Dimensional Descent

Seeing Leonel's reaction, Aina didn't know how to react herself for a long while. The level of worry in his gaze, even for something that had long since passed, left her feeling at a loss.

"I… It's wasn't a big deal, I'm here, aren't I?"

Leonel frowned at this response, he could sense Aina pulling away. Such a scene made him sigh and release his grip on her.

"Where is Lancelot? Did you not find him?"

Leonel changed the topic, but this left Aina at even more of a loss.

Forcing things and reaching the end goal as quickly as possible always seemed like the path with the most satisfaction. A slow, long grind wasn't something most people wanted to deal with and it was even something that scared most away.

Though Leonel had spoken so many heartfelt words to Aina, they were ultimately words he had spoken himself. They weren't words that Aina had said, nor were they necessarily the way she, herself, felt.

Whether she did or not wasn't something Leonel knew, nor was it quite the point regardless of what the truth was. What truly matter was that even if she did, she wasn't at a point where she was ready to say them.

This wasn't necessarily the end of the world.

The pursuit of Aina had always been a one-person affair. Leonel never took Aina's standoffishness to heart because in his mind, it was his task to get her to warm up to him. If he failed, then it was because he was inadequate, it wasn't her fault.

But, this very same logical mind of Leonel's also understood that relationships weren't supposed to work in this way. As logical as he was, he also had exceptionally high emotional intelligence.

He felt that his and Aina's relationship had taken a step forward she very clearly wasn't ready for. When things reached such a point, dragging her along would do more harm than good.

to, as though he had flipped a

realized just how true Leonel's words from before were. He didn't lie to her, there was no hidden truth she had to uncover… he laid out the

might have been kind and caring, but it was all built upon a foundation

her boyfriend, he took a step back with ease… almost too

play out exactly how Leonel described left Aina

Cold.

where she didn't trust him, where she didn't lean on him

were missed by Leonel who had started to analyze the fallen knights, calculating if he could spare the stamina to heal them and by how much he would be able to

was digging up the others, Lancelot managed to climb back up himself. He gathered the ones who could still fight and rushed off to the Lin Barony. If it wasn't ruined, they plan on taking a shortcut to the

back toward Aina. By now, she had

chance to make

through the skies, because they were gliding rather than

their commander would slow them by much. Such organized armies definitely had a clear line of succession. Those who were meant to step up had likely already done so. Leonel wouldn't underestimate such

describe the shortcut

shook her head

There was no time to do such a thing. And, even if there was, there was no guarantee the explanations would have been clear enough

"Yip! Yip!"

dove down from the skies, skipping on

Leonel smiled lightly. "Done?"

"Yip! Yip!"

Beast Crystals and crossbows, they might be useful in