Dimensional Descent

"It's not your fault, you know," Aina's voice suddenly called out as she plopped by Leonel's side. She leaned her cheek against his shoulder with a smile, pulling his hand into a sandwich between her palms.

She could feel Leonel's thoughts more clearly now than ever before. She knew that he was wrestling with himself, a battle between the man he naturally was and the man he wanted to be.

She could still remember that scowl of rage Leonel had on his face when he sent her to deliver that letter back in the Three Finger Cult. She could feel that he was suppressing what he wanted to do with what he thought the smartest choice was.

When there were no other variables, Leonel felt that he could take all the risks in the world and still come out on top. But when it was a matter of the safety of everyone around him...

He had no ability to guarantee that.

If he were to describe it cruelly, there were added variables that he couldn't account for. Trying to make sure that everything was dialed in on his part was difficult enough without also having to deal with an array of people that wouldn't act predictably.

That was how Leonel had always seen it. Or, rather, it was the way he had tried to pretend as though he didn't see it, while knowing full well that this was how his mind worked.

It seemed though... that even now his future self, though having disappeared, was still influencing him.

Even before he changed the path of his Dream Force, the back of his mind was still churning with ways of changing himself, of destroying what seemed to be an inevitable future and swapping it for something better.

What he had done to Aina had felt like that first step. It made him greatly uncomfortable, and it also struck right at his pride, but he still forced himself to do it nonetheless.

there was the matter with Anastasia... but that was still just one part of it

many people? Opening her up

than he knew what to do with, things that made him want to snap

another layer of discomfort, and Anastasia's

the opinions of others. The only reason she had ever hidden her face to begin with in the Royal Blue Academy was to lie low and avoid trouble. That was only made obvious by the fact that not only did she not choose to use her original face, but she also got rid of it soon after

cared about now was her husband's. Even if the world was collapsing around them, so long as the two of them were happy, she would

was only when the opinions of others began to encroach on her husband did she react like a

might be worthy of her husband was because of her looks, and how they even tried to steal her husband

filled her with

care about that? It

clear to Leonel. But even then, she had only planned to be "angry" for

those few minutes

variations and changes. Existence would have whatever number that is multiplied by another infinity for the number of worlds

hand between hers more tightly. "We can

His