SHK CH 740 (Patreon)

After Sol arranged with Anubis and the other two, things started progressing fast. Sol focused mainly on recovery in his room while the other women went to their jobs. There was much to do and so little time.

Isis' load was lighter thanks to Anubis lending his own undead. They were only low-level undead, as Anubis was unable to meddle too much, but Sol didn’t mind. 

Anubis was in a weird position when it came to the so-called “rules”. Beings from the Astral Realm were not allowed to affect the political landscape of the seven kingdoms in the Mortal Realm. This went even more so for Demigods. This is why Demigods were basically unable to enter the Mortal Realm.

But this only applied to foreign Demigods. Since Anubis was born in the Mortal Realm, most of the restrictions the world placed on others were non-existent on him. Yet, by fusing his essence with the Afterlife Realm and creating the Underworld, his position became more ambiguous.

If one had to give an analogy, he was someone with Dual Citizenship and received double taxation.

Either way, Sol did not need to rely on his father-in-law. Lustburg was already a well-oiled machine, and the addition of undead was just the cherry on top.

The problem came from the attack of those old gods. While Sol was in a coma, Camellia and the others informed Milia, who immediately ordered a wide search, and they realized that many small settlements and villages had been attacked and eradicated in what could only be called a full ritualistic massacre.

Thousands of citizens and knights had been quietly killed without them noticing anything until now. 

Sol knew that he shouldn’t reproach himself for the actions of terrorists, but his sense of responsibility was far different from what it once was. While he would not hurt his loved ones for the sake of the world, there was no denying that it was his duty as a King to assure the well-being of his citizens, and he had clearly failed in his duty.

Sol did not like failure.

While he was asleep, Milia had ordered a gag order and stopped this discovery from reaching the population in the capital. Now that he was awake, he had to decide whether or not he should share it. 

The people had the right to know the truth, but sometimes, the truth also needed to be hidden. 

As if this headache wasn’t enough, because of the massacre caused by Asura in Wratharis, Setsuna and Shuten Doji also made a territory-wide inspection, and the results were worse than in Lustburg. 

After all, Lustburg still had a certain stability, but Wratharis had a wide territory all under the control of different tribe leaders and hundreds of islands or mountains that were inhabited by hermits or small groups. 

As a result, an estimate of more than forty thousand deaths and disappearances was added to the list. Far more still went unaccounted, and there were clear traces of torture in all the sites.

Sol still remembered how Setsuna nearly went berserk when the news reached her. Ironically, the number of civilian deaths accounted for was higher than the number that occurred during the war. Back then, even Lupus had been somewhat restrained. Capture was more important than straight-on extermination, and for obvious reasons, Sol had asked the soldiers to be careful when handling beastkin civilians.

Bad news never came alone, and they were now sure that many rebel beastkin had joined hands with either the Dwarves as well. It wasn’t hard to track some funds of unknown origin.

Since Wratharis was now allied to Lustburg in name but was in reality more like a colony, its problem became Sol’s problem, and it was now his duty as well to take care of them. 

More duties. More responsibilities. More problems. More stress.

He should have been sleeping and resting, but how could he be comfortable when mortals were dying like ants because of crazy old gods who were chasing their past grandeur? 

On the side, Dawn was clearly approaching her old Divine Kingdom, or what was left of it. 

Sol knew that his father had once used that Divine Territory as a way to become stronger, but Sol had no intention of stopping Dawn. Not now, at least. Once she discovered and activated it, he would definitely be the first on the place to study it, and then he would decide what he would do to her. 

His only worry was whether there were other Divine Territories left in the Mortal Realm. 

If yes, he needed to make sure that none of them fell into the wrong hands. He would have loved to find them, but whoever had hidden the Karma threads was a pro and had a far higher mastery than Sol in controlling the Concept of Karma.

This was most likely the work of another old god and the proof that they could not be underestimated. Even a pure combat-focused god like Asura had been a pain and Sol knew that he could not use Deus and the End every time. 

So much stress. Things were happening fast. Many sad things, death, destruction, wars. One would think that the end of the world was fast approaching. 

The angels were still dangerous, though much less important on his list of things he needed to be wary about. The dwarves were a nuisance that needed to be taught a lesson. 

Gluttony Foss was still unknown, but Sol intended to conquer fast by using Nuwa's legitimacy to the throne. Ideally, Nuwa would soon awaken as a Blessed. Something he had to discuss with the Goddess of Gluttony. 

He wished he could ask Adam to enlighten him a little, but the old man was asleep in his soul. 

His last stunt had clearly tired him too much. His appearance was now extremely faint, and Sol could feel that the time the two of them would part was approaching, and there was sadly not much he could do. This was an inevitability. 

In moments like this, the only ray of light was that not all news was bad. The end of the world wasn’t for some time, and currently, he had only one thing he could really look forward to. 

For one, the Witches had nearly finished the delimitation of the Air Space. 

It was only around the capital for now, but Sol planned to increase the budget and give them unlimited funds so that they could cover the entirety of the country and even more. 

This would allow them to stop more tragedies from happening. 

The second piece of good news was that Nent and Nefertiti managed to have a rather good discussion. 

While there was some level of resentment. Their relationship had never been as problematic as the one between Lilith and Lilin, for example. 

Now that Nefertiti was a King Rank, the two of them were essentially equal. Of course, Nent was far stronger than Nefertiti, but with the power of Faith, Nefertiti was not helpless. 

The two of them were already preparing more doctrine for his religion and a way to integrate it in the Phoenix Territory and even the witches and Lustburg. 

Luxuria and Castatis were his allies and supported his Ascension to Godhood; they would hide whatever was happiest from the other goddesses so that he wouldn't be accused of blasphemy. Giving him the time he needed to build more faith.

They considered Wratharis but discarded the idea as the Goddess of Wrath, while technically, an ally could easily turn on them. 

On a third point, Satella seemed to adapt to life in the tower. There was still some distance between her and everyone else, but he was sure that they would become closer. 

Nent and Kiyohime meet in his dimension and briefly talk. But the two of them did not have much to say to each other. 

The wounds of yesteryear might not hurt as much, but the scars would not vanish.

Once again, Sol was hopeful. At the very least, Kiyohime did not hate Nent anymore. This was a huge win in his book. 

After how Nent treated Kiyohime all those years ago, he would have understood even if Kiyohime swore not to breathe in the same space as Nent.

Finally, the last good news that made Sol smile even as he worked was none other than his wedding. 

Because of all the bad news, he had considered stopping the preparation, but the others made him understand that it was exactly because of all this that they needed this wedding. 

Medea had vanished somewhere, and they refused to tell him where, and he could only wait until the final day to finally see her.

Sitting on his chair and closing the last document he needed to sign for the day, Sol couldn't help but feel giddy.

After so many problems that appeared midway, his wedding would happen in two days.

No training. No mock wedding for the test. They would go for the real deal.

Tomorrow he would go to Arachne to get his suit, and the day after, he would be a married man.

Hopefully, nothing bad happened again. He swore he would exterminate the soul of anyone stupid enough to disturb him on that day.