A day later, the Nine Heroes of Legends were on their way to the king’s room while escorted by the Royal Guards. The king requested their audience that day to reward them for their deeds. Everyone was excited and were discussing amongst each other, speculating the kind of rewards they would be receiving for their services. Gram did not join them as it was not within his nature to get excited over such trivial things, and Lakshman also did not join them but for a different reason.
Lakshman was thinking about the meeting they had with Alistor, who had suddenly visited them in the hospital. As the management side of the kingdom, Alistor giving them some advices and a warning to be careful. He was especially firm with Lakshman, telling him that he may receive a harsh punishment for his actions. When Lakshman asked him with a confused expression, Alistor looked at him as if he was not serious.
“You were powerful, so powerful that much of our buildings had collapsed! We’re just lucky the academy had a barrier sustained by many magicians that saved it, otherwise, it would’ve collapsed as well! Seriously! It was a mess!”
Lakshman could only blink in surprise and angry think, “Asura, what did you do?!”
Asura, who was a little taken aback by his anger, sternly replied, “I did my job as a hero, and they’re complaining about it? Honestly, this is why I don’t like helping these ungrateful people!”
“We destroyed their property, which they must’ve build after enduring great difficulty! Naturally they’ll be angry at us!”
“But the aliens also destroyed several parts of the land!” Asura retorted in an irritated voice.
“We are heroes, not aliens, and it’s that much worse if a hero goes out of control and starts destroying anything just to defeat the enemy. Besides, Asura, this isn’t our world. Think about it. The rules, the way of thinking and much more are so different to our world. It’s only logical that this kind of collateral damage is unacceptable while, in our world, we can get away since we can restore the land, but it’s different here. These people obviously don’t have the means to restore land very easily.”
Asura sighed deeply and said, “Fine. Whatever, but I’m going to let you know that I did my best as a hero.”
Remembering that response made Lakshman shake his head and sigh deeply in resignation while he was on his way to the audience hall. A few minutes later, they arrived outside the large doors that led into the hall and waiting for them outside were the royal siblings; Bolten, Santa and Erza. Lakshman could not help but smile upon seeing Erza’s beautiful face smiling at them.
“I’m sorry for suddenly forcing you to attend despite the injuries you sustained,” said Bolten, extended his hand out and shaking theirs, shaking Natsu’s left hand due to the injury to his right hand.
“Not at all, prince. It’s only fair that we attend since it’s unethical to delay this ceremony over four injured people,” replied Natsu with a smile.
“I’m not injured! Just a muscle problem, that’s all!” Vikram said in a firm voice, who was leaning on a long stick to support himself. “The doctor just insisted that I stay in bed to fully recover and didn’t listen to anything I said.”
Gram gave him a disparaging look before turning to the first prince and asking, “Is everyone here?”
“Yes. We were waiting for your arrival,” replied Santa with a smile and gestured towards the open doors.
Gram nodded and said, “Then let’s go.”
He took the first step forward and entered the room, and was soon followed by the first prince, second prince and the rest of them followed behind. Lakshman suddenly noticed that Raze was also there, standing in Erza’s shadow as if to hide in her shadow and appear as though she was not there.
“Hello, Raze,” said Lakshman with a smile.
Raze was a little taken aback that he noticed her and quickly replied, “Greeting, hero.” Then she hesitated a little before saying, “Good luck.”
He merely smiled and continued on his way inside, wondering why he would need the luck for.
As soon as they entered, they were met with a loud cheer from everyone as well as the sound of explosions. Confetti filled the air and caused everyone to smile at the cheer they received by the surrounding audience, ministers and people in charge. They were all pleased and wanted to celebrate their victory in such a fashion, calling out their group name in a chorus.
“Nine Heroes of Legends!”
“It sounds weird if they keep repeating it like that,” commented Vikram with an uncomfortable smile on his face.
“I admit. This is embarrassing,” muttered Maxwell, smiling a little as he looked at his surroundings.
The king sat on his throne and waited for them to reach the centre of the room before raising his hand into the air. It was a gesture to calm the surroundings, and it had an instant effect of making everyone go quiet and make them sit down. Once there was utter silence in the audience hall, the king looked down at the heroes and smiled pleasantly before beginning his speech.
