Chapter 399: Lost Status (1) (1/2)

Leonel frowned, his gaze landing on Aina.

Seeing her odd reaction, his heart constricted. One would have thought that her reaction was his own. To Leonel, though, Aina's happiness was practically linked to himself.

”Aina?”

Aina shook out of her thoughts hearing Leonel's voice.

”What's wrong?”

Aina shook her head and fell into silence, her body returning to normal. The little mink nestled closer to her, his little face rubbing against Aina's.

In truth, Leonel almost didn't notice Aina's weird reactions. If it wasn't for his connection with the little mink, he likely would have missed it entirely. The irony of it all wasn't lost to him, especially when he said he would pay more attention to her.

Leonel's frowned deepened. His gaze shifted from Aina to the Variant Invalid and back again.

'Is it that thing? But, Aina shouldn't have met this thing before…'

It could be said that with the exception of the time he spent within the Mayan Zone, Leonel had spent practically all his time on Earth since Invalids had appeared with Aina. In addition, when he was in the Mayan Zone, Aina had either been unconscious or within her own Zone.

Since Invalids didn't appear within Zones, at least with Leonel's current comprehension, it was impossible that Aina had met this Variant Invalid.

Of course, this was all deduced under the speculation that Earth didn't have Invalids before the Metamorphosis descended. Leonel felt that this was a fine assumption to make, even when considering the fact Aina came from a hidden family of Earth.

Invalids were just humans who failed to awaken their abilities and thus lost their consciousness. Variant Invalids were just Invalids who managed to reawaken their consciousnesses. But, by then, they would no longer be the version of themselves they once were.

Unless…

'Does Aina know this Invalid from when it was a human?'

Leonel pouted slightly, mostly because from what he could see, despite the odd coloration of its skin, this Variant Invalid was quite a handsome young man.

Leonel shook his head. This wasn't the time to be thinking of such things.

He looked back toward Aina. ”Do you want to leave and come back another time? From the flow of battle, I doubt that this Invalid horde will be able to breech the walls during this wave. They'll likely need two or three more attempts.”

Aina looked toward Leonel. She could tell that Leonel sensed something amiss about her reaction earlier and wanted to take some pressure off of her. But…

”No.”

Aina's voice came out somewhat coldly. In fact, her demeanor somewhat shocked Leonel. She sounded as though he had said something to enrage her.

Aina looked away from Leonel's surprised gaze, not saying anything further.

The little mink peeked over her shoulder as she faced away, sticking out his little pink tongue toward Leonel.