SON OF THE HERO KING

Chapter 21 CH 21: BATH AND POLITICS

Sol was still in a daze after listening to Lilith's story.

Still, it didn't last long, "I understand." He simply answered with a smile full of confidence.

Whining would change nothing. If he had the time to complain, then he should just use it to become stronger.

----

"Sooo… Why are we taking a bath together."

Sol was once again in his bathroom, though, this time, the only ones present were him and his aunt Lilith.

Currently, Sol was sitting on a low stool with a towel over his lap hiding his genitals while Lilith crouched behind him and was washing his back.

"No particular reason. I just thought that it has been a long time since I took a bath with you. The last time I did so was when you were eight? Time flies so fast."

Sol simply nodded and lowered his head when she poured a basin full of water over him.

"I can do the front alone, now it's my turn."

Lilith didn't answer and simply turned her back towards him while removing her towel from her back and holding it in place, protecting her front with it.

Sol stood up in silence as he admired her naked back.

It was, without a single shred of doubt, beautiful. The way her curve moved and showed some glimpses was particularly enticing. Still, Sol could not summon any thoughts of lust as he gazed at the beautiful scene in front of him. The reason being the large scissored scar marring the beautiful creamy white surface of her naked rear.

"I am sorry."

He slowly traced his finger on the grotesque scar as feelings of guilt washed over him making him weak on his feet.

This scar was the result of Lilith protecting him from a sudden attack during a diplomatic mission from another state.

"Envilya."

Sol gritted his teeth as he murmured those words. The Envilya kingdom was, alongside Lustburg, one of the seven kingdoms of this world.

The only difference being that if humans were the rulers of Lustburg, then the rulers of Envilya were the demonkind.

"You shouldn't feel guilty over what happened. This was a result of my negligence."

In all his peaceful life, this was the sole time Sol felt the danger to his life.

This happened during a conference reuniting the leader of the seven kingdoms. At that time, Sol was still very young. One of the emissaries of the Envilya Kingdom, a powerful man in his own rights, suddenly used a forbidden move to try and eliminate Sol at the price of his life.

The official reason the ruling powers used was that the man had lost most of his family because of Mars and wanted revenge. They also swore to have nothing to do with what happened and willingly gave a high compensation.

High enough that the Lustburg kingdom, which still wasn't stable because of Mars' death, could only grit its teeth and accept.

Everyone knew that it was pure bullshit. But they had no choice back then.

Of course, the fact that in the two next years, the Envilya kingdom mysteriously lost some of the most promising heirs of their noble families had nothing to do with Lustburg either— It was all just a pure coincidence.

Sol snickered as he thought about this lesson of history.

"What is so funny?"

"No, I was just wondering what face those guys must have had when they lost so many of their young heirs."

"I would say that they should have been rather happy. At least the royal family was."

"Hum?"

"Sol, do you know why our royal family never lost power even though we only have one or two heirs in each generation?"

"Because we are powerful?"

"... Indeed. But more precisely it's because we have a very good relationship with the church of Castitas. As such we always fight together when the nobles' families try to grab power. But…"

"I suppose the Envilya kingdom is different?"

"Hmm. Next time I will ask your teacher to give a more profound explanation of the political climate of the other kingdoms. Anyways, the church in the Envilya kingdom is the church of Gratia. The Gratia church and the Invidia royal family are in opposition. The Gratia church supports the nobles while the Invidia family fights alone. It's a wonder that they held on this long."

"I see." Sol wasn't stupid, he immediately made the connection. "The assassination attempt must have been made by the church and the nobles' side. When we *Ahem* I mean when those unfortunate accidental deaths happened, it weakened the power of the nobles and gave breathing space to the royal family."

"Hahaha~ !" For the first time in a while, Lilith laughed out loud without any restraint, "Indeed, those unfortunate accidents, as you mentioned, tremendously helped the royal family. And for some weird reason, they decided that they owed us a debt."

She didn't continue to explain, she didn't want to make him feel like he had a heavier burden on his shoulders than what he already wielded.

The way the debt would be paid would depend on Sol's results during his awakening, if he reached as high as she thought he would, then the following discussions would be easier and in their favor.

"Anyway, enough backwashing," Declaring as such, she suddenly got up and unhurriedly walked towards the bath, "We should be fast. Even for me making Edea mad is no joking matter."

Laughingly stating a joke, she briefly faced Sol but was immediately stunned, since the towel around his hips had fallen down.

An awkward silence settled between the two when Lilith murmured quietly, "You have indeed become a grown-up now."

No one needed to say where she was looking when she muttered those words.

----

Sol walked down the stairs towards Edea's place while wearing a weird expression on his face.

It was a mix of disappointment and slight relief, a disappointment because nothing happened and also a relief because nothing happened.

'I never thought that I was such a coward.'

He knew that he missed a chance to score some affection points with Lilith, but at the same time he felt that this was for the better. He didn't know what weighed her down, but he knew that it was something extremely heavy.

If he had attempted something today, in the best case he would have been rebutted, but in the worst case, she would have accepted and their relationship would have made an extremely awkward turn.

'Well, one moment of sex isn't worth destroying my lifelong relationship with her.'

He wasn't in a hurry. Sex was only the complement to a good relationship, never the base.

'By the way, I wonder what happened to her husband.'

All he knew about that man was that he was from the Gorfard family, but he had seemingly mysteriously died a few weeks after their wedding.

'Mysterious accident?'

He stopped short, as he thought back about the mysterious death of the noble heirs from Envilya.

'Did she kill her husband?'

He pondered a little before casting aside the thought, it did not matter if she did or not. He believed Lilith should have had a good reason for killing him and even if she didn't have one, it didn't matter to him.