Her voice softened.
"She brought you into our clan and insisted on taking you to et her father, desperately hoping you might provide so clue to finding her twin sister. For ten years she’d been searching unsuccessfully without any progress whatsoever. Your presence gave her genuine hope for the first ti."
Hearing these words, Leon suddenly understood with perfect clarity why Ira had been so imdiately friendly and intensely protective of him since the mont he’d confird he’d arrived through a portal with strange symbols on it.
She saw as a possible connection to her lost sister. That’s why she saved my life multiple tis.
The Archon asked a question herself, speaking with personal intensity rather than formal authority:
"Have you truly, genuinely co through a portal that had strange white symbols covering its surface? Are you absolutely certain, or could it possibly have been your imagination or a hallucination?"
Leon answered with complete seriousness, eting her gaze directly:
"Yes. I am one hundred percent certain. It forcefully sucked inside against my will, and I was completely unable to escape because my elental powers didn’t even function near it. The suppression was total."
Archon Vyrra heard his testimony carefully. It definitely sounded like he was telling the truth based on his tone and body language.
But one critical thing is extrely odd.
The portal should have actively pushed him away and rejected his presence—that was how the seals were designed to function. Not pull him in.
Is the portal seal deteriorating sohow? No, that can’t be possible. The sacrifice that created it was too powerful.
She considered other possibilities.
And the Dragon has absolutely no reason whatsoever to try to unseal the other three portals deliberately. So how did this human end up here?
It was a genuine mystery, just like the incident with Miraya being impossibly sucked into a closing rift.
Two anomalies. Both involve portals behaving contrary to established laws. That can’t be a coincidence.
Archon Vyrra had no definitive answer, but the strange oddity of Leon’s arrival definitely reminded her uncomfortably of her niece Miraya’s impossible disappearance.
While she was lost in thought, trying to solve this puzzle, Leon was absorbed in his own racing thoughts while continuing to gently caress Ira’s back for comfort.
Is Ira’s sister being sucked through that portal, sohow connected to ? To my cursed Mark of Fate?
The horrible possibility ford in his mind.
Was this a cause-and-effect chain deliberately created to manufacture circumstances that would eventually pull into this realm? So kind of temporal setup?
But he imdiately questioned that theory.
That incident happened ten years ago. I wasn’t even aware of my own existence in this world at that ti. It can’t be related to ... can it?
Leon genuinely couldn’t determine whether he was sohow the ultimate cause of that tragedy or not. The taphysics were too complex and disturbing to fully analyze.
I need more information. Focus on what she’s saying.
He refocused his attention on Archon Vyrra’s voice as she continued the explanation.
"After Ira brought you before Korvek, presenting you to her father, she explained in detail how she’d discovered you and your circumstances. She ntioned the portal again and again with obvious excitent and hope in her voice."
Vyrra’s expression beca deeply sympathetic as she looked at Korvek.
"Korvek had already lost his beloved wife in battle three hundred years ago at the hands of a terrifying pawn of that man who killed Lady Phoenix. She was my own little sister."
Her voice cracked slightly at that personal detail before she composed herself.
"And then again, ten years ago, he lost one of his twin daughters in that impossible, inexplicable way."
She looked at Korvek with obvious pity.
"The ntion of portals, combined with you standing physically in front of him as living proof that portal anomalies were occurring, completely freaked Korvek out of his rational mind."
Korvek visibly clenched his fists tightly at his sides, hearing his trauma being exposed so clinically, but he remained silent.
Vyrra continued without rcy:
"Korvek desperately wanted you to be as far away from his remaining daughter as possible. He was terrified of losing Ira the sa way he’d lost Miraya."
She explained the terrible logic:
"So he proposed a formal challenge as a way to separate you from her permanently. The terms were simple: you would fight in single combat against one of the strongest warriors of our clan. If you won, you’d earn the right to remain. If you lost, you would be expelled from our clan’s territory and forced to survive on your own in the wilderness."
Her voice beca carefully precise.
"He never explicitly said he wanted to kill you directly."
Leon’s eyes narrowed sharply at that careful phrasing.
But—
Vyrra acknowledged the obvious implication:
"However, silly, kind-hearted Ira interpreted this challenge as essentially a death sentence for you, which honestly wasn’t very far from the truth at all."
She explained the brutal reality:
"After you lost the battle and were expelled from the protected city, the next ti a monster rift appeared targeting any nearby living beings, you would have been killed quickly, given your—at that ti—seemingly ager individual strength, which you were tricking them with."
Her expression showed grudging respect.
"But obviously it didn’t co to that outco, because you proved to be far, far too strong for our expectations once you revealed your true strength."
Leon heard everything, processing it all carefully.
It seems brutal coming from Korvek, but I understand his reasoning now. The underlying fear makes sense.
But was this really the complete truth?
He looked directly at Ira for confirmation, needing to see her reaction.
She nodded slowly in agreent with her aunt’s version of events, though her expression showed she still thought her father had been wrong.
"Fucking hell," Leon muttered under his breath.
The way I was fighting desperately for my life in that arena, thinking I’d be executed if I lost... it actually would have been a better strategy to just surrender intentionally at the start and get thrown out of the city!
But miscommunication and the language barrier had made the situation spiral completely out of control into a life-or-death struggle.
However, Leon suddenly rembered one critical detail that contradicted this "misunderstanding" narrative.
His eyes locked onto Korvek with sharp accusation.
This will definitely expose him. I can’t believe this man is trying to claim he didn’t want to kill !
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