Leonel woke from another long sleep, his body still aching. In truth, he wanted to go back to bed again, but he didn't have the luxury.
This time, he didn't find Aina by his side. But, with a single sweep of his Internal Sight, he was able to spot her in the gardens of the Abode Setting, diligently swinging her sword.
Beads of sweat fell from her brow, following the slope of her cheeks and nose. For whatever reason, she had chosen to take off her mask at this moment. But, knowing her, Leonel didn't need to think very hard to come up with a few reasons.
Whether it be to help her training or to be a constant reminder, either one was a safe bet.
Leonel sighed but didn't say anything or interrupt her.
Wincing, he pushed himself up, finally turning his attention to the world outside. Since he had lost consciousness, he had no idea where he was. Honestly, he had just trusted Aina to put the Segmented Cube in a safe place and hadn't checked until now.
'So we're still here.'
Leonel nodded to himself. Staying near Dark Cloud Prison made sense.
In the final moments, in order to stop the escape of more prisoners, Escobar had ordered the sealing of the prison. So, currently, where there had once been a hexagonal prison, there was nothing but the flat ground that had swallowed it.
However, this wasn't a long term solution. The Prison needed to be repaired and the prisoners that remained needed to be properly quartered and dealt with.
Beyond this, there was also the matter of the already escaped prisoners. Though they all wore wrist watches, without technology, it was difficult to make use of this.
On top of this, Leonel had a feeling that the main goal of Terrain had been the prisoners. As for what they wanted them for, it was hard to tell if it was as simple as wanting Fifth Generation existences of Earth or if there was a deeper matter.
There was the possibility that they simply wanted to make use of Earth's talents. Terrain lacked the most in this aspect. Though they had a great amount of strength, that was bred over decades of training. On the opposing side, though, Earth was able to produce combatants that could face them simply off the strength of their talent and abilities.
To make matters worse for Terrain, this only mentioned the youths. There were still a number of old monsters like Old Hutch who not only had talent, but had been training for years as well.
Of course, Old Hutch was a member of the Slayer Legion, not The Empire. But, if The Empire didn't have such existences, wouldn't the Slayer Legion have long since won their rebellion? Leonel had the feeling that The Empire wasn't so simple either.
That said… None of this stopped him from feeling that he should be wary.
'Hm…?'
Leonel suddenly vanished from within the Segmented Cube.
…
Noah and Jessica walked toward the Segmented Cube. From their outward appearances, one would never guess that just a few days ago, Jessica was crying out to save Noah's life. Let alone talking about such a matter, they both pretended as though such a thing had never occurred in the first place.
Before they could figure out if they should knock or just wait, Leonel appeared before them.
In truth, the current Leonel didn't look the best. His face was still a sickly pale color, a long shot from its usual healthy tan. On top of this, he wasn't the best put together at this moment. Not to mention the fact he wasn't wearing a shirt, he wore pajama bottoms that seemed as though they might slide off his hips at any moment.
If it wasn't for the fact he looked so sick, one would have thought he was preparing to model men's underwear rather than coming to greet the Prince and Junior Grand Prime Minister of an Empire.
However, Leonel couldn't be bothered to care.
'As expected, sweatpants are still the most comfortable. This whole wearing robes stuff is not for me.'
As an athlete, Leonel spent the vast majority of his time in sweats. When he could get away with it, he would forego wearing Royal Blue Academy's uniform all together.
'Maybe I should just start wearing Valiant Heart Mountain's garbs now. Their pants looked especially comfy, lots of breathing room for the family jewels… Hm, speaking of which, I wonder how many kids Aina wants… I should ask her… On second thought, this isn't exactly the best environment to be birthing kids in…'
Leonel seemed to have completely forgotten that he, himself, was also still a kid.
If Noah and Jessica knew what Leonel was thinking about at this moment, it would be hard to guess how they'd react. They came with such serious expressions, yet Leonel was thinking about something so ridiculous.
Finally coming out of his thoughts, Leonel scanned Jessica and Noah. He still didn't know how he felt about this cousin of his. But, he had to admit that he was quite fond of Noah's disposition.
Though they had a disagreement over Aina, Leonel could still understand where Noah had been coming from even though he had no intention of forgiving him for the matter.
But, from an objective standpoint, Leonel had killed his fair share of people by now. Could he say with any assurance that they didn't have family? Friends? Lovers who would have reacted just like he had in protecting Aina?
Knowing this, if he held it against Noah for too long, he would be a hypocrite. As long as Noah didn't target Aina again, he didn't mind building a relationship with this cousin of his.
"Good morning." Leonel said with a light smile.
His words seemed to alleviate all the tension in the air. Though his face was quite pale, his genuine smile seemed capable of warming even Jessica's cold exterior.
Jessica couldn't help but look at Noah's side profile.
'If you smiled like that, there wouldn't even be a question who Earth's next Emperor would be.' Jessica inwardly shook her head.
Noah was a great talent in almost all aspects. But, he was lacking in the social aspect that was necessary to become Earth's next ruler. And, unfortunately, his father was the same.
"Good morning." Noah said with a light nod. "We've come for two reasons today. The first is for the rewards. But, the second is more important."
Noah took a deep breath.. "I would like to ask you to follow us back to the Capital."