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Once Sol made his decision, he decided to move fast. He may have established a 7 days ceasefire but nothing said Wratharis would listen to it. Of course, if they didn’t this would be to his advantage. Sol would be happy to see the King ruin his chances and make himself even more hated by the populace. This would make Sestuna's ascension to the throne even easier than it should already be.

Obviously, the Wolf King, for all his arrogance, should not be that stupid.

There was also another reason why he had chosen 7 days; if everything worked as he intended, everything would be different. The symbolism behind these numbers would be extremely powerful and useful for him to reach his goal.

Ignoring the rushing sound of the rivers and the thousands of strings that only he could see, Sol started walking forward and the girls followed, leaving only the 7 sages who did not know what to do in the current situation.

“You guys should sit down or mingle somewhere, you can also go to soothe the captured soldiers if you wish.”

Sol’s voice drifted to them before he finally left.

***

Once the girls were far enough, Athena finally had the courage to ask,

“Is it wise, Your Majesty?”

She had been staying silent all along because opposing her superior in front of outsiders would only show an ugly side. There was also the simple fact that for all intent and purpose, Sol had shown and proved to be a very competent ruler and while not all his orders always made sense, they were usually correct.

This was all the more reason for her to ask. Falling into complacency and believing that the King would always be right and would never make mistakes was a recipe for disaster in any kingdom.

It was important for some retainers to keep an objective mindset at all times even if they might get disliked because of this.

This time, neither Setsuna nor Lilin intervened. They knew to differentiate between a respectful question and one done with an insult in mind.

Furthermore, Athena and Setsuna had become something of close friends as they had very similar mindsets and shared the role of protecting Sol. Even if this role seemed to be nothing but a decoration in the current situation.

Sol simply shrugged. Now that he was not in front of people he needed to keep a mask, his cold impression vanished greatly and he once again seemed like nothing more than a young boy.

“Honestly. Whether it’s wise or not depends on what you think. For all their faults, the sages are prideful bunches. They will not hurt nor threaten the population of Lustburg. This would tarnish their honors. As long as we treat them well, they will not fight back.”

Athena hesitated a little and opened her mouth without speaking, to which Sol only chuckled, “You must be thinking that it’s pretty stupid to put the security of the population at risk while believing in something as flimsy as honors.”

“...Indeed. Far from me to insult the honor of the Sages. But when reality knocks, honors and pride can be thrown to the wayside.”

Athena was first and foremost a Commander. A knight and a soldier she may be. But she would always be a commander and as such she always had to keep an objective outlook on any battlefield.

Sol, Lilin, and Setsuna had proven they could easily put down the sages but as was shown during the earlier fight, all the sages needed were a few seconds to cause irreversible damage.

Even the Witch of Time and the Witch of Life, with all their power, were unable to bring back the dead to life. Leaving the Sages free without even one shackle to limit their powers was akin to keeping a bomb ready to explode at any moment and she could not understand the logic behind this reasoning.

“Not only that. I also do not understand the reasoning behind leaving 7 days of rest to the army of Wratharis. Those 7 days are variables during which the King of Wratharis could cause more problems for us. Whereas if we attacked now. Wratharis would have no means of resisting and we would be able to reach the gate of the capital in a few days.”

Athena really felt like pulling her hair, grabbing Sol by the collar, and shaking him awake while screaming and shouting. The only thing stopping her was her allegiance to the throne and the knowledge that such action would most likely be deadly should she carry on.

“Your expression is quite scary.”

Sol coughed awkwardly. Not finding it in him to rebuff Athena. He knew that his actions seemed incomprehensible to many and that if not for his success they would have taken him for crazy.

But,

“Everything I do is for a reason. I cannot speak of this now. But I just want you to understand that the reality is different from what you think. If Lupus attacks now…His chances of victory would be higher. If he leaves me the full seven days though…Heh. Let’s just say that 7 is my lucky number.”

Sol shrugged and continued to walk on, “As for the Sages, I already told them but there are ways to stop them from committing stupid crimes. I will have the witches watching them. Some witches wish to help a little and slowly integrate into our society. Soon, I will establish a police system that will monitor the entire Capital and eventually the entire Kingdom while being under the surveillance of the witches.”

Sol knew that what he was doing was breaking every law of freedom and right of privacy that could have existed in his old world. In a way, perhaps he was even more of a tyrant than Lupus. Albeit in a different sense.

But to such a thing, Sol could only laugh.

Privacy was the least valuable thing in this world where even the goddesses would peek at you while you were making love.

For Sol, privacy was just a myth and nothing but an illusion. Why should he care about the privacy of other people then?