Deft Fingers
There were three individuals who stepped out, all dressed in elaborate robes wrapped in violet, blacks and silvers. It seemed to paint the picture of swirling a nebula and was most definitely a beautiful contrast in colors and construction. It took no more than this for Leonel's cool uniform senses to tingle once again.
He had already forgotten the weight of the conversation, looking them up and down as though he could already envision himself wearing it. Nôvel(D)rama.Org's content.
For someone who didn't care about how he dressed much, Leonel was very much obsessed with how well the organizations he joined did in this fashion. But, maybe only he was aware of the reason why this was.
"Late?" Alienor asked lightly.
Her demeanor seemed to have completely shifted. There was nothing left of a loving mother and there was only a calm indifference left. The pressure she exuded multiplied several times over, causing the brows of the woman who had stepped forward to furrow.
Of the three that had appeared, all of them were Sector Ranked disciples and were, as such, well acquainted with one another.
The young woman who spoke was maybe the most powerful of the three and as such had spoken on their behalf. But, even though her words were laced with an impatience and hardly concealed anger, if it was contrasted with how furious she had been earlier, it would be obvious to anyone that she was being reserved right this moment and only became more so after Alienor had spoken.
"The last group before yours arrived over a month and a half ago. What possible explanation could you have for delaying us all for so long?"
Leonel had originally been paying attention to the subtleties of the conversation. He could see that power dynamic here and it was quite clear that his mother was a step above. It seemed that even though she couldn't be as rampant as Velasco, she had her own small hegemon. However, Leonel's attention was soon pulled away by something else.
Orinik and the other envoys who had stepped forward to bow in respect were a bit off. It took Leonel a moment, but he realized that they were actually still trying to adjust to the long scale teleportation.
When he noticed this, his attention shifted once again to those around him and he noticed that even Aina and Myghell still had a deep frown marring their foreheads, their eyes tightly closed and their bodies trembling somewhat. It looked as though they still felt like they were teleporting.
Leonel would soon realize, though, that this conclusion of his was wrong.
"Yip! Yip!"
At that moment, Little Blackstar shot out from Leonel's spatial ring, catching him off guard. Little Blackstar appeared and vanished whenever the little guy felt like it, but he rarely appeared in situations where Leonel wasn't alone, at least not so suddenly.
The little guy excitedly jumped around, appearing and vanishing as he pleased.
When he flashed back to Leonel's head or hair, he didn't seem ready to rest and still continued to hop around.
"Yip! Yip!"
Leonel smiled. "Alright, alright. I get it, you're excited."
"Yip! Yip!"
The expression of the woman darkened before it suddenly flashed with a hint of surprise. She realized that by Leonel's style of dress that he wasn't yet a disciple but he had recovered already? And that little creature…
Adjusting to this place was more than just about the teleportation over. It would make sense for Little Blackstar to be fine as he hadn't had to take the brunt of the travel over. However… Not only was this region a Seventh Dimensional World that sat at the very pinnacle, far beyond what most had ever experienced, there was also a dense concentration of Anarchic Force in the general surroundings that made it feel as though you were breathing in poison constantly.
Of course, this 'dense' concentration was only a few parts per billion. But, this concentration was already enough to make a person feel greatly uncomfortable. The fact Leonel had already adjusted made little sense.
Void Palace was designed this way on purpose even though they had the technology to make the density of Anarchic Force negligible, it was best to get the disciples accustomed to this right now… This would only get worse on the Void Battlefield…
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Alienor seemed not to have heard her son's 'outburst' at all. Instead, she replied just as evenly as she originally did.
"What do their early arrivals have to do with me? There is no deadline and every Selection is left up to the discretion of the Overseer. Mine just happened to take longer."
The woman snapped her attention back to Alienor when she heard this, her expression couldn't help but twitch. What Alienor said was true, but this all had to be within reason. This was taking things to an extreme, especially since several exceptions had been made already.
However, when the woman thought about how all the other youths had had months to adjust to this environment while Alienor's group wouldn't have this luxury, her mind shifted toward an internal sneer.
"Your words are just as fault proof as they always are, Lady Alienor. But, I still must inform you that the higher ups aren't satisfied with how this Selection has lagged behind the others in schedule. It's been decided that your Sector will only be given three hours to adjust upon arrival. Following this grace period, the true Selection will start immediately.
"I will be overseeing a large portion of these matters, so I will not allow any delay."
Despite having expected such an outcome, Alienor still frowned deeply, much to the satisfaction of Ossenna. Three hours was definitely excessively short, she had hoped that they would receive at least a day. Clearly, those old fogies were throwing their weight around.
At that moment, though, a flash of violet caught Alienor's attention out of the corner of her eye. She looked over to find her son twirling the heavy Amethyst Token as though it weighed as light as a feather, dancing it between his fingers with a deft skill only possible by someone with an impossibly high Grade Designation.
The Token flipped in the air and a satisfying slap was heard as Leonel caught it again.
His gaze twinkled as his mind drifted to the moment Aina had handed it to him. Then, he smiled confidently.
"Leave it to me, mom."