System's POV

The days passed swiftly with Kane and Derek rabidly hounding each other as rivals for Shasha's attention.

However, in front of her "Guardian," Zion, the two were like two loyal puppies that could only wag their tails and behave properly.

In the end, seeing that his love rival was being trained by his 'future brother-in-law,' Kane decided to join Derek's training under Zion's supervision.

To the teenage boy's surprise, the two fools' progress was quite fast, and the two of them had gotten stronger after just a few days of training.

Perhaps their rivalry was pushing the two of them to outdo each other, creating results that made Thirteen shake his head because it was outside of his calculations.

In the end, he just summed everything into a few words.

"It's hard to predict what idiots do."

A few days later, the members of the Hero Party returned to the Aldebaran Continent as promised.

It was not only them. Rianna, Viola, Louise, and Sharon also came.

There were only three days before the night of the Solstice, and everyone seemed to have already been done with their final preparations.

Sitting on the roof of their house with Rhia sitting on his lap, Thirteen looked at the setting sun in the distance.

'Tomorrow, I will finally return to Solterra,' Thirteen thought.

He spent three and a half years in Pangea after his return from Solterra, but those days were always busy.

Creating Athena, supervising Project Nautilus, and engineering the eGANDAM Duel Master Virtual Game took all of his time.

Project Nautilus was a very ambitious and expensive project, and he needed vast amounts of funds in order to build it.

Because of this, he created a company named Noiz and introduced GANDAM to the world.

Due to its massive success, he earned billions of gold coins, allowing him to fund the creation of Nautilus.

The excess funds were allocated to his other projects, including his father's crafting training and his mother's alchemy concoctions.

Regarding everything he had done the past three years, Thirteen knew that all of them would bear fruit in the future.

Being the Supreme Commander of the Alliance wasn't his original goal. However, since it would be more convenient for him if he was in a position of power, he used schemes in order to raise his Rank and influence within the Central Government.

His 69th Battalion, who had been a laughing stock of the Army in the past, was now hailed as Heroes.

No matter where they went, the label of being part of Zion Leventis' personal army gave them perks and benefits, which they didn't expect to receive.

Alcapone, the leader of the Mafia within his Battalion, was now a celebrity.

Of course, using his new fame, Alcapone did his best to support Colbert as they made their way to the Cygni Continent in order to build the foundation for Zion's arrival after his return from Solterra.

"Always listen to Father, Mother, Mikhail, Shasha, and Remi while I'm away, okay?" Thirteen said to Rhia.

"Yes!" Rhia nodded while looking at the sunset with her brother. "Bwadah, return soon?"

"I'll return as soon as I can," Thirteen replied.

A moment later, a few others joined him on the roof.

"It's a good view," Erica said as she stood beside Zion. "It's the second to the last sunset we're seeing before we leave this world. Right, Shana?"

"Yes," Shana replied. "I hope tomorrow's sunset will just be as beautiful."

"Have the two of you already prepared your speech for tomorrow?" Thirteen asked. "It must be inspiring, okay? We need to give the First Timers some motivation."

"I already memorized my speech," Erica stated.

"Same." Shana nodded. "But will our words really be enough?"

"Of course," Thirteen said. "People look up to the Hero Party, so hearing their speech will definitely encourage them to do their best. Also, the two of you are beautiful girls. I bet the guys will really enjoy hearing the two of you talk."

"Well, you're not wrong." Erica twirled her hair with her fingers.

However, being weak to compliments, she couldn't stop herself from smiling because Zion called her beautiful.

There was also a faint smile on Shana's lips, which she herself hadn't noticed.

She had always received compliments wherever she went. However, she knew that those were just flattery.

But it hit differently when someone she respected, like Zion, complimented her. It felt more genuine compared to most.

"Shana, Erica, make sure to survive, okay?" Thirteen said as he looked at the dimming light on the horizon. "I know that both of you are stronger now, but don't be too overconfident of your strength."

"You don't need to worry about me," Erica replied. "I'm more worried about you. You're just a Rookie, so you might accidentally…"

The young lady was about to say "accidentally die in a ditch somewhere," but seeing Rhia sitting on Zion's lap, she decided that it would not be wise to continue, so she changed it to something else.

"You might accidentally fall into a honey trap. Be careful, okay?"

"Me? Fall into a honey trap? Impossible."

Erica giggled because she also couldn't imagine the teenage boy falling into a honey trap.

She was a very beautiful girl, and not any less inferior to Shana's beauty.

And yet, when Zion looked at her, she could tell that his eyes didn't hold any interest.

In fact, she felt as if the teenage boy was treating her like a little sister of sorts despite her being older than him by four years.

It wasn't only her who felt this way.

After they left the Leventis Residence, Rianna added the girls to her Girl Group Chat, where they talked about anything under the sun.

One of their discussions was about Zion treating them as if they were younger than him.

After finding out that others were feeling the same thing as her, their discussion went on for hours, with them ranting about Zion not handling beautiful girls like them in a delicate manner.

Mildred complained that no boys tried to hit her, but Zion did.

Not using words or his hands but with baseballs during their training.

Rianna, who also suffered a similar treatment, joined Mildred in her rant, which made things very lively.

However, Viola and the two other Valkyries, Sharon and Louise, told them that compared to the training they had under Zion, what the Hero Party and Rianna undertook was childsplay.

"He even went as far as touching my body," Viola said with a blush.

"Right! He made sure to inject us with his fluids every day," Sharon stated. "It was so hot, and I felt like I was burning from the inside out!"

"Sometimes, he will do that more than four times a day." Louise nodded. "My body would be so sore every time we finish our session. On certain days, he would do it with the three of us at the same time. Zion can be overbearing at times."

The faces of Rianna and the girls of the Hero Party all became beet-red after hearing the scandalous and misleading statements that the three Valkyries made.

Rianna even protested that they were just making it up, but Viola only laughed and told her that maybe her favorability wasn't that high enough for Zion to personally inject his fluids inside Rianna's body.

Naturally, Shana demanded that Viola and her sisters explain what happened properly, but the three Valkyries only laughed and told them that they were still too young to know such details.

Having remembered those talks, Erica cleared her throat and decided to ask Thirteen a question.

"Zion, Viola told me that you injected your fluids in her body," Erica said. "Sharon and Louise also admitted that you did that to them as well. Is that true?"

"They told you that?" Thirteen turned her head to look at Erica. "I explicitly told them not to tell others about it. I'm going to punish them later."

"So it's true then?" Shana asked, her voice turning icy. "Did you really inject them with your fluids?"

"I did," Thirteen replied. "There were times when I injected the three of them at the same time with my fluids. Fortunately, they are highly compatible with it, and it made them stronger as well.

"That special serum was something that would allow them to resist Evuvug's mind control, so I had to make sure they took it properly. Without it, the Brain Beetle would have turned them into slaves, you know?"

"…"

"…"

Erica and Shana quietly glanced at each other before leaving the rooftop at the same time.

They were going to look for Viola, Sharon, and Louise. This time, they would make sure that the three properly explained the "fluids" Zion had injected into them, which made them stronger.