Harem-Powered Kingdom Building: Empire of Carnal Sin-Chapter 51: Conflicted Heart

"He is." Tara confirmed with a mild frown on her face. The reason for her confidence was two-fold. The Starius she knew was not a liar, especially not when it came to important things like this. Moreover, it was Hiro who had brought up the matter of Starius being a Hero. Tara's trust in Hiro's abilities was quite high.

"I've known him since we were children, before either of us had classes..." Tara reminisced the events of her past. She told the surrounding women about a time before Starius had become a Hero. About how she thought he had sacrificed his life trying to save her.

As for what happened after that fated day? Tara did not know. All these years, she had received no word from Starius – not even a single letter informing her that he was safe. That he had gotten himself a Combat Class and become a chosen of Goddess Selune.

'He must've had his reasons...' Tara told herself. Without realizing it, she had ended her brief narration and was lost in her own thoughts.

Now that some time had passed since their reunion, Tara's initial feelings of ecstasy regarding Starius' survival diminished. Of course, she was still happy that he was alive and well, but she couldn't help but seriously consider what the future held for her.

'If only we reunited a bit earlier...' Tara couldn't help but think about the relationship she now shared with Hiro. 'Does Lord Hiro even care about me, though? What if this is nothing more than a convenient deal to him?'

Within her mind, Tara knew that Hiro did not love her in the traditional sense. It was not guaranteed that she would officially have a place beside him in the future. Meanwhile, although Starius and her were never lovers and had never engaged in any physical intimacy, the relationship between them was not so simple. For now, Tara's mind was a mess, and her future seemed unclear.

"Were you and Starius lovers?" Rhonia asked bluntly after misunderstanding Tara's distracted appearance. Her eyes glinted with mischief as she continued her playful speculation. "Childhood sweethearts perhaps? The way he kept looking at you before..."

Tara's cheeks flushed instantly. "No! Nothing like that. We were just friends."

"Friends, she says," Rhonia snorted, giving a conspiratorial look to the other women.

The women giggled, and Tara's blush deepened. Even Hema's lips curved slightly upward, though she kept her focus on the herbs she was sorting.

"We should focus on finishing the cooking. It won't be safe to keep the fires lit for much longer," Tara said seriously. This was just a ruse to divert the attention away from herself, but it worked. The surrounding women mumbled some words of agreement after looking at the diminishing ambient light and the got back to their stations.

Rhonia, who was naturally working pretty close to Tara, did not look like she was going to let the matter rest though. "This Starius sure is strange! The man arrives, kills a Hill Giant that had the lot of us scared silly, and then what does he do? Starts helping Targon and the others clean up monster corpses!" She shook her head in disbelief. "Never seen a man so eager to do menial work instead of catching up with a pretty woman like you, Tara."

"Well... he always had a strong sense of responsibility," Tara wryly said while recalling some fond childhood memories.

"Or maybe he's just nervous to face you," Hema suggested with an imperceptible smile. "It's been years, after all."

Tara looked at Hema with mild surprise. All this while, she had been feeling that Hema was too serious of a person to engage in such banter, but apparently, she was mistaken!

"Well," Rhonia continued, undeterred by Tara's silence, "if you ask me, it's a shame to waste time on clean up duty when there are more... pleasant reunions to be had." She said conclusively.

Tara did not respond to Rhonia's words, and a lull fell over the place. Rhonia too realized that she might have gone a bit too far with her teasing. It wasn't like she was on very familiar terms with Tara.

As the women worked towards finishing their dinner preparations in silence, it was Tara who spoke up a while later. Something had been bothering her for a while.

"How did your outing with Lord Hiro today go, Hema?" she asked, her question holding hidden meanings behind it.

Even though Rhonia found this question strange at first, her gossip-senses immediately tingled. The atmosphere shifted perceptibly. Hema's face remained impassive, but her hands stilled momentarily over the herbs she'd been sorting.

"I required escort to gather herbs from the forest," she replied evenly. "The Baron was kind enough to accompany me."

"And? How was the Baron?" Rhonia asked, like a bloodhound that smelled blood. "Was he approachable? Or was he high and mighty? Perhaps he even showed some interest in you?" Rhonia inquired with a giggle.

Tara glanced up sharply, her interest heightening.

Unfortunately for the two of them, Hema seemed to have steeled her mind. She was not flustered in the least. "You might be overthinking this," she said sternly. "Remember that we are in Goddess Selune's domain. Such speculation about the Ruler is inappropriate."

"Right..." Rhonia guiltily acknowledged Hema's words. Just like that, Hema was able to skillfully shut down the topic and prevent any further questions regarding this matter.

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Tara was unconvinced, however. She might not know much about Hema's character, but she held great faith in Hiro's unbridled lust. Surely, that man tried to make a move on Hema. Unconsciously, a pout appeared on Tara's face.

'I will confirm directly with Lord Hiro himself!' she decided since Hema wasn't saying anything.

"My Lord! Are you busy?" Tara utilized the telepathic link she shared with Hiro.

"No, Tara." Hiro was about to return to the settlement at this time. He had been paying partial attention to Tara's conversation using [Inspect Sense], and already had a clue about what Tara was going to ask him. He found her behavior to be kind of cute.

"Then, can you tell me if something happened between you and Hema in the woods today? How much progress did you make with her?"

"My, my. Aren't you a curious girl. Feeling jealous, Tara?" Hiro said in a humorous tone, much to Tara's frustration.

"As for the matters between me and Hema, something did happen," Hiro admitted after sensing Tara's silence. "However, the progress was frankly unsatisfactory."

Tara perked up upon hearing that. What did her lord mean by those words? As Tara sunk into thought, Hiro interrupted her.

"Don't think too much about this. I will be returning in a few minutes. Make sure food is ready to be served to all the citizens."

"...Yes, My Lord."

Having received such instructions, Tara had no choice but to obey without further question.

She temporarily shelved her complicated feelings and conveyed Hiro's orders to Rhonia who was the one in-charge of the cooking.

Although Rhonia was confused by how Hiro could remotely send orders to Tara, she did not think that Tara was lying. She went around the makeshift cooking area to make sure the food was ready.

A lot of people bought some basic items like utensils and dishes with them when they sought refuge. Rhonia instructed all the women to start transferring the meat stew into these dishes so that the food could be served on notice.

By this time, the cleanup was mostly handled, and some men were scattering Yelough mushrooms around the settlement in preparation to extinguish any fires.

Several minutes later, Hiro returned.