“Here they are, the Nine Heroes of Legends, who risked their lives to protect our land, our people, and our world. A great heroic act indeed in defeating the aliens and bringing us yet another victory against our constant struggle against the aliens!”
A loud clapping ensued his statement and the hall became quiet a few seconds later, allowing the king to continue speaking.
“With their heroic efforts, each and every one of them must be awarded with the highest of honours!”
There were nods of heads from around the hall, and people were looking at the heroes with smiles on their faces. Little did the heroes know that many of them, who were ministers and others with parliamentary positions, were plotting to get the heroes to their side. Slowly, but surely, the internal discord of the governance was growing within them. For the moment, however, they kept their smiles and reacted in kind to the king’s words and praise.
The king rose to his feet and had the right-side man to step forward, holding a long piece of paper with a list of items written on it. The list consisted of the heroes and the reward they would be receiving for their heroic actions, and he began to call out their names one by one to come up the stairs to receive the reward from the king.
“The Tempest Hero, Gram, please come!” He called in a loud carrying voice.
Gram stepped forward and began to climb the stairs to reach were the king waited for him. Upon reaching the top of the stage, he knelt down before the king with a cool look on his face. The king pulled out his sword and tapped the sword twice on each on Gram’s shoulders before declaring in a loud carrying voice.
“I hereby acknowledge that you, the Tempest Hero, is an honourable warrior and thank you for your services. As your reward, I reward you with 1 Million Dollars.”
He put his hand out and took the money from the man with the sheet, who had pulled out the money from another person that stood with bundles of cash on a large tray. Gram rose to his feet and received the large bundle from the king before showing him a pleasant smile despite his insides wanting more than just money. However, he knew that asking for anything would be dangerous and tactfully accept this much, feeling it was better than nothing.
“Thank you very much, your majesty,” replied Gram in a courteous voice, bowing to him in a respectful manner.
With the task complete, Gram turned around and slowly stepped down with great pride and dignity to join his comrades. The speaker announced Vikram’s name and proclaimed for him to come like Gram did just now. Vikram was a little annoyed to see Gram looking so mighty, but he calmed his feelings and went up the stairs to greet the king. Like Gram, he knelt down before the king, received two taps on his shoulders and was announced of the acknowledgement like the Tempest Hero before receiving the same amount of money Gram received as his reward.
Like this, slowly all eight members of the Nine Heroes of Legends ascended up the stairs and received their awards before coming back down. With each award being given out, the people would clap loudly and even sometimes cheer for the hero they were secretly wishing to take to their side. Amongst them, the Commander of the League of Heroes sat, looking around at his surroundings with great dislike.
“It’s so obvious what these idiots are planning to do from just their behaviour alone,” he thought and sighed.
Finally, it was Lakshman’s turn, and by which time, he was a little bit anxious to climb the stairs and meet the king. The warning that Alistor gave him was ringing loudly in his mind, and he wished to proceed with things as cautiously as possible. However, before he would need to even move forward, the king spoke in a loud clear voice.
“Asura, stay where you are. I will address you from here because you are not worthy to receive my acknowledgement,” he said in a booming voice.
The moment his words left him and reached everyone, whispers began to circulate inside the hall. Most of the people were surprised and amazed the king would decline one of the heroes and began speculating amongst each other as to why that was. The Commander, whose name was Cybe, frowned at the unusual behaviour the king was demonstrating.
“What is he doing…?” He wondered for a moment, putting on a thinking face. A moment later, when the three royal siblings were beckoned, he finally realised what was happening. His eyes widened with shock, and he leaned forward while thinking in a shocked voice, “N-No way…! Is he…? Could he be…?!”
He watched as the king beckoned the royal siblings forward and finally spoke again when Bolten, Santa and Erza walked forward and turned to face Lakshman.
“My dear children. Please tell us the deeds committed by the Solaris Hero.”
Bolten and Erza looked uncomfortably at each other while Santa looked as if he was uninterested in the proceedings.
When they did not speak, the king gently asked them, “Please, my children. I’d like everyone to hear and know the details. It’s are not a secret to hide.”
