Dimensional Descent

"Anyway," Leonel continued with a smile, "it's obvious to me now that you clearly know of Radlis. Your trained lack of a response likely means that not only do you know him, but that he's also important to you. It's either that he's related to you or that you sent him here to do something important. The answer is more than likely both.

"What I've been baffled about for the longest time, though, is the fact that Radlis would come here and join Valiant Heart Mountain of all places. It never really made much sense to me. The only logical reason I could come up with was maybe that your Umbra family had taken a fancy to the Valiant Heart Mountain's Valiant Pillars? That seemed to be an adequate enough reason. But, it simply came with too many holes.

"With your family's concealment abilities, wouldn't it just be easier to sneak in and snatch the treasure for yourself? What would be the point in sending a young man like Radlis who, at the time, was merely in the Fourth Dimension? It seems quite counter intuitive and like a grand waste of time.

"Then there was the fact that Radlis' actions were quite odd in and of themselves.

"During the first trial for new entries, his performance was good, but it wasn't top tier. He didn't manage to climb very high and was actually outclassed by a few others. Knowing his true talent now, he had clearly been holding back to quite a large extent.

"After Radlis entered the organization, he seemed to be quite aimless as well, doing nothing much other than chasing girls. There was even a point he joined a Crafter's Guild despite the fact he wasn't a Crafter in the slightest.

"By all measures, it seemed like he wasn't doing much at all. Or, maybe that he was rather waiting for something…

"And that was when the selections rolled around. I missed Radlis' performance due to some… reasons…"

almost couldn't stop himself from smiling as he remember the 'reason' he missed Radlis' battle was because he was having his own 'battle' with

slots to enter the Valiant Heart Zone. To think, he had gone from not even being the best among the freshmen recruits, to suddenly claiming a place among

His purpose had nothing to do with me and I was still busy chasing skirts. But, that didn't change the fact

much of anything," Leonel shrugged. "I had a suspicious person, but nothing to show for

course, Leonel was lying through his teeth. Even back then, he had already connected Radlis' appearance to the odd ring he had found that day in the mining tunnels and his eventual run-in with the

of him confirming or denying such a thing and

after today. Once he did, too many things would be out of his control. So, the less Silam knew, the better. In that case, it was in Leonel's best interest to manipulate the truth behind his deductions a bit and mix in some lies with the truth. Even before a veteran assassin like Silam, Leonel had no fear

for it until I read a curious report the Radix had gathered

jaw clenched. But even if he

families of Planet Crars. I've met one of their members before, actually. In fact, she insulted a woman that I quite like the first time she

Radlis met her, he was quite enamoured by this Balthorn character as well. Of course, Radlis is quite the pervert, he reminds me a lot of my brother Gil, so it seemed to be quite in character for

finding a report on the Valynore family within the Radix family's records triggered another memory

in that battle,

is, but I certainly did. Back then, I had already awakened the Wisdom Branch of my Snowy Star Owl Lineage Factor, so my mind was in the Fifth Dimension. A Fourth Dimensional existence being capable of dodging

ridiculous if there was absolutely nothing that could make me falter. But, as I learned more about the Dimensional Verse and where I stood within it, I realized more and more how baffling the situation from back