The Castle in the middle of nowhere.

"Sooo... Let me get this straight." I rubbed my temples and took a deep breath. "Harmonia is Hestia's niece which is pretty obvious since Ares was your brother and Harmonia's father. This part was easy. Now..."

I looked at the burning red Roannia sitting between Hestia and Harmonia on the couch.

"I have no idea why you are so embarrassed but, anyway... You are, but at the same time you are not, Harmonia's reborn daughter, Autonoë... Roannia who died at birth was fed by Harmonia with ambrosia, the mythical Gods' food, which brought you back to life. Then, she fed you her blood mixed with milk to awaken the traces of her daughter, she suspected you once were... Since you survived these questionable nursing methods, it means you are Harmonia's daughter but you have, absolutely, no recollection of a past life... Did I forget anything? Ah yes! That makes you a Demigoddess." I covered my eyes and looked at the three women through my fingers. "As far as the Greek mythology goes, that I remember at least, the situation is sufficiently interwoven and crazy, so everything there checks out..."

"Yes. You got it right the first try, my Dear." Hestia chuckled.

I closed my eyes, took a few deep contemplative breaths and slowly sighed. After which I threw my hands in the air with an annoyed groan. "I guess?!"

"See? I told you he would understand." Hestia smiled at the remaining women.

"So, excuse my curiosity, but what's my role in this sitcom drama?" I rubbed my eyes.

"What's a sitcom? Wait, I don't want to know." My wife closed her eyes and raised her hands defensively. "I want to keep Roannia protected in Avalon until she fully awakens as a full-fledged Goddess."

Hestia's smile widened and she put on a sweet face.

"Depends on how long we are talking about. A few years? Easy enough..." I shrugged. "We can enroll her in the University. Pffff... Next year? Somehow Marie and her gang are involved in creating a new program, so Shirley, who is responsible for it, should have something usable within the next year. That would give you, at least, five years of peace... However... More? I don't really see how." I looked at her and sighed as I looked at Hestia. "She is what? Sixteen? Seventeen?"

"I'm eighteen, Lord Theon," Roannia answered meekly.

"So, even if we enroll you at the University, you will be twenty-four by the end of it. Considering that most people in this world believe that the best time to get married is somewhere after seventeen years old, I hardly see your father letting you stay in Arcadia for so long considering you are the only heir to the throne."

Hestia smirked as if she were fully aware of that, while Roannia and Harmonia looked as if they had completely forgotten it.

"What should we do now?!" Roannia panicked while Harmonia looked at me with a very slimy smile.

"We will arrange the engagement of my Daughter with you, Theon Avalon."

"Oh yeah..." I sighed with an empty stare. "No."

"Mom?!"

"Not now, Roa." Harmonia huffed and looked at me angrily. "Why not?!"

"Because we need something believable and not a half-assed temporary solution that will backfire horribly!" I crossed my arms and looked at Harmonia patiently but with a hint of scorn.

"You are protecting Princess Cassmira the same way!" Harmonia pointed out accusingly.

"She's different. Cassmira wasn't a sole inheritor of the Metakan throne or even close to the top of the succession line. She isn't carrying the same burden as Roannia." I waved my hand dismissively as I rested my head on my other hand. "Tell me what will happen in Aclium when your people learn that Roannia was betrothed to me?"

"They would be surprised but that... That..." Harmonia swallowed. "That would mean Arcadia intended to annex Aclium which certainly would make them anxious... I mean, it would be a pity but the people would, somehow, live with it seeing how wonderful Arcadia is..."

"You certainly let your fantasy go wild but, sure, why not..." I shook my head in disbelief, sighed, and lowered my voice. "Now, what will happen, after a few years, once we spread the news that our engagement was broken?"

"I..." Harmonia's face paled. "The Royal Family will, inevitably, lose their power and influence. There might even be an attempt to overthrow them... But even if that didn't happen, the people would want vengeance because you abandoned her..."

"More or less... You can also add scheming nobles trying to kidnap Roannia to force her into a political marriage so they could seize control over Aclium." I shrugged. "So, as you see, it's not a wise idea. That plan is just asking for trouble. However..." I leaned back my head and took a deep breath. "An engagement plan isn't that stupid if you swap me for someone else..."

"Hmmm... Theresa's manoeuvre?" Hestia tapped her lips thoughtfully and tilted her head. "That actually could work."

