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-Hali's POV-
A white flutter of sparkling butterflies shot out from Dimitris shadow, at the same time the ever familiar garden of beautiful flowers bloomed at his feet while children enslave from the nobility of my home rushed in his embrace.
Soon the kids he had already rescued managed to escape from Odysseus clutches and reached to join him.
"Your majesty, what is the meaning of this? You can't just rob us of our slaves!"
"Aaaahhhh"
These fools still didn't understand the situation they were in, and if I didn't get to know Aaron before, I too would be confused.
With all the things Aaron had taught me about their times politics and Klaus, there were a couple of subjects that really got to me.
First of all was the concept of vote and democracy, then came Dimitris' past.
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Those were the most interesting things I could remember from the little talks I had with Aaron and when I saw how Dimitris behaved with the young ones I understood what his brother meant.
That wasn't even love, it was clear. It was pure panic, of what? I couldn't know, but I knew that if I didn't put these nobles in their place soon, things would get ugly.
It was time to put my foot down and bring my plans forward.
Merlin appeared beside me at that moment.
What? When?
He smiled and nudged me.
"Isn't there something you need each and every one of your subjects to know at the same time?"
This crafty bastard. He knows.
"I already cast my spell, go on miss Hali Damocles."
Fuck, it does sound good.
Removing those useless thoughts from my mind, I faced the nobility once again, confident that Merlin would truly send my message across the whole island.
"Things are going to change. Drastically. Together with a selected few I will personally interview will create a new rule book."
And none of you bastards will be part of it.
"This rule book will contain duties and rights of everyone that chooses to keep living on this island."
The faces of the nobility were filled with confusion while Dimitris perked up and focused on me, still surrounded with kid fighting for a chance to cling to him.
It was quite a funny spectacle.
"After these rules are completed, I will give my final act as the monarch of these lands. Yes, the kingdom is too die."
Gasps echoed everywhere and I could hear the sound of steps hurriedly reaching for the temple. The people were finally gathering.
"Everyone will stand on equal footing. Nobility will be no more and the knights will not fight for a single person, but for the people."
"YOU CAN'T POSSIBLY THINK WE WILL JUST STAND DOWN AND DO NOTHING! IF YOU ARE NOT FIT TO BE QUEEN ONE OF US WILL."
I stared at the noble who expectantly raised his complaint. It was only natural. Nobody would accept such changes without even voicing doubts.
"I don't care. I may be not fit to be queen, but so are all of you. You can always gather your riches and leave, but the children stay."
"HA! NOW YOU WANT TO THEOW US OUT OF OUR HOUSES? YOU SPOILED BRAT! DID YOU FORGET WE ALL ARE C AND B RANK WARRIORS?"
"Of course not, but that doesn't scare me in the slightest."
"THEN WE WILL JUST SHOW YOU THE DIFFERENCE!"
The nobility present started to gather their aura and prepare to attack me, in a second I would have been under siege, but I really wasn't scared.
During my confrontation, I heard clearly the children complaining to Dimitris, and now Odysseus who stood by his side, I could feel the mana raging around them.
Were we outnumbered? Yes.
Were we outclassed? I doubted.
But more then anything, I heard Dimitris ask the kid:
"Do you wanna see something pretty?"
With such malice in his voice that I too had shivers running down my spine.
At the same time, the wind started to pick up pace as Odysseus eyes grew colder.
Their actions disintegrated go unnoticed as the nobles shoot themselves at me with fists covered in aura, but none of them made it to me.
A loud crushing noise sounded right in front of me.
Several jade flowers were surrounding me from all angles, protecting me from arm and I didn't miss my chance.
My celestial bronze sword in hand, aura flowing like a torrent and I jumped in action.
Odysseus' spell [focused gale] supported my movement to hasten me, the first noble was made unconscious in a matter of seconds.
The sky was darkening, Dimitris was working on large scale spells while Odysseus and I just buying time at that point.
What is he even up to? We could make quick work of these people and he knows it. It's not like they are demigods.
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-Dimitris' POV-
"Woooow! Mister! Those crystal flowers are so pretty!!!"
"Well, thank you! But we are going to make a bigger garden, and I'll even let you pick flowers! What do you say?"
The guys easily lost interest, but all the little princesses beside me grew impatient.
I needed to make a statement, and so I did.
Stealthily blinking seeds here and there around all of us, I began casting my two biggest spells, not in terms of strength, but of area of effect.
[rain of abundance] and [swamp of creation] were both utility spells, but paired with those seeds, [minor blessing of growth] and my wood manipulation, they became an extremely valuable asset.
Hali and Odysseus were defending me well, Eurylochus and the other joined the fray and by all means, we should have been able to dispose of such enemies without much effort, but it seemed like everyone noticed my Archana moving and wanted to let me play.
Look at these smart asses.
Time had finally come and I blinked everyone in front of me and the kids with [flowery disperse] before activating my spells.
Multicasting was now as easy as breathing and without delay rain started pouring down, the terrain changed from rocks to swamp and sprouts grew into wriggling vines covered with white roses.
