The Sapphire Paladin diligently cleaned the blood from her blade, not even looking at the rest of the Legion knights around her. However, she bathed the surroundings in her magic senses, just in case. Dealing with someone like Trajan wasn’t the easiest prospect, and she wanted to be sure that the months of planning that had gone into this ambush wasn’t wasted by a few moments of negligence.

The plan itself was quite simple: lure Trajan away from the Royal Palace, and then kill him as quickly as possible. It was finding enough knights who were loyal enough to Octavius to go through with the plan that was the primary issue, as two seventh-tier Paladins wasn’t enough, at least according to most of the advisors that Octavius had let in on this plan. The Central Consul, though, had managed to find enough knights and transferred them to the 1st Legion, where they could be of service to Octavius in this endeavor.

The city was quiet under the watchful gaze of the Sapphire Paladin; it seemed that no one had been alerted to the fighting in this part of the city. Trajan’s knights were killed in short enough order, none of them able to stand against so many knights from the 1st Legion and a seventh-tier Paladin. Perhaps if Trajan had shown up with three or four times as many knights, it would’ve been a different story, but he only arrived with nineteen knights in tow.

And now they were all dead at the Sapphire Paladin’s feet. Not even a single drop of blood had fallen upon Sapphire’s bright blue turquoise armor, glittering even in the low light of the relatively deserted district, more than a few gleaming sapphires adding to her armor’s luster. She could’ve worn the silver Paladin armor that she had been given upon her ascension to the seventh-tier, but she preferred her own gear.

Still, it was best not to linger long, and she quickly ordered the 1st Legion knights to get packed up and to scrub the area of any sign they were there. When the bodies were discovered in the morning, there had to be no physical evidence of any kind that she and the 1st Legion had been there.

To that end, Sapphire flipped her long blonde ponytail over her shoulder and began to walk toward the warehouse. She wasn’t in court and had even just gotten out of a battle, but she didn’t let her noble demeanor slip for even a moment; she walked with grace, her back straight, her face impassive, and her head held high. She could’ve been walking through the gardens in the Royal Palace for all her attitude betrayed her, not through the scene of a massacre of knights loyal to a Prince.

When Sapphire entered the utterly trashed warehouse, she found Earthshaker still there, standing over the fallen corpse of Trajan, re-buttoning his pants. Upon the air Sapphire detected the faint smell of ammonia, making it clear that her colleague had just urinated on Trajan’s body. Scattered around the warehouse were five more corpses, four of them being the knights that had accompanied Trajan inside, while the last dead man was the messenger who led them there to begin with, either killed accidentally in the fighting or deliberately by Earthshaker after silencing the Prince.

The lady Paladin curled her lips in disgust; the Prince had already fallen, his head had been severed and his heart skewered, anything more was needless.

“What?” Earthshaker shamelessly asked once he realized she was standing behind him. He turned and smiled at the Sapphire Paladin and let his eyes wander up and down her body without bothering to hide his gaze.

“Worthless filth,” Sapphire said with a caustic tone, her eyes locked onto Earthshaker’s. “Enemy or not, that is a Prince!”

“I don’t care,” Earthshaker responded. “He infuriated me, he tried to have me executed! I promised myself long ago that I would piss on his corpse, and that is not a promise I was going to let go unfulfilled!”

“I shouldn’t have to explain to you why what you just did turns my stomach, do I?” Sapphire asked, glaring at the other Paladin.

“Please do, I’d love to hear it,” Earthshaker responded with a provocative smile.

Instead of indulging the vile Paladin, Sapphire walked forward, her killing intent spiking so quickly that even her fellow Paladin could feel his hair standing on end. “If you ever disrespect House Taurus again, I will take your head myself!” To emphasize her point, she drew her blade and rested it upon Earthshaker’s shoulder.

Earthshaker was silent for a moment, seemingly testing Sapphire’s resolve, but his smile was clearly frozen on his face. He didn’t truly think she’d follow through on her threat to kill him, but maiming him on the other hand…

“… Consider your point made,” he said, gently raising his hand and pushing the blade off his shoulder and far away from his neck.

“Good,” Sapphire said, her expression of anger suddenly and jarringly turning into one so happy and pleased that it practically radiated sunshine. “Octavius will be pleased that we succeeded in our task!”

With that, she turned around to leave, but Earthshaker hung around for a moment longer, simply watching her go. His eyes drifted downward and, again, he made no attempt to hide this from her.

