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n“Leon!” Charles, who was still waiting outside of the bank, noticed Leon walk out, and approached once Leon and Elise said their goodbyes.

nLeon saw Charles run up to him and collected himself. He had gone a little out of sorts after learning Adrianos’ name, so he clamped down on his emotions as best as he could.

n“Charles,” he said, his tone giving nothing away.

n“So, did you get everything done that you needed to?” Charles was bursting with questions for Leon, especially about what business a Valeman could have with such a large bank, but he kept his mouth shut when he saw Leon again.

n“Yes.”

n“Ok… um, on to the inn?”

nLeon still had his five thousand silvers in his pack, and for a brief moment was tempted to find an inn somewhere other than in the slums, but he thought better of it. ‘Best not to make a scene, keep things low-key…’ he thought. So he nodded to Charles, and they set off back to the slums.

n—

nElise and the Tower Lord watched Leon walk down the street from a window in the Tower Lord’s office. The window hadn’t been there earlier, but the office had hundreds, perhaps even a few thousand convenience enchantments woven into it. Ajax could turn a wall in his office into a transparent window almost at will.

n“You seem to have taken a liking for that one. Finally find someone who caught your eye?” the Tower Lord asked teasingly.

n“Oh? What gave it away?” Elise asked, genuinely confused as to how he knew. Any trace of playful seduction in her demeanor was gone, replaced only with a mildly relaxed business-like attitude.

n“What didn’t give it away? You’re usually far more aloof to our guests, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you approach one of your own will! But you were practically all over young Leon!”

n“Well, it’s rare to see someone so young yet so strong. Even rarer to see someone with that kind of power not trying to flaunt it or to show off.”

n“Not for you. How many balls and parties did my sister throw for you back in the capital, trying to find you a match? I’m sure you’ve met at least half the nobles in the capital. Undoubtedly there were more than a few who were possessed of comparable strength with a pleasant attitude.” Ajax glanced over at Elise.

n“You’d be wrong, and besides, there were none who also held a gold card and had a name like ‘Leon Raime’,” she said with a mischievous smile. “Besides, all those boys my mother introduced me to were strong, impeccably dressed, well-mannered, and mind-numbingly boring. But Leon… he was quiet and unassuming, not drawing much attention to himself, but all that vanished when you said his name. I was intrigued before, but he gave no prior impressions that indicated he could be so decisive. Truth be told, I was starting to think him just as boring as everyone else until that happened. He was ready to fight despite your obvious power, of that I have no doubt. And yet, he’s still so innocent! It makes me want to tease him even more, have some more fun with him…”

n“Be careful, Butterfly. He’s still a Raime, so he’ll have his fair share of enemies. I’d hate to see you get hurt or worse by whoever attacked his family.”

n“I’m willing to take the chance,” she replied. “I’d rather take the chance that Leon will prove himself a better man than most other nobles I know than settle for someone who thinks of no one but themself.”

nAjax nodded, understanding that she was still young, barely even twenty years old, and hadn’t even had a single boyfriend before. She felt like she needed someone different and unique, and compared to most of the nobles she’d been introduced to, Leon fit that mold perfectly. Fortunately, Ajax had been left with a good impression of the young man, and he didn’t think it necessary to further warn Elise away from him. She was old enough to make her own choices and to take her own risks.

n“Uncle, I’m going to return to the capital.”

nAjax looked back at his niece, his eyebrow rising in intrigue. “Gotten bored of this place already, eh? Finally ready to go home? About damn time I say, my sister has been sending me messages almost weekly demanding that I give her news about you.”

nElise sighed. She loved her mother, but she could be a little stifling and overenthusiastic in her support of Elise. Case in point, the dozens of parties she threw for her daughter to meet the eligible men in the capital. It was too much, and by the time Elise was eighteen—two years after coming of age—she needed to get the hells out of the capital.

nIt had been two years since then, but until now, she hadn’t been quite ready to go home. She glanced out the window again, but the reason she was going home had vanished from sight. As a sixteen-year-old third-tier mage with an illustrious name and a gold card, Leon was the first man she had met that she felt even came close to meeting her very high standards, so she wanted to keep an eye on him. Even better, he was cute, adorable in his innocence, and he had great potential. She wanted to be as close to him as possible, to watch him grow and see if her interest could lead anywhere, and the only way to do that was to follow him back to the capital.

n“Oh, by the way, you’ll be coming home to another step-father, my sister has taken another husband,” Ajax said with some slight embarrassment.

nElise resisted the urge to facepalm. As a Tower Lord, it was legal for her mother to have a harem, but she was always so flippant and casual about it. By Elise’s relatively outdated count, this would make her thirty-fifth step-father, not to mention her mother always takes three additional concubines for every new husband.

