Leonel smiled. "Luck?"

Though Leonel had said this lightly, the elders didn't seem to find it very funny. Even Elder Tobis, one of the few Leonel had seen that weren't so uptight, wasn't very moved.

But, this only made sense. Valiant Heart Mountain was already in a terrible situation even long before the Oryx made such a move. Now they felt as though they were being pincered from all sides.

For these elders, it must have felt like watching their legacies crumble before them all in real time. How could they be in the mood for jokes?

As much as these elders wanted to believe that so many freshmen could survive, they had already prepared themselves to be wiped out completely. But now, instead of being pleasantly surprised, they were just skeptical. And, after interrogating all of the freshmen about what happened, it all seemed to revolve around this one young man.

Leonel sighed when he saw such a scene.

"I'm a Force Crafter who has a high affinity for metal and whose ability happens to be a sensory type. Finding mines and navigating them is probably what I'm best at."

Leonel's reply was straight to the point.

The elders looked toward one another. This matched up with pretty much everything they knew.

The elder who sat to Tobis' right scanned Leonel up and down, his eyes blazing with a peculiar light.

"Your explanation sounds perfect, but I still have some questions." copyrighted © content.

"Mm?" Leonel met this elder's gaze.

"What happened with your seniors?"

"My seniors?" Leonel sneered. "If you can even call them that. They were directly responsible for several deaths and separated from us after we entered the mine tunnels. In order to avoid the breakout of another fight, we had no choice but to not follow them as they asked."

"So your seniors abandoned you in a crisis, yet you were still able to leave before them? Despite having to protect more than 70 other freshmen? Does that make sense even to you?"

"Oh? Then what do you think happened?"

"It wouldn't be the first time someone took credit for something they had no hand in." The Elder replied plainly. "It also wouldn't be the first time some with less than optimal motives used outside help to become more storied and hallowed than they should be."

"I see. Well, you're entitled to your opinion, I guess." Leonel replied. "It would probably be up to you, then, to prove that I colluded with the Oryx to leave safely. If that's all, I'll be leaving now."

Leonel stood and stretched his back, feeling a satisfying crack.

"Did we say you could leave?"

"Nope, you didn't."

Leonel waved goodbye and walked out of the tent.

"That snot-nosed brat!" Heinla grit his teeth.

"Alright, alright." Elder Tobis stopped the elder before he could blow his top. "We have certain rules we need to follow too, Heinla."

Tobis could tell that Leonel lost patience almost as soon as the line of questioning began.

The truth was that Heinla had an excellent interrogation ability. But, in order to hide this truth, he often asked questions he didn't need to. Somehow, Leonel had seen right through this and knew that the main bulk of the interrogation was complete.

This alone proved two things: one that Leonel's ability was indeed sensory and two that it was even powerful enough to see through elders on their level.

After that point, Leonel truly didn't have anything left to prove. Though his leaving was a bit rude, wasn't treating him like a traitor when they mostly confirmed that he wasn't also rude? Especially since Leonel had to put his life on the line to gain the results he had?

"Fine, fine! These brats are getting worse and worse every generation. I can't stand any of them." Heinla snapped.

Despite his words, he didn't seem intent on going to make trouble for Leonel.

Tobis smiled bitterly. "We're getting old. It's best that we just let the younger generation take over now."

"That Raylion brat is too full of himself, and now it's getting contagious. He didn't even care for the opinions of any of us old timers before he flipped years of foundations on its head. Now look at the fucking result?

"At any other time, would there have been so many freshmen out doing missions? If it wasn't for the rule changes, they wouldn't have been in the line of danger at all!

"Fuck, we should interrogate that Raylion little brat too and see if he's the one colluding with those foul smelling bastards."

The third elder, who had remained silent until now, chuckled.

"Alright, alright. We should be happy that he cut things short, there's something far more important to turn our attention to."

The elders all became serious at once.

"That's right." Tobis' gaze sharpened. "Of the more than 30 freshmen who died on their journey here, half of them were actually killed by their fellow seniors. The punishment must be swift and harsh. In these times, if we aren't united, we are finished."

The two elders remained silent. Clearly, they were all in agreement.

At that moment, the flaps opened to reveal a familiar blue belt youth.

"Elders, there's movement. The seniors you were looking for just entered the mountain pass. But, of the more than 30 of them there were, only about 10 remain."

Elder Heinla practically growled out his next words.

"Arrest them all."

…

Leonel stepped onto the mountain pass to find a sight that left him pleasantly surprised. At first, he had thought that only Aina would be waiting for him after so long. But, to his surprise, all more than 70 of the freshmen were also waiting.

The moment the youths laid eyes on Leonel, they sighed a collective breath of relief. Though they didn't say anything, the gratitude in their eyes was clear.

Leonel couldn't help but smile. It had been a long time since he felt such a feeling, he had almost forgotten how good it was.

...

[I've begun to commission art work for DD on my instagram. Just posted one of the Oryx, check it out at awespec_ on instragram (mind the underscore)]