Noah looked back with a worried glance.
Until now, the so-called "catching up" of the army was only to the back line of the soul constructs. Considering there were over three million of them running in formation, the gap between them and Leonel and the others who were on Little Blackstar's back was actually quite substantial. But this time, after they rounded the formation of soul constructs, there would be no buffer remaining. They would have no choice but to face an assault of hundreds of thousands with just a few dozen people.
The outlook seemed to be incredibly bleak.
When Noah looked around, he saw many worried gazes as well. Until now, everything had gone exceptionally smoothly, everything was under Leonel's calculations and nothing had deviated from the original plan.
They had had many days booked solid with meetings before the Heir Wars even began, all so that Leonel could assure them of his plans and so that they would be ready to execute them at the greatest possible speed.
Of course, the likes of Noah and the others didn't know how rare it was for Leonel to do such a thing. The fact that he had even wasted time explaining himself just went to prove how seriously he had taken these Heir Wars.
But the first time Leonel went off script, the first time he did something that could be considered to be quite risky, they seemed to be suffering for it.
Noah's gaze shifted and his pupils suddenly constricted. The person in his line of sight was Aina. She looked completely calm outside of a bone chilling coldness in her eyes. When his gaze shifted again, it landed on Leonel's brothers… Joel, Milan, Drake, Raj, Arnold, Gil, Allan, and Franco… They too were eerily calm. It shifted again and it landed on James… His gaze was different from the others, but that was only because within his sheen of calmness, there was a hint of… excitement?
Did they know something he didn't know?
No, that was impossible. They had held all of their meetings together. Although it might have been possible for Leonel to have had secret meetings with them, Noah didn't believe that had happened. He had spent much of the last month with all of them, but more importantly than that, Leonel wouldn't do such a thing.
Doing such a thing would be as good as saying he didn't trust the rest of them, but they were already a small group to begin with. In a situation where they faced off against the odds, Leonel wouldn't casually splinter them like that.
Noah realized what it was very quickly…
Belief.
Leonel hadn't said a word. He seemed to have made several mistakes. He had painted them into a corner. And yet these ten individuals didn't doubt him for even a moment.
When Noah looked again, he realized the few that had worried expressions were all the few geniuses of Earth. These were the likes of Karolus, Joyce… Even Jessica who was by his side. Without a doubt, each one of these people were among the few that had spent the least time with Leonel.
'Is it really about time?' Noah thought to himself.
If he was in this situation, would Jessica still have belief in him to succeed? What about Karolus and the others who had the most time with him? He had fought by their side for a long time… but he still didn't know the answer to that question.
Hadn't there also been a two decade gap since Leonel had seen his brothers? Hadn't he even had a falling out with James? Maybe Aina's belief made sense, but what about the rest of them?
Noah suddenly noticed that there was another group with unwavering belief…
Raylion, Aphestus, Sael and Emna… These few he knew too little about, he only vaguely understood that they had been a part of an organization Leonel had joined many years ago. They had even less reason to have such belief…
But hadn't they already bet almost 30 years of their life betting on one man?
Those four had started an organization and put their blood, sweat and tears into it for decades all because of one sentence from Leonel. Compared to this, wasn't that something that had taken much more faith?
Noah's heart trembled as he looked toward Leonel's back. He was this man's cousin and he didn't have this much faith, where did it come from? What was the difference? Was it because he was too focused on himself? Were the others seeing something he wasn't?
It seemed both obvious and not. Noah believed that Leonel was his better, but it was based on the latter's competency. When Leonel seemed to make a mistake, he felt that that competency had run its course and that Leonel was now at the end of his rope.
He never really stopped to consider that there was something more to Leonel than just his talent.
When you measured people by haves and have nots, you tended to reach very binary conclusions.
Leonel had never been such a person, though. He felt that talent was extremely important, yes. But he also didn't decide a person's value by such a thing. And, quite ironically, when one thought about it, when had Leonel ever thought that strength was the end all, be all?
How many people more powerful than himself had Leonel defeated on his way to his current height? How many impossible battles had he fought? How many miracles had he created?
At that moment, the rumbling of the earth reached a point where it couldn't be ignored. Noah looked back to see that the army had already finished rounding Leonel's soul constructs, they were no more than half a kilometer away, a distance that was practically meaningless.
Leonel suddenly stood to his feet, calmly taking the White Lion Bow out and stretching it to full moon.
His hair fluttered in the wind and the coldness of his gaze descended onto the approaching army.
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