n“Whatever. Let my mother do as she will. I may have to look into getting a private place, though, a place where she can’t bother me about starting a harem of my own.”

n—

nThe inn Charles brought Leon to was about as Leon expected from seeing the rest of the slums. Made primarily of wood, but with a foundation of stone, and no enchantments powerful enough that he could sense their presence. That didn’t mean they didn’t exist, for the kitchen would have to have an ice room, though such things were so simple and cost so little magic power that they weren’t easily perceivable in a place as abundant with magic power as the great city of Teira. Ice rooms were basically the same as the ice shack Leon and Artorias had in the Forest of Black and White, just a large room with a few carved ice runes that kept the place below freezing.

nThe innkeeper behind the counter by the entrance was an older man, perhaps in his fifties, and barely a first-tier mage. Even without advanced breathing techniques, any commoner’s lungs would adapt to the magic in the environment given time. Most would never see the second-tier without proper instruction and training, though.

n“Hey there, Pops, I found you a customer!” Charles’ unabashed sociability kicked in, talking loudly and waving to the surly innkeeper. The innkeeper himself just glared at Charles, but otherwise ignored him.

n“What do you got?” Leon asked, his tone subdued even by his standards.

n“A bed in a group room for twenty silvers, or a room all to yourself for fifty,” the innkeeper replied, appreciating Leon’s quiet and businesslike demeanor, in extreme contrast to Charles.

n“And food?” The first floor was taken up by a number of tables, chairs, and a bar, so Leon knew that this place would have something to eat.

n“Dinner in an hour, breakfast around an hour after sunrise.”

n“Got it.” Leon counted out fifty silvers, and the innkeeper gave him a key.

n“Third floor, end of the hall.” Leon stoically nodded to the innkeeper, who stoically nodded back.

nLeon made for the stairs, with Charles just behind.

n“Nice, a single room! I have to make do with a bed in a group room, sharing with five other people!”

n“Hey, Charles, how secure would you call this inn? Are there problems with theft and break-ins?”

n“Oh, no, not at all! This place has some good beer for a very cheap price, so many of the younger guardsmen come here to drink and relax. No one messes with a bar favored by the Guard.”

nLeon nodded in acknowledgment. The two soon climbed the stairs to the third floor, and Leon saw that there were only about ten rooms here, compared to the twenty he saw on the second floor.

nWhen the two arrived at the door at the end of the hall, Leon turned to Charles and said, “It’s been a very long day. I’m going to rest for a bit here, but I’ll be down for dinner.”

n“Alright! I’ll meet you there!” And with that, Charles bounded back down the stairs so enthusiastically that he kind of reminded Leon of a puppy.

nLeon unlocked the door and pushed it open. There wasn’t much to say about the room—a bed, a table, three chairs, a couch, and a fireplace. There was a door leading to a bathroom, and Leon found a toilet and shower with functioning water runes, and though they weren’t all that powerful, he was still very pleasantly surprised. He immediately dropped his pack on the bed, closed and locked the door, then took a shower.

nIce shacks and utilities powered with water and ice runes were required by the royal government, so even the most run-down inns and houses would have running water and a place to store and preserve food. But, of course, places like this inn wouldn’t have nearly the same level of care put into their construction as in the wealthier districts, so the shower Leon took was cold and the water pressure was lacking, but he got clean. Since he was a third-tier mage and had little reason to sweat, he didn’t stink, but he still felt dirty, and even a cold shower left him feeling refreshed.

nAs he cleaned himself, he kept replaying the day’s events in his mind. Most prominent in his thoughts was the name Adrianos Isynos and what it might lead him to, but the more he stood beneath the water, the more his thoughts began to drift. Elise kept popping up in his mind, with her fire-red hair, her flirtatious demeanor, her confidence, her almost unbelievable beauty. If there was going to be any single reason for Leon to stay in Teira, it would’ve been her, but Leon hadn’t the temperament to stay in the city for a girl, even one as gorgeous as her.

nAfter a few more minutes, Leon found himself thinking about Ajax. The Tower Lord was an old man, old enough to have apparently been friends with Leon’s grandfather. Leon already regretted leaving the Tower so soon, since now that he had some time to think about everything, he wished he’d asked Ajax more questions about his family. He knew next to nothing about House Raime save for what Artorias had deemed worthy to relay, which was quite possibly the only thing that Leon resented his father for. Leon could understand and sympathize, but now that he realized he’d passed on a perfect opportunity to learn more about his family, he couldn’t help but kick himself.

