There was a moment of stunned silence before Ondine asked in a hushed voice, “War? Is he mad?”

“He might be,” said Erza with a sigh. “He seemed erratic about it.”

“The guy kept saying we must not put faith in the Phoenix Titan because of letting go of a world class criminal such as the Calamity Titan and then disappearing without a trace,” said Venezuela wryly. “He must really hate Lucky a lot.”

“Even though his kingdom only exists because Lucky decided to spare it after they launched an invasion and killed the previous king,” stated Tetra coldly.

Venezuela looked very upset and said in a quiet voice, “I hate this.” They looked at her as she went on saying, “How many more must die like this till they are convinced to stop fighting altogether? My father died in that invasion and my mother died as a result of a scheme done by the previous Angel King. I have a good reason to hate both the angels and the Mardana Kingdom but… I don’t because I understand the larger picture. Innocent people must not be convicted because of what their leaders had done, but still… this person… he…!”

At this, she clenched her fists tightly and gritted her teeth with a show of frustration on her face. They understood the great dislike she held towards the current Mardana Kingdom’s King. He obviously was doing things that would bring his people into danger soon after enduring the war with the demons. Yet, he appears to not care one bit about their safety and seems bent on carrying out his own agenda.

“Should we replace him?” Tetra asked finally to break the heavy silence that fell following Venezuela’s speech.

For a moment, everyone quickly looked at her with shocked looks on their faces. The thought of removing that person from his position had not come to them. They did not even have to wonder whether she was proposing such an idea and instead appeared to believe it was the only option for them to take to preserve peace.

“You're serious, aren’t you?” Ondine asked curiously as if wanting to check to be sure.

“Getting rid of him is the best solution to our problem,” said Tetra coldly.

This made Ondine to look surprised before she smiled and said in amazement, “You know, I’d expect Silvera to say something like that but coming from you is just… uncharacteristic.”

“Maybe so but,” began Tetra with a steely voice, “I don’t want to watch the peace that Lucky worked so hard to achieve get broken apart by a man motivated by nothing but his emotions. After all, what good could one do if those are the only weapons they got?”

All of them knew about the history of wars, battles and conflicts and how each of them got started. The want to conquer, the want for revenge, the want to cause chaos, the want to protect, and the want for peace. Each of them had always been a want guided by greed or self-preservation but there was never a need. Instead, they deceived themselves replacing the want with need and created a bloody history for everyone to remember no matter how difficult it would be for the different races.

“Even so, I don’t believe it’s the right thing to do,” opposed Ondine with a firm voice.

“Home come? It’ll solve these problems instantly,” said Tetra, looking surprised.

“For starters, removing a person from authority by brute force is the wrong thing to do. It’ll make people think that we are scumbags just like the opposition and would no longer trust us. Even if it’s tough, getting them legally and with clever tactics is the better option to take than brute force.”

“She’s right,” agreed Erza to Ondine’s point of view.

“B-But still…” began Tetra hesitantly, looking frustrated.

Ondine smiled at her feeling and understood, but there was another reason for her refusal and she said it out loud.

“Last of all, Lucky would not like it.”

That caused Tetra to look up with a bewildered expression on her face.

“Lucky… wouldn’t like it?” She asked tentatively with a disbelieving voice.

Ondine shook her head and stated, “I don’t know what kind of masters you had before Lucky and even thinking back to when we got married to Lucky… I mean, Asura in the ancient times,” she said, correcting herself as she clearly wanted to separate both the past and the present form of her husband, “but this time it’s different. Lucky is a man of honour and dignity, and would choose to fight an enemy head on rather than use sneaky tactics to beat them.”

“That’s…!” Tetra began in bewilderment, “You might be right, but in battle, Lucky has always relied on using his copies and created afterimages to appear behind his enemy. You couldn’t call it a direct battle style, could you?”

“Yes, but take notice that when he calls out his copies, he’s always among them and not far away from harm,” replied Ondine smoothly much to Tetra’s surprise. “As for appearing behind his enemies; I’ve seen him fight and so far, he’s done it in moderation and only to intimidate his opponents to surrender.”

“But—!” The Phoenix Blade began but Ondine overruled her in a louder voice.

“Most of all, Lucky never fought to kill nor for revenge! He always fought to uphold the law, to save people, and to strive for the preservation of freedom and justice. Never once has he lost himself in his anger… other than to take his own life when he found out the death of his parents, the heavy weight it caused him to feel at his failure to protect them.”

Although she said that supporting her husband, she could remember vividly the one time that Lakshman had nearly lost control. It was at that time when Felix failed in his sacrifice to take out the Calamity Titan that caused her husband to snap and made him go on a rampage. Later, he admitted to not have any recollection of what had happened after he went into a rage, so she let it go since it had never happened again afterwards.

