At this point, Leonel was really curious about what exactly these two wanted to do. How would stepping out now help them, exactly?
The reason Leonel was so confident that these four would turn him away was because he knew that whether or not he was telling the truth didn't matter. But, he was certain that Jaelis and Senior Lu believed that as long as they could prove themselves to be trust worthy, they would be allowed in.
Leonel found this to be particularly amusing. They thought that they were being clever, when the truth was that they were simply dancing clowns.
It was still possible for the seniors to allow them in, but Leonel could guarantee that they wouldn't allow all over 100 of them to do the same.
The reason for this was simple. This wasn't the first of King of Ores mine they had run across. In fact, it wasn't even the easiest to get to. Leonel had made a slight detour to choose this one in specific.
With Leonel's ore expertise, he was capable of guessing which ores could grow where simply depending on the environment. From his understanding, the ores in this place were among the most valuable assets King of Ores faction had… Of course, this was restricted to those mines that Sarrieth had actually shown on his map.
This was to say that this place had the tightest security along with some of the highest priority for the faction. There was no way that Sarrieth, with his character, would place fools here. That definitely meant that they had already guessed he was telling the truth, yet couldn't allow them in for other reasons.
Seeing that Jaelis was wearing a white belt, Leonel's internal smile only grew brighter despite the fact his face told a completely different story. In fact, now he quite hoped Jaelis was allowed in.
"What are you two trying to do?" Leonel asked with a frown.
Senior Lu swept Leonel a sneering gaze before completely ignoring his question.
"Esteemed seniors." Lu bowed slightly. "I know that it's difficult to trust us, but there really is solid proof of the Oryx Tribe's movement.
"I've heard a lot about some of the issues your King of Ores faction has had with this Leonel. But, we implore you to not punish us all simply for his mistakes. We are willing to denounce him completely."
The atmosphere seemed to shift slightly.
Though Senior Lu hadn't come outright and said it, many began to remember at that moment that the King of Ores faction seemed to have a great rivalry with Leonel. Could it be that this was the true reason they were being turned away?
Moos, Ingkath and Irolana frowned deeply. It could be said that many of them had only survived so long because of Leonel. Even if it turned out that their worries about the Oryx were unwarranted, what they had all seen personally was the change in the beasts.
On their way here, they had noticed the increased attack rate and violence the beasts displayed. Even if there was no Oryx, this alone was enough to say that Leonel had saved them all. For Senior Lu to do this now was nothing short of abhorrent.
Yet, when they looked toward Leonel, he had paused. His three arrows remained nestled in his fingers, but he didn't seem like he was about to nock them any time soon.
The four seniors frowned when they heard this.
Dammit, couldn't these fools get a clue? They didn't want any of them here!
Jaelis' expression flickered. He seemed to have understood something as well. It seemed they had misread the situation. But, he smiled inwardly. After all, he wasn't the one to speak.
"Didn't you…!"
One of the seniors seemed to be about to snap when he was stopped. They began to whisper amongst each other.
"What did you stop me for?"
"Hush, lower your voice idiot."
The four huddled together, believing their voices couldn't be heard by anyone but themselves. And in fact, they weren't wrong. Leonel indeed couldn't hear them at this moment, it seemed that one of them had quite the special ability.
"Think about it, don't you think this is a good opportunity?"
"For what? We can't afford to let them in, there's no space!"
"Use your head for once, Yako. King gained a lot of benefits from allowing The Hero to use our faction's name, but at the same time, our prestige took a hit because of it.
"King had no choice but to swallow this insult. After all, our rise was too abrupt. King managed to become a blue belt in just a couple years, how could he not be seen as a threat? It isn't yet time for us to go against those behemoths.
"But, this is a good chance for us to recover some of the prestige we lost by 'losing' to a freshmen. If we humiliate him like this and the news spreads, we'll be able to get in the good books of King, don't you think?"
The four were suddenly enlightened.
"You're not bad Miya… Even though your name is a bit girly."
Miya slapped Yako on the head, snarling. But, his lip curled into a sneer not long after.
Miya stepped out of their group, his arms crossed over his chest. His gaze swept over the group, his demeanor looking like that of a commander in charge.
Seeing the apprehension on the faces of them all, he couldn't help but take a breath of satisfaction.
The feeling of having the lives of so many in the palm of his hands made him feel intoxicated.
"We've come to a compromise." Miya said calmly. "We still have no way of telling if you're telling the truth or if you're here to sabotage our mines. So, we will allow some of you in. As for the majority, you will camp out in the surroundings.
"If the Oryx really attacks, our detection systems will find it long in advance and we'll allow you into the mine. If not, you all will stay out here for the night."
The freshmen felt a light of hope when they heard these words, naively trusting in the words of these seniors and in their so-called 'detection' system.
Miya's lip curled. He had truly found a group of useful idiots.
Allow them into the mine? If an Oryx came they'd execute one of Sarrieth's contingency plans and collapse the mine entrance and run away through the tunnels before waiting for morning. As for the lives of these freshmen? Who cared.
"However, we have one condition."
Miya's gaze turned toward Leonel, locking onto him.
"If he's here, all of you can scram. I don't want to see his face.. It's displeasing to my eyes."