DECISION

Leonel stepped out of the challenge with a smile on his face. But because he was still keeping up appearances, rather than a cocky smile, it looked like a relieved one. He swept Aina into his arms and gave her a huge bear hug, causing her to chuckle.

"You're much more adorable when you're pretending to be Aerin," Aina spoke into Leonel's soul. "If you were being yourself, you'd already be taking advantage of me."

Leonel scoffed. "Are you saying you like another man?"

He pretended to be offended, though he could tell Aina's true intentions with ease. With their souls fused, how could he not tell what she actually meant?

Aina giggled. "No, I prefer when you're aggressive-"

She cut off her thoughts, suddenly blushing down to her collarbone. Content © 2024.

The outside world could have never guessed what they were talking about. To them, it seemed that the relationship between the two was so innocent that even a hug made Lyra react like this, and that made the two all the more endearing... and shocking!

Leonel tried his best not to burst into a fit of laughter, but his soul was convulsing. He might as well have been inwardly dying.

He knew that Aina was a masochist. A man that coddled her feelings too much wasn't what she wanted, though she also didn't want a man that ignored her feelings. It could be said that Leonel was and always would be the perfect man for her. She had only been teasing him.

However, him knowing was one thing, but her saying it out loud was something she had never done before.

That was the thing with communicating with your soul, your true thoughts spilled down usually before you could filter them. This time, she couldn't escape at all.

Leonel suddenly really wanted to take her to bed again, but unfortunately, they had things to do.

The world was in an absolute uproar. It wasn't just the victory, but what Aerin had displayed.

The appearance of the Silver Tablet overturned their worlds. Could it be that Races other than Humans could be Wise Star Orders? Or was it that the Dwarven Race in specific had figured out such a method?

The Dwarven Race rarely interacted with the world, and many thought that this was because they were weak and easy to bully. It could be said that after the Human ascended to become the Envoys of the God Beasts, the Dwarven Race shared the bottom of the barrel with no one other than themselves. They were by far the weakest Race and they couldn't stack up to the others. As such, just to protect themselves, they had no choice but to hole themselves up and ignore the outside world.

But what if this wasn't just a method of self-preservation, but also a method of finding a way to counterattack?

The intelligent didn't feel that this was a coincidence. The Dwarven Race was obviously using this as a chance to warn the world. Not only were the waters on this side deeper than they seemed from an outsider's perspective, but they even had more support from powerful Mortal Races like the Spirituals. In fact, the implication seemed to be that the Prince and Princess of both Races were together now.

Watching this scene, it could be said that whether it was Aerin or Lyra, both were blushing profusely. They didn't even know how they would face one another when they finally saw each other again.

BANG!

This time, Flaura couldn't control her temper at all. She whipped her glass of wine at the wall with all the strength she could muster, watching the sparkling fine mist of rouge liquid and glass crystals fall...

The sight was only beautiful for a moment before it bared its teeth. The wine soaked the white carpet through and the shards of glass ruined the paint on the wall. It looked more like a crime scene than anything remotely approaching beauty.

Flaura's chest heaved, her fury towering along with its movement.

This was a huge deal, an enormous deal.

Whether it was Little Fox, Morgok or Patriarch Khafra, they were all important chess pieces. They were the best she could bring forward now without exposing what was going on in the background, and now they had all died one after another.

But the largest change was the Silver Tablet.

Unlike the Life Tablet, in order for Leonel to display the prowess of the Silver Tablet, he had to quite literally take out the Silver Tablet. Of course, that was exactly what he wanted them to see. If he hadn't taken it out, then he might have shot himself in the foot.

From the perspective of others, the only thing they had ever seen to display such abilities was the Life Tablet. If they assumed Aerin had a Life Tablet due to their ignorance, it would be a disaster, especially if Flaura uncovered the fact he was Leonel.

But bringing out the Silver Tablet left no room for confusion.

All of this was terrible.

If she just replaced Patriarch Khafra now, even laymen would start questioning what was going on. The Nomads were strong, but not to the point that they could just casually pull out so many high-level Life State Dream Force users on a whim.

By then, the entire point of remaining stealthy would be crushed. At that point, wouldn't all of her plans be ruined?

The only option seemed to be to stall for a few decades and hope it blew over. By then, she hoped that the war with the Owlans and Void Race descendants would still be ongoing. That way, she could fly under the radar again.

But now, there were suddenly too many variables involved.

Everything was ruined. Absolutely everything was ruined.

"Who is playing on my board?!" She shrieked.

Flaura took deep breaths, trying to calm herself down.

Since all of this had fallen through, there was only one thing to do.

She would ruin Leonel's life and expose him. The world would come to know that he was a Fawkes.