“Yeah, go run back to His Highness, I’ll bet you can’t wait to ride his cock like a good little whore,” he muttered under his breath. He either thought she couldn’t hear him, or he thought that she wouldn’t turn around after already turning to leave. He found how wrong he was when her fist materialized as if out of nowhere and slammed into his face, sending him reeling back like a ragdoll.

When he managed to right himself, Earthshaker instinctively prepared himself for battle as blood flowed from his lip and a couple of his teeth felt loose. However, Sapphire continued to stroll toward the exit as if nothing had happened—as much as she didn’t much appreciate Earthshaker, his power was real, and her lover, Prince Octavius, needed it greatly. Beyond that, he was Octavius’ maternal uncle, and she couldn’t bring word back to her Prince that two of his uncles were dead instead of only one. That simply wouldn’t do.

Earthshaker shook his head, spat on the ground, and then made to follow Sapphire. If he had his way, he’d chain her up and make sure she never moved again while he had his way with her body. However, she was Octavius’, and that made her effectively out of reach. If Octavius ever tired of her, however… well, Earthshaker could only hope he was there to offer to take her off the Prince’s hands.

As he passed the corpse of Trajan—which he’d recently beheaded—Earthshaker took one last moment to spit on the fallen Prince, and then proceeded to leave.

By the time both Paladins came outside, the knights of the 1st Legion were ready to go. They were the sort to participate in an assassination attempt on a Prince, but that didn’t make them sloppy or undisciplined. The large group left, leaving nothing in their wake save for a ruined street and the corpses of Trajan and the knights that had followed him.

—

Leon woke up relatively early. He’d slept quite deeply, at least for him, and though he was typically loath to rise any earlier than he had to, he decided to get up. He had a great deal of work he wanted to get done, and though he loved his sleep, once he was awake, his plans started popping back into his head and prevented him from slipping back to sleep.

Carefully, Leon extricated himself from the tangle of limbs that he, Elise, and Naiad had become during the night. He wasn’t too worried about either waking up, as both were heavy sleepers, but he took as much care as he could, regardless. Once he was up, he quickly dressed and went out to his enchanting workshop. It was so early that the chef Elise typically had come in to make their meals hadn’t yet arrived, and Leon had to resist the temptation to grab a quick snack.

It was still dark out, with the sun barely beginning to peek over the side of the plane in the east, but Leon couldn’t see it, for the sky was completely overcast with dark storm clouds. He could smell rain in the warm air, the wind was picking up, and Leon could hear the rumble of distant thunder.

To anyone else, this would’ve had the makings of a terrible day, but to Leon, storms were something to look forward to, and he enjoyed them immensely. He was too strong now for them to have the effect they once had—stimulating his blood and all-but forcing him to train—but he still felt energized and deeply comfortable during a raging storm.

And yet, there was something ominous in the air, something that gave Leon a slight feeling of dread. It wasn’t enough for him to be fully aware that he felt it, but it was still more than enough to prevent him from smiling at the sight of a cloudy sky.

Upon entering his workshop, Leon immediately went over to the corner where the boxes of arrows were. Most of his recent attention had been taken up by his efforts to figure out viable flight, but that wasn’t his only goal in the past year.

Leon had many spells that he could tie to arrows and fire at his enemies, but with his recent advances in magical knowledge from the Thunderbird and his own efforts in learning enchanting skills, he knew he could do better than that.

Most spell-arrows were used similarly to how he used his, by simply tying spells to arrows. This was the most cost-efficient way to use spell-arrows, but the spells themselves were limited by the material that they used. Spellpaper was a sturdier kind of paper that could take the magic coursing through them without being shredded, which normal paper couldn’t. It also had the advantage of being flat and malleable enough that an entire enchantment could be inscribed and rolled up without loss of effect.

However, paper was still paper. It was relatively fragile, weakened in rain, and the paper flapping in the wind of the fired arrow could slow it down or make it less accurate. In cases of hurried crafting, the paper could even be ripped off the arrow before reaching the destination.

To counter these shortcomings, Leon had been trying to adapt the enchantments to the arrows themselves, inscribing the spells upon the far more durable shaft and arrowhead—being more durable, the arrows could then handle more magic power, thus making the spells stronger.

One of the most useful things a spell—and, more generally, enchantments—could do was to enhance the magic power that was channeled through it, either by amplification, more efficient use, or some other similar manipulation of that power.