nIt wasn’t a big enough reason to go back to the Tower before he left, at least unless something more important came up, but Leon had a strange feeling that he was going to come back to Teira one day. As his thoughts drifted back in Elise’s direction, he couldn’t help but smile and hoped he could find an excuse that wouldn’t embarrass himself soon.

n‘Maybe I’ll find one after searching that palace…’ Leon thought to himself, practically salivating at the thought of looking around his family’s old palace. He’d have to find a way to break in, but he was not about to leave the city without at least trying to get inside those ruins. ‘After dinner…’ he thought as his stomach began rumbling.

nEventually, he left the shower, dressed, secured his blade around his waist, and left the room. He kept all of his papers, bank cards, and IDs in his pockets, but left everything else locked away in his room. The door and lock were sturdy, so he wasn’t too concerned.

nCharles was waiting for him down in the dining area. As usual, Charles talked Leon’s ear off with stories from the mining town he grew up in, and Leon just listened and watched the other two dozen or so people in the inn.

nSomething that interested Leon was a group of off-duty guards loudly complaining at the bar.

n“Why d’ we have ta help in ‘is search?! I’s the Paladin’s guy, let the damned Paladin find ‘im!” one man drunkenly shouted.

nAnother, slightly more sober guardsman responded. “It’s precisely because he’s the Paladin’s man that everyone’s gotta help. ‘Sides, the paladin himself has other duties, so he can’t search with us.”

n“Oh, horse **! The **er was last seen in the Exarch’s place, so he either went AWOL or he got snatched by some dickhead noble. No use haltin’ half the patrols in the city to find this guy, ‘specially when we got hundreds of other missin’ people to keep an eye out for.”

n“Well, boss says jump, we gotta jump…”

n“Damned assholes. All of ‘em, assholes…”

nLeon soon stopped listening to them, as they just turned the focus of their complaints from the search for Adrianos to their boss. Leon didn’t really overhear much, anyways, but he was at least willing to bet on Roland not being involved in his father’s death.

nAfter paying a few silvers each for dinner, Charles intended to talk to some of the ladies at the bar, but Leon stopped him first.

n“Listen, think you could show me around a bit tomorrow?”

nCharles looked a little hesitant. He guided Leon around today because he was grateful to him for saving his hide from the thugs, but he couldn’t just stop his job hunt for him. Fortunately, Leon noticed his hesitation.

n“I can pay one hundred silvers for your time. I just need to find a good tailor and a barber.” Leon had been in the city for a while now, and he was well aware that he stuck out like a sore thumb thanks to his clothes and long hair, so he intended to change that.

nCharles’ eyes lit up when Leon mentioned payment, but he restrained himself from immediately accepting. “A hundred coins for just that? Of course, but are you sure? You could buy a much better guide for that money.”

nLeon frowned. Talking to Charles was difficult enough, he wasn’t willing to meet another new person. “Well, if you feel that I’m not asking enough, I suppose you could show me a bookstore or two, preferably those stocked with enchantment textbooks.”

nCharles’ eyes practically gleamed with the promise of a job, even one that was temporary.

n“Of course!” he said enthusiastically, staring at Leon like the younger man was his savior.

nThe two made plans to head out again after breakfast, and Leon made for his room while Charles swaggered over to the bar, the promise of coin putting some confidence into his step.

nWhen he returned to his room, Leon’s eyes found the window, through which he could catch a few tiny glimpses the distant ruins of Teira’s palace from between the block apartments of the slums. He quickly locked the door behind him and barred it by jamming a chair under the doorknob. He then rummaged around in his pack for a minute or two and retrieved a pair of maps. One was the map of the city and the other was his map of the old palace. The main entrances to the old Raime palace may be locked down now, but he still had methods to access the estate.

nThe map of the palace grounds had no less than five secret tunnels leading to various places around the city, with several access points per tunnel. Leon cross-referenced with the city map to find the closest access point and hoped that the tunnels hadn’t been discovered in the years since the fall of his House.

nLeon glanced out of his window again. The sun had fallen, so the sky was dark, but the main streets were still bright from the numerous magic lanterns that filled the city. There weren’t so many here in the slums, but he could see the luminous glow from the southern districts with ease. The city was still so bright, in fact, that Leon could only make out the brightest of the stars that he had been able to see up north.

nLeon leaned back on the couch, intending to relax for several more hours, giving everyone still on the streets the chance to get tired and go home, when he heard a voice in his head.

nLeon.

nXaphan! You’ve been pretty quiet, what’s up?

nIt looks like you’ve got some time, so let’s talk. There are some important things we should discuss…

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