You Are Her Sovereign

On the beach of Themyscira.

General Antiope and the Amazon warriors wore expressions of shock, confusion, or anger, falling into a collective silence.

No further explanation was needed. The moment Amazon Princess Diana placed her divine artifact, the Star-Spangled Tiara, onto a human man's head, she had already made her stance clear.

"His name is Xi Nian, Prince Xi Nian," Diana said softly, as if making an announcement.

"Uh, good afternoon. The weather's pretty nice today... Well, it's a pleasure to meet you all." To avoid an awkward silence, Xi Nian, wearing the crown, took the initiative to wave and warmly greet the female warriors.

Yet no one responded, making the atmosphere even quieter.

Xi Nian's waving hand froze. His scalp tingled as he realized this was truly awkwardness opening the door for awkwardness—

Awkwardness had come all the way home!

"Even so, without the Queen's orders, he cannot enter the main island of Themyscira." Antiope's chest rose and fell as she clenched her fists, staring at Xi Nian with incomparably cold eyes.

Xi Nian suddenly found that look familiar! Yeah, it was very much like the look Officer George often gave him!

"I know. I'm preparing to go see Mother now." Diana nodded and said, "Antiope, could you arrange a place for Xi Nian to stay in the island buildings beside the main island? He'll be staying here for a few days."

"No problem."

Faced with Diana's request, no matter how unwilling Antiope was, she ultimately gritted her teeth and agreed.

"Xi Nian." Diana turned back and said gently, "Follow my aunt, Antiope, to the place arranged for you first. After I meet with Mother, I'll come see you later."

"Okay, go ahead." Xi Nian agreed, thinking that he could just treat this as a tourist island with poor service. It was nothing much.

"Follow me." Antiope gave him an expressionless glance before mounting her black horse.

Far from the palace and the Amazon residents' homes, at the cliffs along Themyscira's outer sea.

A massive and peculiar ancient circular building stood there.

Antiope brought Xi Nian to the ancient building's main entrance.

Looking at the intact structure that resembled the ruins of an ancient temple, Xi Nian asked uncertainly, "This is where I'll be staying? There's really no need for something this nice."

Antiope, riding her black horse ahead of him, ignored him. She went straight to the building's entrance and said to the female guards in silver armor stationed on either side, "Arrange a spare guard room for him."

"Yes, General!" The two female guards at the entrance quickly accepted the order. They curiously looked at the first human boy to arrive here, but when they saw the familiar crown on his head, they immediately revealed the same shocked expressions as the warriors before them.

Why are they looking at me like that too?

Xi Nian grumbled inwardly, completely unable to understand the significance of the crown on his head.

"Keep an eye on him. Don't let him wander around." After tossing out those words to the female guards, Antiope left Xi Nian alone at the ancient building's entrance and rode away on her black horse, never once facing him directly or speaking to him.

After Antiope departed in a cloud of dust with her usual decisiveness.

One of the female guards respectfully said to Xi Nian, "Your Highness, please follow me inside."

Your Highness?

Xi Nian paused. Watching the female guard enter the ancient building, he suddenly felt that the people here were still quite polite.

Xi Nian followed the female guard through the entrance, but the farther he went into the building, the more he felt something was wrong!

The inner walls of the ancient structure were unimaginably thick. There were no doors or windows, and the only main entrance was a cramped corridor barely two meters high.

Rather than a residence, it looked more like a secret place for imprisoning criminals or storing items.

"Here we are." The female guard did not bring Xi Nian into the center of the building. Instead, she stopped at one side of the corridor and pressed against a brick. A hidden door in the wall slowly opened, and countless loose specks of dust drifted down.

"Cough, cough."

The female guard and Xi Nian both coughed. Once the dust dispersed, a dim blue hanging lamp on the high wall of the room behind the hidden door lit up automatically.

Looking inside along the light.

They could see a perfectly square room of less than twenty square meters. It contained weapon racks and two extremely simple beds. Other than that, there was nothing at all!

Xi Nian's mouth twitched slightly. A little dark room would have been one thing, but the weapon racks and beds were covered in thick dust. No one knew how long it had been since anyone had stayed here.

"Your Highness, please wait a moment. I'll clean it up for you." The female guard waved away the dust in the room and said apologetically, "When this building was designed, this room was prepared for guards who kept watch here late at night. But later, most of the guards stationed here were withdrawn, so it was left vacant and never cleaned."

"Guarding? Guarding what?" Xi Nian was a little dumbfounded. They had not arranged a detention center for him, had they? Or had they simply stopped treating him like a person and decided to lock him up like a criminal?

"Just an item." As the female guard tidied up, she said, "That thing is in the deepest part of this building, but there's nothing much to see. I've guarded it for around ten years, and before me, we Amazons had guarded it for thousands of years."

"It's okay for me to stay in such an important place?" Xi Nian grew increasingly uneasy. If it had needed to be closely guarded for a thousand years, only a ghost would believe there was nothing wrong with it!

"It's nothing. As long as it doesn't leave this place, it's fine. It hasn't shown any abnormalities for thousands of years, so don't worry." The female guard shrugged. "Besides, you are that lady's sovereign. Staying in a place like this is beneath someone of your noble status."

"Wait." Xi Nian raised a brow. "Sovereign? What does that mean?"

The female guard was confused as well, pointing at the crown he wore. "Isn't that Princess Diana's?"

"It is," Xi Nian nodded.

"Then there's no mistake." After confirming it, the female guard said solemnly, "From the moment we Amazons are born, each of us is given a crown. The royal family wears tiaras, while warriors wear armored crowns. They symbolize our identities and honor throughout our lives."

"So, this crown being on my head right now..." Xi Nian's eyes widened in belated realization.

"It means that she has offered you her honor, identity, and everything most valuable to her. You are her sovereign. You share glory and disgrace, advancing and retreating from the same position!"

At this point, the female guard sighed softly, her eyes watching Xi Nian through the gaps in her iron helmet. "I don't know why Her Highness chose a human like you as her other half. Of course, that isn't for me to judge. I can only respect her choice."

Xi Nian fell silent.

He did not feel surprised or delighted. Instead, the crown on his head felt unbearably heavy, pressing down on him until he could barely breathe.

Aunt Diana could not possibly have chosen him as her other half.

It was probably like before, when he had deliberately called Aunt Diana his little girlfriend to brush off someone hitting on him. She had merely done it to give him a more legitimate identity that would allow him to remain on Themyscira.

But.

A woman like Aunt Diana—independent, intelligent, beautiful, powerful, and perfect—had made a proud and noble goddess such as herself announce, as though she were an accessory, that she was placing everything she represented upon him.

Even Xi Nian felt that the price she had paid was not worth it for Aunt Diana!