Dimensional Descent

[Second chapter otw]

Leonel led Aina into the basement. The sudden movement caused everyone to look in his direction simultaneously, their gloominess on full display.

Kaela smiled somewhat weakly when she saw Leonel. Realizing that he was holding a girl's small hand, she looked over and gave a polite nod to Aina as well. As for the fact she was wearing a mask… Well, Kaela wore a lab coat everywhere, so who was she to judge.

Leonel scanned their faces. He couldn't help but feel a twang of guilt seeing their downcast expressions.

The truth was that Leonel wasn't very surprised to find them all here. It was clear and obvious that none of them cared to go to the arena after hearing the bells because they somewhat already knew what would happen.

However, what Leonel didn't expect was…

"I'm sorry!"

After a deep breath, Kaela suddenly stood and bowed to everyone. She did so, so deeply that her forehead almost rebounded against her shins. It would have almost been comical had tears she had been holding back not spilled forth at that very moment.

It was obvious to everyone that Kaela was only waiting for everyone to be present for her to give this apology. All her frustration and rage welled up in her eyes, flooding forth. It became obvious very quickly that she had only bowed so low in an attempt to hide the tears she could no longer hold back.

fault. The moment I saw him, I should have known things wouldn't be so simple and should have

master wasn't such a nice person, and neither were his wives. Each was more evil than the last. To have trusted them was the worst

buckled, falling to

she could lose balance, a strong arm had already propped her

same time as Rum's, but his speed was much faster. It was easy for Leonel to tell that Rum

But, the big man was just as

Kaela!" Litia immediately interjected, rushing up and helping Kaela to wipe her tears. "We'd never blame you for something

Even the quiet Thilly hummed

a convenient target not much unlike he was. Leonel had a

only had their name been dragged through the mud, but all the resources they had poured into their products were considered to have been wasted too. They had no Ores left, their merit points were now deemed useless, and even if by some miracle they managed

Kaela couldn't hold back her

left the safety of Valiant Hall because she believed her master wasn't looking out for her. Since then, despite having poor combat prowess as a Crafter, she managed to join Brave Peak and

went smoothly. Everywhere she went, it seemed

the soaring price of Ores, the monopoly on stores, the difficulty in completing a novel design with her lack of

she finally reached the peak of the last, instead of finding shining sun and colorful rainbows, she found a steep drop

and laborious work didn't break her, but this most definitely

feel a shadow of something familiar when she looked at her. It almost felt