Aina dragged Leonel along until they were easily over five kilometers away. For the two of them, crossing this distance only took a handful of minutes.
When Aina finally let go of his hand, Leonel couldn't help but laugh. He laughed quite heartily at that.
With the snow falling from the skies and abandoned buildings all around them, it felt as though they were in their own world.
Aina pouted slightly. She realized that this was the second time she had run away from Yuri with Leonel like that. She didn't really know why, it was just an instinct. She should have just run away alone, at least then he wouldn't be laughing at her like this.
"Why do you always run away from Yuri like that? She's probably been waiting months to see you again and was definitely happy to see you."
Leonel finally found this to be quite odd. The first time he hadn't really thought much about it. But, he hadn't expected it to be a pattern.
"Uh…" Aina hesitated.
"It's fine if you don't want to say." Leonel waved her off.
Aina didn't really like speaking about her past. He didn't want to press her for information and end up pushing her away further.
"No… I mean… Yuri was sent to look after me by my father."
Leonel froze for a moment.
Aina's father? After he heard of her hatred for the Brazinger family, Leonel thought both of Aina's parents had died. But, now that he thought about it, Aina's exact words back then had been…
~"… The short of it is that I don't have a family. I had a mother, and my father… is no longer with me."~
Aina had made it clear that her mother was dead, but it seemed that even she wasn't quite sure of the current status of her father. Maybe Yuri being sent to her was also a surprise on her part.
Just from looking into Aina's eyes, Leonel could see a swirl of emotion. Hesitancy, sadness, resilience… resentment…
Even without Aina explaining anything more, Leonel could extrapolate quite a lot. It was likely that Aina believed her father had been dead too until Yuri suddenly appeared. Then she must have wondered why her father would leave her alone if he had been alive all along.
Leonel didn't want to read into it too much, but he must have felt quite similarly until Dream Force had allowed him to remember those forgotten memories about his mother…
Truth be told, Leonel had never thought about what it would be like to meet Aina's parents before. He was a sociable person and wasn't very nervous about the prospect. But, hearing that Aina's father was alive made him frown.
In the end, he chose not to judge without understanding the full story. But, if there came a day where he learned that her father didn't have a good reason…
Aina shook her head as though pulling herself out of her own thoughts.
"It's not a big deal, it isn't as though I hate her or anything…" After saying this, Aina fell silent once again.
Leonel smiled. "Your birthday is soon, right?"
Aina was stunned by these words. "You…"
Leonel shrugged. "It's kind of hard to keep up with what the date is with all the changing timelines we've been traveling through, but I think I have a pretty accurate grasp of it. My birthday wasn't long ago, so I know yours is soon."
"Yip! Yip!"
Leonel wasn't certain if the little mink understood what he was saying or not, but it excitedly hopped up and down. It seemed to at least understand that a birthday was a nice thing.
Now that Leonel thought about it, his last two birthdays had been quite depressing. One was spent within the Mayan Tomb and the next was spent training in Brave City.
Usually, during that time of year his father would give him a gift. Funny enough, usually that gift ended up being more of a present for his dad than himself. Most of the time it was some vintage DVD with some anime from hundreds of years ago.
Thinking of this, Leonel couldn't help but smile and shake his head.
"What do you want to do for your birthday?"
Aina seemed stunned by the question. Celebrate a birthday? Now? Was he crazy?
In the end, without an answer to give, she ended up glaring at Leonel. Why was he always so immature?
Even seeing this, Leonel's smile didn't fade.
"Fine, since you don't have an answer, I'll surprise you."
"You…"
Looking at Leonel's grin, it seemed like he had no intention of listening to her words. In fact, her glare, which was usually quite effective, seemed to have hit a brick wall this time.
"Huh…?"
Leonel wanted to tease Aina some more, but his gaze locked onto a bird in the sky. The beast quickly descended, approaching the pair with a blazing speed.
Leonel almost attacked it initially, but after a while, he became fairly certain that it had no ill intentions.
'This message method… Camelot?'
Leonel couldn't be 100% certain, but this mode of communication shouldn't exist on Earth. But, regardless of where the message itself came from, Leonel had no idea who would be contacting him at all.
The bird descended, landing in Leonel's palm.
"Hello handsome little boy. I placed a small tracking spell on your necklace treasure, I hope you don't mind. I know you have a kind heart, so I thought I would reach out to you now. My Demon Empire needs some help, we're currently being attacked by those we assume are your people. I hope you can help us communicate with them. In return, Big Sis has plenty of rewards for you~."
Leonel coughed violently hearing this message, his head slowly turning in Aina's direction. But, all he found were blinking, curious eyes and a light smile.
Leonel easily recognized that this message was from Mordred, but he couldn't help but lament her timing. Why now? Couldn't she had picked a better moment?
Smiling an ugly smile, Leonel squeezed out a dry laugh.
"I didn't know you had an elder sister." Aina said, her smile never fading.
Leonel had no idea why, but these words felt like a fatal blow.. Legends say one could hear the whimpers of a young man that day beneath the heavily falling snow.