"Well... Yeah. But that's not a solution here since Roannia won't actually marry anyone. Hell, if we want it to be believable, then we can take the Praetorian who saved you in Aclium from kidnappers, conceal him as a noble, announce your engagement, and spectacularly kill him in a few years. If we sold that book with a good cover and some free popcorn, then half the world would be sobbing with you." I sighed.

"But... He saved my life! You can't kill him!" Roannia protested with shock and horror painted on her face.

In unsettling silence, I very slowly turned my head at Hestia, who seemed to be avoiding my questioning and confused gaze for some reason.

"You haven't told them?" I snorted in amusement.

"Somehow there was no opportunity..." She stuttered with a blush.

"Ok..." I chuckled and snapped my fingers, summoning one of the Praetorians to the room. "Since you trusted me with your secret, Roannia and Harmonia, I can entrust you with one of mine. Show them your face, Praetorian."

There was a brief confused stare between both women until they saw his fleshless-skull engulfed in blue flames. Even though a bare skull shouldn't be very expressive, he looked proud and stern. The blue flame wasn't normal. Strands of darkness mixed and danced with the flames, giving a much deeper shade to the flame's glow. Damn, my Praetorians looked so cool...

"A sk-sk-skeleton!" Princess Roannia was the first to regain her speech. Mostly, at least.

"Technically yes. But, in fact, I'm a Death Lord." The Praetorian's voice was full of dignity. "An Elite Death Lord to be precise. However, I prefer to be called a Praetorian."

"You weren't joking when you said that your husband is a Dungeon, Aunt Hestia?!" Harmonia looked at Hestia with shock, making my wife laugh uncontrollably as the Praetorian marched out of my office.

"Anyway... As you can see, death is just a minor inconvenience for my Praetorians." I chuckled, as always amused by the reaction of people who got to see what was under the helmet of my Royal Guards and Legionnaires. "So we can go wild! He could fall in battle fighting some mighty foe or perish in a bloodthirsty Dungeon! I'm pretty sure we can make him a hero and martyr for the people of Aclium."

"Theon, can you stop joking?" Hestia sighed as she finally caught my sarcastic tone.

"Of course I'm joking but you started it. I only joined in." I shrugged and shook my head in disbelief. "You are overthinking things so much that I can't believe it. Why? Why not resort to the simplest solution there is?"

"Which is?" Harmonia rolled her eyes.

"King Varis is what? Forty-years-old? Just convince him to have another child." I shrugged. "The real problem you have, Roannia, is securing the continuity of the bloodline of Aclium Royalty. You both have to explain to him that Roannia is an Eternal and she is, technically, a reincarnation of Harmonia's daughter. I have no clue how he is going to react but, trust me, keeping it from him will sever any bond you two have. I'm pretty sure you don't want any resentment between you so, to that end, he needs to learn the truth and you have to do it quickly-"

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I leaned forward as I deeply inhaled and, after I rested my elbows on my knees, I put my hands together. I pressed my forehead to my hands and hummed thoughtfully. After two minutes of silence, I looked at Harmonia, who flinched.

"This is what we, but mostly you, are going to do... Oh, and before you even ask, no Hestia, you can't go with them." I gave her a stern look and Hestia pouted but stayed silent. "I will loan you HMS Falcata to travel back to Aclium. No one is expecting your return so soon so there shouldn't be an ambush waiting for you, Princess. If I'm wrong, Falcata's crew can solve the problem. To mask the real reason behind your visit, I will assign a few support sail ships to pretend they are part of a merchant fleet or, even…, screw it, they will be officially sent with food supplies. You can sell a story that it was your personal negotiations that caused us to send supplies so fast. It will certainly help you gain more trust among your people. Thanks to their trust, you will be able to bring more of your trusted soldiers, maids, and the necessary items you forgot to include last time. But most importantly, you will achieve two more goals, Princess. The first one is, obviously, talking with your father. The second is causing the Ibrevellians to panic because they expected to see you struggling since they pulled their support and ceased all trade. Since they, functionally, control the southern trade routes, they are confident that no caravan will reach Aclium in time to prevent a crisis."

The three of them looked at me with open mouths, causing me to sigh heavily.

"I'm so glad that my Father decided to ally Aclium with you..." She gulped. "I'm impressed that you have such a simple yet effective solution..."

