Chapter 673: The Solution To All Our Problems

Then, of course, there were all of Lucas’ other responsibilities.

The boy had a veritable mountain of businesses and projects that needed his attention, with everything from researching how to adapt Cultivation Techniques to the Unarmed Foundations Art to surveying the kingdom’s southern coast in search of a place to build a new deep-water port.

It all felt quite overwhelming, but Lucas refused to put off anything he had gotten started already as they were all of critical importance to his future plans.

If he were to pull back and take things slower, it might be decades before he could heal Eris’ arm, see his parents again, or return Yuki to her mother.

No, he had to keep forging ahead.

He had to find a way.

"Well, it’s not all bad news, I supposed," Killian spoke up after a while, trying to alleviate the gloom which had consumed the office.

"What makes you say that, General?" Allina asked curiously, also hoping to hear some good news.

Sitting back in his chair and stroking his beard, the old General shrugged, "I just got word from the capital that the proposed..."

"That’s it!" Lucas suddenly cut in, his eyes sparkling with glee, "It’s so obvious! How did I not think of it before!?"

"Think of what?" Allina inquired curiously.

"The solution to all of our problems! A way for us to achieve all of our goals, all at once!" Lucas grinned fiercely, his mind working rapidly as he began planning out what he hoped would be the grand finale of the shadow war he and the rest of the Rockwell Kingdom had quietly been fighting all this time.

.....

Lucas barely slept for the next 2 days as he, along with a few close colleagues, scrambled to put together a new operation, one that was both much larger and much bolder in scope than they had originally intended.

The hope was that by going big, they would be able to end this nonsense, once and for all.

What were the chances of success?

Honestly, not high, but there was a decent chance they would be able to cripple the enemy’s ability to interfere in the Rockwell Kingdom’s affairs for several years to a decade, which would have to do.

For now.

Once Lucas had finished organizing his random thoughts into a coherent plan, he, along with Allina, departed for the capital to get it approved by the Royal Council.

Fortunately, the flight from Amherst to Rockwell City was much shorter than the one to Misty City, so this time Lucas didn’t half-freeze to death.

Still, upon landing, the young boy vowed to add another item to his list of things to develop, wind and cold resistant flight suits.

A quick shower and meal later, Lucas and Allina found themselves sitting across from the kingdom’s three Queens, all of who were smiling quite happily and looked oddly refreshed, not that these three women had looked old or weary before.

Marianne Campbell, Natasha Summers, and Cynthia Morgan were each beautiful in their own right, but today, they somehow looked even more radiant than normal.

Curious about what was going on, Lucas tired to ask, "Um... Your Majes..."

"Aunty," Marianne cut in, "Call us your aunties, Lucas."

"Better yet, call us your mothers!" Cynthia followed up.

Face twitching, Lucas turned to the one woman on the opposite side of the table who he felt would be more reasonable, only to have his expectations betrayed when he saw Natasha nodding along with her two sisters.

Sensing something was... off, Allina couldn’t help asking, "Forgive me, but... has something good happened recently?"

"You could say that," Marianne grinned.

"En en, and we have Lucas here to thank for it," Cynthia agreed.

"Indeed," Natasha also joined in, "You’ve really opened our eyes to what is possible, Little Lucas."

"Uh... you’re welcome?" Lucas, now thoroughly confused, decided to just accept the praise he was receiving, even though he didn’t know why he was receiving it.

Trying to move the conversation forward, the young boy cleared his throat and inquired, "Will His Majesty be joining us?"

It was a simple question, one that should have had a simple answer, but as soon as Lucas asked it, all three of the Queens blushed slightly before exchanging shy glances with one another.

Okay, what the hell is going on? Lucas was really curious now, but his instincts were also screaming at him to not ask about it for some reason.

As Lucas was weighing his options, First Queen Marianne recovered her composure and replied, "Ahem, no. His Majesty is currently recovering from a slightly injury he suffered recently."

""Oh?"" Both Allina and Lucas were slightly taken aback when they heard this.

Worried about his Junior Sister’s father, Lucas quickly asked, "Is His Majesty alright?"

"Oh, don’t worry about him," Third Queen Cynthia smiled playfully, "He feeling quite good actually, he just... strained his back a bit after... training a little too hard."

"En, he’s been a bit too... enthusiastic lately, trying to do too much when he was clearly exhausted already," Second Queen Natasha explained, while not providing any real detail of just what had happened.

"Not that we helped..." Cynthia muttered in a voice too quiet for anyone but her First Sister who was sitting next to her to hear, causing Marianne to jab her with her elbow.

"Is there anything we can do for the King?" Lucas wondered aloud. He wasn’t a Spirit Doctor, but he did have a wealth of knowledge when it came to recovering from overtraining, something his otherworldly benefactor seemed to do quite frequently.

"I think you’ve done more than enough..." Marianne mused under her breath.

"Hm? What was that, Your Majest..."

"Aunt Marianne," the First Queen corrected again, then smiled warmly, "It’s nothing important, Lucas. Nathan will be just fine after a couple days of rest."

"Uh, okay..." Lucas wasn’t convinced for some reason, but since the Queens were saying it wasn’t a big deal, he would just have to take them at their word.

"Now then," Natasha clapped her hands, bringing everyone’s attention back to the matter at hand, "You said you had something urgent you needed the Royal Council to approve?"

"Right," Lucas also re-focused and nodded to Allina, who began explaining the new strategy they had come up with to root-out the rot which had begun to take hold in the kingdom.