The Castle in the middle of nowhere.

I left the room with Luna, making Gloria feel more comfortable, but it was a farce, of course. Amber, Irene, and Lanka had very skilfully questioned Gloria about mundane stuff for about half an hour now. Rumours and hearsay are always good to investigate: they show what troubles people in any place very well, what they are afraid to say openly, and what they don't want to say officially. Gloria told us about some things I had no reports of, and I already had asked Sebastian to check some of the rumours. If they turned out to be true, that would give me an advantage over Josla. Luna, looking troubled, fidgeted in her armchair.

"What's wrong, Luna?" I finally asked her.

"It's frustrating, Theon. The whole purpose of my existence is to be your guide and offer you assistance." She almost burst into tears. "Every time I try to be helpful, my knowledge and experience are not enough. Every time I want to give you the answers you are looking for, I can't give you anything more than vague information and maybe some introductory guidance. Most of the time, you already know more than me!"

"But there are far more important things than being a walking encyclopaedia, Luna." I shook my head and pointed at her. "I need you, my Kitsune. Not your expertise, not your knowledge, but you for who you are."

"Theon... I feel so useless. No, please, hear me out." She straightened her magnificent dress and took a deep breath. "I have no experience with people. Compared to Amber, I feel out of place, but when Irene starts talking I feel almost like a feral fox. They are so skilled and knowledgeable that I feel only embarrassed when I have no idea what should I ask or question."

I went closer to her and sat on the arm of her armchair. I patted her and stroked near the base of her incredible silvery white and outlined black ears. She moaned with pleasure, relaxing herself a bit.

"Luna..." I tried to sound supportive and spoke to her with a soft smile. "I don't want you to be Amber or Irene. They are them, and you are you. Every single one of you is my precious friend and... wife. Sorry. It's still hard for me to get used to this."

"It's good to hear it, Theon," she said, but I still heard the doubt in her voice.

"Luna, my cute little vixen, I plan to succeed, which means we will have all of eternity for you to learn everything you wish. You are not Amber, whose presence alone calms me down. You are not Irene, who I can talk with for hours. But you are my Luna- and they can't give me what you can. You are all important and precious, over all the treasures of this world. So don't be sad that you are not a copy of someone else."

She sat in the armchair in silence for a moment, allowing me to tease the sensitive base of her ears as I felt her calm down. Then she suddenly turned to me and caught me around my neck, lifting herself up. She kissed me passionately, and I could taste her tears she had cried silently before, but her sweet kiss was full of passion. Slowly, almost with regret, she stopped her kiss but hugged me still, supported by my hand holding her at the waist. She gazed straight into my eyes with a happy smile on her face.

"Theon of Avalon. Thank you. I am so happy that you are the champion I was destined to be with." Her eyes were sparkling, and her voice was full of happiness. "At first, I was afraid. Of this world, of my mission, and finally, I was uncertain if I had any chance of succeeding. I was terrified to find myself captured by the dungeon denizens and locked in your custody."

She lifted herself a bit more as if she was going to sit on my lap, but I decided to not test Bjorn's craftsmanship any longer and lifted her in my arms. I stood up from the side of the armchair, and she giggled, snuggling herself happily to my chest as she allowed me to carry her. She was so soft and light like a feather, I felt I could carry her all the way back to the Palace. However, my plans for this particular moment did not include much travelling, as I simply sat in the armchair instead, putting her on my lap. I felt her warm breath on my neck and the movement of her breasts as she took a deep breath.

"I was sure I would die back then when we met for the first time, Theon. But everything turned out like this... It's more than fine. When I read about other Kitsunes and their fates, I was not expecting much... My kin were treated horribly, Theon." Her happy face clouded, and she fluttered her eyes. "Kitsunes could rarely count on compassion or even friendship- it was rare for a Kitsune to find happiness. More often, they found pain and were betrayed or exploited, from errand boys or girls to sex slaves. Some heroes just used them as meat shields with an absolute disregard for their lives."

She shook her head, and I felt her nails almost tear the clothes on my back as her heart pounded wildly. She took a few deep breaths before she could continue. I said nothing, patiently giving her the time and opportunity to speak up her mind. She only needed my closeness, my warmth- she might be a powerful guardian spirit, but right now, she is just a terrified girl facing the knowledge of hardships and the fate of her own kin. I held her tenderly in my arms, gently stroking her wonderfully soft hair, wondering once again, how something like this could have been allowed to happen.