This is how Leon was able to use his own relatively meager fifth-tier powers to use his Thunderblast spells so liberally during the war with the Talfar Kingdom despite having to supply those spells with his own power. Most utility enchantments could use charged gemstones for power—and, in fact, Leon was hoping to use a few charged gems to power his future flight suits, and perhaps even get some power-enhancing stones put into his armor—but most spells had to have power channeled into them by the mage using them. More durable materials meant more power could be channeled into them, which greatly increased the power of a spell.

However, spellpaper was light, very cheap, and easy to produce, while the arrows were more expensive and had significantly less surface area. Inscribing enchantments over such a small and uneven surface area was difficult and time-consuming—two more reasons why spells attached to arrows was preferable—but Leon kept at it. It would probably always be faster, more economical, and more flexible to continue using spellpaper tied to the arrows, but this was a good way for Leon to get his mind off of other things and approach them with fresh eyes later while still using his time productively.

Besides, it was something to practice and challenge himself with, and he greatly enjoyed the work. So into his work was he, in fact, that he didn’t even realize that Elise had come into his workshop until her arms wrapped around his neck in a loose hug as he sat at his drawing board, quill in hand as he scratched at the paper in front of him drawing hundreds of runes with an arrow next to him for reference.

“How’s it coming?” she asked.

“Not well,” Leon answered. “I’ve had some success with fitting small, mostly useless spells onto my arrows, but every spell useful in combat that I come up with is too big or symmetrical to fit on the uneven surface of an arrow. Still, I’m refining the design, and I have confidence that I’ll get it right eventually.”

“If it was easy, everyone would use arrows like that,” Elise added. “However, I have faith you’ll figure it out.”

“Thanks, love,” Leon responded as he allowed Elise to pull him away from the drawing board.

“Come on, breakfast is ready. I think Naiad will even join us, today!” Elise said happily.

“Really?” Leon asked, an intrigued expression on his face. Naiad rarely ate—as an eighth-tier equivalent being, she didn’t strictly need to. Still, decades of life and millions of years of ancestral instinct that demanded food were hard things to overcome, which is why most mages continued to eat and breathe long after their bodies no longer needed to.

Elise nodded, and Leon quickly followed her back inside the main villa.

Naiad was waiting for them at the dining table, mercifully fully clothed with the chef still in the villa—since she hardly left the villa, she could go days at a time without wearing a single stitch of clothing—and with a slight smile blooming on her face as Leon and Elise walked back in through the door.

About time, she said into their minds. I was getting impatient and was about to drag the two of you here.

“Really? That might actually be kind of fun,” Elise said with a wink that sent a hint of red of into Naiad’s bronze cheeks.

I probably wouldn’t be so gentle, either, Naiad replied, leaning forward and resting her elbows on the table.

“I don’t mind if it gets a little rough,” Elise countered as she took her seat.

Leon sat down between them, though he remained silent, simply enjoying the playful atmosphere they were creating as they bantered back and forth. Neither were particularly antagonistic in their tone, and he took their good-natured back-and-forth as a good sign that Elise was accepting Naiad into their home.

As for him, he’d already decided that Naiad could stay as long as she wanted. They’d been together long enough that he had started growing attached to her, and he knew it. Still, he couldn’t quite bring himself to speak with Naiad directly about her intentions at this point. If she said she still wanted to leave as soon as she was pregnant, he wasn’t quite sure how he might react.

At this point, right before he started to turn down a dark path of contemplating what he would do in that case, there came the pleasant, but loud sound of a ringing bell echoing through the villa just as the chef was bringing out the first breakfast biscuits.

“I’ll see who it is,” Leon said as he rose from his seat, letting his two ladies continue their banter.

Walking to the front door, he projected his magic senses and saw Alix at his front gate, looking absolutely terrified and frantically pacing back and forth in front of the gate. Leon wasted no more time and pressed another runic circle by the door which remotely opened the gate, then went outside to greet his former squire.

“Sir Leon!” Alix shouted as she came sprinting toward him as fast as her third-tier legs could carry her, squeezing through the opening gate as soon as she had enough space.

“What is it?” Leon asked, his concern growing more and more as her panic became more apparent the closer she got.

“Sir!” she called out again once she’d closed to a more comfortable speaking range and came to an almost skidding halt. “Prince Trajan has been attacked in the city! Word came back that he was killed in the fighting!”