"Well, I surely can't deny how fortunate for you the alliance was but, at the same time, please... Don't be impressed with someone stating the obvious. I'm certain you could figure it out yourself. The most complicated plans tend to crash on the most unexpected things. Keep it simple and you will be shocked how often a plan works..." I sighed and smiled. "So... Since we established that my engagements with every girl who needs protection isn't the best solution most of the time, it happens that I have one thing to discuss."

Roannia's face burned so red that I was sure I could boil a kettle of water on her cheek. Harmonia's face wasn't any better but Hestia seemed amused. She sat far more comfortably once it became obvious that her niece and grandniece were going to get sufficient help.

"Nar'verna..." I crossed my arms as I leaned back into my armchair. "What you already know is that they are preparing for war. What you don't know is that Metaka will join in as well as your own Kingdom."

"But..." Roannia furrowed her brows and whatever she wanted to say, pursed her lips and briefly nodded. She was in favour of attacking Nar'verna anyway so there was no point in disagreeing now.

"I won't pretend that what happened over the last few days was of little consequence because that would be a foolish lie. Aclium has to fully commit to NATO and, to achieve that end, you will have to aid Metaka. You might not see the big picture so allow me to enlighten you."

"Very well..." Roannia leaned in with a slightly overwhelmed expression.

"It shouldn't be news to you that Aderon has entered a time of great unrest. While, admittedly, the rise of Arcadia contributed considerably to the current state of things, it's not our fault that the rest of the continent is moments from open war. So... Let's simplify things. The rise of Arcadia disrupted the continental power balance that was, as it stood, in favour of the Kingdom of Ibrevell. To add insult to their injury, Irene fled, and, before Ibrevellian scouts managed to recover her, we were married. In the meantime, I started working with the countries of my region and we created the North Aderon Treaty Organisation. For once, it wasn't my idea but Queen Theresa Iceleon's. Creating such an entity completely shattered their trade monopoly in the region because Arcadia, basically, doesn't give a flying fuck about their established norms. With Arcadia as the centrepiece, Metaka, Iceleon, and, lately, Ebrus and Falcia bloomed, and the Elves took it personally."

The Princess and Harmonia nervously nodded so I continued.

"So we have, basically, northern and southern allies. While the situation up north is more or less self-explanatory and everyone in NATO knows what they stand for, that can't be said about everything outside our borders. You know yourselves how Ibrevellians conduct their businesses and, now we are reaching a conflict point. Let's track a little back in time, before the foundation of NATO. A few months ago the Kingdom of Verksa attacked and almost conquered the Kingdom of Hilgvar. Queen Mia Francesca and her sister, Tia Francesca, were in my kingdom during the attack and negotiated my help. I aided them by sending one of my Legions. The two of them were so effective that they not only pushed back Verksa's invasion force, killing Gilour Verksa on the battlefield, but also conquered his kingdom. Soo.. It turned out that Verksa was working with the Southern Alliance. Before the Alliance managed to gather their troops, Tia was hailed as Queen of Verksa and the sisters began their diplomatic efforts to gain protection from the already established Kingdom of Arcadia."

Their nods were much firmer this time, so I smiled and, after taking a sip of my drink, I continued.

"To stop the southern nations from invading Hilgvar and Verksa, I agreed to help Mia and Tia, who bargained, rather peculiarly, but, I believe, very effectively," I smirked, making Hestia chuckle.

"That's certainly one-way to call it." She covered her lips and looked at the confused Harmonia and Roannia. "Mia and Tia are currently my Sister Empresses of Arcadia. You can argue that their plan to obtain the protection of Arcadia was successful."

"Anyway... Before I married them, we hosted a peace conference between the Southern Alliance, Hilgvar, Verksa, Metaka, and Arcadia. Things... ended well. Mostly." I shrugged and saw Harmonia's and Roannia's blank stares as they realised that was the moment when Derek Vetulia died. "The Southern Alliance had very impressive ambitions but they managed to tone them down. However, if that was everything it would have been fine. You may be asking, where are you in this puzzle? Simply put, Ibrevell. They have a very twisted plan of world domination and are, annoyingly, effective at countering most of my attempts to resolve the issue through less official methods... Anyway, we have some prior evidence that the Ibrevellians were plotting and carefully setting up a situation to get rid of all the major powers on the continent by inciting them to war. However, Arcadia ruined their plans once again. We forced peace where they pressed for war. We couldn't have made it more personal for Ibrevellians than it is now. Aclium is not even the true target of the Ibrevellian Elves."

