlling fire.

It wasn’t so much a unique power but even out of the four King-ranked Phoenix, only She and Neppthys could completely control heat as they wished.

‘Her talent increased, is it because of her True Name?’

Nent realized she needed to take a look at her granddaughter's progress during her absence. After all, the fact that Nefertiti even had a name was not normal.

Nent realized that her experiment alone shouldn’t have such a great result.

“I trained a little more during your absence.”

Nent tilted her head in confusion, ‘How weird.’

In the past, she could always feel a certain feeling of respect and reverence toward her in Nefertiti's voices and actions. But now, while the respect was still present, she could feel none of the reverence she was used to.

“Good work.”

Isis ignored the discussion between the two as she slightly dipped a toe in the bath.

Her resistance to heat was vastly lower than that of normal phoenixes. This had always been a source of problems for her life in the desert. Walkings out under the light of more than one sun was not funny.

“Oh my.This is perfect.”

As such, she was happy to see that it was just the right temperature for her.

“Thanks!”

Nefertiti nodded to Isis before lowering her head and entering the bath. She was still a little uncomfortable because of her earlier words to Isis even though the girl had done nothing wrong.

She wanted to apologize, but she didn’t know if it was the right moment to do so.

‘I should ask my lord later.’

Once Nefertiti realized that she did not have to think too hard about this and only had to accept her punishment and follow orders, her mind immediately relaxed.

This was such a bliss.

Like this, three phoenixes entered a hot bath.

Nefertiti and Isis gazed at the body of Nent with slight envy before looking down at their own.

Their only source of comfort was that the two of them weren’t so different. Nent was simply an outlier.

It was their loss if they got upset because of this.

Silence lingered for a while between the three as they tried to relax. They knew very well that bathing was just a pretext.

The true discussion was about to take place. A discussion that would decide how things would go between them.

But it was then,

“Oh my! What a coincidence~!Would the three of you be able to accommodate two more?”

The three phoenixes turned toward the door as two new people intruded.

One pink-skinned girl accompanied by a blue-haired one.

A smiling Skuld and a slightly uncomfortable and frowning Kiyohime.

From the way Skuld was holding and pulling Kiyohime forward, it was clear that Kiyohime was not particularly willing to be here.

But she still accepted to follow the small Titans.

The awkward atmosphere grew even more so when the two of them entered the bath. Though, once Nefertiti and Isis gazed at Skuld and Kiyohime, the confidence that had dimmed in their eyes came back in full throttle.

‘At least I am not the smallest.’

This thought flew by in their mind at the same moment.

(AN: Welp. Every little arc of vol 10 converged to this one moment. Like how at the start of Book 2 in vol 6 we had a harem discussion. it’s only fitting that the same happens at the start of Book 3. Welp, let’s see how it will go.)

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