Leon’s decision to recruit Helen and Anna seemed to be immediately validated when he formally introduced them to the rest of his retinue and his family. Most of them were polite enough, but it was Elise and Helen who truly hit it off, with his fire-haired wife immediately bonding with the alchemist over their shared love for exotic herbs and alchemy. Anna, meanwhile, got along quite well with everyone else, with Anshu being the sole exception. Leon saw the Indradian subtly scoff during the introduction, and as soon as he could, the man left the room with an almost disgusted look on his face.

Leon knew that Anshu’s attitude was going to be a bigger problem going forward, but for the moment, he put it out of his mind. This journey was going to be as quick as possible, given the sheer lack of human settlements and relative danger of the Wetlands, but that still meant that his retinue was going to be stuck on the ships for a few long weeks. He had time, and for the moment, he could afford to put this problem off.

So, he spent some time talking with Anna and Helen, getting to know his two newest retainers a little better.

As it turned out, hunting wasn’t the only passion that Anna had, and the green-haired woman told Leon that her childhood had been spent studying under a private tutor who happened to be a fairly well-known poet in the Sacred Golden Empire. That took Leon by some surprise since he’d had the impression that the two sisters hadn’t the means to have private tutors. Anna explained that while they weren’t noble or anything like that, they’d still grown up relatively well-off.

Helen, meanwhile, had been the one who studied more martial skills growing up, only to abandon them about a decade ago, shortly after reaching the age of majority. The blue-haired woman hadn’t much used those skills in this past decade, choosing instead to throw herself completely into her study of alchemy—though Anna was quick to note that Helen should still be unparalleled with a bow despite her lack of practice.

Hearing that, Leon felt a few sparks of competitiveness flare up within him, but it soon became apparent that Helen was rather uninterested in testing her skills against him. He let it go for now, but testing both sisters’ martial and magical skills made it to the top of his priority list after that conversation.

After that, Leon mostly let himself fade into the background, watching as Helen and Anna integrated themselves into his retinue. He listened as the two made small talk with Gaius, Marcus, and Alcander, and as they spoke a little more freely with the exuberant Alix. Maia hardly gave them much of her attention, and while Valeria wasn’t much better, she at least shared a short, polite conversation with the two. As he listened in on all of that, Leon was surprised to learn that Helen had given her former assistant half of her payment for killing the basilisk—a not-inconsiderable sum—as thanks for her work, and in recompense for shutting down her apothecary and rendering the girl jobless.

Apparently, Helen’s assistant had been down on her luck, to put it mildly, and had no one else to turn to, so Helen had taken some pity on her, hiring her as her assistant. That was only a few months ago, and Helen had felt guilty enough to practically set the girl up for life as an apology for leaving so suddenly.

More than a little of that guilt rubbed off on Leon, but he was comforted to hear that Helen had told the girl to find her in Occulara if the life of an idle rich girl wasn’t to her liking. If Leon were honest with himself, he probably would’ve accepted it if Helen had wanted her assistant to join her in his retinue, reasoning that a single first-tier teenager was hardly much of a problem or threat, and having a second alchemist wasn’t the worst idea ever, but he was content with this solution, too.

Soon enough, the little impromptu welcome party came to an end, and everyone broke to see to their own business. Most of Leon’s retinue went back to their training, while Anna and Helen busied themselves getting settled into their room. They’d have to join the rest of Leon’s retinue in training eventually, but he didn’t mind giving them a couple of days to settle in and get acquainted with everyone.

Over the next week or so, he and his retinue settled into something of a routine. Training took up their mornings, and then they’d break for the afternoons to relax or take care of their personal business. Leon was satisfied with how everyone was progressing, estimating that it was a matter of months, perhaps only a year or two, before most of his retinue that was below the fifth-tier managed to ascend and gain access to elemental magic. Meanwhile, he put Helen and Anna through a small battery of tests to see where their magical and martial strengths lay.

Helen was almost as good with a bow as her sister had boasted, which still made her a near prodigy. Leon thought if the rust was cleaned off her skills a bit, she’d probably even be better than he was. He was thus dismayed to hear that she hated archery rather passionately and was far more fond of the spear. Marcus, his next best archer, was just as dismayed, and was much more vocal about it. Leon was happy enough to let the alchemist train with spears alongside Valeria, but Marcus’ incessant arguing and reasoning got her to agree to also keep up with her archery skills, though she made it clear enough that her agreement was solely to shut him up.

Anna, meanwhile, was surprisingly inexperienced and amateurish when it came to the arts of battle. She was skillful enough, but it was clear when Leon sparred with her that she’d never been in a true life-or-death fight with another human being. He’d yet to see her hunting skills in action, but he learned that she didn’t quite know how to pace herself in a proper fight, and had quite a few exploitable holes in her defenses. The biggest one that he could see was that she didn’t protect her head nearly enough, and she explained that when she was taught how to duel, head strikes hadn’t been allowed.

‘Sports fighting’, Leon had rather derisively called it in his head, but he kept that bit silent. In a strictly objective sense, Anna was skilled with an arming sword, polearms of various shapes and sizes, and quite skilled with a bow, so at the least, he knew that it wouldn’t take too much to bring her actual martial abilities more in line with what he needed them to be. He needed a warrior, not a performer.

