After their two hours session, Nero covered Asteria with a blanket and chuckled: "She fell asleep again."
He glanced outside the window and muttered, "This is a long night."
He yawned but covered his mouth with a tired expression on his face.
"I guess that's my limit. I will have to sleep next time and get some rest."
He jumped out of the window and leaped over the palace.
Nero liked the palace, so he wanted to have a better look at it from the outside. As he was jumping, he spotted Horus standing on the balcony of the lounge.
'What is he doing?' Nero wondered.
Nero landed on the balcony and leaned on the ledge opposite to Horus.
Horus glanced at Nero for a while and uttered, "Umm… did you have a proper rest?"
"The bed broke," Nero commented.
"...!" Horus' eyes widened in surprise as he muttered, "Impossible."
"Next time, when you promise something, make sure you have the right sources," Nero scoffed with a grin on his face.
"None of the beds in this palace has ever broken," Horus stated. "Maybe yours was a defective one."
"I can break the other beds too if you want me to," Nero sneered.
After a brief moment, Horus smiled gently and said in a calm voice, "It's been a long time since I talked to someone like this."
"...."
"An independent man, I mean," Horus added.
Nero raised his brows and said, "Yesterday, you said all the guests of this kingdom stay in the outer area of your palace. And now you are saying, 'it's been a long time since I talked to someone'."
"Does that mean this kingdom has no guests?" Nero asked with a curious look on his face.
"Not quite true. We do get a lot of guests every day, but I don't talk to them like I am talking to you right now. Nor I let any other man enter the inner area of the palace. That's my private space for me, my wife, and my mistresses," Horus asserted in a calm voice.
"Then why did you let me stay in the inner palace?" Nero asked curiously.
"You are the officiant of Cthulhu, so I must treat you with respect," Horus answered sincerely.
"..."
Nero averted his gaze and thought, 'This guy is an idiot. And this kingdom is doomed.'
"Cthulhu had taken the island as a hostage, and I need to find the killers in a week or Cthulhu might…" Horus stopped and corrected himself: "He will kill them."
Nero gazed at Horus from the corner of his eye and asked, "Most of the hostages are travelers. So why are you trying to save them? I don't understand. You even put your kingdom in danger by making that unnecessary promise."
"I believe everyone's lives are worth it. They have their own lives, their own dreams, their own lifestyles, and they live in their own world. If one person dies, then many worlds would be destroyed," Horus answered with a distant smile.
"That's just bullshit." Nero tittered and continued, "If you think too much about others, then when would you think for yourself? Be greedy, be selfish; coz that's what humans are."
Horus turned to Nero and asked, "Do you consider me a human even after seeing my wings?"
"Yeah, because you are a human."
Horus scoffed and uttered, "You are not wrong. My ancestors were half angels. So as the generation passed by, the angelic powers and blood had become dormant."
SIGH!
Nero sighed and said, "Now don't say something like 'I am kind because I am related to angels'."
"Heh!" Horus snickered.
After a brief pause, Horus slowly opened his mouth to say, "This entire kingdom is like a family to me. We do everything together. There is no partiality between them. Rich and poor, beautiful and ugly, royals and commoners— they all are treated the same. We eat together, and we celebrate together."
Nero knitted his brows and asked with a confused look on his face: "What do you mean by you eat together? Surely, you don't mean that you actually eat together, right?"
"Yes, we do it together," Horus nodded. "But practically speaking, eating together with the entire kingdom is impossible. So I eat from my palace with my wife and mistresses. And the citizens eat from the garden and their houses."
"That's not eating together," Nero remarked with a sigh.
"Well, we all eat the same food."
"Same food? As in from the same field or same type of food?" Nero questioned with a perplexed look on his face.
"Same type of dishes; prepared by the citizens together," Horus replied. "I told you, this kingdom is one big family."
"..."
"There is always peace; no quarrels, no crimes, no bad things," Horus stated. "It's almost as if it's a—"
"Heaven," Nero completed Horus' sentence.
"Yeah."
"Bloody hell!" Nero exclaimed. "No wonder I am getting creeps from this place."
"Haha!" Horus laughed out loud and said, "You are a funny man, the officiant of Cthulhu."
'I will just let him call me that,' Nero thought to himself.
"So… when do we start?" Horus asked hesitantly.
"Start what?" Nero wondered, completely unknown to what Horus was talking about.
"The search for the killers of Cthulhu's daughter— the Kraken," Horus stated as though it was obvious that Nero was going to help him.
"I never said I will help you out," Nero refuted.
"But aren't you Cthulhu's officiant?"
"I don't care," Nero shrugged his shoulders and began walking away.
"But Cthulhu will destroy everything if I don't give him the killers within a week."
"I don't give a shit. You should have thought about it first before promising."
After pondering for a while to think of a way to convince Nero to help him, Horus came up with an idea: "I will give you a royal token that will allow you to entire any town or kingdom of this continent."
Nero slowed his pace after hearing Horus' offer.
"I will also give you the details of the person who made the bedsheet. I know you like them."
Nero stopped walking and turned around to look at Horus. Then, he shook Horus' hand and said, "What's on the menu for the food?"
======
Webnovel.com
Support me on p.a.y.p.a.l:- https://paypal.me/NoWoRRyMaN
Follow me on Instagram:- https://www.instagram.com/noworryman_wn
Follow me on Twitter:- https://twitter.com/WN_NoWoRRyMaN