SON OF THE HERO KING

As much as Sol loved spending quality time with Pandora and building up their relationship, the time he had at his disposal was severely limited. He needed to make every second count.

All his temporary avatars moved tirelessly, working around different issues of his kingdom. He also tucked one avatar away inside his dimension to focus on building his power.

Truthfully speaking, calling them avatars was more or less wrong as their existence was closer to having multiple minds working simultaneously. But giving form to these temporary avatars helped in channeling more focus into the different tasks that were strictly assigned to each of them. Simultaneously, the separation significantly lowered the dissonance he generally felt doing so many tasks parallelly. Separating his thoughts into fixed forms helped him immensely.

While his main body was cuddling with Pandora, and they were preparing for a good night’s sleep, one of his avatars was in an important meeting with his advisors and an interesting fourth participant.

Athena, Milia, Clara and— La Befana. The representative of the Witches.

Those three women are the only people he could unconditionally trust to handle the administration of his Kingdom. As for La Befana, as the current leader of the council, all decisions went through her to the witches. Only Medea and Ambrosia had more authority than her and could directly rule over the council.

Initially, Medea was supposed to be sitting on this very table. But it was decided that such things might create doubt in the minds of the witches. After all, they all knew about his relationship with Medea. With that in mind, it was hard to say Mede would have the best interests of Salem in her mind.

There was nothing Medea could really do about this situation. Her Karma from one thousand years ago was still hindering her. It would be unreasonable to ask the witches to fully believe in someone who caused them to be exiled and hated for over a thousand years. The fact that the true culprit was Jupiter did not really matter.

Athena was still a little green on these matters, but Clara was making sure to teach her everything she had learned over the years. It was the most surefire way to ensure that Athena would serve him to the best of her abilities without any major failures or setbacks.

When Sol shared his decision about Gerald, Athena showed a brief smile of joy before immediately correcting her expression. Then, after a deep bow, she thanked him on behalf of the Highland family.

Sol did not need such thanks, nevertheless, he accepted them magnanimously. The Highland family was a staunch loyalist, and Sol knew how to reward those loyal to him.

He decided to slightly increase their territory and resources that would go to them in the future after he dealt with the witches.

“So, this is the new draft for the witches’?” Sol looked down at the document with a deep frown etched on his face. To officialize his alliance with the witches, two things were necessary. Marrying Medea and handing out the promised territory and titles.

“Grand Duchess, huh.” The first thing in order was the title that would go to Ambrosia. As the creator and ruler of all the Witches, she was a queen in all but name. But she was still human, making it impossible for her to get a title of the same standing or superior to him in Lustburg.

In the end, he received a proposal from Befana. “You do know that such a title is only fitting in an empire?” He asked her while considering the document quietly.

Grand dukes, also referred to as Archdukes were more or less equal to Kings. In many ways, this was a suitable title. One he would use for the rulers of all the Kingdom he would conquer in the future. But at the moment, it was not particularly suitable for them.

“Your Highness, since we have already captured Wratharis and are about to negotiate with Southern Pride, it’s necessary to start now. After this meeting, I would like to show you the draft I have prepared for a new template. The number of Dukes we have will increase tremendously, and we will have more Grand dukes. We might also need to create more titles on the lower level.” Clara pointed out on the side. While she did not like Befana, Clara had to give respect to the vastly older woman.

Befana had been elected many times in the council and even with the strict rotation, she sat on the chairman chair more than once. In terms of pure skill, experience, and knowledge of governance, no one here was her match.

Sol groaned inwardly but did not complain. If before, he was doing this whole conquest thing more out of necessity than anything else. Now he truly wished to conquer the entire world and increase his power.

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After all, how was he supposed to take over the universe if he could not even control one of the main Realms that comprised the whole damn thing?

“Very well. For now, we will nominate Ambrosia as Grand Duke of Salem. As for you, Miss Befana. You will receive the title of Duchess. Most of the territories that were previously under the Gorfar family will be under your control. What do you say?”