"Ohhhh... I see it now. Everything is so obvious." Harmonia sighed and shook her head in disbelief. "They want to undermine the peace you created. They can't do anything about your allies but, in their eyes, the Southern Alliance was fair game. If you wanted peace, they would do everything to cause war, but... Why?"

"Currently they are doing it to regain their position. I thwarted too many of their plans and I'm more than sure that a lot of countries have started making moves to free themselves from Ibrevell's crushing trade monopoly. If they cannot stop the losses, Ibrevell may never regain their influence and wealth and, perhaps, even the Elven Kingdom will be threatened with invasion. So they want to demonstrate they are still capable of ruining nations with their economic pressure. However... their desires stumbled when their troublemaker candidate country, recently, made a grave mistake. The army of Nar'verna raided the border city of the Empire of Metaka. Along with their stupidity, they also showed a bit of sanity since they didn't kill anyone and pretended to be bandits."

"It would be hard to prove that Nar'verna was behind the attack." Roannia sadly shook her head.

"Frankly, it doesn't matter." I shrugged. "I was talking with Guad and he asked me if it would be fine if he retaliated of his own accord without pulling the weight of the entire Organisation behind his response. To be honest, I couldn't care less. Even though my entire army is involved in the war against Vestargo, we aren't toothless. Don't get me wrong. What I have at my disposal to protect Arcadia is leagues above what anyone else has shown so far. That being said, I can't afford to spread my forces thin. Soo... " I took a deep breath. "If Arcadia becomes involved in any new conflict, you can trust me, it will be the most traumatising experience in the recent history of the continent. It will be the shortest and most brutal war in history and, trust me when I say, you can't even imagine what I mean. That brings us all to this very point in history. The Elves of Ibrevell have so much disdain for other nations and races that they simply disregard them. They underestimated Metakans and, most certainly, they underestimated Aclium. They seem to think that the only danger is hidden in Arcadia. Guad is going to show them how wrong they are. You should as well."

"I see the wisdom in your words..." Roannia sighed heavily. "But the price in blood will be steep."

"Not necessarily." I disagreed. "The forces of Nar'verna only have two small sloops-of-war at their disposal. Metaka is going to crush them with their air superiority. Care to guess why Elves insisted that you join the war?"

"Our Navy..." Roannia blinked and immediately all pieces clicked together. "They wanted us to use our ships to roll over the nations of the Alliance because they don't have a Navy..."

"Well... Kind of." I smiled. "We sold them some old ships so they have five ships that were, previously, the pride of the Bernan Navy. So, while they are not impressive for me, they are impressive enough for the rest of Aderon. However... Do you think that would be the extent of Ibrevellians' plans?"

Princess Roannia looked at me in silence but I could see how hundreds of scenarios played before her eyes. Her expression changed from a careful doubt to angry disbelief.

"Could they have planned to see how your fleet fares against ours? Could they set up this... As an experiment?"

"That's another conclusion, as well." I nodded. "They know that a direct war between them and Arcadia is a simple matter of time. I still haven't declared war because I don't have forces to do it properly. I can destroy them, that's true, but if I want to defeat them completely, I need to conquer their lands. I can't conquer what I can't control. Without an army to spare to control the Elven lands, my victory will be short-lived and hollow. It would also send a wrong message to the other kingdoms."

"I... I wasn't aware of any of this." She sighed.

"However, this is an opportunity. Your forces can fly unopposed through Nar'verna and seize control of enough land to create a land bridge between Aclium and Metaka. Caught between three major powers, Nar'verna will cease to exist before their pathetic attempt truly begins. The Alliance won't give you even a raised eyebrow as they will welcome your help as salvation. If Elves want war, we will give it to them. They will regret underestimating my allies."

"I understand. I will convince my Father of this course of action." Roannia nodded with a stern expression but, after a moment, she tilted her head in confusion and looked at me quizically. "I was told that you have already taken some measures against the Kingdom of Ibrevell, Lord Theon..."

"Indeed." I smiled coldly with a nod. "I plan to give them a very expensive lesson in economics. That lesson is going to fully occupy them so they won't notice your movements until it's too late."