Chapter 83 - Athena And The Hero - Part 6

The past Athena had left behind was beginning to reappear.

At the thought that she was so easily forgotten, Athena felt the bitterness of sadness again, bringing back memories that she had lived long ago.

(I... I didn't think about it... I... They...)

Athena's eyes were unfocused and losing their light as fear took over her mind.

Being forgotten and left behind was a scary thing that made her feel lonely.

That loneliness and sadness mixed together made Athena's heart ache and her face darken.

Ella was beginning to think that maybe Athena couldn't really handle the darkness inside her. And that wasn't just about the magical element, but about her negative feelings as well.

However, as she thought this, she saw something change in Athena.

As if she had just received the illumination, Athena's face cleared and the light returned to her eyes.

(They may have already forgotten me...) Athena thought. (But I might as well have them back. There's no point in feeling that way.)

After all, what matter if they had already buried her and forgotten about her?

All the negativity and memories were simply crushed by a new perspective.

Athena came to the conclusion that it wasn't necessary to worry about something she didn't know and didn't have control about, and that if necessary, she could step in and fix everything.

"It matters if they forgot me? I want to go back and see them." Athena replied with a smile. "The complicated things come later."

Ella smiled back, a satisfied smile, and rose from the cave floor. "Very well. Then let's go to the floating islands."

"Are you serious?!" Athena jumped up in her place with a big smile on her face.

"Yes, I am." Ella nodded and Athena hugged her and turned around. "Waaah!"

"Ahahahaha!" Athena laughed with happiness filling her chest. "Hercules, wake up the children. We are going to fly!"

"What are you talking about?" Hercules frowned. "The storm continues."

***

Ever since he saw Fotiá and followed her all that afternoon, Prince Edrik of the kingdom of Veand had been obsessed.

"I'm sure of that..." Edrik said as he faced Yrio, Hein and Samy. "I'm sure this is love!"

Yrio had become Edrik's knight a year ago after managing to buy a spiritual fire stone and evolve Hein into her adult form.

Hein was now a woman with a sensual body of lush curves just the way Yrio wanted her to be. And with that body, Hein got what she wanted and make Yrio want her in his bed.

Both achieved two precious things. A lover for life and a trusted partner in battles.

The two looked at each other when they heard what the prince said.

They already knew of the prince's dubious tastes and even freed some of his victims, but what they found strange was that Edrik never said anything about being in love until then.

"I finally found what I've been looking for! A lifetime of searching and now it appears out of nowhere." Edrik hugged the pillow and kissed it. "How did she react to the flowers?"

Silence filled the room and Edrik sat up in bed, facing the knights.

Samy seemed to be thinking about something outside the situation, and the pair, or couple, pretended to not have heard the question, looking at a painting of a naked woman of dubious beauty.

"What? She didn't like it?"

"Hm..." Yrio looked at Edrik out of the corner of his eye.

"Speak!"

"She incinerated the flowers with carts and everything else." Hein said. "Besides, your highness, from what I could see, the girl is a nymph. If she's not with the fairies, it means she has a master just like I have Yrio."

Edrik frowned at the scarlet-haired woman. "So what? Even though she has a master, she can fall in love with someone else, right?"

Hein wrapped her arms around Yrio's neck and kissed him tenderly on the cheek. "I don't deny the possibility, but nymphs like her and me..."

"What?" Edrik's pink lips twitched.

"We tend to fall in love with the one who gave us life." Hein concluded by running her index finger over her lover's bearded chin. "At first we think of them as our parents, then we respect them as our masters and then we love them as lovers."

Edrik lay back on the bed lined with yellow sheets and bit his thumbnail. But then he rose and looked at the knights again.

"Let's go to her!"

Meanwhile, at the inn, the four women had just woken up.

It was around ten in the morning and they were late for their departure.

"Quickly Fotiá! We need to fly as fast as possible. Now that we know that Athena is down there, somewhere in the north, it'll be pretty easy to find her." Anemus said as she brushed her long greenish golden hair.

Fotiá still had her eyes closed as she walked from one side to the other with a pants in one hand and a skirt in the other.

"I... Fu~... I'm... Withaah~... Sleep..." Fotiá mumbled lazily.

"That's because you guys stayed up late listening to Lobana's whole story about Athena." Lunnia said as she closed a lock on her armor.

"You said 'fly'..." Lobana said looking at Anemus. "Anemus I understand, she has wings... But what about you two?"

"I have a pegasus and Fotiá has Athena's grimera."

"Oh... I forgot that Athena is absurdly rich." Lobana said thinking about the price of a grimera and looked at Lunnia when thinking about the pegasus. "You're not poor either huh..."

"??" Lunnia raised an eyebrow. "Why do you think that?"

