SON OF THE HERO KING

After welcoming her, Sol immediately began discussing with Lilin about her adventures.

"For the first few weeks, I just stayed in the kingdom."

From what she said, she didn't simply leave without any plan. She stayed in the surrounding of the capital and joined a mercenary guild to act as a guard for some merchants by hiding her features.

This part made Sol smile since, in reality, she was following the footsteps of Lilith.

During all those times, she was followed by her personal maid, a woman named Ketia.

From the information Milia gave him, that woman was also one of the fingers in the crown's shadow. After all, there was no way they would let Lilin, who was of royal blood, leave the kingdom without any protection.

After becoming a mercenary, she lived many adventures. Some good, some bad, it was also during those adventures that she killed for the first time and discovered her talent in channeling killing intent.

When she spoke about that part, he could feel that her voice was a little uneasy. So he gently caressed her head and told her to continue.

As someone who came from the modern world and lived a normal life free of all danger, Sol should have been morally affected by this.

But, he felt nothing.

It wasn't that he was desensitized to it. Be it in this life or the previous one, he had never killed anyone and didn't know the feelings one could have after doing such a deed.

But even though he wasn't particularly experienced and rather sheltered, he understood that using the moral of his original world to judge this one would have been extremely idiotic.

Morality changed depending on space and time.

But more than a question of morality, the simple truth was that, if he had to choose between the life of a stranger and that of his family, the choice was self-evident.

---

Lilin's adventure continued like that for about half a year before she decided to travel out of the kingdom. Ketia tried to dissuade her, but Lilin was pretty stubborn.

That's how they left Lustburg and entered the forest of Southern pride. The elves' territory.

In the territory of the elves, her life became even more eventful.

They lived in a kingdom system, but they were also extremely tribal. The elves were divided into four factions, each of them represented by one of the dragon kings under the order of Tiamat.

They were Fafnir the snow dragon for the moon elves, Welsh the fire dragon for the sun elves, Kiyohime the water dragon for the silver elves, and finally Hydra the poison dragon for the dark elves. Above them all stood the Queen, a high elf.

This part nearly made him cough while inwardly he couldn't help but chant.

'All hail hydra.'

From what Sol understood, each of the four clans representing those dragons was basically the elvish version of the four Duke families in Lustburg.

"When I entered Southern pride, the whole kingdom was facing a crisis."

"A crisis?"

"Indeed. It seems like some of the upper echelons of the kingdom had been infiltrated by vampires."

"Vampires? So Southern pride and Envilya are officially hostile?"

"No, it was an independent action from one of the four heavenly Generals, Dracula. Sadly there was no proof. Envilya sent one of the princesses and with her help, we fought back the rogue vampire. It's during this time that I befriended Clara."

"Hum, was the princess blessed?"

"No. She isn't the crown princess nor is she a candidate for the throne. Though she had beautiful purple hair... A little like me and mother."

"Oh? Interesting. What was her name?"

"Anastasia. Her name was Anastasia Invidia."

"Then what after?"

"After that, not much happened. We had some skirmish with the vampires before finally driving them out. We also drove the traitors out and now Southern pride is free of worry."

,m Sol couldn't help but pinch his eyebrows as he tried to analyze all the implications of what happened.

The fight between Southern pride and Envilya was nothing important in itself. The two-kingdom were separated by Wratharis and could never really engage in a full-scale war.

But if he understood clearly what happened. Not only did she help greatly the elven kingdom, but she also helped the demon kingdom. At least the royal family of the demon kingdom.

In terms of geography, Lustburg, Southern pride and Envilya completely surrounded Wratharis on all sides, except the sea at their back.

If they played their cards well, the war that was about to happen could become way easier than it seemed at first.

"Sol?"

"Hum?"

He was brought back from his thoughts by her voice. Seeing her worried expression he asked,

"What's it?"

"Hum… Did I do something wrong? Are you angry?"

"Angry?" He was a little puzzled before finally understanding the source of her worries.

"Hahaha~! How could I be angry!? What you did was simply incredible! If we capitalize on your achievement, the result will be beautiful."