"I wasn't sure who I should expect, and I could only hope that you would be different somehow. You have exceeded all of my expectations so far. I mean... you are not a kid or haphazard adult- drunk with his or her regained youth or a second chance at life. You do not boast about the power granted by your patron. Thank you for who you are. Thank you for making me happy, and thank you for giving me a chance to make my own decisions. Thanks to the time you gave me, I now know for sure that I love you."

"I am grateful for your love, Luna, I will try not to let you down." I kissed her forehead.

"You won't, Theon." Her smile was bright and calm. "I am only yours, my love."

I hugged her, enjoying her closeness, and let my thoughts wander on their own. We hugged in silence for a while, after which I cleared my throat and tried to vocalise what I had on my mind.

"I never met other heroes. I will never know their circumstances, nor will I ever be able to know how they felt about their Kitsunes." With a gentle movement of my hand, I smoothed a strand of her hair that had covered her cheek. "I have the luxury of being something akin to a King. I can act through my armies or extend my will by diplomacy. Do you know about any other heroes who could do the same?"

"Yes, Theon. Many heroes in the past commanded armies, and some took the title of kings or queens for their own..." She made a sour face and sighed heavily. "They often were just the worst..."

"I see..." I sighed as well and hugged her tighter. "So why did they fail?"

"They lost their purposes, Theon; their goals shifted, and they abandoned their mission," she said with an odd and sad voice. "Their own power and fortune corrupted them, and ultimately, they started to seek means of cheating death. They have fallen to the darkness..."

She sat silently in my arms, allowing me to pat her head. I had been trying to figure out how other so-called gods had chosen their heroes along with what Luna had told me about the reasons for their failure. It was a guessing game at this point since the chance of meeting another champion was close to zero. The only instance where more than one hero was summoned happened about three thousand years ago and since then, only a single hero or heroine was summoned to this world at any one time. I still didn't know what the rules were for the summoning and if deities had some kind of cooldown. Luna was snuggled to me, enjoying this rare moment when we were alone. She closed her eyes with pleasure while my fingers teased her fluffy ears. I was spaced out in my thoughts, allowing the time to pass in silence.

"My Lord, Lady Amber is asking for your presence," the slime butler announced, disturbing us.

Luna stood up with a silent sigh, and to be honest, I also would have liked to stay longer like that. We straightened our clothing and slowly moved towards the tea room. I let Luna enter the room first, and I followed her. Amber, Irene, and Lanka were chatting with Gloria, who was much more peaceful now. We sat down, and I looked at Gloria, wondering how I should enforce this whole house arrest, and decided to simply assign her a Guardian Slime as her warden. The simplest solutions work the best, in my opinion. Amber smiled softly at me, and Irene leaned over my shoulder in a way so she could freely whisper to my ear.

"She is so insignificant and troublesome for the clergy that I am surprised that her church had not expelled her earlier," she told me grimly. "I'm even surprised they helped her to advance in class. She is now convinced that Hestia was protecting her so she could meet us."

"This last part is rather a fantasy... Or Jester, unbeknownst to us, is Hestia's angel. But if that’s the case, I don't want to deal with that deity."

"Pfff..." Irene, who had finally forced Amber to tell her about Jester, had to cough to mask her laughter. "What do you plan to do next?"

"Nothing in particular, honestly..." Or rather, I had plenty of things to do, but nothing was pressing or important right now. "Any ideas?"

"Don't tempt me..." She winked at me, but her smile melted with a sigh. "However, we should at least put Hero Marcus and Kitsune Sidr to rest."

"Fine by me... Hmmm." I looked at Gloria, who was sitting silently at the table.

I smiled, seeing a few freshly baked loaves of garlic bread on the table alongside some chocolate cookies and tea. Lanka and Idna had unrestricted access to Annika's kitchen, and I see they utilised it to the fullest. Ian supplies Everlight, but there was not ever enough chocolate from the only spawner we had. Also, I couldn't just copy some spawners, like fruit trees or cocoa- I must first obtain from them an extremely rare seed, and then using it, I could make a copy. Because of this, chocolate became an extremely luxurious commodity.

"Gloria, you told me that you wanted to learn the fate of Hero Marcus..."

