“Ashtra Kingdom… is also causing us problems?” Venezuela asked in disbelief. “No way…!”

“Are you sure about it, Lucky?” Erza asked with concern in her face. “You might’ve misunderstood some details.”

To her question, her husband shook his head and replied, “No. There’s no way I can misunderstand this after the number of times that my copies read through these documents.” Then he clenched his fists and said, “It seems that the nobles of Ashtra Kingdom are working behind the scenes along with the nobles of our Floria Kingdom to cause problems for Mardana Kingdom so that it puts us, the Phoenix Clan as a whole, in jeopardy.”

The two blinked in surprise and exclaimed, “What?!”

“Nobles from… our kingdom are conspiring with the other kingdoms?” Venezuela asked after a moment of pause. “Why? Why would they do that?”

There was a moment of pause in which Lakshman appeared to be thinking. Erza looked at him and asked, “You know what’s going on, don’t you?”

He looked up at her with a sad expression and said, “Judging from all the information I got, it seems that they’re set on driving the Phoenix Clan out of the Human Continent.” Then, as they looked shocked, he narrowed his eyebrows and looked at Venezuela as he concluded, “You are their next target.”

“What? Me?” She asked back, looking confused.

“Yes,” he said in agreement and looked towards the mountain of paper.

He clicked his fingers and in an instant, a piece of paper flew out of the pile in a flash and floated towards her. Surprised, she caught it and began reading its contents. As she read, her expression darkened until she finally finished and let the paper go from the sheer horror she felt from what she read.

Erza quickly caught the paper and looking worried, perused through its contents. She too looked aghast from what she found out from the paper and looked at Venezuela with concern before looking back at her husband.

“This… This paper…” she began nervously.

Her husband smiled in understanding and said, “I’m not surprised that you missed it since you were focused on restoration.”

“I remember a Phintex Raja coming to us with urgent information but… we were preoccupied by Athurus’s outrageous demands that we… told him to put it down with the rest,” said Erza, looking extremely guilty at her mistake.

“It happens,” he told her gently with a soft smile just as Venezuela groaned.

“How could… this be…?” She asked of no one in particular, holding her head with her hand with a scared look on her face. “How could… they do this… after everything that I… I…?”

“Easy, Vena,” said Erza, reaching out and patting her gently on the shoulder to calm and reassure her.

Lakshman looked sadly at his wife and then at the paper that Erza put down on the table. He gestured at it with his hand and the paper flew through the air to where he grabbed it and looked down at it. This piece of paper contained the strategic intelligence gathered by the nobles of Floria Kingdom on the illegitimate son that the previous king, who was also Venezuela’s father, had with another women. It outlined that the nobles were preparing to cause chaos in the kingdom by raising this issue to the public even though that person had already died at the hands of the Angels.

“I can’t believe they plan on creating doubt in everyone’s mind about Venezuela’s worth by letting them know about the son that the previous king had with another woman and claim that the Phoenix Clan had cast him out and even killed him by joining hands with the Angels with fears that they would lose their control over the Floria Kingdom,” lamented Erza with a disturbed look on her face.

“The nobles had always been successfully suppressed by the Phoenix Clan by the past Phoenix Emperors,” explained Lakshman in a quiet voice, “but now things are a bit lax. Zen is still learning to be the Phoenix Emperor, I had recently disappeared without a word, and now bad rumours about me are spreading while Mardana Kingdom are occupying most of our time due to their hefty demands and the nobles taking this opportunity to cause more trouble for us.”

“It’s like they really want the Phoenix Clan to appear bad in the eyes of the people,” said Erza with an angry voice.

“They’ve been wishing to do this for a long time and now that the chance has presented itself… they’re making their move,” sighed Lakshman wearily.

From beside him, Stuart also sighed and said, “Damn, these fools. Always concerned about power, wealth and control while never once using their heads to think straight.”

While Lakshman smiled bitterly, he heard Asura say inside his mind, “Whether it be the past, the present, or the future, these kinds of people will always be present and so long as they do, the people… no, the world will never be at peace.”

“You’re right,” muttered Lakshman in agreement to his past-self’s words.

“So, what should we do now?” Stuart asked his childhood friend curiously. “Surely we need to stop them from carrying out their plan.”

