Sitting beside Leo, Ais's translucent eyes, once a brilliant gold, trembled faintly, then dimmed at a pace visible to the naked eye.
Clearly, Leo's blunt opening words had dealt her no small blow.
But Leo went on as if he hadn't noticed, talking at his own pace.
"The reason I can grow this fast, barring anything unexpected, should be that Skill I just mentioned." Leo looked straight ahead at the courtyard view and spoke slowly. "It's a special Skill even Loki can't read the contents of, can't even translate the name of."
"It can't be read, but the only reason I can grow this fast can be that Skill. Otherwise, no matter how great my potential was, there's no way I could've beaten the record from when you reached Lv.2 by that much."
"And normally I just explore the Dungeon as usual, I don't do anything special, so you can completely rule out the idea that I did something to grow this fast."
To sum it all up, that was why Leo had said Ais couldn't raise her Status as fast as he could.
After all, it was a Skill belonging to him alone, and probably nowhere in the world could you find a second person who had it. There was no way Ais could suddenly acquire such a Skill, so for her to want to get stronger as fast as Leo was basically impossible.
"An unreadable... special Skill?"
Ais lifted her eyes a touch, seeming a little surprised by this.
There were Skills in this world that even the gods couldn't read?
Just what kind of Skill could have that sort of effect?
For all the disappointment in her heart, Ais couldn't help the curiosity that rose up too.
"Remember to keep it secret for me." Seeing Ais look over, Leo smiled. "The only ones who should know about this are you and Loki... uh, and maybe the captain and the others. Nobody else knows."
Even though they were of the same Familia, Leo didn't much want others knowing he had such a Skill.
It couldn't be helped. An adventurer's Magic or Skill, besides being shaped by their own experiences or obsessions, could also be a manifestation of the person's very essence.
The most typical example was the original protagonist, whose several Skills were nearly all manifestations of his personal obsessions.
Liaris Freese was something he'd gained because he'd developed a deep adoration for the Ais who had saved him, holding an intense yearning toward her.
Argonaut, as the name suggested, was a manifestation of his own wish to become a hero.
Ox Slayer had awakened in him because he wanted to overcome his nemesis, to overcome the shadow of his past.
Just from the names of these few Skills you could tell exactly what kind of wishes and obsessions he held, and the moment someone learned of them, it would be all but baring his inner heart to the world, leaving the secrets buried deep in him nowhere to hide.
By the same logic, if Leo's Stranger from Another Star could be read, the likes of Loki would probably only need to see the Skill's name to start guessing at his origins.
At which point his identity as a transmigrator might be exposed outright.
It was precisely for this reason that, even with Ais, Leo didn't much want to reveal the true information of Stranger from Another Star. He could only tell her it was an unreadable special Skill, and that the reason he could get stronger so fast seemed to be that Skill.
On this front Loki, Finn and the others had probably made guesses of their own, so Leo wouldn't hide it from Ais either.
But the others were a different matter.
In this Familia, Leo was after all only close with Ais. The rest were mostly nodding acquaintances. At most he was on fairly good terms with a limited few like Line and Raul, but not good enough to lay all of this out for them.
It wasn't that he distrusted his fellow Familia members, only that everyone had their own privacy, and no matter how good the relationship, they wouldn't necessarily want to lay everything bare.
Though Ais couldn't hear Leo's inner voice, she could roughly understand his thinking.
She likewise had a Skill she couldn't reveal to outsiders carelessly.
Avenger. Reveal even a sliver of this Skill, and it would expose the secret of the fierce hatred buried deep in her heart.
So Ais had never revealed the existence of this Skill to outsiders. Only the three of them, she and Loki and Finn, knew about it, almost exactly like Leo.
In truth, people like Leo and Ais, who hid the information of their own Magic or Skills, weren't actually few in Loki Familia.
Because it might expose the secrets of their hearts, might expose their own obsessions or ugly wishes, they could only hide these things away, hide their own wounds, and quietly crouch alone in a corner licking them.
