Leonel continued to observe Sael.

She knew well how the Peaks operated. There was no small number of internal conflicts. The question was which Peak would be willing to be enemies with Hero Peak? And the answer was none.

It was that simple. From the very beginning, the idea of joining a Peak to get the right to leave the mountain was asinine. It would never happen.

As for joining Valiant Hall? That was even more ridiculous. Compared to the Peaks, the restrictions they had on their members was even fiercer. They weren't even allowed to become involved in such struggles to begin with, after all, their main purpose for existing was to remain neutral.

From the very beginning, Sael's ask of him was ridiculous. There was no other way to put it.

"You want to save your organization, but you aren't willing to risk owing any favors. You want my help, but you don't want me to seek revenge for the slights levied against me. You want me to lower my head, not the rock the boat, follow all your rules, and still care enough to help you in the end.

"You take everything and sacrifice nothing.

"Don't you think this is a little too na?ve?"

Sael opened her mouth to say something but she really couldn't find a response.

"Maybe I'm too na?ve too." Leonel muttered. But considering Sael's dazed state, it was unknown if she even heard him.

He might have been right in that he was, because at this moment, seeing how lost Sael looked and knowing how much effort she had tried to put in to make sure everything stayed together… He didn't know if he even had the heart to go after Sarrieth any longer.

He might have reprimanded Sael about sacrifice, but maybe James was right. He was just a hypocrite. He wasn't much different from her at all.

…

Leonel made it to the ground floor of the restaurant, walking out.

He looked across the street, finding that the poster had already been removed. It seemed that while he was eating, Sael had kept her promise. But, this only made him sigh again.

'I want to see Aina.'

Leonel took out a talisman and poured Force into it. But, there was no response.

It seemed that Aina was still neck deep in whatever training she had thrown herself into. Since that was the case, he'd leave her be for now.

Remembering Aina, though, Leonel's gaze flashed with rage.

He never cared much about what other people called him. It was only because they had dragged his parents and Aina into this that he was so furious. If not for this, would his reaction have been so violent?

Definitely not.

Leonel shook his head and took a step forward, only to find a figure blocking his path.

"Hm?"

Leonel's gaze traveled up from the well paved roads, up a pair of slender, long legs, only to land on a familiar face.

This woman. He had seen this beauty at the Ore Market. In fact, he had given her a large amount of ores as well.

He distinctly remembered that unlike everyone else who was cautious with accepting their piece of the pie, she wholeheartedly swallowed up everything, leaving nothing behind. Leonel remembered feeling curious about it, but he had more important things on his mind back then, and most definitely did now as well.

"Yes? I don't have any more Ores to give you if that's what you want."

Hearing the light teasing tone in Leonel's words, Kaela found herself rolling her eyes to avoid her feeling of embarrassment. She really had looked like a bit of a beggar back then, but her Faction really needed those Ores!

At the same time, though, she sighed a breath of relief.

After seeing Leonel battle, she had thought that he was some hardened brute. At least he was easy to talk to. She didn't even know why, but she felt relaxed in his presence as though there was no expectations.

That was quite an odd thing to find in the men she spoke to. Usually, more often than not, they all wanted to crawl into her bed.

Truthfully, with all the stress she was always under, sometimes she wanted to accept such an offer just to blow some steam. But with how this world treated women who weren't picky enough… Well, let's just say she didn't want to add any more stress to her plate so she avoided such things as well. holds © this.

Kaela was the type of woman who would curse the unfairness of it all, but secretly also couldn't be bothered to deal with the backlash that came from stepping outside the status quo.

"I'm not here for Ores, but your help would be nice."

"My help?"

Leonel raised his brows.

"Mhm. My faction happens to need a bodyguard like you. Word of me accepting all of those Ores will definitely reach Sarrieth's ears and I just need you to help us bide some time."

"Oh? How much time? And why are you so certain that you only need a small amount of it?"

Leonel was intrigued by this. He quite liked Kaela's boldness.

"The Valiant Heart Zone is opening up soon so there's going to be a lot of preparations for it. I'm confident that with these Ores, we'll be able to complete a project we've been working on for years now. With it, we'll be in the good graces of a lot of Peaks, including Hero Peak which Sarrieth is from.

"As long as we succeed, Sarrieth won't dare to target us so blatantly."

'The Valiant Heart Zone?'

Leonel blinked in confusion. Was it a Sub-Dimensional Zone? But why did it have a name? It made sense to be able to predict the opening up of a Zone, but this name seemed fairly… permanent?

Wouldn't a Zone that had been opened so often been cleared by now?

There were too many confusing things about this single line.