Dimensional Descent

“Anyway,” Leonel continued with a smile, “it’s obvious to me now that you clearly know of Radlis. Your trained lack of a response likely means that not only do you know him, but that he’s also important to you. It’s either that he’s related to you or that you sent him here to do something important. The answer is more than likely both.

“What I’ve been baffled about for the longest time, though, is the fact that Radlis would come here and join Valiant Heart Mountain of all places. It never really made much sense to me. The only logical reason I could come up with was maybe that your Umbra family had taken a fancy to the Valiant Heart Mountain’s Valiant Pillars? That seemed to be an adequate enough reason. But, it simply came with too many holes.

“With your family’s concealment abilities, wouldn’t it just be easier to sneak in and snatch the treasure for yourself? What would be the point in sending a young man like Radlis who, at the time, was merely in the Fourth Dimension? It seems quite counter intuitive and like a grand waste of time.

“Then there was the fact that Radlis’ actions were quite odd in and of themselves.

“During the first trial for new entries, his performance was good, but it wasn’t top tier. He didn’t manage to climb very high and was actually outclassed by a few others. Knowing his true talent now, he had clearly been holding back to quite a large extent.

“After Radlis entered the organization, he seemed to be quite aimless as well, doing nothing much other than chasing girls. There was even a point he joined a Crafter’s Guild despite the fact he wasn’t a Crafter in the slightest.

“By all measures, it seemed like he wasn’t doing much at all. Or, maybe that he was rather waiting for something…

“And that was when the selections rolled around. I missed Radlis’ performance due to some… reasons…”

Leonel almost couldn’t stop himself from smiling as he remember the ‘reason’ he missed Radlis’ battle was because he was having his own ‘battle’ with Aina. But, that was neither here nor there.

“… But to my surprise, he actually managed to gain one of the slots to enter the Valiant Heart Zone. To think, he had gone from not even being the best among the freshmen recruits, to suddenly claiming a place among the seniors. Quite baffling, don’t you think?

“However, you could say that I didn’t really have the mind to care about such things. His purpose had nothing to do with me and I was still busy chasing skirts. But, that didn’t change the fact that he surprised me once again by actually being among the few to survive the entire two year period.

“At this point, though, I didn’t really have much of anything,” Leonel shrugged. “I had a suspicious person, but nothing to show for it.”

Of course, Leonel was lying through his teeth. Even back then, he had already connected Radlis’ appearance to the odd ring he had found that day in the mining tunnels and his eventual run-in with the Silver Tablet in the Valiant Zone.

The issue was that he had no real proof. There was no way of him confirming or denying such a thing and it merely seemed like two coincidences coinciding with one another.

However, Leonel had already decided that he would be releasing Silam after today. Once he did, too many things would be out of his control. So, the less Silam knew, the better. In that case, it was in Leonel’s best interest to manipulate the truth behind his deductions a bit and mix in some lies with the truth. Even before a veteran assassin like Silam, Leonel had no fear about blatantly lying to his face, nor did such a proposition make him nervous.

“At least, I had nothing to show for it until I read a curious report the Radix had gathered on this galaxy’s Valynore family.”

Silam’s jaw clenched. But even if he wanted to move, he couldn’t do so.

“The Valynore family is quite interesting. According to the people of the Milky Way, they are one of the three most powerful families of Planet Crars. I’ve met one of their members before, actually. In fact, she insulted a woman that I quite like the first time she met her. Her name is Balthorn Valynore.

“Interestingly enough, when Radlis met her, he was quite enamoured by this Balthorn character as well. Of course, Radlis is quite the pervert, he reminds me a lot of my brother Gil, so it seemed to be quite in character for him. After all, Balthorn was quite voluptuous and she wasn’t shy about showing off her assets.

“But, finding a report on the Valynore family within the Radix family’s records triggered another memory for me.

“During the freshman trial, there was a battle for golden tags, in which I participated. At one point in that battle, dozens of individuals managed to sneak up on me without a single sound, not even alerting me.

“You may not understand how shocking this is, but I certainly did. Back then, I had already awakened the Wisdom Branch of my Snowy Star Owl Lineage Factor, so my mind was in the Fifth Dimension. A Fourth Dimensional existence being capable of dodging my detection was quite baffling.

“Back then, I brushed it off quite easily. I was ignorant and felt it would be ridiculous if there was absolutely nothing that could make me falter. But, as I learned more about the Dimensional Verse and where I stood within it, I realized more and more how baffling the situation from back then had been.”

Silam’s brow furrowed. Leonel mentioned the Snowy Owl was shocking enough for him, but the rest of this…?

“Patience, patience. I know you don’t quite understand what the point of me telling you all this is, but I promise it all ties in together.

“When that group surrounded me and my then partner, I noticed that there was one individual among them that I recognized. In fact, despite her inconspicuous appearance among them, my intuition told me that she was the impetus behind it all.

“Do you know who she was?

“Her name was Henorin. And she happened to be the little maid servant by Balthorn’s side, the very same Balthorn your Radlis was enamoured with…

“Such a powerful concealment type ability, one capable of fooling a Fifth Dimensional mind while in the Fourth Dimension…

“Sounds quite perfect for an assassin, now isn’t it?”