3074  Bestowment

Leonel pulled his hand back, taking deep breaths to try to calm himself. He didn't have a target to vent on right now; he had already killed all of the Adurna family's army. And, now that he was finished, he didn't have anything else to focus his anger on.

"Leonel…" Aina said softly, looking up at him with a pleading expression.

Leonel felt his heart breaking when he saw how fragile she looked. She was one of the strongest women he knew, and yet they had made her end up in such a state.

Aina had been carrying a burden all alone since she was a child. His journey had only started days before his 18th birthday, but she had been pushing herself hard since she was a mere toddler.

Every step of the way, she took it with a grit of her teeth and hardly a falter. Part of what made her so fragile in the face of the Puppet Master was precisely because he took away the one aspect of her life that she could control completely and wholly: her own body.

But now, this strong woman looked as though she might collapse with the slightest breeze. She was teetering on the edge, waiting for Leonel's words. She didn't even have the presence of mind to realize their souls had been connected once again. She could easily read Leonel's mind if she wanted to. owns all content.

Leonel pulled her into his arms, pressing her head to his chest with a gentle hand.

"It's all okay. The baby is safe," he said softly.

Aina trembled when she heard this and tears began to fall. Her sobs reverberated through his chest and every tremble made Leonel feel as though another piece of his heart was falling away.

In the end, he still wasn't strong enough. Part of the reason he wanted to avoid having children for now was because he didn't want Aina to have to deal with this very problem right here.

Leonel gently stroked her hair, the rage in his eyes slowly cooling into a heart-shuddering indifference. All that anger was suppressed into a small kernel in the depths of his mind, seemingly ready to explode at any given moment.

It took a few minutes for Aina to regain her bearings, her sniffling slowing down.

Little Nana stood to the side, her own eyes red. She wasn't exactly sure what happened, but her guesses painted enough of a picture. Still, she didn't interrupt the two.

"… I'll, go back now," Aina said softly, pulling away from Leonel's chest.

Leonel cupped her cheek, looking down at her as he wiped her tears away with a thumb.

"I'll kill them all. I promise." He spoke softly, giving her a kiss on the forehead.

Aina closed her eyes, seemingly basking in the tenderness of his lips. Slowly, her shaky breath calmed.

She suppressed her own fury, not wanting to affect the baby. She didn't know how Leonel had done it, but their Soul Bind was back. Now, there was no way any Dream Force would slip by her.

She had never had any interest in training Dream Force in the past because she didn't need it. But now she would make it her sole focus. She would never allow someone to target her baby like that again.

Soon, she vanished into the Segmented Cube.

Leonel closed his own eyes after she vanished. Digging deep, he could feel that suppressed fury. His mind was hard to control at this point and he wanted nothing more than to rush off and find who was responsible immediately.

08:09

But he knew that this wasn't possible. Whoever was strong enough to do this was more than likely one of the highest echelon members of the Four Great Families. They would certainly be under a great deal of protection.

There was even a chance that they weren't the only ones that were involved. After all, back then, the Four Great Families had to abandon their weapons for a reason. This would give another power all the chance in the world to tamper. Or, it could be the case that the Four Great Families were truly willing to collude with their masters to this extent.

Leonel wouldn't put anything past those worthless dogs.

Organizing his thoughts took more time than Leonel would usually think. After a long while, he managed to open his eyes again, looking toward Little Nana.

"Little Nana, from now on, follow your natural path and progression."

"Leonel, is everything…"

Leonel shook his head. "It's fine. Things worked out and they will pay for what they tried to do."

"… I see… I think I wasted three years, then," Nana said with a bitter smile.

She had put her everything into training the sword in these years, and her progress was less than satisfactory… and that was probably exactly what her opponents wanted. They didn't want her to have the chance to bring out the full potential of the shield.

She had thought that maybe it was because she was too useless before, but now, even though she knew it was because of external interference, she still couldn't feel at ease. Was it already too late to fix things?

Leonel walked toward her and then pressed a finger to her forehead.

Dream Path.

It was a skill that Leonel hadn't used in a very long time. Back in the Dimensional Verse, it was this skill of his Ability Index that he used to help his brothers progress more quickly by illuminating the path ahead of them.

But back then, his Simulation abilities were imperfect, and though he did help them greatly, it couldn't be said that he had given them their perfect path.

Now, however, things were different. His Ability Index had reached an unprecedented level and his Simulation abilities were perfect within reason. If his target was singular and the variables were limited, it was a simple matter… especially now that he had the other half of his Ability Index and Emperor's Might on top that. Not only was he capable of elucidating such a path, but he could bestow Titles much like King Alexandre had.

The difference between himself and King Alexandre, though… was that his bestowments were far beyond just mere Titles.

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