She answered the call and immediately heard Sean Shaw's excited voice: "Lucy! Guess what? We just finished joint exercises with the Drake Abyss Divine Guard—and we won!"
Lucy Luan laughed, "The Drake Abyss Divine Guard? That's one of the toughest units in the whole army!"
"Exactly! The Three-Realms Joint Army is on fire right now! Everyone's walking around with pride written all over their faces." Sean sounded absolutely delighted.
Lucy smiled, "I'm at the Spirit Alliance right now, and the Divine Lord is here with me, so I’ll have to talk to you later."
Sean went quiet for a moment, then said, "Okay."
After hanging up, Lucy glanced up and smiled at Soren Lann.
"Does the Fifth Prince contact you often?" Soren asked.
"Mm-hmm."
Soren’s expression darkened, but he said nothing.
"Divine Lord, I’d like to go in and rest for a bit. Why don’t you head back first?" Lucy said.
"I came all this way just to keep you company, and you’re kicking me out without even inviting me in for a sit?"
"Divine Lord, if you have time to keep me company, you’d be better off meeting a few more lovely ladies and marrying a proper Divine Queen soon. That way the Empress Dowager won’t have to worry about you so much!"
Soren’s face grew even darker. He asked, "Why are you saying things like this to me? You know perfectly well—"
"Let me ask you what Jin Xian just asked: If I agreed to marry you right now, could you actually take me as your consort?" Lucy asked.
Soren raised an eyebrow, "So you’re agreeing to marry me now?"
"What I mean is, we both know this road is blocked—so why keep walking it?"
Soren gave a short laugh, "Alright, let’s drop it for now! Do you remember what day it is in three days?"
Lucy thought for a moment and said, "Your birthday."
"Will you come?"
Lucy frowned, just about to answer, when Soren suddenly switched to a playful tone: "If you don’t show up, I’ll ditch all my guests and come find you!"
"Divine Lord! What am I even supposed to do there—just make things awkward for you?"
"I don’t care! You have to come!"
Lucy felt exhausted. "Fine! I’ll go, okay?"
"You have to come! If you don’t, I’ll be so heartbroken."
"Fine!"
Soren looked absolutely delighted.
Lucy honestly couldn’t figure out what he was so happy about.
Soren hadn’t been gone long before Sean Shaw called her again.
"What’s up?" Lucy asked.
"What are you doing?"
"Reading, sipping tea, soaking up some sunshine."
"Has he left?"
"Who?"
Sean: "Divine Lord Soren Lann."
"He left!"
Sean was silent for a while. "Why did he come to see you?"
"He said he was afraid I’d be bored, so he came to keep me company."
This time, the silence stretched even longer. Sean didn’t say a word.
Lucy burst out laughing. "I’m just messing with you!"
"From now on, you’re not allowed to be alone with him." Sean’s tone turned bossy.
"Eh?"
"Not allowed!" He hung up on her.
Lucy didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
......
Lucy genuinely hadn’t expected Soren to actually go through with it.
On his birthday, Lucy kept her promise and entered the palace with her parents and elder brother.
The gods who used to crowd around her and her mother, eager to curry favor, now kept their distance. Not a single one spoke to them.
But the Empress Dowager still looked as gentle as ever.
She didn’t deliberately avoid Lucy or her mother like the others did, but kept a polite distance—not cold, but no longer pulling Lucy to sit beside her like before.
Lucy sat there, feeling miserable.
She’d rather the Empress Dowager just stayed far away, like everyone else, than see her smiling on the surface while secretly telling the Divine Lord to have her arrested...