“What are my orders, my king?” the last guard asked.
The sixth stared at the guard for a while and uttered, “You already know it.”
After saying that, Aquitius, Rilu, and Ruli got in their carriage and returned to the palace.
The last guard turned to Zach and said, “My name is Stinglord, and I am… was Starlord’s brother.”
Zach stood in a defensive stance and uttered with an awkward smile on his face: “Of course…”
“Don’t worry. I don’t hold a grudge against you,” Stinglord uttered in a calm voice. “What you did was the right thing to do.”
Zach glanced around the burned body parts of Maxim and uttered, “He said the same thing.”
“Starlord went against the rules and tried to kill you, so your actions are justifiable,” Stinglord stated.
“And besides, if you managed to kill Starlord, who was, unfortunately, the strongest champion and part of the elite five (now four), then I don’t think I stand a chance against you,” he added.
‘No. You can easily kill me right now. I don’t have any MP left, so I can’t summon a weapon. I can fight with martial arts, but his skin looks more robust than the Starlord.’
Zach raised his brows and asked with a judging look on his face: “So you are saying that you are not angry or sad over his death?”
“He might be my brother, but we guards have a code, and we have to live by it.” After a brief pause, he said, “Even if Starlord had managed to kill you and he had won the match, I would have killed him myself for breaking the rules.”
“You know, I don’t know how serious you are about this, or if you are actually being honest. But I wouldn’t have killed your brother if he hadn’t tried to kill me first,” Zach asserted in a solemn voice.
“Yes, I am aware of that,” Stinglord nodded in response.
Zach was telling the truth. Starlord had tried to kill Zach by trapping him into a water domain. He also made the water denser, so the viewers weren’t able to see the inside. And he took advantage of the situation to kill Zach.
However, even after that, Zach didn’t kill him and simply protected himself.
Zach spared Starlord’s life and gave him one chance to live and redeem himself. But instead, Starlord tried to kill him again, and Zach was forced to kill him.
Starlord did not do that for the glory, but he did that so he could get to marry Aquarius. While Aquarius was disgusted after seeing Starlord’s natural form, so she wouldn’t have married him even if he had won.
In the end, Starlord died for nothing, and the cause of his death was his own stupidity and inflated ego.
Stinglord pointed his finger at the mattress and said, “Let’s go back to the palace. The party must continue.”
“Yeah. Aquarius’ birthday cake looked delicious,” Zach nodded.
On their way back to the palace, Stinglord noticed Zach was lost in his thoughts.
“Is something worrying you?” he asked.
“Umm… well, I kind of killed two NPC, but my nametag hasn’t changed to purple,” Zach uttered. “I killed Maxim in the battle, so it shouldn’t count. But I killed the… uhh… What was his name?”
“Minum,” Stinglord answered.
“…” Zach let out a weary sigh after hearing that name. “I killed Minum, and I didn’t get the purple nametag.”
“Hmm…” Stinglord pondered for a while and answered, “Mabe the game registered it as a battle?”
Zach shrugged his shoulders and muttered, “Well, it’s good that I didn’t get the purple nametag.”
The NPCs managed most parts of the game. There were NPCs at food places, lodging places, parks, guildhall, and all the shops in the city and kingdom. So if they saw a player with a purple nametag, they would know that person had killed one of their kind, and they might become hostile towards them.
‘I would prefer to have the red nametag rather than the purple,’ Zach sighed inwardly.
Soon, they reached the palace and entered the hall where everyone else had already resumed dancing.
Zach looked up at the chandelier and noticed Minum’s body was no longer there. Then, he gazed at the ceiling that had broken when he punched Maxim, but it was fixed too.
‘They are fast!’ Zach was genuinely surprised, but then he remembered they were in a magical world, and everything was possible using magic.
Zach searched for Aurora and Aria and found them resting on the chair. He walked to them and asked, “How nice of you to wait for me.”
Aurora shot a glare at Zach and uttered, “Do you enjoy making me worry?”
She looked sad and anxious.
“I don’t. But I love when you get overprotective after that,” Zach replied with a grin on her face.
Aurora furrowed her brows and asked, “I will get angry if you make me worry next time.”
Zach caressed Aurora’s face and kissed her on the lips before saying, “I will try my best not to make you worry.”
“Now then…” Zach held Aurora’s hand in his hand and said, “Shall we dance?”
Aurora shook her head and said, “I am not in the mood.”
“…”
Aurora pointed her gaze at Aria and said, “Why don’t you dance with your wife?”
Zach turned to Aria and uttered, “Want to dance with me?”
Aria bit her lips and said, ‘His way of asking Aurora was entirely different from the way he is asking me.’
Aria reluctantly grabbed Zach’s hand and said, “I guess I have no other choice.”
Aurora watched Zach and Aria leave for a dance. She saw them dance and smiled as she thought, ‘Just a few hours ago, I found out they both are gods. I am lucky to have one as my friend and one as my love. I am sure they would protect me from any danger and help me beat the game together so that we can meet again in the real world and stay together, forever.’
***
Total players in the game- 402968.
0 new players logged in.
19 players died.
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Author’s Note- How should Aurora react after knowing that Aria is also Zach’s aunt and her aunt-in-law?