•••

Irene and Lanka performed the burial ritual using their new scriptures from the Lithany of Serenity and Wrath. Ten skeleton paladins acted as honour guards and carried Marcus and Sidri's sarcophagus to the small mausoleum I first intended only for Katia, but I had already made its underground part larger just in case. Amber and Luna stood near me, watching in silence as the legendary heroes made their last journey. This time, no curse was placed on bodies, and no danger awaited unwary people. Stella was not present, still clearing the Lich's books and items retrieved from his lair. I sighed and raised my head towards the sky. The day was sunny, and it had just turned into a serene sunset with fresh snow starting to fall from the sky. Gloria was wearing a coat that had been waiting in Wendy's shop for a long time- she insisted it was ugly and clumsily made, but for the poor girl from the capital, it was a gift worthy of kings. She was wrapped in soft and warm material but couldn't enjoy it; she had tried to pray to Hestia, but her goddess was not responding. Gloria watched in silence with a sad facial expression as my paladins disappeared inside the Mausoleum of Heroes.

It wasn't long before the ceremony ended. Since I had first found myself in this world, I felt very, very uncomfortable with its religious aspects. I mean... I was THERE, I saw Heaven, and I spoke with an Angel. But how the Angel struck a deal with me made me worried we were doing something maybe not exactly illegal but certainly questionable. And that made me nervous. But here and now, I still prayed as I used to, trying to fit my beliefs into this world...which is not working at all. I could only shrug and push forward, but I had a feeling that my beliefs were even more important than I would like to admit. So metaphorically, I found myself in the shoes of Martin Luther, nailing my own theses on castle church doors, albeit in a much more modest than his form and amount. Mine has only four points. Adapt, Improvise, Overcome, I'm sorry. With this personal heresy committed, I could somehow cope with my conscience.

This time, no shackled deity was liberated, and no special fireworks flashed in the skies; only the sensation of gratitude and an enormous amount of mana signalled their passing. One of my Pretorians carried a funeral wreath inside, and I lit the memorial candles for them.

"Theon... Why did you light a candle?" Irene asked me, joining me on my way inside the mausoleum.

"In my previous life, we lit the candles for those who passed away as the symbol of our memory," I told her softly. "We believed that the flame warmed the souls and guided them to the afterlife."

"I like this tradition, Theon. Would you mind if I borrowed it?" she asked me in absolute seriousness, which made me almost chuckle.

"Not at all. Lighting a memorial candle helps to think about those who passed away. I will be thankful to you, my Darling, if you make this official somehow."

•••

We returned home soon before the last rays of the sun gave away their place to the darkness of night. It was getting colder with each night at a much slower rate now, so that meant we were close to the coldest point of winter. Interestingly enough, the so-called investigation party decided to camp inside my walls, god they are persistent... Before we left, I introduced Gloria to Knys and promised him that I would drop by soon enough with a new batch of class quests. Then, after some thinking, I placed Gloria in a larger building, something akin to a multi-unit apartment complex. Her home, for the duration of this house arrest, was nothing fancy: it had a living room, bedroom, bathroom, and kitchen. When Gloria saw where she would be living during her imprisonment, however, she immediately asked what crime she had to commit to stay in such a prison forever. Technically, she couldn't leave Avalon, and she had to register in the guild to earn her food money, but I got it. I had accepted the fact that people outside had it rough. Maybe I should just build a city and tell everyone: 'Hey you! Surrender to me, and I will allow you to live here.' I suggested this to Amber and Irene as a joke, but they just nodded and told me it was a great idea.

Anyway... Thor reported they had managed to catch a faint scent similar to Amber's soul in the shadow realm near the manor. I... Had not expected them to be able to sniff the scent of a soul...I mean, I know that dogs have an incredible sense of smell, but... damnnn... That was impressive. To be absolutely honest, I hadn't expected them to find any trace, yet here we are, at a point in my life where I discovered that Shadow Fenrir could sniff out soul scents. This might actually be an incredibly useful skill, so I also checked the wolf spawner and scratched my head. The chances for obtaining a Shadow Fenrir were so slim it wasn’t worth mentioning: a whole 0.07% and yet, I had gotten one without even noticing at first how badass he was.

•••

I was standing near the window wall of the bedroom, observing the stars above us and the sparse lights below. My Kingdom was slowly being populated by the people of this world, and I started to have serious doubts. Very serious doubts, to be honest...

"Theon?" Amber approached me soundlessly. She was still wet from her recent bath and smelled wonderful, like a flowery meadow after the rain. "Something wrong?"

"*sigh* It is too easy, Amber. Since the time we encountered Lord Dickhead, as I like to call him, nothing has challenged me seriously. There were two direct attacks: the goblin's suicidal rush and the hornet's raid. Only one group of spies came to us, and with spring, the war will break." I looked in her direction as I finished my sentence and saw her insanely arousing body wearing only a thin silk bathrobe. I was barely able to turn away my gaze. Oh my God, she was gorgeous... I closed my eyes and tried to return to the thought that had almost escaped me. "I have a feeling that something is lurking nearby. Something is there, yet I know nothing about this enemy. That makes me worried, Amber. Also, the way he acted... It just makes no sense!"