He didn't mention the potential political backlash that could have happened. No matter what, Lilin was still a member of the royal family. Meddling in foreign affairs wasn't the smartest choice. In fact, it was pretty dumb. But the result was still here.

It wasn't his place to chide her. Lilin wasn't a child and she was far from stupid. If she made all those choices, then she must have judged that the possible gains far outweighed the loss.

It was a dangerous gamble, but the result was here. She won.

"Hehe~ Then, will I get a reward?"

"A reward?" He was a little taken aback, "Well normally yeah. I don't really know since but, you are the princess. Frankly, I don't really know what you could ask for."

This was the truth. Be it with Lilith or him as a king, Lilin would always be a princess and would never lack anything, so a reward would be pretty useless. Though getting a reward in public could be a good move.

It was impossible for her absence to not have bad repercussions on her reputation. But if they said that she was under orders and succeeded in an important mission, this would bring a great achievement under her name and wipe out any bad rumors.

"Having a reward from the kingdom isn't bad. But I want more. I want a reward from you."

'Why does it seem like the mood suddenly changed?'

Looking at her slightly heated eyes, Sol gulped a little.

'She wouldn't ask for that right?'

"Do you remember our promise when we were kids?"

'A promise?'

Searching in his memory, it didn't take long for him to remember.

"You don't mean?"

"Hehe. It seems like you remember."

"But…"

"Sol, do you wish to marry me?"

---

After leaving Lilin's room, Sol walked a little in a daze, her question, replaying in his mind.

Did he want to marry her?

This was a hard question to answer. If he had to be honest, it wasn't as if he had never seen Lilin as a woman. In fact, in terms of womanly charm, she didn't lose to any adult.

But, it never went past the simple fantasy. It never really bloomed into the love he had for his current women.

Sol didn't mind having a casual relationship with his maids. At the end of the day, it was just sex. A way to vent his lust.

But he refused to have such a relationship with someone he truly cared for, and Lilin was such a person.

'Sigh, I am a true hypocritical bastard.'

Still, even though it made him sick to think like that, from a purely objective point of view, him marrying Lilin was the most optimal option.

Even though Lilin didn't obtain the blessing, she was a Luxuria and as such any of her children or grandchildren or further down could potentially give birth to a blessed child.

In such a situation, a dispute for the throne would become inevitable and a tragedy like the one that happened to Setsuna would be the most likely outcome.

By officially marrying Lilin, not only did he satisfy the conditions of having a wife whose status matched his, but he also made it so his cousin didn't have to land in a complicated relationship.

Furthermore, currently, none of his women were suitable to become his official wife.

Milia was a maid and the leader of a shadow group. Setsuna was officially a slave and in reality the princess of another kingdom, Camelia was the supreme daughter and leader of the church and Edea was a witch.

'I really have no one suitable for the position.'

Of course, he could marry one of his partners like Mars did. More precisely the Phoenix who would become his partner. After all, the children and the direct descendant of the divine beasts were all considered to be royalty of sorts, but it would be pretty rude to have such an idea about someone he didn't even meet.

'To think I would have to consider marriage at such a young age. Well, for a medieval world it isn't particularly surprising.'

In an era where people lived a relatively dangerous lifestyle where they could die at any time, it was the norm to marry early.

This rule held true even in his old world. It was at the level where hearing about a 12-year-old princess marrying wasn't anything weird.

"Hahaha. The heck. I should stop being wishy-washy."

He didn't know how much courage Lilin gathered to make this confession. Since he liked her and she liked him. What was the problem?

'Still, I need to discuss it with Lilith first.'

Be it as his aunt and guardian, as Lilin's mother, or as the current queen, Lilith had all the rights to be informed first of the situation. What's more, hearing the thoughts of someone more experienced could only be beneficial.

But, "Well, this promises to be awkward." He murmured under his breath.

Just yesterday he had a date with her and now he was asking about the possibility of marrying her daughter.

This went way past the level of simply being awkward.

"Sigh. Let's see how it will go."