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.

have known things wouldn't be so simple

She knew that her former master wasn't such a nice person, and

buckled, falling

she could lose balance, a strong arm

the same time as Rum's, but his speed was much faster. It was easy for Leonel to tell that Rum wouldn't

man was just

her tears. "We'd never blame you for something so sinister. It was clear that we

words. Even the quiet Thilly

convenient target not much unlike he was. Leonel had a feeling, though, that regardless of which Faction he had chosen to enter,

through the mud, but all the resources they had poured into their products were considered to have been wasted too. They

even with the comfort of everyone, 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

smoothly. Everywhere she went, it seemed that

the soaring price of Ores, the monopoly on stores, the difficulty in completing a

instead of finding shining sun and colorful rainbows, she found a steep drop into

years of torture and laborious work

but she could still feel a shadow of something familiar when she looked at her. It almost felt like