Dimensional Descent

Aina's frown was even deeper than Leonel's, her palm pressed down harm on the counter, applying enough pressure to make the marbling tremble. And yet, her voice was as calm and cold as ice.

"Goldenglow Root. White Azolla Oak. Silkworm Grass. These are all Fifth Dimensional Herbs priced at barely a few dozen kilograms of Urbe Ore.

"Itchweed. Crimson Hair Skunk Root. Queen Spruce Bushel. Poison Thistle Plum. These aren't even medicines, they're quite literally poison. I wouldn't have allowed you within a mile of him if you had entered with these things.

"Do you take us for idiots?"

The green-haired woman continued to look toward them, not looking away in the slightest. There wasn't a hint of embarrassment on her face.

"The price is as stated. 1 029 293 Void Points and 2 Void Merits."

Aina's irises flashed with a golden glow, the marbled counter cracking.

The green-haired woman looked down at the result, her eyes narrowing. It took far more than just a bit of strength to cause such a thing to happen, especially when there was no wind up.

"The price is now double," The green-haired woman reached forward with lightning speed to take back the invoice, catching Aina off guard.

But, before she could succeed, she found her wrist lightly gripped. The strength wasn't too strong and it could even be said that the hold on her hand was more comfortable than not. And yet, she couldn't seem to budge even a single inch.

"Her name was Rosomon, I believe. Is that right?" Leonel said lightly.

His anger seemed to have vanished into the wind.

Rosomon was the very same woman who had manned the medical center at Village 0012. Truthfully, Leonel hadn't done much of anything to her. In addition, after displaying the strength he had during the True Selection, and subsequently within the Void Tower, even if what he did past floor nine was ignored, he had already proven himself to be more than worth of the Amethyst Token.

In doing that, the reason Rosomon should have had for being disgusted with him should have likewise vanished. But, it seems that Rosomon was the type of person who didn't like to take losses.

Leonel had left her medicinal center alone because he didn't want to be the reason other people didn't get treatment, but she had taken his actions to be out of fear of her. So, he had blatantly stated that if she ever became the reason one of his friends or brothers couldn't get treatment, he wouldn't care about the Void Palace's rules and would directly kill her.

Clearly, she had taken these words very personally, even to the point of trying to retaliate in this way.

With the way the Void Palace worked, everything run on the power of its students. There was a reason why Vega could offer Aina free discounts from stores, and that was because they were controlled by her faction to begin with. Every establishment was either owned by a Faction or an individual student!

This was for an obvious reason, they were raising the future leaders of the Human Domain and as such, treated them with the proper freedom—within certain parameters, of course.

So long as they remained within the Void Palace, didn't have children, and didn't kill, they could practically do as they pleased, all the way up until even running the daily functions of the Void Palace through the Void Senate.

These rules weren't too oppressive at all.

They had to stay in the Void Palace so that they could constantly be under a state of duress and training. If they could leave as they pleased, who would choose to remain here? By then, the effectiveness would plummet.

As for children, they couldn't have little brats running around the Void Palace, right? And killing was an even more obvious measure that protected everyone from being pushed too far.

However, it was also because of this approach that this was happening at all.

Inwardly, Leonel smiled. He didn't believe that only this family controlled all of the hospitals and medical centers of the Void Palace, there were definitely others.

Signs pointed toward the fact that Sceio had brought Aina and him here on purpose, knowing the prices would be inflated. As for how he knew that Leonel had a grudge with Rosomon, that was something that Leonel would have to find out on his own.

Still, it was clear that this Fourth Cousin of his was schemer. It was just unfortunate that he had already touched past Leonel's bottom line because as of this moment… he was playing with Aina's life.

However, Leonel managed to keep his calm, sliding the invoice off of the table and taking it into his hands.

He didn't care for the green-haired woman's answer to his question, he already knew the truth.

"This is the invoice, huh? I'll be taking my copy. Be sure to charge that to that cousin of mine."

Leonel handed the invoice to Aina. Since he didn't have a spatial ring anymore, he'd have to rely on this girlfriend of his.

As they walked out, his mind was spinning.

There were too many loopholes in the contract. Just with a glance, he could see dozens. If Sceio was determined to take advantage of them, he could do so. In fact, he could just hide for the next coming month and show up 31 days later claiming that Leonel never paid him, using that as an excuse to sweep Aina away.

With this contract, Sceio could even go as far as to force Aina to fight in the Heir Wars for him. While killing amongst Heirs was prohibited, killing the helpers of Heirs was a different matter entirely. If not for this, why would Valiant Heart Mountain have been so scared to pariticipate.

Or, there was the possibility that if his mind was more sinister…

Leonel shut his mind down from continuing down that path as quickly as he thought it, but with his current thinking speed, he had already plunged down a seemingly endless rabbit hole.

The more he considered it, the more enraged he would become.

There was only one option. He had to find a way to void this contract. And, for that, he needed to read the rules. To make matters more difficult, he needed a method that didn't rely on the Void Senate and he only had a month to both find it and put it into action.