Asura suggested inside his mind, “I would usually recommend taking out all opposing factions and the rest of their families so they don’t pose a threat to us in the future but… I doubt you’d like that.”

He was right because Lakshman said, “I don’t want to resort to violence and hurt people based on this information. I will not stoop to their level. I… am better.”

It was then that both Stuart’s and Asura’s words conceded with one another as they asked him, “What will you do then?”

Lakshman fell silent and appeared to be thinking deeply about what he should do. The silence in the room stretched as Erza consoled Venezuela while glancing every now and then at their husband. It was nearly ten minutes later that he finally came out of his thoughts and spoke aloud.

“A plan is gradually forming in my head, but I need some perquisites,” he said and turned towards Erza. “Is there a scheduled date of when there’ll be another meeting with the other kingdoms?”

His wife shook her head and replied, “No.”

“Good,” he said with a smile. “Call for an urgent meeting tomorrow by noon and relay it as demands from the Phoenix Titan and if they don’t come, they will be considered as the enemy of the Phoenix Titan, the Phoenix Clan and the Nine Pillars of Power!”

“What?!” Erza exclaimed, looking utterly taken aback by his words. “What are you saying, Lucky? You’re not demanding them. You’re downright threatening them.”

“I am, because those people will make up some sort of excuse to avoid my proposed date of meeting because they need time to prepare,” he explained, his expression becoming very serious. “It’s about time I show them that I’m not so nice when they get this dirty,” and then he glanced towards a dejected Venezuela before adding, “especially when they involve my wife and reduce her to… this!”

Erza looked at Venezuela’s dejected form and then looked back at her husband in wonder. She knew he was furious with the people that were causing them this much trouble and even hurt them psychologically. This made her feel both happy for his caring and disheartened that, once again, he was taking charge when they really wanted to sort everything out themselves.

This suddenly made her remember a certain time in the past when she and her husband had been abducted by the Shadow Dragon King. At that time, only Erza knew Lakshman while he had no idea who she was and they spent a good time in each other’s comfort while imprisoned in the Shadow Dragon King’s underground cellar.

When the Phoenix Clan attacked the Mardana Kingdom to rescue Lakshman, she was freed by his wives who also came to rescue him. He was not there at that time, so they hurriedly went in search of him and unexpectedly came upon a mutated Shadow Dragon King. They were suddenly under attack and faced real danger when their beloved swooped down and saved them. In the end, the rescuers were saved by the very person they had come to rescue in the first place.

Remembering those events made her laugh as their current predicament was similar albeit less dangerous.

“Why are you laughing, Erza?” He asked her out of curiosity.

“Oh. I just remembered the time when we came to rescue you from the crazy experiment the Shadow Dragon King was conducting on you and instead got rescued by you when he tried to attack us,” she told him with a smile.

He stared at her with a surprised look on his face before bursting out with a hilarious laughter. Even Venezuela, who was feeling dejected, suddenly looked up with an embarrassed look on her face.

“That’s really funny the way you put it!” He remarked with a wide grin on his face.

“That was so… humiliating…!” Venezuela expressed, looking embarrassed.

“Hey, now. Despite you getting saved by me, in the end, you did come to rescue me and that’s all that counts!” He said, leaning towards them and patting them both gently on their heads. “I really appreciate the risk you took to come save me. I really do.”

His words of appreciation touched their hearts and made the two women to blush red with embarrassed looks. He noticed them and smiled before leaning forward to plant a kiss on each of their cheek.

He leaned back and told her, “So, Erza. Make sure to pass on my demands to the other kingdoms. Okay?”

“Sure. I’ll do it without fail,” she replied confidently with a bright smile.

He grinned and then rose to his feet before walking around the desk with the intention of leaving the room.

“Wait,” called Erza as she and Venezuela rose to their feet with surprised looks on their faces. “Where are you doing?”

He turned around to smile at them and informed them, “To the Astral Academy.”

“To the Astral Academy?” They asked while blinking in surprise. “Why there all of a sudden?”

They did not understand what was so urgent that he would just up and leave immediately soon after giving out such a threatening demand. He paused and turned to glance at them, where he saw the looks of puzzlement on their faces. This made him smile as he decided to pay them back for keeping him in the dark since his return.

So, he smiled cheekily and said cryptically, “Why? It’s to prepare my next prerequisite for my plan of course.”