The only ones who understood these people's circumstances thoroughly had always been just Loki, the patron deity, and the three Familia leaders. Those four understood that this wasn't something to be revealed carelessly, so as the heads of the household they were willing to keep it secret for them, and to guide them in the shadows, hoping that one day they could face themselves and walk out of the shadows in their hearts.
This was also the reason Leo never brought up his own origins, and yet Loki and the others, once they'd confirmed he was harmless, were willing to let him keep on hiding himself.
None of them were the sort to dig to the bottom of another's secrets. As long as they confirmed the secret was harmless to them and harmless to the Familia, they could perfectly well turn a blind eye, and wait until the person in question fully trusted them and was willing to come clean, at which point they'd come and be proper listeners.
They had that kind of patience, and that kind of understanding, which was why the members trusted them so deeply and were willing to give their all for them and for this Familia.
In other words, a situation like Leo's really wasn't uncommon in Loki Familia, and wouldn't cause Ais any dissatisfaction at all.
She herself had never once been frank with Leo about her own Skill, and for Leo to be willing to tell her this much already counted as doing right by her.
Thinking this, Ais didn't know that Leo actually knew full well what she was hiding, including the Skill and origins she was unwilling to be frank about with outsiders.
"...I won't tell anyone."
Ais only promised this much, the emotion in her tone seeming low.
It seemed that failing to get the secret to getting stronger fast out of Leo still left her quite disappointed.
Looking at Ais hanging her head in undisguised dejection, Leo couldn't help reaching out and stroking her smooth, long golden hair.
"Actually, you don't need to look for ways to get stronger from other people at all." Leo said this. "The way I see it, you've always had astonishing potential hidden in you that others don't have. As long as you can dig it out, you definitely won't fall short of anyone."
She was, after all, someone who'd once shaken the entire lower world and reached the fastest level-up record. What Ais's potential was like could be fully imagined.
Unlike Leo and the original protagonist, she hadn't been force-ripened by some broken Skill. Reaching the fastest level-up record had been entirely down to her own potential and effort, and on that point no one could compare.
Her parents, moreover, were of more extraordinary origin than anyone, and Ais, who'd inherited their bloodline and talent, couldn't possibly be worse than any single individual in the lower world.
So the potential hidden inside her was surely beyond what others could imagine. Otherwise she wouldn't have awakened Magic and a Skill like that.
It had to be said, Ais's Magic and her Skill both were thoroughly worthy of being called cheating.
If she used her Magic and Skill at the same time, then challenging across levels was simply child's play. Given the right conditions she could even challenge opponents two or even three levels above her, an ability you probably couldn't find another instance of even searching the whole lower world.
Lefiya only had firepower two levels above her own; if Ais went all out, with Magic and Skill both, then what she had was combat power two or even three levels above her own. There was no comparison between the two at all.
Unfortunately, both Ais's Magic and Skill were too dangerous to use, especially Avenger, the symbol of the hatred in her heart, which might even destroy her, so she'd already had that Skill disabled for a long time.
But even so, it showed just what tremendous power lay hidden within Ais.
"If, and I mean if, you could fully unearth the power hidden inside you, and completely control it without being harmed by it, would you still need to imitate other people's ways of getting stronger?"
Leo said this softly, and Ais couldn't help raising her head.
"You..."
Ais looked at Leo with some astonishment, seeming quite startled that he'd say such a thing.
The way Leo's words felt to Ais was as if he already knew the thing she'd been hiding all along.
But how could that be possible?
Seeing the girl startled by him, Leo didn't explain anything, only smiled lightly.
"Anyway, I just think there's no need at all for you to chase after someone else's back, to learn other people's ways of getting stronger."
Leo's voice was like it came from somewhere far away, turning faint and distant.
"If you want to get stronger, then the most correct thing to do is to face yourself, to chase after the things hidden deep in your own heart, to put in the work on yourself. You don't need to ask others for help at all."