“He… He performed extremely well after having come to this world in just ten days. He protected us during the academy attack and also played a key role in protecting us during the final stages of the alien invasion.”
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“Yes! His performance was amazing, defeating all the enemies and protecting us until he was badly injured. You can see for yourselves the injuries he sustained and that it took him great effort to even come here,” said Erza, gesturing at Lakshman in a passionate voice, causing Lakshman to smile affectionately at her.
The king nodded with a thoughtful look on his face before asking his second son, “Santa, what about you?”
Santa looked at both of Bolten’s and Erza’s faces, who were indirectly imploring him to not ruin things, and faced towards the Solaris Hero. Lakshman was a little taken aback by the serious look the prince was giving him.
“Like my brother and sister said, he played a key role in protecting us, however, the one who truly saved us all is Natsu, the Zeklock Hero. What the Solaris Hero succeeded in is defeating the enemies… and destroying much of our city!”
There was a great explosion of exclamations Lakshman widened his eyes in shock and thought, “What?!”
“Are you serious?! Just a few buildings got downed and that’s also because I was busily exterminating the aliens!” Asura replied in a furious voice. “Something like this is never a concern to the society since we always rebuild!”
“I told you, the principles of this world and society are quite different to ours. There is no comparison. It’s like comparing a glass with a bottle. They’re completely different, and the same thing here. Clearly, people of this world take it very seriously about the damage done to their structures, especially from one of them.”
“We are not one of them!” Asura said in annoyance.
“I am a member of the Nine Heroes of Legends. That makes me part of this community as well!” Lakshman retorted in a firm voice inside his mind, surprising Asura in the process.
“So, it’s the Solaris Hero that had caused so much damage!”
“I thought it was the aliens, but the most damage was done by that hero over there!”
“How could that have happened?! How dare a hero do such a thing?!”
“What a disaster! Now everything needs to be rebuilt!”
Voices flew from everywhere, complaining, criticising, and looking down on Lakshman. Only a handful of people remained silent, unwilling to join the mass because of their fear of what might happen. They were aware of the harsh punishment the king was known to hand out to people that go against him and his ruling system.
The king allowed the mass of audience to scream their complaints before raising his hand, causing everyone to take notice and slowly fall silent. When the audience hall was completely filled with silence, the king cleared his throat once and turned to look down at Lakshman.
“Unlike the first prince and the princess, the second price drew courage and spoke the truth by letting everyone know. Now, after hearing all the complaints from the surroundings and the financial loss we sustained, I believe it is only right to punish you.”
He raised one finger into the air and said, “One Billion Dollars. That’s the amount you must pay for your actions.”
The massive amount of money was so huge, it stunned everyone into silence. In such an intense situation, Erza broke it by speaking to the king in an imploring voice.
“Your majesty, please reconsider! His actions saved us! We owe him a debt of gratitude! It’s not right to punish him just because his actions to save us caused a great financial loss to us.”
“Yeah! Come on! That kind of punishment is ridiculous!” Vikram, who was freed by Erza’s strong words, recovered and shouted in anger.
“That’s right, your majesty! He did it in order to save us! He had no other option in this matter!” Maxwell said with a concerned look on his face.
“Please rethink your decision, your majesty! If it weren’t for him taking care of the aliens, I wouldn’t have been able to save us at the last moment!” Natsu said, trying his best to stay firm despite the pain in his right hand.
“Silence!” The king suddenly roared, causing Erza to become stricken with fright. “If the damage was done by the aliens, I would not be this harsh, but his actions in not controlling himself and causing massive damage to our city is unacceptable! That is why, even if he is a hero, even if he is in a special status, they must be punished!”
There was a moment of stunned silence that greeted his words before the audience hall was filled with people shouting their support of the king’s decision. None of them opposed the king’s decision to punish the hero with such an outrageous amount of money as debt. Even the few that did not like it, kept their silence because they were afraid to make their opinion heard due to what might happen to them and their families.
While that was going on, Lakshman remained calm and coolheaded with a small smile on his face. Asura, on the other hand, was livid with a rare fury that had not been seen in a very long time. It was the rage he had used in taking revenge on those that killed his family, a rage that turned him into what he had become.
