SON OF THE HERO KING

The elf was a beautiful woman, clad in a white jacket and white pants that fully embraced her ravishing form.

She wore a pair of black rectangular glasses that could barely hide the fatigue etched in her eyes and her long brown hair seemed to not have been brushed for a few days— what else could explain the frizzy edges and the slightly disheveled hair…

Her jacket was opened, showing a hint of her breasts, in order to let her breathe more easily. After all, with how large they were, her clothes were quite constraining.

Milia had no doubt that if she had been absent, the elf would have simply been working naked. Not that she could blame her. Milia wished she could do the same. Maid clothes were quite stuffy after all.

The elf was none other than Clara. She came to Lustburg with Lilin in order to have a chance to prove herself.

Sol had officially taken her as an employee and sort of a proxy before going to the Astral realm so while the amount of work Milia had was huge, what Clara had to do was simply astronomical.

Clara wasn’t just any elf, she was from an honorable family of elves who had dedicated their life to dragons and entered their service.

The most recent one, her mother, had been at the service of Blaze while she had still been in the Astral realm. As her daughter, Clara took it as a personal honor when Sol had given her this opportunity and she refused to fail in her services.

Sadly, an elf having so much power wasn’t really appreciated by the nobles of Lustburg and she had trouble getting obeyed. This is where Milia intervened.

“Milia, I have good and bad news— Which one do you wish to hear first?”

Of course, the same went for a cow woman like her. As a beastman, Milia was under scrutiny by most. But since she was born and raised in Lustburg, there was no problem with her origin. She had the advantage of having her own sphere of influence.

Furthermore, it was now a known fact among the nobility that she had been heavily favored by Sol and would most likely become a concubine of his. Few nobles wanted to mess with her even though they didn’t know her identity as the leader of the Crown’s shadow.

Looking at the clearly overworked Clara, even Milia couldn’t help but feel a little pity. She stood up and went to prepare a relaxing tea.

This was one of the ways she had managed to stay sane. Tea was indeed a great way to calm the mind.

“Thanks…”

Clara smiled when the steaming hot cup was placed in front of her.

“Just how dire is the situation?”

Clara groaned at that question…

“The situation is bad. Very bad. We need to prepare fast.”

“From the different reports I compiled, I can say one thing with confidence.”

Clara looked deeply at Milia, “The war may not have officially started, but it will happen soon.”

Milia stayed silent, “How long do we have left? Winter is already coming.”

“Winter might be harsh for humans, but for beastmen, it’s an inconvenience at most. Furthermore, the belligerent king of Wratharis is not a patient man, if you understand what I mean.”

Milia gave a polite smile at the small joke. After all, the virtue opposite of wrath was patience.

“Either way, Wratharis is already moving. When the lakes will freeze and the world will become covered in snow – They will strike. Two months from now, at the earliest. Three months at the most – The war will surely happen.”

“We need to prepare.”

Milia sighed and looked up in the direction of the church.

“I hope his highness will come back soon.”

Clara muttered, causing Milia to smile.

“I believe his highness will surprise us all.”

She missed him so much. But she knew that once Sol came back, he would officially become a King. Then, he would dazzle the world with his magnificence.

“So this was the bad news. What about the good news?”

Clara shrugged, “Well, us having two or three months to prepare was basically the good news.”

Milia sighed, she really needed to ask for a raise.

She wasn’t paid for this sh… Then she remembered once again that she was the leader of the Crown's shadow and as such was indeed paid to deal with such a problem.

‘Shit! What does a maid have to do to just be able to stay in her room and gaze at the handmade sculptures of her beloved master? It isn't too much to ask for, right?’

'This girl is more perceptive than I thought.'

The evaluation she had of Clara continued to rise. However, the question was… Would Milia really take her time to help someone she did not care about?

Of course not… would be the definitive answer…

Rather than helping Clara, Milia was simply observing the girl and her work.

Clara could not know this, but the higher-ups of Lustburg were already in discussion with the leader of the Oni clan as well as the Supreme daughter of Patientia.

Thanks to this they had access to a great deal of information.

Not all of them could be believed but Milia had determined that the alliance could be trusted.

The reason Clara was not told anything wasn't just because she was an elf. But rather because she was an elf born in another country.