Having said all this, Leo said nothing more after that, only gazing out at the courtyard and continuing to stroke that head of overly smooth long hair.
Ais didn't resist Leo's closeness either, staring blankly at him, falling into a long, long silence.
......
"Hey, what on earth are those two talking about?"
In the sky corridor connecting one tower to another, the Amazoness girl hiding here spying on the courtyard couldn't help speaking up, breaking the silence that hung over the place.
"It's too far, can't hear a word of what they're saying."
Tiona was displeased about this, her complaints coming one after another, until she'd annoyed even her own blood sister, who was hiding here spying on the courtyard too.
"Could you maybe talk a little less? We can't hear anything as it is, and you yapping here just means we hear even less."
Tione really wanted to kick this constantly-muttering little sister flying, the irritation on her face all but spilling over.
But Tiona ignored her hot-tempered sister entirely.
"Look, look! Leo made his move!" Tiona suddenly got excited, hollering. "He's touching Ais! He actually touched her!"
What Tiona was seeing right then was exactly the scene of Leo reaching out to touch Ais's hair.
This not only got Tiona excited, it set off a string of muffled gasps from the many who'd come to peek.
"That guy Leo... he actually went and made a move on Miss Ais!"
"Whew, the kid's got some nerve."
"Daring to lay a hand on our Familia's Princess, those stinking men are probably all blowing their tops right about now."
"Hey, personally I think those two are pretty good together. What's that word Loki uses again?"
"Real shippable?"
"That's it, that's it, exactly that feeling."
"Those forward-thinking gods can always come up with words we don't understand but find super striking."
"I know another word the gods often use at times like this, it's to describe us, what's it called... auntie smile?"
"Let's just hope Leo doesn't get some dirty trick pulled on him behind his back by that pack of hot-blooded stinking men."
A group of female members had, of all things, hidden here first thing in the morning to spy on the boy and girl interacting in the courtyard, and they were chatting about it more heatedly than anything.
Leo and Ais sparred in the courtyard every day, that openly, so there was no way the people of the Familia could not notice.
Especially today, with Leo having just leveled up, the focus very much on him in the moment, the members all dearly wanted to know how this rookie, who'd leveled up in under a month and broken the world record set by the Doll Princess everyone in the Familia took such pride in, would perform.
As it turned out, they weren't disappointed.
They'd taken in every bit of Leo and Ais's fierce duel just now.
And so, they'd finally accepted it: Leo really had set this unbelievable record and become a Lv.2.
It was just that, compared to that, Leo and Ais suddenly sitting together on the bench had instead grabbed everyone's attention in a flash, shifting the point of their discussion in an instant.
Of course, just as they'd said, most of the male members who'd also seen this scene were blowing their tops.
"That bastard, he's only just reached Lv.2, and he already dares to reach out and touch Miss Ais this openly?"
"What's going to happen when he reaches Lv.3 or Lv.4?"
"If he dares pat her head at Lv.2, then by Lv.3 or Lv.4 won't he dare touch anything?"
"...Maybe we should just find a time to chop his hands off?"
"Agreed!" the four of them said.
The male members huddled darkly in a corner conducting their secret deliberations, and among them were even the very people who'd been crowding around Leo earlier, worked up and thrilled about his level-up.
It just went to show, Leo really had drawn aggro this time.
Never mind the male members' hatred, he'd even drawn the hatred of a certain female member.
"Vile lecher! Skirt-chaser! Pervert! Shameless, filthy man!"
The lovely-featured Elf girl glared daggers at the hand Leo was using to stroke Ais's hair, biting the railing, cursing him with a black aura pouring off her whole body.
"Get those claws off her right this instant!!!"
The Elf girl was about ready to blow her top.
And through all of it, Leo never sensed a thing.
=-=-=-=-=
200 powerstones for the extra chapter
=-=-=-=-=
Read 40 Chapters ahead at Patreon.com/NiaXD