Chapter 284: Who in the World Is this Benjamin Mark...? I want Him for Myself

The two powerful rulers locked eyes across the table as thick, heavy bloodlust began to rise between them like visible misty vapors.

The sheer intensity of it was strong enough to make several of the Amazon guards stationed at the entrance of the hall take several uneasy steps backward in instinctive caution.

"Hey, stop that right now. We are not here to fight among ourselves today," Renard raised one hand calmly in a placating gesture.

His voice was steady and authoritative, yet still carrying that light, friendly undertone.

Almost immediately, Sakura halted her rising aggression and returned to slowly smoking her elegant kiseru pipe, the fragrant smoke curling upward in lazy spirals once more.

"Damn it all! Why do the kids always seem to love you so much more than they love me?!" Mótsognir yelled out loud at Renard.

His voice was thick with obvious jealousy over the way the blonde-haired man had expertly handled the situation with Sakura just moments earlier.

The dwarven king’s face flushed with frustration as he gripped the edge of the massive ironwood table.

"They don’t love me more than you... they just don’t love you at all. And maybe they don’t like round old uncles like yourself?" Renard shrugged his shoulders lightly in a casual, almost playful manner, a small grin tugging at the corners of his mouth.

He continued; "But I do agree with the earlier point. Benjamin Mark truly is proving to be quite a significant danger to the stability of the worl—"

"He is not!!"

Titania, Elara, and Sakura all yelled out the words at the exact same moment.

Their voices overlapped in a sudden, passionate burst as each one of them rose sharply from their seats in fierce defense of the man in question.

The silver-haired fairy’s delicate butterfly wings fluttered rapidly with agitation, Elara’s powerful arms unfolded as she pushed herself up, and Sakura’s sharp amber eyes flashed with protective fire while her pink hair shifted around her shoulders.

Then, almost in perfect unison, the three women glanced at one another across the wide oval table.

A shared blush of embarrassment crept across their cheeks as they realized what they had just done.

Without another word, they calmly lowered themselves back into their seats, the moment of unified outburst hanging awkwardly in the air.

The other leaders seated around the grand table reacted with clear confusion written plainly across their faces.

They were exchanging quick, bewildered glances as if to say they had absolutely no idea what was truly going on and now felt completely left out of whatever strange loop had just formed right before their eyes.

"Wh... What do you even know about Benjamin anyway?" Elara muttered softly under her breath, her fingers idly playing with a loose strand of her hair as she avoided meeting anyone’s gaze directly for a few seconds.

Sakura began tapping the tip of her long kiseru pipe gently with one of her pink claws, the faint clicking sound echoing lightly in the hall while she still carried a light blush on her cheeks.

"I... I do know that he is far too naive for his own good at times..." she started, "But... it is precisely that quality that makes him most endearing in a way that is hard to explain."

"Right? He always wants to help others, even when it comes at the clear expense of his own well-being and safety," Elara looked directly at Sakura as she spoke, her voice carrying a rare note of shared understanding. "It makes you want to... step in and protect him from the harshness of the world around him."

"I understand completely!" Sakura chirped back gladly, her earlier cool demeanor melting into something warmer and more open as she nodded with genuine enthusiasm.

She continued; "One moment, you find yourself thinking that he is inevitably going to get himself into serious trouble one day because of that innocence, and then the very next moment, you realize it is actually alright for him to remain this way... We were all once children ourselves, naive and innocent in our own ways too. Somehow, being around him reminds me vividly of what life felt like back then, before everything became so complicated."

Elara smiled softly in quiet reminiscence, her gaze drifting for a moment as memories surfaced.

She recalled a much simpler time when all she had ever thought about was playing freely in the forests, enjoying passionate encounters, engaging in thrilling fights, and simply having fun without any heavy burdens...

Long before life had suddenly thrust the weight of queenship upon her shoulders and changed everything in an instant.

"Benjamin is not a danger at all, Lazarus," Titania said with a bright, genuine smile directed first at the two queens before she turned her attention fully toward Renard, her small frame shifting forward on her seat.

She continued; "If anything, he is someone we should all join hands together to protect and preserve as the single most precious thing in this world!"

Elara nodded slowly in agreement, her expression still carrying that soft, reminiscent warmth.

Sakura nodded as well, her amber eyes sparkling with quiet conviction. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

Meanwhile, the other leaders seated around the table watched the entire exchange with seriously shocked eyes, their postures stiffening as they tried to process what they were witnessing.

These three women... they had never truly gotten along with one another in all the long centuries they had known.

They had rarely seen eye to eye on almost anything of importance.

Sakura had always viewed the Amazons as little more than advanced monkeys living in the wild.

Titania thrived on mischief and various criminal activities that she cleverly disguised as innocent princess behavior or cute little pranks that often caused chaos.

And Elara, who was nearly a misanthrope at heart, particularly despised Sakura for what she saw as unbearable hubris and arrogance.

She also harbored a deep resentment toward Titania for constantly barging into situations uninvited and wrecking carefully laid plans without a second thought.

Titania, for her part, had a habit of breaking everything around her in moments of impulsive fun and then quickly offering apologies with the brightest smile...

All while literally telling you in the same breath that she would happily do it all over again because she was completely addicted to the thrill of sabotage.

But now, right here in the living heart of Verdant Spire, the three of them were suddenly sharing light laughs and soft giggles among themselves.

They were completely forgetting — at least for this brief moment — that they normally harbored thoughts about ending one another’s influence whenever the opportunity arose.

It made a single, persistent thought hover unspoken in the minds of everyone present in the grand hall, except for Renard himself: "Who in the world is this Benjamin Mark...? I want him for myself."

Renard knew with absolute certainty that this would be the logical path their thoughts would eventually take after witnessing such a surprising display.

He also knew, deep down, that Benjamin was as gullible and easily influenced as a simple rock sitting motionless on the ground.

He further understood that both Sakura and Titania had already fallen quite deeply in love with Benjamin in their own distinct ways.

And above all else, he basically loved the entire setting that was unfolding before him.

Because as a man who had spent many long years quietly searching for effective ways to unite the seven great kingdoms under a more stable and harmonious banner, this unexpected moment of unity felt like a promising step in exactly the right direction.