Every spectator was left speechless.
That was not something to be expected of a nature mage.
The vines followed my will and immediately started entrapping all the nobility without wasting time.
Rose thorns gripping their clothes and skin, entanglement was the only option and I decided it was time to get comfy with a skill I didn't get to use in the slightest.
I walked in between the now trapped nobles and activated the playful skill.
[hands of the trickster - manifest invisible hands that can hinder movement and interrupt the focus of your opponent.]
With a limitation of three meters of action tho make these hands intervene I needed to walk there myself, but I soon noticed how useful this skill was.
Sure, the distance was somewhat a delusion, but within those three meters, I was able to steal each and every weapon sending them in my internal space without touching anybody.
A couple of minutes later I was done looting these men and made my way back to the children now watching me with awe.
"Now! The garden is completed, but since maintaining this is kind of draining for me, why don't you point at the flowers you want my king and my sister to take care off?"
The girls almost dropped to their knees, the little boys were now fuming with anger, but it felt like everyone knew what I was talking about.
A little hand clutched my pants and young blond boy with a deep shade of red eye was starring at me.
Fuck, I forgot there was supposed to be a son of Apollo here… the hell am I supposed to do with him?
"Uncle… why are you making the new kid pick on those men?"
"I'm not… wait…"
I actually was this lil guy's uncle.
"You know young man? We should ask everyone who picked a flower to tell us why they did."
"Yes!"
The small version of Apollo was enthusiastically jumping, not expecting my next words.
"Young man, the reasons will not be happy, try not to show too much reaction, ok?"
Mini Febo picked my hand and guided me to the first little princess pointing at a man. He asked her why'd she pick him and she dutifully tried to answer.
"Whenever his wife wasn't around… he'd t-"
"Enough."
I stopped the girl from finishing her answer.
How can she so openly talk about THAT!?
Clearly my morality was much different from that of this timeline, but such things should have been a primordial feeling!
"Uncle! Why did you stop her!"
I looked at the girl.
"I'll explain in a little gentler way, are you okay with that young lady?"
"As long as he gets punished."
I nodded and focused back to the little demigod.
"This man took something very precious from our little princess here. Something that cannot be taken back and that should be for nobody to take, only for the little princess to decide to give."
Both my hands were now caught on fire and my [fire lilies of destruction] were at the ready.
"Now, it's not my place to explain this things, but if you look attentively at the punishment I'm about to bestow, you will understand."
I manipulated the thornes on the vine to puncture pressure points to paralyse the man and at the same time enhance his sense of pain.
With my flaming hands I reached the face of the man and without hesitation whatsoever, gauged his eyes out.
The fire immediately cauterised the wound, but nothing could stop the pained shriek from being screamed out of the man.
With the now molten eyeballs in my hands, I moved my hands down in front of his member. The fire lilies surrounded it and I created a [jade hydrangea] in front of us to protect us from the splatter.
The explosion was fast, as fast as was my healing. I couldn't regrow appendixes, but I could stop the healing and since I didn't actually have the authority to kill anyone here, I let this work for Hali later and continued my walk, the young demigod muttering to himself.
"He must have seen something his didn't need to see."
Well that's not wrong.
"Should we continue our walk towards all your new friends? Maybe the other have stories I can let you hear, or you'll understand eventually."
His hand squeezed mine a little more and he nodded vehemently.
Only after his confirmation I sent a fire message to Odysseus.
"I'll take mini Apollo around to the young ladies pointing at the flower the want to be punished. Do you mind taking care of the ones the boys are pointing at? Ask Hali of course."
I didn't wait for an answer and continued my walk with my nephew, hoping to traumatise sexual harassment out of his heart even before it could create sexual desire.
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-Odysseus' POV-
Seeing the atrocities Dimitris was doing at each men pointed by a girl, made my blood run cold.
Pieces of testicles and penises flew around after loud explosions, but nobody died. Everyone was healed for Hali to decide later on.
"Fuck, Aaron was right. Never mess with kids of Dimitris is around, you'd wish you'd just get killed. But the man was able to almost bring you back from the dead."
"What do you mean?"
"Oh right, you wouldn't know since you two passed all your time together exercising."
A slight blush tinged my cheeks at the memory, but I swiftly focused back on the task ahead, only that Hali had already beaten me to it.
She was in front of a now blind and castrated man.
"Honestly, you should have chosen to just leave silently, did you really think you stood a chance against three demigods? Even if a rank higher than ours, we have advantages you can't even begin to comprehend."
The man trembled. His voice barely a whisper.
"Three…?"
"Right, king Odysseus is a son of the… well he is actually under the care of the ONLY housewife for now. The man that made you a useless piece of meat not even fit for food however is the son of The Lightning Bringer."
"Fuck."
I was barely containing my laughter at this man foolishness? How were we supposed to save Hali after a solo mission if we weren't strong? But now a new comment was invading my mind.
"Well, you will never be able to do that anymore. HAHAHAHAHA!!"