Dimensional Descent

Leonel knew that it wasn't his ice control that had gotten Mistress Oliidark's attention. It might have caused her to perk up a bit, but it wasn't until he displayed his Spear Force that she decided against killing him and took him in.

For all Leonel knew, if he hadn't learned this way of the spear, he would have been killed on the spot, never to see the next day.

It was quite a sobering thought.

A part of Leonel still believed that he would have found a way to escape. But as a person who claimed to be so rational, these thoughts of his were wholly irrational. He didn't even realize that he had had such inner thoughts until Aina pointed them out to him, but now it felt so obvious.

It was no wonder his dad laughed at him when he talked about being a King.

A King, of course, needed confidence. But didn't that confidence need to be built on something?

Leonel thought that he was. After all, his mind was his most powerful asset. He believed that he could think and smart his way out of any situation even if he lacked the raw strength. Even his Dream Class Ratings were based on this.

But wasn't that all theoretical?

Leonel opened his eyes and looked out of the window. There was no sky, no clouds, hardly any sunlight… It was just a wall, a wall to what was probably another big house or mansion in the estate, an estate that was essentially nothing more than a cage to him.

Leonel suddenly remembered that day on the battlefield.

Heavy rain fell from the skies. One by one, friends that he had held so dear for two years fell, their blood mixing into the mud and returning to the earth. Every death was like an added weight on his shoulder, a deeper sort of promise that he swore to keep.

But what if that was the real world?

would be no reviving them. It would be

world, stuck in this cage… His mother was out there. The woman he loved was out there. His brothers were out there. And he was here because he was too weak to leave to

one day we'd all die, something that quite a scary proposition, entering an unknown abyss on

blessing the world with his kindness. He couldn't find a reason to place the worth of his life above another, so he might

sound like a prick when you put

wasn't much different

day when all his thinking, all his planning, all his logic, all his intelligence, all his smarts was

to have

could just revive them

but didn't this Tablet that could revive the dead do so easily? Wasn't there a different energy requirement for reviving each person? If there was no intrinsic worth, then wouldn't they

he still care then? His life was worth more than theirs and

the secrets of life. Wasn't that the logical conclusion? With his intelligence, shouldn't he

why had he rejected

window and closed his eyes

hesitated to give worth

more, and

they loved was married off to another man, and

beyond their means, and yet he tried to do so

like he was also trying to fit puzzle pieces into places he knew they didn't fit, stubbornly and arrogantly jamming them in again and again, yet still

mean? What was the answer? Where

didn't have

too complicated, even for him.

to see his mother, his uncle, his