"Uhm, excuse me everyone, but I think I need to step away for a moment! You guys keep catching up and sharing old stories without me! I have something really important to do right now!"

Benjamin waved at the group vaguely, his voice slightly higher and faster than normal.

He began backing away from the gathering, preparing to run off before Lotus could close the distance and confront him about his long delay and his new female companion.

"Eh?! But Benjamin, wait a moment," Elara began speaking, her voice strained and frustrated, now forced to sit on Violette’s lap because the horned woman absolutely refused to release her. "At the very least, could you please tell your new friend to set me free?! I am a Queen! I cannot be seen sitting on the lap of a strange topless woman, in the middle of the courtyard where anyone could walk by and witness!"

Benjamin took one very good and long look at the situation unraveling before his eyes.

He studied Elara’s red, embarrassed face, and Violette’s content expression, the way the queen was practically swallowed by the horned woman’s embrace, and the sheer absurdity of a royal sovereign being treated like a stuffed toy by an ancient serpent in human form.

He blushed slightly, held his own cheeks in his hands with a gesture of pure delighted glee, and muttered under his breath: "So cute... absolutely adorable. I want to preserve this image in my memory forever."

"Desu ne~"

Sakura agreed with him, likewise finding the situation adorable rather than alarming or inappropriate.

Her eyes softened and her smile warmed as she watched the interaction between the queen and the serpent.

Elara shot them both shocked and betrayed looks, her mouth hanging open and her eyes wide with disbelief.

Her supposed allies were simply standing there watching her suffer without lifting a finger to help her escape the embarrassing situation.

***

Lotus had been waiting for Benjamin to see her, to notice her presence, to acknowledge that she was there.

She was currently positioned behind a tree where she could watch the gathering without being immediately obvious, hoping that his eyes would eventually find her in the crowd and that he would come to her willingly, without being summoned or guilted into approaching.

It hurt her heart more than she wanted to admit because she had been deluded enough to believe that he would see her first.

For some reason, she had genuinely believed that she was special enough to him that he would sense her presence across any distance.

From when he woke up as a demi god, to Lotus, hours passed slowly, each minute dragging by like a heavy chain being pulled across rough stone.

And the bright light of day gradually faded into the soft darkness of night.

But Benjamin never came. He was too busy laughing and playing with the other women, too absorbed in his reunion with the queens to spare a glance in her direction.

Earlier this evening;

"Ah, Lady Lotus," an Amazon seamstress who was working nearby made a careful observation, her voice hesitant and respectful. "The pattern you are weaving into that cloth—it’s not coming out correctly. You’re weaving it wrongly."

But Lotus did not receive this well-meaning advice with gratitude.

Instead, she glared at the seamstress with eyes that burned with cold fire, her expression dark and threatening, and spoke in a voice that could cut glass; 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

"Silence, thief!"

"Eek! Th-Thief?! I h-have never stolen anything in my entire life, Lady Lotus!" The seamstress recoiled in confusion, not understanding why the woman was reacting with disproportionate anger to a simple observation about weaving technique.

Due to Lotus’ loneliness and her feelings of abandonment, saddled with a growing sense of being replaced in Benjamin’s heart, Lotus had been cranky and irritable throughout the entire day.

She’d been snapping at everyone who came near her and finding fault with everything that anyone said or did in her presence.

Her emotional state had deteriorated so badly that she had eventually swallowed her pride, and sent him a telepathic message directly.

She hoped he would respond and come to her, reassuring her that she still mattered to him.

But instead of coming to her, he had brought home another woman.

And he was having fun with the queens in the courtyard, chatting and enjoying himself while she watched from the shadows like a long-forgotten ghost.

Now, as she watched from behind the tree in the distance, her fingers pressing and digging into the bark of the trunk with enough force to crack the wood and leave deep gouges in its surface, only dark and swirling emotions moved through her mind like storm clouds gathering before a hurricane.

’Does Benjamin want fresher women now?’ she pondered deeply, ’Am I too old for him now? Sh-Should I lie about my true age and pretend to be younger so that he would feel closer to me and more comfortable with our relationship? If I am not careful... I will be replaced and left behind like an old tool that has outlived its usefulness.’

Then, in the middle of her spiraling thoughts and her growing despair, she noticed Benjamin had finally noticed her standing there in the shadows.

His eyes had found her at last, and they were looking directly at her with a lovely expression.

And while she was extremely glad and relieved that those beautiful blue eyes had finally landed on her after so many hours of waiting, she was also pouty and stubborn, determined not to make this easy for him.

He had ignored her for too long.

And he had hurt her feelings too deeply to simply forgive him with a smile and wave.

So she huffed loudly, turned her back on him in a deliberate gesture of dismissal, and began to walk away, her footsteps intentionally slow and deliberate, giving him every opportunity to call out to her and come after her.

Benjamin suddenly appeared before her, blocking her path, having teleported directly into her way.

He grabbed her hands firmly in his own, holding them tightly so she could not pull away, and pressed her body backward against the rough bark of a large tree.

Benjamin had teleported them both away from the gathering without giving her any time to prepare.

"Do not touch me. I do not want your hands on my body," she threw her face to the side, her brows furrowed and her lips pressed into a deep frown. "Go away and play with fresher women, women who are more beautiful and younger than me, more deserving of your attention than I am."

"C’mon, please don’t say such awful things. You know that’s not true, and that’s not how I feel about you," Benjamin leaned in closer to her, his body pressing against hers.

His hands released her wrists and instead wrapping around her waist, pulling her into a warm and firm embrace.

His face buried itself against her neck, his nose and his lips pressing against the soft skin there, breathing in her scent.

They were roughly the same height, her and Benjamin, their bodies aligned almost perfectly, so she also rested her head on his shoulder in response to his embrace, unable to resist the comfort and the familiarity of his touch despite her anger and hurt feelings.

But then, remembering that she was supposed to be upset with him, she tried to push him away with her hands against his chest, applying force that was far weaker than she was actually capable of.

"But... But you did not even wave at me or acknowledge my existence at the summit, when I was standing right there watching you!" Lotus said, her voice rising a bit with the emotion of the memory, the pain of that moment still fresh and raw in her heart. "You looked at everyone else, and spoke to everyone else, but your eyes passed over me like I was invisible. You are ignoring me on purpose, I know you are. You do not care about me the way you used to."

"Geeeeeeeez... Haven’t you ever heard of the expression ’save the best for last’? I wasn’t ignoring you, Lotus, I was saving you. I was waiting for the right moment to approach you, when I could give you my full attention without distractions and interruptions," Benjamin cupped her cheeks gently with both of his hands, tilting her face upward so that he could look directly into her golden irises. "While we’re on the subject of things that happened during that time, I did hear from someone that you were the one who removed me from the teleportation that was taking me to Goliathens. Would you like to tell me more about that?"

Lotus still frowned a little bit, her golden eyes narrowed and her lips pressed together in a stubborn expression that suggested she was not quite ready to forgive him entirely.

But as Benjamin continued to kiss her neck and her collarbone, pressing his lips against her soft skin in deliberate motions, trailing warmth and affection across the sensitive areas of her throat and her shoulders...

She soon caved to the pleasant sensations and the familiar comfort of his touch, her resistance melting away like snow under the hot sun.

"Hmph. This is the only time I will forgive you for making me wait so long, do you understand?! Th-There will not be a next time where you ignore me for hours!" She wrapped her arms around his body tightly, pulling him closer against her, as he giggled softly at her tsundere threats and her obvious relief at having him near her again.