Erza was nodding her head from the side in support with a bright smile on her face because of the truth Ondine spoke. She remembered how in the Alzard World, when the alien calling himself Overlord attacked her and almost killed her, Lakshman was enraged, but he heeded her words and did his best to maintain his cool to bring that man to justice. That was why she loved him so much, even after seeing what he was like even before he came to her world.

Tetra sighed wearily, unable to get her point across, especially when the biggest obstacle to her proposition was her own husband. Venezuela walked over and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and smiled sweetly in understanding.

“I know you’re thinking for everyone’s safety, but I hope you realise it does worse than it does good. No one will like it, especially not Lucky and we were doing our best to keep him from knowing this mess. Also,” and she paused to look proudly at them as she declared, “I am the Floria Kingdom’s Queen, and I will do my duty to preserve peace between our kingdoms! Lucky trusts us, and I believe that we can achieve if we continue to persevere and do our best!”

“Well said,” said Erza with a bright smile on her face, “and I know we can do it!”

Tetra looked around at them smiling and realised the lost cause of her attempt and promptly let it go. Then they went off to join the others in their shopping spree within that district, visiting each shop and even making several purchases of the cute animals such as owls, cats, and puppies, and several accessories that were imbued with magic.

“Aren’t we spending a bit too much today?” Emilia asked worriedly.

“It’s fine. This is one of the few times we got to come out and have fun, so don’t worry about it,” said Lakshman happily, and they all smiled happily at him.

By the day’s end, Indira and Priya also joined them and afterwards spending several more hours shopping and visiting the many different places in the capital. Finally, by night, they arrived back at Dominic’s home only to be confronted by the Rutherford couple again.

“Come on, you! You’re having dinner with us, if you like it or not!” Dominic insisted, grabbing his best friend’s arm and leading him away.

“Honestly…!” Lakshman sighed wearily, but he still smiled with happiness and together they went inside.

Once they finished their meals, they walked over and sat down in the hall and began chatting freely. While Dominic, Nara, who was still staying with Dominic, and Lakshman were talking about the past events to fill each other in on what was happening while the ladies were playing with the two children; a baby and a kid.

It was while conversing about the peace that Dominic asked, “So, when will you announce your return?”

“Why? Is there something wrong?” His friend asked lightly.

To that, the Sword Titan blinked in surprise and asked, “Wait. You don’t know what’s happening?”

Seeing his reaction made Lakshman become instantly suspicious and asked, “What’s going on, Dom? You make it sound like it's a very important matter that needs my attention.”

“Of course, it does!” Dominic insisted before a realisation dawned on him. “Hold up. Haven’t your wives told you anything? Not Venezuela? Not even Emilia?”

“No. They just told me about this meeting in regards to providing security for safe all transportation by road on the continent from the Phoenix Clan. Other than that, they told me to relax.”

This made Dominic blink with surprise and ask in disbelief, “Seriously?”

From beside Lakshman, Stuart asked, “I think something is really wrong, Lucky.”

His words coincided with Asura, who stated, “I get the feeling your wives didn’t tell you about everything that’s been happening at the castle.”

“The matter about the transportation is one problem, but there’s an even bigger problem than that!” Dominic said, and it was at that moment that his raised voice was finally heard by the ladies.

“Oh no!”

“Dom’s about to say it!”

“Not good!”

“We better stop him!”

In an instant, Erza and Venezuela reacted first by hurrying over to try and interrupt the men’s discussion.

“It’s nothing major, Lucky,” said Erza, trying her best to sound as reassuring as she could.

“That’s right, Lucky!” Erza insisted and looked at Dominic with narrowed eyebrows. “Stop misleading Lucky with your misunderstandings, Dom.”

“I’m not misunderstanding anything!” Dominic flared up angrily, realising that his best friend was kept in the dark by his own wives and felt very angry at that treatment. “It’s clear to me that you haven’t told him of the big deal that’s going on.”

“There’s no big deal!” Venezuela retorted irritably.

“It does sound like a big deal from the way you two are reacting,” inputted Nara suddenly, looking at the two women with suspicion, earning himself a fleeting glare from Venezuela.

“I don’t know where you got your info, but rest assured that we have it under control, Dom,” said Erza, trying her hardest to sound reassuring.

Just then, Venezuela noticed the serious expression on Lakshman’s face and quickly said, “Lucky, please don’t take his words seriously. He’s overreacting with false information and—!”

She stopped speaking instantly and the cause for that was the hand that her husband raised in her direction to stop her. He was looking, not at her or at Erza but at his best friend, Dominic with a very serious expression on his face.

“Dom. What. Is. Going. On. Here,” he said, emphasising each word with great strength.

There was great tension in the room as all eyes focused on the two members of the Nine Pillars of Power.

Dominic saw the seriousness of his friend and breathed a sigh before announcing, “I don’t know too much of the details, but from what I gathered from the castle, the Mardana Kingdom is demanding a hefty sum of compensation money for the lives of the soldiers they had lost in the war, otherwise they will wage war on our kingdom.”