Chapter 28

"Are you going to help us in this war?"

Shin could sense hope in Irene's voice and he could understand it.​​

He had only met Irene for a few minutes and yet he felt like he knew her by heart.

"Of course," Shin replied.

Even if he said yes, Shin knew that he would surely not prevent the destruction of the kingdom.

It would change far too much and as he had already said, he might be able to fight Acnologia with equality but not defeat it.

And their fight would result in the destruction of the kingdom.

But he would do his best to make Irene suffer less compared to what she suffered in the anime.

He could not bear to know that she would be in the same state as in the anime.

He could see Irene's face super happy and he couldn't help but smile sadly.

He already knew that he was falling in love with her so he would do his best to always be there for her and give her enough love to heal the future wound.

Then they continued talking about everything and nothing all day long.

This little talk went great and had built a relationship based on friendship for the time being even though he knew that his budding feelings were mutual.

He doesn't want to rush things so he will let their relationship grow with time.

Irene no longer spoke to Shin in the same way she used to, she spoke to him as a friend in a familiar way even though she was still a little shy.

She was discovering her feelings that she was not used to so she was not yet very comfortable with them.

"We've been talking for a little while now, it's already dark," Irene says, noticing that the sky is getting darker and the moon is replacing the sun.

"It's true," said Shin, noting the same thing.

"I apologize again for the story of the feather, it's just that it gave hope to the citizens and it gave off a calm and gentle aura that soothed the citizens and made them think of something else than war," Irene said softly, thinking of her people.

Then she got up from the couch and walked to the door.

"Follow me, I'll show you your room".

Shin looked at her as he thought about what she had said earlier.

"I'd like to go do something before that," Shin said as he got up from the couch and walked towards a confused Irene.

They left the office and Irene followed Shin as he headed out of the palace.

They arrived at the exit to see the square as Shin spoke, still walking towards the center of the square.

"You know, I don't blame you at all for the feather, in fact I didn't even take it back because I wanted to, it's just that when one of my feathers is plucked out against my will, it will try to come back to me".

While speaking, Shin drew the attention of the citizens who had recognized him with the Queen.

"It's the Celestial Phoenix."

"He's really beautiful"

"He doesn't seem angry or a bad person."

"He is accompanied by the Queen"

"What's he gonna do?"

Everybody was wondering what he was going to do, even Irene.

Arriving at the center of the square, Shin spread his wings to everyone's surprise.

Some even thought that the discussion with the Queen had gone badly and that he was going to destroy the kingdom.

But when they saw that their Queen was just as surprised, this idea was ejected from their minds.

Shin then reached out his arm and approached his wings to pluck a feather.

Irene and the citizens were all watching in shock.

They all thought that they had lost the feather forever since she had returned to Shin.

Everyone was disappointed and sad, he considered the feather as their treasure and it gave that soothing aura that they all loved.

The feather was floating above Shin's hand as he closed his eyes to install a magical barrier around the feather to replace Belserion's barrier on the old feather.

Having placed the barrier around the feather, he left the feather floating in the middle of the square where the old one was.

Installed, the citizens could once again feel the aura they had missed.

"This time it will stay," said Shin, turning to Irene.

"Thank you," Irene said sincerely and displayed the most beautiful smile she could to thank him for what he did.

He had just given hope back to the citizens.

After that, Irene and Shin turned around in the palace and Irene led him to his room.

"Good night and see you tomorrow"

In front of the door of the room, Shin said goodbye to Irene and opened the door to discover her room.

On his way to the other room, Shin entered and discovered a Japanese bathtub that was spherical in shape and very large.

It was not made of wood but of stone, which gave it a certain charm.

Shin warmed the bath with his flame to a good temperature and then quietly took his bath.

After a nice little moment of relaxation, he got out of the bath, put on the pyjamas he had asked for.

The pyjamas consisted of a white sweater with a green flame on it and simple white pants.

It was made of a material as soft as sheep's wool and gave off the most optimal temperature based on the outside temperature.

Putting on his pyjamas, Shin jumped on his bed and slipped under his comforter.

"The bed is quite comfortable but less than the grass bed in my cave," said Shin as he fixed the ceiling.

"I'll have to go back to my cave for the last time," he said, "so no one can go in there and say goodbye to the animals".

He will do so when he goes.

"I will go to my divine kingdom to see how it has evolved," Shin decided.

Since the last time he went there, he had become much stronger so the divine kingdom must have grown and so must the Tree of Life which should have grown since then.

Thinking of the divine kingdom, Shin fell asleep peacefully to go there.