"A pegasus is three hundred platinum coins on the revamped market price."

"Platinum?" Anemus asked. Now she was arranging her wing feathers. "It is expensive?"

"That's three thousand gold coins. I'd have to save for five years or more, or have a very generous contractor, like Athena, to have all that."

"Where did this new coin come from?"

"Serien... She is the princess regent in Athena's kingdom. Serien said that this was Athena's plan. It seems like it was very complicated to do this and it's still in the stabilization process." Lobana said and got up with her luggage on her shoulder. "They are ready?"

"Lunnia and I are, but as always, Fotiá..."

Fotiá was combing her hair with Lunnia's help and was about to say something to Anemus when she heard musical sounds that accompanied a strangely feminine voice coming from outside the window.

Following Anemus, Fotiá got up and along with Lunnia and Lobana, she looked out the window Anemus had opened.

"You touch my heart

introduced me love

With the love that I feel

We can make anything real"

As he sang, Edrik staged and danced gallantly to the lyrics of the song.

"I love you

in my mind, in my heart

I love you

I feel my heart will explode

If I don't have your love

my heart can't stand

without you

I love you..."

N/A: These lyrics were based on The White Buffalo song "I got you". I love this song because it reminds me of the mistakes I made with the woman I love and let me down.

The prince placed one hand on his chest and holding a red rose, he stretched the other towards the window and Fotiá said her first curse.

"What the fuck..?"

***

In Basilica's royal palace, Mifa was sitting on the steps leading to the thrones while a group of nearly forty people made their demands under her eyes.

"Your Highness, all we want is the right to exercise our authority guaranteed by our bloodline." Said a man with a thick red beard.

"And what would those rights be? Take the first night of a newly married woman? Take the produce from farmers? Or..." Mifa's wild eyes narrowed. "Kidnap, enslave, **** and kill commoners as you wish?"

She spoke not only with the noble men, but also with the women who were there present among the group of nobles.

Some were offended and others ashamed. It was difficult to distinguish which of them had already committed such acts, but Mifa did not intend to distinguish them either.

She was a commoner and even in the village where she was born, there was a person who was like that.

This person was the head of the village.

In Mifa village, the head always came from only one family and he had the right to choose the woman he wanted as long as she was single and old enough to have children.

Mifa had no interest in doing anything to favor those people.

However, this had nothing to do with her thoughts of them, but with what Athena had decided to do so.

"H-how dare you speak like that to someone from one of the oldest families in the kingdom?" Complained a very thin man. "You may be a princess now, but in the end you're just a commoner bitch!"

At that moment, the knights drew their swords, echoing a metallic sound through the throne room and Mifa laughed.

"Fufufu~ Ahahahaha!"

The nobles looked at the young woman and despite their clear physical differences, she made them reminded of the queen who had made their lives so miserable.

"T-what are you laughing at?" Shrieked Marquis Zeallant. A man with silver black hair and a plump body.

He had personally experienced what came after that laugh.

Two years ago, Athena gathered the grand dukes, dukes and marquis in the throne room. And after being affronted and cursed, the queen ordered a bloodbath.

The only survivors of this event were Zeallant, Ewllen and two other nobles who knelt in redemption.

After that, anyone who had a title of nobility greater than the marquis and did not attend that meeting, was either demoted or, if they refused, killed.

The knights had their swords drawn, waiting for an order. Marquis Zeallant was in a cold sweat as fear began to show on his wrinkled face.

Mifa's laugh echoed through the room and suddenly everything went silent.

The nobles looked all around, startled and waiting for the knights to act, but they didn't move.

"You have two choices." Mifa said. "1. You all can be tied out there in the garden, for ten days, without food and water. And I'll pretend this meeting never happened or..." Mifa held up two fingers. "2..." Mifa's eyes were menacing and the knights took a step forward.

But that was a farce.

Despite her cruel actions and decisions, Mifa didn't like that.

Having to act like Athena was a difficult burden and she often wanted to give up. But Athena always popped into her mind, making her continue to act like the tyrant that her beloved was.

The lords obviously decided to be tied and knelt before the princess.

But not all them.

The former duke, the thick red-bearded noble Lord Ewllen, along with five other nobles, remained standing.

Mifa lowered her hand and faced the people. "Decided?"

"We decided." Ewllen said. "Right now, Duke Veron must be with Princess Serien and if you don't relinquish the throne now, the princess will die." The man turned and looked at the door. "And when we accuse you of treason, we will put Princess Serien's younger sister, princess Marien, on the throne and control everything in the kingdom!"

Mifa listened in silence, with a strange smile on her face.. "Should I thank you for telling me everything?" She let out a sigh. "Kill them!"