Kaela quickly led Leonel to a small house near the base of Brave Peak. It was so close to the Peak, in fact, that the back of the house was no more than ten meters from a rockface.
Luckily, the home wasn't very close to the main path of the Peak, or else it would be too loud and bustling to get anything done.
The space was under the perpetual shadow of a floating island as a result of this, though. So, it was give an take. But, it seemed that Kaela quite liked the darkness they were cast under.
Luckily, Kaela had had the sense to let go of Leonel's wrist long ago, or else who knew what kind of new rumors would be spreading through the city?
She kicked down the door as though she wasn't its owner, her excitement almost being too great. Leonel couldn't help but shake his head and laugh.
"Everyone! I come bearing gifts!"
"Beautiful big sis!"
Hearing a familiar voice, Leonel's lip twitched. How did Radlis get here, exactly? Did he just follow all the beauties of the organization like a dog without a home?
Radlis stormed up from what looked like the basement with every intention of throwing himself into Kaela's arms. But, all he received was a kick in return.
Kaela's elegant leg hung in the air. Unfortunately, she wore the customary uniform of Valiant Heart, so there was no soft skin or slenderness to enjoy.
Radlis crashed against the wall beside the opening to the basement, sliding down with a hurt look on his face.
"Damn useless mut. You're lucky I didn't kick you out of here after learning you can't Craft anything yet you still want to take advantage of me. Here."
Kaela threw over a spatial brace to Radlis.
"Organize all the Ores in here. You probably don't know their functions so just do it by feel like you usually do. After you're done, you can get Litia to take inventory of them."
"Ah, yes ma'am."
Radlis stood up quickly as though he had never been hurt.
It was only after he finished leering at Kaela that he finally realized that there had been someone by her side all this time. In fact, it was also at this moment that the others came from the basement. Aside from Radlis, there were five others, all wearing a lab coat similar to Kaela.
It seemed that this lab coat was their marker as a faction. It wasn't a bad look though it did seem a bit out of place.
"Ah! Bro, it's you! You actually have the confidence to show your face. Respect, respect!"
Radlis laughed for a moment before looking wearily between Leonel and Kaela. After a moment, his eyes sparkled.
"How's your girlfriend doing? Is everything alright at home?"
"Hm? You have a girlfriend?" Kaela looked at Leonel curiously.
Radlis grinned as though a devious plan of his had succeeded.
'Don't blame me, bro. You can't keep hogging all the women. Us ugly men need to live too.'
"I do." Leonel nodded with a smile.
"I see." Kaela nodded. Then as though it was nothing more than a brief interlude, she looked toward the five who had come up the stairs.
"The giant who can barely stand to his full height is Rum. The twin sisters are Madia and Litia. As for the final two, the girl with the spectacles is Thilly and the boy who's even lankier than Radlis is Vaglor."
Radlis open his mouth to say something, but in the end he just closed it.
'Are all women so shameless? First Balthorn and now Kaela? None of them care that he has a girlfriend? Where is the justice in this world?'
"Nice to meet you all." Leonel said with a smile, greeting them all warmly.
"I may have gotten us into some trouble…" Kaela coughed lightly.
The moment their leader began, the five sighed as though they were already used to this. Leonel could imagine the number of conundrums Kaela had caused in the past.
"… Anyway, the short of it is that we've been banned from buying more ores from King of Ores Faction and Hero Peak may or may not be coming to find trouble with us in the coming days."
"Kaela!" Litia looked exasperated. "What did you do?!"
"Nothing! Honest! Those bastards wanted to double the prices, how was I supposed to take that laying down?!"
Litia wanted to face palm. She already knew her leader was exaggerating, but there was nothing more she could say.
"It's all okay, though! I've found us a bodyguard!"
Everyone looked toward Leonel. But, when they saw his black belt, they felt as though black was all they could see. Their legs swayed and they almost fell over.
They were supposed to entrust their safety… to a freshman?
Even Radlis, who had seen Leonel in action, was one part speechless.
'He definitely did something to beautiful big sis…' Radlis wanted to shed real tears. '… Just because he's good in bed, big sis, doesn't mean he's good at fighting. Those are two completely different battles…'
Radlis felt as though his world was crumbling. It seems he would have to find a new big sis to fawn over. This was too depressing.
His dreams of sleeping on a beauty's lap were going up in smoke just because of Leonel.
"Ah, you're all thinking too much about it. Leonel is even stronger than I am, by a good margin. Stop worrying so much. Come on, let's go work!"
Litia shook her head. Seeing that Radlis was trying to escape, she grabbed him by the ear and pulled him down into the basement.
Everyone followed, even Leonel. He was quite curious to see what kind of lab the Polished Glass Faction was working with.
The result was completely out of his expectations.
"I'll show you around so you can think of some security measures. I haven't really thought of your payment but… Bah, I'll think of something. How about free room and board? This place might be shabby, but it's still far better than the freshman quarters.
"Oh! Don't touch anything and try not to breathe too hard! The experiments we're working on are very sensitive to outside stimuli, especially impurities."
'Better indeed…'
Leonel looked around.
The basement was filled with endless walls of white and steal tables. It looked more like a biology lab than a crafting station.
But, they were dealing with a very precious ore that Leonel immediately recognized.
'They're working with something so sensitive? What are they trying to do here exactly?'