The Forest of the Elves shared a border with Wratharis and Lustburg. It would be problematic for them if the two countries were to hold hands.

What would Clara do if she was supposed to choose between her loyalty to her country and her loyalty to Sol?

Milia did not know.

Since she did not know, she could not simply bet on her good nature. She had to be sure. One mistake of hers could bring terrible consequences. Like what happened not long ago with the attack of Wings of Freedom.

'I wonder if she will be able to infer that something is afoot.'

If Clara managed to do so, then she was worth working on to convert her loyalty.

Such a talent could not be wasted.

"Well then, now that the tea break is finished. Let's continue working, shall we?"

"Right."

—-

'I feel like I am dying inside.'

By the time Milia finally ended her share of the work, it was very late. The moon was already high up and the soothing darkness of the night worked wonders to soothe her taut nerves.

She wished for nothing more than to enter her sanctuary and be surrounded by his scent, or whatever was left of it.

It was the last place that helped her keep her sanity.

“Your highness, I wonder how much you would have changed by the time you come back.”

Sol was a bright young man who had been more or less imprisoned all his life in a castle of gold.

But now, he was a free bird soaring in the sky after learning how to fly. She had no doubt that Sol would experience many interesting things and witness many wondrous sights.

She simply hoped that by the time he came back, the Sol she knew and loved would not be negatively influenced.

‘May the goddesses protect you…?’

Milia was not religious. The goddesses did nothing to save them when she and the other children were suffering because of those experiments. In fact, the main source of their suffering was a Blessed.

Even before becoming a spymaster and having access to confidential information, Milia had long since realized that the goddesses had no care for the woes of mere mortals like them.

Still, Milia prayed. She hoped that her beloved liege would be safe from all danger.

‘I need to grow.’

Caressing the face of the sculpture and wondering if Sol would have also changed physically, she couldn’t help but reaffirm her resolve.

She needed to become stronger.

All this time, she had been satisfied with being a Duke-level being. Why would she not? In all the mortal realm, out of billions of people, only a few thousand at most were Duke.

The probability of becoming a duke was so low it was abyssal, but she had managed to do it. Though she hated the experiments, there was no lying when it came to the results.

She was strong. Milia, a simple cow woman whose greatest accomplishment would have been to become a wet nurse had managed to rise in rank, become one of the most powerful beings in the world, and had control over the dark side of an entire Kingdom.

This was a life worthy of a protagonist.

At least this is what Milia had thought until she came in service of the true protagonists of this world.

The Blessed.

As if that wasn’t enough, she could now see Nuwa, Setsuna, and Lilin progressively growing stronger. Setsuna and Lilin were now already proper Dukes and Nuwa wasn’t far from becoming one.

Then there was Camelia, Lilith, and the witches, all of them being on the King level.

Milia could see it. In the end, she would be left behind by all of them.

Her artificial talent could not keep up with the pure natural talent of those monsters. At least this was what she thought until she realized that Lilith and Lilin were not different from her.

Like her, they were the results of the experiment of that crazy king.

If so then, why should she feel inferior?

If Lilith could become a king, why couldn’t she?

Lilith's genes mainly came from a King level Blessed. But hers came from the Monster Queen herself, Echidna, the Mother of Thousand Monsters. A demigod powerhouse who terrorized the mortal realm for centuries.

She wanted to become stronger.

She needed to become stronger.

Otherwise, if a day came that Sol no longer needed her, Milia was sure that she would kill herself out of depression.

She didn’t just want to be some sex doll for him. She needed to be useful. She wished to be someone he could never cast away.

Inwardly, she knew her fears were groundless, the Sol she knew was not that kind of man.

But what if he changed? What if he decided she had no more worth? What if she was thrown away like all the failed experiments back then?

“My current mental state is worse than I thought.”

Milia had many traumas but most of them were hidden behind her tough exterior. Sadly, the more her mental strength fell, the worse those fears became.

The saving grace was that, rather than cowering because of fear, Milia was advancing with steadfast conviction.

‘I guess I should try to meet her.’

In this kingdom, there was only one person who knew enough about Echidna and science in general to give her the advice she sought out.

Ambrosia— the Thousand Spells Witch.

It was time to seek her audience…