Every. Fucking. Time.

What was the smart thing to do? 

That was obvious. 

Turn around. Pretend he hadn't heard anything. Assume that the Lords up there meant something other than calling his wife a barbarian. 

All were good options. 

But he had been doing the smart thing for too long already. 

It was smart to send his wife to ask another man on a date. It was smart to make her fight alone at the Gathering of Kingdoms. It was smart to feign ignorance and incompetence at the Gathering of Minds. 

All of these things were smart, they had progressed his journey further, they had minimized casualties and the only people to suffer were either those he didn't give a damn about or his enemies. 

All smart. All very, very smart. 

Leonel felt a hand grab onto his. He looked down to find Aina looking at him, smiling reassuringly. She wasn't bothered by the comment at all, she didn't really care.