Aphestus continued on in a good mood, leading Aina toward Hero Peak.
Aina suddenly looked back, as though she could sense that something was wrong, but she continued to move forward as though nothing had happened.
Aphestus seemed to sense this small action, causing his lip to curl. But, it was then that Aina said something that made his eyes narrow.
"Next time, send stronger lackies." She said, seemingly to no one.
"Hoho, didn't you say your little boyfriend was injured? But now I should be worried?"
In truth, with how arrogant Aphestus was, something like sending lackies to deal with a junior was beneath him. However, what was even more beneath him was personally taking action. So, he chose the path that would best soothe his currently seething rage.
If not for getting caught red-handed, he would have never even bothered to respond to Aina at all especially considering the entire reason this began was due to his authority being questioned.
"He could be ten times more injured and you would have still needed to send someone stronger." Aina replied blandly.
At the moment, Aina was feeling quite guilty. She knew Leonel well. If it wasn't for her telling him to stay put because he was injured, he wouldn't have even cared about his body's state in order to climb the mountain pass. This wasn't because he felt the need to prove something to Valiant Heart, an organization he put not stock in, but rather because that was just the kind of person that he was.
But now, there was already no taking the things that happened back.
Hearing such words, Aphestus suddenly began to laugh uproariously.
"They say love is blind, but this must be a worse case of foolish love. That's fine though, I'd really like to see how long you can continue to love a weakling after I'm done with him.
"Since you want to be smart, I'll make certain he can never raise his head high in my Valiant Heart Mountain."
There was no doubt that Aphestus was repeating the same words Radlis had spoken but not as blatantly. And, it was even more obvious that Aina's words had once more provoked Aphestus.
That said… This time, Aina didn't seem to react with the same guilt at all. Rather, her face, hidden beneath her mask, had gone back to being expressionless.
'Go ahead and vent.' She thought to herself.
"Yip! Yip!" The little mink jumped out from the Segmented Cube and into Aina's arms, bearing his little fangs at Aphestus.
It was only after Aina soothed him that he finally began to calm down.
…
Leonel stood in opposition to a group of three, his eyes lazily scanning them. It was obvious by their words that he was their target and toward such a thing, he could only say that the vice leader of Hero Peak was maybe even more petty than himself.
This Aphestus didn't even wait an hour, let alone the few days someone else might have, before sending his goons after him.
But, Leonel truly didn't mind. In fact, behind his apathetic expression, he was holding back a grin that could have gone from one ear to the other.
"I don't know how fresh meat like you managed to offend the bigwigs, but how do you plan on settling this?"
The leader of this gang of three seemed almost too lazy to deal with Leonel. He held no personal animosity toward Leonel, and he even felt that dealing with a freshman was far beneath him.
It wasn't until one entered Valiant Heart that they truly understood the distance that separated those who had joined quadrant ruling organizations and those from small worlds who could at best call a corner of a quadrant their home.
Just in terms of taxes collected, Valiant Heart had a number of resources that could drown out any world in their wealth alone.
With these resources came millennia of foundation building, an endless store of knowledge and techniques beyond anything someone from a smaller world could possibly understand.
If Valiant Heart Mountain were to be ranked using the official metrics of the Dimensional Verse, as an organization overseeing number quadrants, they were a Bronze Grade Organization at worst. If Earth was put on this same scale, they wouldn't even qualify to be known as Black Grade.
"Are you from Hero Peak?"
"Don't…!"
Balthorn tried to speak out before Leonel could finish his sentence, but it was already too late. She took a sharp intake of breath before looking at Leonel's side profile.
'Is he really that slow? Even if he got beat up to the point of having half a foot in the coffin, that's the one question he should have never asked!'
As expected, the moment the leader of lackies heard this, he froze for a moment before a sinister smile crept onto his face.
"You have a lot of guts, calling out Hero Peak's name in vain like that. Do you think the likes of Hero Peak has the time to deal with bottom feeders like you?"
"You seem quite offended for someone who isn't from Hero Peak." Leonel replied evenly.
The lacky's jaw clenched, the murderous intent in his gaze deepening.
If others really found out that Hero Peak was stooping to such lows, it would be a blight on their prestige. Though the words were unspoken, the burden for such a rumor spreading would definitely be on his head. Not only was this Leonel a fool enough to offend Aphestus before even stepping into Valiant Heart, but he was even trying to drag him down with him.
If Leonel insisted on this narrative, this small scuffle that would have likely ended after a small beating would grow to the point of the entire Peak pitting themselves against him.
"Ahaha, hey, buddy, pal…" Radlis patted Leonel's shoulder. "… It's been nice knowing you. I think I see a beauty over there."
Radlis dashed away, hiding into the accumulating crowd.
Ingkath, Irolana and Balthorn frowned, but they too didn't want anything to do with this situation.
Though there was no chance in joining Hero Peak now, there were no shortage of individuals who had defected from their own Peaks to join them later.
"Still not saying anything?" Leonel continued as though he didn't notice these youths distancing themselves from him. He hardly knew them, so why would he care?
"Wielor, we need to shut him up." One of the three called out to the leading lacky. They couldn't allow Leonel to say anything more.
"Agreed." Wielor nodded. "We'll see if he still has the cheek to say such things after we're done with him."
As though by tacit agreement, the two behind Wielor shot forward.