“These… ungrateful… bastards…! How… How dare they…? HOW DARE THEY?!” He yelled, seething with rage inside of Lakshman’s mind. “This otherworldly filth! After all that effort, after receiving all these injuries, this is what I deserve?! No…! I can’t stand this anymore…! I won’t allow it!”
“Calm down, Asura. Whatever you do now is going to make things worse,” Lakshman said, speaking into his mind in a calm voice.
His words made Asura explode with anger, and he shouted, “Calm?! How?! How can I be calm when they’re ruthlessly lashing out at us with such savagery and lack of mercy! I normally wouldn’t have cared for collateral damage, but I still did my best to keep damage to a minimum while fighting the aliens but expecting zero damage is unbelievable!”
Lakshman chuckled to himself and thought, “You’re right, but clearly these people are determined to put me down. I think all you see is the sinister scheming faces, but I see the faces of those that are really scared. They’re frightened of the overwhelming power that’s at my disposal. I mean, who wouldn’t be after learning that there was a person that had the power to destroy cities on his own?”
“Even so, they summoned us to this world at their convenience and are now turning us into scapegoats! We’re not sacrificial pawns, and I won’t die protecting these vermin!” Asura said in a furious voice inside his mind.
Once again, Lakshman chuckled to himself and smiled without saying anything, but he did agree. Unlike Asura, Lakshman was calm and composed as if he was unaffected by this. The main reason he was able to stay calm was because he did not care about their complaints. He had seen this kind of behaviour a few times in the past, during the critical periods when he fought against the Mardana Kingdom’s prince and again at the time he was busily freeing the slaves.
At that time, Dominic noticed this and asked him with a look of worry on his face.
“Don’t you care what they think of you? They may attack you in the future. You realise it, don’t you?”
To that question, Lakshman merely smiled at his best friend and said, “I know what I’m doing is good, so why should I care what others think? My actions will save a lot of lives and help them develop new lives for themselves, so what’s the point in worrying about what others think? It doesn’t make sense.”
When his friend attempted to speak more, he forestalled him by saying, “Look, Dom. I’m doing this to satisfy myself, that I am helping those in need, saving them from a life of difficulty and leading them towards a bright future. I’m doing this with the power I have, and that’s the sort of satisfaction I am happy to enjoy. That’s what’s driving me forward.”
It surprised Dominic, who had never met anyone with such a strong character with strong principles. He smiled at his friend and felt proud of having such a strong person as his best friend. Even now, Lakshman followed the same principles of not caring about what people think of him because he knew he was doing the right thing. Even if Asura’s actions caused him to get into a difficult situation, he did not falter to shoulder the responsibility because he strongly believed Asura’s actions are a reflection of his actions because they are one and the same.
As he formed a small smile on his face, the king raised a hand in the air and everyone slowly calmed down and became silent after seeing it. Once the audience hall was filled with silence, the king sat back down on his throne chair and spoke to Lakshman.
“Do you accept these conditions?” He asked in a strong voice.
Lakshman looked up at the king and thought, “If I don’t accept, I’ll probably sentenced to jail or much worse. There is no other choice but to accept my punishment.”
He smiled and replied, “Very well, your majesty! I accept this punishment you’ve handed me and will repay my debt very soon!”
“What are you doing?!” Asura exclaimed in shock, but Lakshman ignored him.
A few people jeered at his confidence, who were those that were planning to bully him. The others, on the other hand, were surprised at his confidence. Even the king was a little taken aback because he was used to seeing people flustered and worried, but he sensed that the hero was cool and composed.
“Maybe he’s hiding his feelings,” he thought, deciding to move on with the proceedings and not think anymore of the subject.
He nodded at Lakshman’s words in approval and turned his attention away to address everyone present in the hall.
“Tonight, we will hold a feast to celebrate our second victory against the aliens! I invite everyone in this room and implore that you bring your friends along and celebrate on this glorious day!” Then he waved his hand and said, “I declare this session finished! Everyone, you may leave.”
