The Emberheart Lady spoke calmly and in the end, her husband couldn't refute anything she said.

Inwardly, though, they both felt complicated about this matter. Nothing in Leonel's letter was wrong. They had disparaged his wife, and they had raised the status of Lyra.

The latter choice was because Lyra's marriage to Thalion was meant to be the catalyst they needed in order to move forward with the next steps of their plan.

Part of their mixed feelings was exactly because of this. They had put their daughter directly in the line of fire not just once, but twice now. Although the world didn't know, how could they not know that they had tried to marry her off to Leonel first.

These matters built up frustration in layers and they felt like they were being painted into a box. But ultimately, they never had a choice...

Until now.

Finally, they could take some of the brunt of the pressure away from their daughter and bear it themselves as her parents. The Emberheart Lady didn't even plan to have Lyra on the participating roster. She would do this for her child... as Lyra's mother.

They accepted Leonel's challenge.

By doing so, they felt that they could better paint the humans as the villains and their plan, which had stalled, could roll forward once more.

...

What the couple didn't know was that this wasn't their choice at all.

Leonel stood on the high clouds of the Dream Pavilion, taking in the beautiful array of blues, pinks and violets. It was truly gorgeous in ways that couldn't be described.

He had seen a lot of the world now, but he was hard pressed to think of a sight that was better.

Of course, he could have made the letter even more vicious, but he didn't, and that was because he wanted them to publicize it. He wanted them to use it as the lightning rod they were looking for. That was exactly why he didn't mention the fact they had tried to marry Lyra to them. If he had, there was no way they'd go the extra step of publicizing it, and thus they had played right into his hands.

lightsΝοvel 'Beautiful,' Leonel chuckled to himself. 'This is... fun...'

His eyes glowed, a smile that could blot out the sun spreading across his lips.

He turned and with a step, he entered the Pavilion. Inside, he found Goggles exchanging ideas about Crafting with Eamon.

They were startled with Leonel's sudden appearance and were about to hurry to stand but Leonel stopped them first.

"Whoa, whoa, I didn't come here to interrupt you guys. How's everything been going?"

"Perfect!" Eamon said with a gaze filled with excitement.

Goggles eagerly followed up, but Leonel couldn't help but sigh.

Eamon's enthusiasm was very obvious and clear, but Goggles' own was faked. It was too easy to see through. It seemed that even now, he wasn't quite comfortable around Leonel yet.

'This is just the price I have to pay. It will take time. Plus, it isn't as though I've put in as much effort as I should have. Just giving him a bunch of resources isn't going to build a friendship.'lightsnovel

As much as Leonel wanted to revert back to the time they would wrap their arms around one another's shoulders and face off against the world together, his actions had caused that to slip away from him.

Playing with life didn't come without its consequences.

"That's good," Leonel smiled, not showing the thoughts of his heart on his face. "I have something I might need you two for. Soon, we'll be challenging another Dream Pavilion and the rules are somewhat wacky.

"It'll be a dojo style challenge. The number of participants is dependent on myself, though there are some quirky rules we have to be familiar with.

"I'll let you guys know the rules when the time comes, but I'll be depending on you all."

As with everything the Dream Pavilion did, the laundry list of rules was extensive and if Leonel really poured it on them, they wouldn't be able to retain it all. It was better if he just explained things as they came.

"R-really?" Eamon's happy mood immediately plummeted and he felt like the sky was being overturned. He had been having fun learning more about Crafting than he had ever before. But this...

He didn't know if he was ready for this.

Leonel grinned. "You know what your greatest weakness is, Eamon?"

Eamon blinked, blushing down his collarbone.

"You're too unsure of yourself. But I'm sure you know this already. Telling you about it won't change much, I can only throw you into enough situations that you learn to be confident.

"Also, you don't need to worry, even if you lose, I can pick up the slack. Don't take this as life or death, take it as a training exercise."

Only after he heard this did Eamon exhale a breath of relief.

"Okay," he nodded. "I'll do my best."

Leonel smiled and gave Goggles some reassuring words as well before he turned and left.

His words to Eamon had only been half truths. The reality was that although he could "pick up the slack", it was graded on a curve and thus the points he accumulated for Goggles or Eamon would be limited.

Essentially, the other Pavilion had to defeat all three of them. But there was a potential situation on the table where Leonel alone covered for all of their weaknesses, and yet still didn't accumulate enough points to win.

However, Leonel didn't really have a choice in this matter. The minimum number for such a Challenge was three, unlike the other Challenge Sequence where any number could be sent in.

He couldn't use Aina's future step mother for obvious reasons. Not only was she not familiar with using Dream Force yet, but if she did her Snowy Star Owl Lineage Factor could be exposed. He had to hide her for as long as possible.

Plus, there was a great chance.

During the challenges, aside from the Pavilion Heads, it was Dimension to Dimension. Meaning, they would have to send out people at Goggles' and Eamon's level.

'I can use that...' Leonel smiled, his scheme brewing.