Befana simply perused the map Clara gave her, and chuckled, “I am only the temporary head of the council. Soon, someone will replace me. I would not be fit as a Duchess.” Her tone was polite but the intent to refuse his proposal was evident.

The witches followed a system that was as close as possible to democracy while still focusing heavily on meritocracy. Only the best of the best were allowed on the seat of the council and the head seat was never permanent due to the rotation.

“It’s no matter. You witches might not be used to the way we measure time. But a term of fifty years is no different from the passage between two generations here. You still have your two terms. So you will be able to act as a Duchess for nearly a hundred years.”

Befana clicked her tongue. She truly did not want to become a Duchess of Lustburg. She was sure that the next period would be filled with all kinds of chaos and continuous expansion. Furthermore, the whole system of Lustburg was a mess filled with so many holes she felt pain on behalf of the administration. Even though half of the whole administration was undead.

Looking up, she could see Sol gazing at her with a wide grin that threatened to split his face, as if he had successfully pulled a prank. She did not need to be a genius witch to understand that he would not budge on his matter.

Sighing she put down the maps and said, “On behalf of all the witches of Salem I can only say… Thank you.”

“Do not worry. Duchess Befana, you will have to discuss with the other Dukes and Duchesses regarding the placement of the witches. It’s necessary to avoid a second form of segregation.”

If all the witches were concentrated in one zone, then it would be no different than the current situation the witches were facing.

Sol was not worried about the witches' integration in Lustburg. He just had to lay the foundations for now. In just a century or two at most, no one would even remember the witches were once considered enemies of humanity.

My sense of time is slipping already.

Clearly, after spending so much time with so many long-lived species, even his own sense of time had been severely affected.

“Your Highness, we also need to reschedule many matters on our agenda. I have received a report from Southern Pride and it seems that things are moving in quite a strange way. Queen Satella wishes to bring forward the meeting once more.”

“Why do you think she is doing this?” Sol asked and Clara answered with mirth in her eyes, “Take a look, Your Highness. I am sure you will find this very interesting.”

Sol became speechless as he gazed at the three books she put on the table.

[Bible of the All-Seeing Radiant Lord]

[The Sulfurous Adventure of the Prince of Lust: Pink Edition]

[The Tales of the Dragon Emperor: Collector’s Edition]

Eying the title, he was forced to tilt his head and wonder just what the hell was happening here.

“What is this?” Sol asked, dreading the answer.

“Your adventures, Your Highness,” Clara said.

“Oh…”

Sol covered his face and sighed in defeat. He thought he had managed to transcend shame. But this was definitely on another level.

“Okay… Let’s ignore this for now. Why do you have the so-called Pink and Collector’s Edition here?” He was genuinely curious but Clara looked at him like he was the strange one.

“For my own collection. I bought the normal edition of each book and will read them at my leisure. The current Collector and Pink editions are covered in a special spell that will protect them only for two hundred years. How could I bear to read them? Sadly, no special edition yet is out for the Bible.” The way she seemed genuinely sad was quite baffling to Sol.

“.... Then why even bring them here?” Shouldn’t she keep them in her collection and bring over the normal versions of the book?

Clara smiled and clasped her hand, she had no reason to hide her goal, “Once you touch the books, I will save your imprint on them using another spell. This will make their value skyrocket. Of course, it would be my honor if you would sign them with your mana or just a word.”

The way she gave him puppy eyes was simply… unbearable. Still, he had no reason to refuse. But, just as he was about to sign,

~Ahem~

Milia cleared her throat gently and took out a dozen books from her shadow dimension.

“The Hounds asked for this as a reward until you can meet them.” She seemed quite ashamed, but from the way she was holding three books close to her heart, it became evident that some of them were not really for the hounds under her.

Like this, before he even understood what was happening, a serious discussion about the distribution of power in Lustburg transformed into a glorified signing session.

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