Everyone stood up and bowed while he rose to his feet, stepped down the stairs and left through the side door with an escort of Royal Guards that surrounded him. As soon as he left, the rest of the audience began to file out of the hall through the existing side doors. At the same time, the three royal siblings and the Nine Heroes of Legends exited through the door they entered through a while ago.
“Santa, seriously, you didn’t have to do it that way,” said Bolten, looking exasperatedly at his younger brother.
“I spoke facts, so I didn’t do anything wrong. Besides, you’re too soft, Bolten! That sort of weakness leaves holes that people would exploit and take advantage of you!” Santa retaliated with an impatient look on his face. “Anyway, I’m heading to my room. Don’t disturb me.”
With that, he separated from the group and headed left at the next junction between the two ways. They watched him leave before continuing on their return to the hospital.
“I’m sorry for what my father had done to you,” said Erza, looking really upset.
“It’s fine, princess. It was my fault originally, so I got what I deserve,” replied Lakshman in a smooth voice. When she began to say something, he quietened her by saying in a firm voice, “Please, princess. I caused you damage with my recklessness, so it’s natural for me to make appends for it. So, don’t be so concerned about me.”
As she realised anything she said would be countered, she meekly accepted his fate and resigned herself. Bolten saw his sister looking depressed and smiled at Lakshman, feeling a great respect for the great strength the man possessed in accepting such an unfair reality.
“You’re really something, Asura. You’ve got a strong will to keep cool under such an intense situation. I mean, I was almost sweating because the amount you have to repay is massive!” Bolten said in praise. Then he became curious and asked, “Do you have anything in mind on how to clear that debt?”
Lakshman, who did not really give it much thought, just shrugged his shoulders and said, “I’ll worry about that once I recover from my injuries. To be honest, I’m a little worried about the length of time it’ll take for me to recover.”
Bolten was amazed, and Vikram asked, “Man, you’re so calm about this whole thing. I’d have flipped my brains with worry by now.”
“No kidding. The amount is just that daunting. You have my sincerest respect, Asura,” said Maxwell, smiling serenely at Lakshman.
Bolten was amazed and asked, “Do you understand the impact of the amount in our currency?”
Maxwell shrugged his shoulders and said, “Not really, but any number with over 1 million is a number is something to be frightened about.”
“Yeah. It’s rather easy to guess actually,” added Vikram, which was accompanied by Natsu, William and Fred nodding their heads in agreement.
As Lakshman chuckled, he heard Asura say, “Lakshman, wouldn’t it have been easier if you just used Restoration?”
Lakshman disagreed with the suggestion and replied, “Make note that it's partially your fault that we're in this mess to begin with, and these people were scared. It put them against me, like a mob ganging up to take down a tyrant. Don't you see how scared these people were? Imagine how much more frightened they will become if I reveal the spell that’s similar to a God’s work. Worse, Gram continuously calls me a Demon and it's going to get much dangerous. I wouldn't be surprised if people start plotting to kill me off just like it sometimes happened back in our home world. So, I say no to convenience and I'll accept my punishment like a true warrior.”
The point he made was surprising and made Asura realise that he had not thought about that as thoroughly as his present self. He remained silent since he did not know what else to say, but Lakshman’s words made him reaffirm that he was truly better than him.
Meanwhile, Gram was walking at the front of the group and stayed silent until he finally said, “I think it’s time we stop playing games.”
He came to a stop and turned around to face towards Lakshman. The rest of the group noticed his action and also stopped to observe. The two of them, Lakshman and Gram, were looking at each other with one appearing to be cool while the other looked intently at him.
“Who are you? I’ve been wondering about your identity for a while now and, judging from the amount of power you displayed at the battle, it’s not possible to think you’re just a mere magician!” Gram said in a serious voice while Lakshman continued to remain calm while the others looked at them with concern on their face. Seeing no reaction, Gram clenched his fists tightly and demanded, “Now, no more hiding! Who are you?! Identify yourself!”
Lakshman remained silent for a moment before he wore a cool smile on his face and said, “Fine.” He breathed a sigh and said, “My name is not Asura. My real name is Lakshman Chand, leader of a group of strongest warriors known as the Nine Pillars of Power. In addition to that, I carry the title of Phoenix Titan and, on top of that, I’m the ruler of a kingdom in my world!”