"Theon, I don't think I can help you with this." I saw from the window reflection that Amber had sat on the bed and started combing her hair. "I was too insignificant my entire life to even suspect someone like...Lord Dickhead...existed, not to mention who or what he is. However, I have employed one of my arcane barriers around Avalon."

"You did?" I turned around, slightly surprised. My girl was an Elemental Sorceress, probably the strongest mage class that existed in the world. "Thank you, my Darling."

"That's nothing, Theon. Irene also set up a barrier, and Luna, alongside Stella, will finish their runic barrier very soon, so we should finally be safe."

I sat in my armchair, thinking about what she said. In the meantime, Irene and Luna finished their bath while I was still deep in my thoughts.

"The last of my new scions will appear soon, my Darlings." With a sigh, I stood up. "I'll need to think about something..."

"Or feed your paranoia?" a familiar male voice sounded in my head. "It's so good to see you are in good shape!"

"Something like that... Fuck, no... Zephyr?" I looked around and saw him on my balcony, waving at me.

"Indeed! It's me." To my surprise, he was not peaking at my Queens at all.

"You have to be kidding me... Girls, I am definitely going on a walk now..."

They waved at me with warm smiles, but I could feel their insane murderous intent directed at Zephyr. Being not so keen to check if the enchanted stones of the Palace would hold the murderous fury of my Queens, I quickly went out on the balcony and, with a swift move, caught Zephyr by his shoulder. I teleported us to the alchemy shop where all my new scions were supposed to be waiting for me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked him without any pleasantries.

"Nice to see you too... Thank you," he replied and sat on the shop counter. "I'm here to warn you. Eriar still can't talk to you, and he can't even send you messages through me. However, I can do whatever I want because fuck it... Honesty time: I'm not a powerful deity."

"Okay... With my current situation, I will just allow myself to overlook the god ranking or whatever... Hmmm..." I hesitated for a moment. Fuck. Now I had to know. "How powerful is Eriar then?"

"Ha! No one knows for sure. The other Gods bet he is easily as powerful as the top three gods combined." Zephyr shrugged and scratched his chin. "But I still think that's an understatement. Just look at yourself. Summoned champions reflect the wisdom, acumen, and power of the god that summoned them. Anyway! I wanted to warn you about Wendthants, you know them as winter beasts. They are chaos spawns!"

"What's a chaos spawn?" I asked, tasking him with a careful gaze.

"Creatures of nightmares created by the primordial dark gods from the abyss."

"Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?" I sighed, resigned. Of course there were some evil gods. Figures. I was sent to this world by something that technically is a god. "What kind of dark gods? Cthulhu and his gang? Ruinous forces of chaos?"

"They exist in the Abyss and the Void. They create dark spawns or demons if you like, to bring chaos and destruction upon this world. They are not monsters or animals, so expect them to work against you."

"Thank you for the warning." I nodded. It was not exactly big news for me, but some extra caution wouldn’t hurt.

The doors to the shop opened, and Verni and Opal entered the building. They talked merrily, unaware of my and Zephyr's presence. Zephyr sniffed the air like a hound with a wide, wild smile cracking his face.

"Oh, hello there!" He went towards the Opal, and I summoned a baseball bat with a disappointed sigh.

"Oh?!" Opal, in shock, kneeled before Zephyr and bowed her head. "God Zephyr? Is that really you?!"

She did not look alarmed or disturbed in the slightest, but I held the bat just in case. Verni knelt as well, but he looked more like he was forced to do so- not because he wanted to pay respect. I raised my brow and watched in surprise.

"Yes, child. Did you know I have been watching your career with great interest?" Zephyr smiled and leaned over Opal, softly touching her forehead. "Please accept this gift, my young apprentice!"

"What the fuck, Zephyr?" I asked, and Verni looked at me surprised, as if he only just realised I was there as well.

"What?" Zephyr turned around and saw me weighing the bat in my hands. "I told you before, I am done with my Playboy past! It just so happens that I'm also the patron of Herbalists!"

"What have you done then?" I put away the bat and rubbed my eyes.

"I granted her a divine guidance skill! She will be able to identify and know all properties of every plant in the world." Zephyr looked sourly at me.

"In that case, I'm sorry. But you know...?"

Zephyr looked deep into my eyes angrily, but in the end, he lost that gazing duel and had to look down with a sigh.

"Yeah... I know... You will be watching me for a long time..."

"You’re God damn right I will..."