Thoughtful Words (1)
The battle between Leonel and Aina wasn't even meant to occur so quickly. As two undefeated participants, their turn should have been delayed as much as possible. But, due to how poor Leonel had looked in his battle with Isac, and the fact Isac himself was also undefeated for the time being, despite winning, Leonel lost priority to the Arundo family Heir.
The result of these series of events was this battle occurring a lot earlier than anyone could have expected. But, even then, no one could have expected a fight with such an explosive start… could end like this?
First some held the hope that maybe Aina was using some sort of bear hug attack. As for why she would do such a thing when she had an enormous battle ax at her disposal, who knew. But, when it came to matters of fandoms and unrequited love, people were willing to believe the most ridiculous of things.
But, it soon became apparent that this wasn't what was happening at all.
No one knew what to do. The other battles had come to a grinding halt, the audience's attention was entirely on the duo, and even Orinik had no idea what he supposed to do to.
"Shit. And here I thought because that Viola family was wiped out she would be easy pickings." Ganor mumbled beneath his breath.
Even when the Void Palace was taken into account, Ganor could only think of maybe two or three beauties on the level of Aina, and each of them was far beyond his reach. He was starting to regret having volunteered to come to this place. There was nothing but disappointment around every corner.
If Aina was untalented, he might still be able to do something. But, from what it seemed from her previous battles, one of those Golden Tokens was almost guaranteed to be for her. If it wasn't certain before, that attack just now practically set it in stone.
"Wait, this is a huge scandal isn't it?" Ganor suddenly began to laugh. "That Rychard guy said she was his fiancée. Then that Myghell guy went to save her and there's a bunch of rumors going around about that. But now she's hugging a third guy on stage. Fuck, this is more entertaining than watching these weaklings battle."
Ganor slapped his arm rest, finally sitting up for the first time. All he lacked was a bucket of popcorn.
Orinik couldn't help but roll his eyes. The mighty Void Palace's Selection had turned into a soap opera and this guy was just eating it up. Where was the dignity and pride he should have had as a disciple of the strongest organization of the Human Domain?
Orinik didn't seem to notice that while he was shaking his head, his eyes, too, hadn't left the scene before him.
Orinik and Ganor weren't the only ones with their own reactions. When it came to the geniuses of Earth, not to mention Savahn, Yuri and Miel, they were all stunned. Even Leonel's grandmother wasn't sure of how she should be reacting. She felt like she was in the middle of a teenage drama she was about 200 years too old for. Belongs to (N)ôvel/Drama.Org.
'Well, she's very beautiful. But, what about her character? My grandson doesn't seem to be very happy with her… What do I do?'
Roesia felt the need to remind her grandson that when a man draws a boundary, he should keep it, or else his woman would never respect him the way that she should. However, she felt that it wasn't her place to overstep again. She still felt like she was walking on egg shells around her grandson, scared to push him away. It was the kind of thing that could only be solved with time and patience. No matter how much Leonel said it wasn't a big matter, Roesia still felt the need to only slowly integrate herself.
As for Leonel's brothers, they were stuck between deciding whether they should be high fiving or preparing for the next World War. When it came to the women, their eyes glowed as though they were watching a great romance unfold before them, their hearts fluttering as they wondered when they too would meet the man of their dreams.
Savahn and Yuri looked toward one another. They felt that Aina had way too many surprises in store for them.
Neither of them had ever expected things to go down this route. They had spent the last couple days with Aina but she seemed to be no different from the Aina they had known long before her personality was taken away from her. It was difficult to tell what had changed or what was truly going on in her mind.
In that time, they had all dodged the issue of Leonel, not wanting to hurt Aina. And, Aina herself never brought him up, so they had never gotten an accurate read on what her thoughts were.
In fact, now that they thought about it, Aina should have figured out that Leonel was in her group a while ago. They had been preparing for their own battles so much that they hadn't picked up on these tiny details, but she most definitely had.
This should mean that this matter was likely planned by her. She had wanted to do this from the very beginning. But, what exactly would the result be?
Miel himself watched on with a complicated expression. This was his daughter, his little girl. Every father would feel some hesitation when it came to trusting their children in choosing their partners for a lifetime. For Miel, it was especially difficult because he knew everything that Aina had gone through. After all, much of it was his fault to begin with.
He knew that his daughter had had her first boyfriend while he was away, but this was the first time he had laid eyes on the young man while knowing that he was the boyfriend in question. He couldn't help but stare at Leonel's face for a very long time, his brows furrowing into a deep frown.
Aina, though, didn't seem to care about the eyes and ears and everyone else. In her world, there was no one else but her and the young man before her.
She controlled her breathing, taking in his scent and trying not to allow the wave of familiarity and comfort to overwhelm her emotions. When she finally settled the violent trembling of her throat, she began to speak words she had thought about endlessly over the last several days.
"… I'm sorry."