The two older Pixie and Sparrow looked embarrassed after Leonel said as much. That was because the young Pixie they were referring to was actually their granddaughter.
The two of them, Specter and Avlauren, were actually husband and wife, and they had given birth to many great talents of the Race. It could be said that this was their greatest contribution, funny enough.
As a result, though... it was impossible for all of their descendants to be perfect examples of piety and patience.
This unruly granddaughter of theirs was one such example. It could be said that if Aerin was the greatest Crafting talent in the Race, then Lumielle was the best combat-focused talent of their race.
Due to this, many had shipped the two of them together, believing that they would be the glue that helped their Race to rise to another level.
Lumielle wasn't particularly in love with Aerin, at least not in the beginning. But after hearing so many people talk about how good them being together would be, since she never really took a fancy to other men, she began to fantasize as any other young woman was.
As Aerin and she grew up, she began to take a real liking to his character as well, and eventually she wasn't so resistant to the idea.
This wasn't entirely her fault. It could be said that the reason the two old fogies looked so embarrassed was because this was exactly what they expected would happen.
They knew that their granddaughter was a bit unruly so they chipped away at her slowly over time. It wasn't something that they were too proud about, but in their minds, it was quite a benign action.
They had watched Aerin grow up, and they too loved his character. They believed that there was no one better suited to be with their granddaughter than him. Not only did he have the patience to deal with her character, but he was a good young man and would treat her well in general.
It could be said that, the entire time, they thought that the troublesome character to deal with would be Lumielle, not Aerin. They knew that Aerin was always willing to listen to his elders and do what was best for his Race, so they hadn't put nearly as much effort into "converting" Aerin; they thought that it would just happen naturally. In fact, Aerin was smart enough that he would likely figure out the best path forward even without them pointing it out.
Unfortunately, they had neglected the fact that Aerin was a young man. Ultimately, no matter how vast his array of knowledge, his experience was lacking. He had grown up with Lumielle, so he didn't even really think of her that way. When others spoke about how beautiful of a Pixie she was, he would only smile as though they were praising his little sister. He had no other thoughts.
That was why when he suddenly fell for Lyra so hard, he had no idea how to deal with it, and he was entirely flustered. He had never thought about women in that way before.
It could be said that the Dwarven Race's comradery had become a bit of a double-edged sword as a result of all of this. They all saw each other as family, and there was hardly any distinction between bloodlines. Due to this, those that were as innocent of mind as Aerin often didn't get into romantic relationships until very deep into their lives when they realized they had to have children even if it made them slightly uncomfortable.
This was one of the key weaknesses that Somnus noted to exploit. It was also the reason why a Race that shouldn't have any reproductive issues had such low birthrates nonetheless.
Spector and Avlauren were so deeply entrenched in this culture that they couldn't see the forest for the trees, and they ended up lost in the whirlwind of it all as well. So they couldn't see this happening before it was all too late.
This didn't sound like a big deal at first brush. This was just a childish romance; many had had their hearts broken in their youth and it was only natural. In fact, the relationship between Lyra and Aerin was such that the odds that Aerin ended up marrying Lumielle anyway were so high that other things weren't even all that necessary to consider...
Until two factors were considered.
The first being Lumielle's character.
The second being her strength.
Lumielle was younger than Aerin, but comparatively speaking, her strength was on another level. In fact, while the world now thought that their Race's secret weapon was the Silver Tablet, the reality was that their real secret weapons were Aerin and Lumielle.
Aerin had been able to shroud his genius before with the shroud of Lyra taking cover from him. And now, with blueprints in hand, he would be able to exploit his talent to the greatest extreme.
However, Lumielle didn't even participate in the Gathering of Kingdoms. The Dwarven Race focused on reaching the 10% standard of the Preliminaries and ignored everything else.
Lumielle was already in the Eight Dimension, and not only that, but she had comprehended a Quasi Creation State Force in her young age. This was something that only the best Demi-God geniuses of her age could accomplish, and it was also information that even Aerin wasn't privy to!
It could be said that Lumielle spent all her time training under the tutelage of her grandparents, and when she wasn't, she was dreaming about the family she would build with Aerin.
Even if she wasn't yet the strongest of the Dwarven Race, she wasn't very far from it already.
The second issue was her character. When Avlauren and Spector said that she was unruly, that was their assessment as grandparents, filtered through years of love and watching their baby girl grow up.
To an outsider's perspective, she was a little she-demon.
If she wanted to wreak havoc, she would do so.
