The Summoner's Rebirth: Awaken, Milady

"...Was I cruel?" Aria shrugged, cracking her bones.

"For doing that? I don't think so. There are many methods to win a battle, and not all battles are consensual. One might loath a surprise attack, but one must acknowledge the truth that it is convenient and holds a very high power," Rallaka inserted his input from the side, looking at Aria's expression.

She seemed to have been impacted by the course of the matter.

Of course, it had something to do with the fact that Leonis was a being like them. Ones who came from the faraway past. Unfortunately, Leonis was not a spirit that she could contract like how she did with Rallaka.

The first and main reason was obviously his unsuitable constitution. However, there was also the fact that Leonis would never tag along with someone else because he was so fixated on himself and his goals.

Aria's mind entered a spiral of emotions. Due to her recent encounters with Rallaka and Leonis, she began to feel that her past life was actually not as far as she imagined it to be.

Or at least, that was how it seemed to her as of now. Who knew when she would be meeting another one like them and her for the next time?

One thing was for sure, though.

"We all know... That this is why emotions can kill," Aria sighed. "If he didn't take so long to go berserk, and reveal his weaknesses to me... then he would've lived and killed me,"

"Although, you must also understand that the reason he wasn't hostile from the very start was because he remembered you. The fact that you've left a lasting impression on him means that.. you have done right in the past, and it came back to help you," Rallaka was now fully accepting of Aria's true identity.

Although it took him long to find out directly from the woman, he had been suspicious of this fact to begin with, so the actual reveal did not shock him as much.

"...I suppose you are right in some parts," Aria acknowledged. "I still can't set this puffy feeling aside though. He was the one victimized in the beginning, the one who suffered and had to live on with a painful goal until this long,"

"I'm sure that passing on will be some sort of a consolation to him too. He has worked too hard and deserves a lot of rest.. Let's just hope that he is in peace from now on, shall we?"

Rallaka did not have a close connection with Leonis, having only seen him once or twice in his entire life.

However, he too knew that the man was deserving of pity and sympathy for what befell with from zero.

Although Leonis wasn't a completely innocent man as well, tragedies affected different people differently.

Some might take it harder than others, some will go completely insane like Leonis.

Aria thought that the man's rough life should be honored, whether or not he stooped down as low as to become this dungeon's boss or not.

"I will remember you, Leonis. For your contributions, for your suffering, and for all you have done," Aria clasped her hands together and kneeled down, praying sincerely for the man.

She wasn't able to let her spirits perform a show this time, because her ensemble hasn't gathered yet.

However, she could offer up her genuine wishes.

The man had suffered too much.

Aria prayed for the man's safe journey to the afterlife, although she didn't necessarily know if there really was an afterlife.

She had tried so many times to die when she suffered.

She couldn't imagine what it was like to be Leonis. Someone who clearly wished to die in order to end his suffering, but couldn't bear to part with the mortal world because of his unsolved wishes.

No one knew what caused Leonis' unexplainable fixation towards Adele. It clearly wasn't just a simple love, it was something much more complicated that ended somewhere around the topic of obsession.

Other soldiers also lost their family after being caught up in a strife, whether it was due to a direct targeting or just random mass destruction.

However, not one person ended up like Leonis.

Leonis used to be quite the expert paladin who was good at his job. A truthful, mannered, and loyal knight who you could be assured with.

That normal man changed.

A man that surpassed the bounds of a normal man due to his wife's death being an instigator for his outrage.

Thinking about the man, and how similar her progression was starting to become with her past life, Aria imagined about all the new challenges she was going to face from now on.

Whether it was fighting challenges.. or life challenges as a whole.

Human relationships were one of the trickiest tribulations to overcome.

For example, there was one dilemma she had to fix right this very moment.

Rallaka aside, there were several others who watched her converse with Leonis, in which her identity was indirectly exposed.

What would their reactions be?

Aria slowly turned around to look at her team members, the trio who were standing side by side and looking back at her.

"Umm," Aria scratched her face awkwardly. "I'm sure that you all.. must have heard a lot.. right?"

"We did hear a lot," Reina placed her hand on her hip as she sighed. "But... I don't think your identity matters that much," the woman began to walk towards her, the heels of her shoes clacking against the solid ground and creating a satisfying sound.

Aria suddenly had a random question, that being how Reina was able to survive fighting in heels for so long, but she swallowed the question back down immediately.

Aria raised a brow and blinked a couple times.

Before she was able to ask about this matter more, Elgin stepped forward and voiced out his opinions.

"Right, I also think the same," Elgin said, approaching Aria too. "If you think about it.. this was all so obvious. Your excessive knowledge, your skills, your battles.. In fact, I think that your identity getting revealed like this makes your existence easier to take in,"

"I have similar views too," Yan took the opportunity to join in. "I don't believe in judging people just by their background,"

"If you are qualified, then you are qualified,"

"Of course, considering all that we have been through together, I will gladly keep this a secret," Yan nodded, saying such words in a rigid tone as always.

He began to walk towards Aria with a slight smile, which was rare coming from the man.

The battle was truly a game changer.

It required so much tenacity and effort that all cooperative stances were peaked to the max.

"..I appreciate the gestures, but... Are you guys truly not curious?"

"Everyone has different pasts, different backgrounds, and will walk on different paths. Some people cross each other at an intersection and could form a bond. Aside from that... I don't think that we should be too concerned about other people's matters. In the end, as long as all of us survives and thrives, everything is well," Elgin spoke wise words as if he had thousands of years worth of experience.

"Yep! Curious or not, I think you are a great person to work with. You are very qualified. Over qualified for a newbie's caliber in this situation," Reina patted Aria's shoulder with a kind smile.

"Although..."

"Although?" Aria gulped her saliva, tilting her head in worry.

"We have been preparing so much for Aria to approach the boss with such a way? Ao, I thought that I would have to torture myself with your unreasonable requests once more. That chaining process... Ugh, just thinking about it makes me want to cry,"

"Wasn't it great experience for you all?" Aria chuckled. "And let's just count that damned cluster as the boss fight. It was way too exhausting,"

She was indeed asking a bit too much from Reina at that time, but that also meant that she trusted her abilities in some way or another.

"Ao, don't even talk about it anymore. Experience or not, I'm definitely going to have a long lasting beef with slimes from now on!" Reina complained.

As they spoke, the dungeon began to change.

A gate opened in front of them in the shape of a circular portal. Since the dungeon had been cleared, they were free to leave now.

Aria collected her rewards and stored them for later, thinking that she couldn't reveal more than this to the team for the time being.

Her connections to being a <Player> designated by the System and much more.

Aria gave a tired smile to her team.

"Let's go, it's time to go back home,"

To her home.

She thought that she was ready to make a decision.

[Lichte], a team filled with professional people with abundant resources.

Or [Golden Insignia], a team that guided her and secured her from the beginning, with less legal resources but is equally great?

A choice had to be made between the two.

To patch up her home.

Aria Schreiner's home in the modern age.