Chapter 451: Lost It (2/2)

Of course, had she known the truth, let alone feeling relief now, she wouldn't have even allowed Leonel to go. But as the saying goes, ignorance is bliss.

Seemingly realizing Aina's line of thinking, Leonel frowned.

”What happened to your sense boosting treasure?”

Leonel remembered that Aina had used one of her Quasi Bronze rewards from the Joan Zone on a headpiece that covered her one weakness. But, ever since they reunited, Leonel hadn't seen it again.

Even to the current Leonel, a Quasi Bronze treasure was a big deal. Currently, he only had one broken one he had yet to repair while the second was his Force Crafting quill. Losing such a treasure was definitely a big deal.

”That…” Aina hesitated.

She seemed to flashback to memories she didn't quite want to remember.

Leonel's frown deepened when he saw Aina's reaction. Just what happened to her on Terrain, exactly? It seemed as though every time he got close to touching upon it, she would pull back.

Leonel never pressed Aina to tell him anything, especially when it was related to her family. But, he didn't have any reason to believe that this was related to the Brazinger family and he was serious about the words he had spoken to her before.

He wanted Aina to lean and rely on him. But, if she never opened up to him, such a thing would be impossible.

Though Leonel had taken Mordred's advice and stopped being a 'pansy', if he was always the only one pushing, even he could grow tired of such a thing.

”… I lost it to an Invalid.”

Leonel's eyes widened. ”What?”

Leonel panicked slightly, taking a step toward Aina as though he wanted to check if she was injured anywhere. It was completely irrational considering this must have happened months ago, but he couldn't help himself.

The Invalid Aina must be referring to was most definitely from Terrain. Any Invalid that had last so long on an old world was powerful beyond Leonel's imagining.

One had to remember that Invalids were only borne from those who failed to awaken their abilities. They couldn't be birthed from those who succeeded nor could they reproduce amongst themselves. This meant that the same population of Invalids a world produced in the very beginning would be the very same population of Invalids they had until the day the world died or all the Invalids were eliminated.

There were very few, exceptionally rare exceptions to this rule. Any instances that could break this rule would be cherished by Invalids all over.

Though Terrain was weak, it was still a world with hundreds of years of history within the Fourth Dimension. This meant that any Invalid Aina ran into was definitely at least that old.

And, at such an age… the likelihood that they'd be a Variant Invalid shot through the roof.

Leonel held onto Aina's shoulders, his heart beating even more wildly than when he had been battling a White Knight far beyond him in strength.

He truly felt like he had almost lost Aina forever.

Just what happened, exactly?