Fortunately, her hunting skills more than made up for that deficiency. A brief sojourn into the Wetlands while the convoy was busy slowly navigating a particularly narrow river between two swamps proved her to be as proficient as he was in moving through forested regions quickly and quietly, and her knowledge of the local terrain and wildlife was both deep and vast. Even better, since she’d grown up fairly wealthy in the Sacred Golden Empire, she’d been on hunting expeditions throughout that northern Empire, and on many within the Han Kingdom, the Ilian Empire, and the lands of the Sentinels, among other places. She was remarkably well-traveled, remembered just about everything that she’d seen in those places, and could list off quite a few aspects of their environment when Leon asked.

He could already anticipate quite a few conversations he’d have with her in the future about these places.

Things got much more interesting, at least for a while, when he moved on from combat training. In that respect, Helen started to truly shine. Whereas her combat abilities were rather lackluster, her skills with even the basic alchemy tools she’d brought with her were more than satisfactory. She could brew healing potions stronger than Leon’s healing spells at a rate of almost two per hour, and could do much more besides, such as brewing potions to help a mage replenish their magic power; temporarily increase compatibility with certain magical elements, and thus increase the efficiency of that mage’s power when using those elements; and even some potions that could increase a mage’s ability to defend against certain elements. Leon, in particular, was drawn to her ability to defend a mage against darkness magic, which, by extension, would also increase their resistance to most mind-altering magic.

And that was barely scratching the surface of her skills as an alchemist. She could brew explosive concoctions, lures for certain kinds of monsters, and various fast-acting acids. Her specialty, though, especially after living so long in the Wetlands, was in antidotes for the various poisonous monsters that lurked these lands. She boasted that she could cure all but the most exotic of poisons, and Leon had no reason to doubt her.

Eventually, after all of this testing and learning about his new retainers, Leon put in quite a bit of thought as to how to both use and increase their skills. And he soon landed upon what he hoped would be a good way to do just that…

—

After leaving Attica, the convoy had passed through several other small settlements, though none as big as even the modestly-sized Attica on the edge of the Wetlands. Given the state of human civilization in these parts, the convoy, despite moving as quickly as it was able, was still forced to a crawl. There were several days where the convoy passed other ships going the other direction, and so had to move so slowly that there were opportunities for people to disembark and walk around on some relatively dry land, if they wished.

Leon took full advantage of one of these days, but not to stretch his legs—rather, he commandeered one of the smallest escort ships and ventured out into the swamps, accompanied only by Helen, Anna, Alix, and Anshu.

He’d put some thought into these particular companions—Anshu needed to get more used to his female retainers, and the man certainly wasn’t making much effort on his own. On the other hand, Leon wanted to grow a little closer with the Indradian, as well get a bit more value of including him in the retinue, and so letting him use some of his naval expertise by driving the boat seemed the perfect opportunity. He also wanted the opportunity to get a bit closer to Anna and Helen, while Alix’s outgoing nature he hoped would help everyone socialize a bit more. He didn’t include Valeria or Maia, however, for Valeria’s time had been claimed by Princess Cristina and he couldn’t pull Valeria away from her friends, and Maia had a lot of baggage with Anshu due to her lineage. Having her with them might be a boon, but it might also remind the Indradian of his home culture too much.

Leon fully intended to bring Maia on other expeditions like this, but for now, he wanted Anshu to socialize more with the other ladies without the silent Maia there to act as a crutch or an excuse not to participate.

The boat itself was fairly large, more than enough deck space for a dozen people to ride comfortably, while still elevating the passengers a comfortable distance from the murky swamp water. On the back was mounted a small magic engine that enable the ship to travel swiftly, while as backup, the boat also had six mountings for oars.

It was a fast and comfortable boat, perfect for spending some time out with his newest retainers. However, Leon covered up the true reason for bringing these four out by speaking first with Helen and Anna about the local flora and fauna. Helen had been quite forthcoming, much of her antipathy and suspicion of Leon having vanished over the days spent in his company—though not gone entirely—telling him of several swamp flowers that grew in nearby swamps that she could use in some potions that cured specific ailments. Anna pitched in a bit, too, telling Leon of the kinds of beasts that those flowers would often attract in the wild—various reptiles of the fifth and sixth-tier, mostly.

So, Leon proposed that they venture out into the swamp to collect some of these flowers. Since they were valuable, he wanted to see if they might grow on the herb farms that he and Elise were planning to set up in the Ilian Empire.

He got Anshu on board with the journey readily enough, though the Indradian wasn’t pleased when he heard about their other companions. Alix, however, was pretty ecstatic to be brought along, and she chatted with Helen almost from the moment they took their seats near the front of the boat.

Anna, Leon, and Anshu, on the other hand, sat closer to the back. The atmosphere between the three of them started off much more awkward than it was for the other two, with Leon and Anshu remaining largely silent, and Anna only giving Anshu basic directions to where these herbs were most likely to grow in this region. It seemed to Leon that Anna had picked up on Anshu’s reluctance to speak with her or her sister, for she’d deliberately sat as far away from the man as she could, almost forcing Leon to sit between them, and she rarely, if ever, glanced over at him.

It became clear before they’d even left line-of-sight with the convoy that these two weren’t going to start talking without Leon’s intervention, to which he could only sigh.

‘Nothing’s ever easy, is it?’ he bemoaned. He never thought it would be, but there had been a large part of him that hoped all he’d have to do was put the two of them together and let them work their own issues out.

Leon eventually found his chance to try cutting through the tense atmosphere when they went from a swamp into a fairly long waterway, leaving Anna without the need to keep giving directions and thus leaving them in stark silence.

“So, Anna,” Leon said as naturally as he could, which was not very, “you’ve been practicing earth magic, right?”

Anna gave him a strange look, and he could understand why: she’d been quite explicit about her magical talents and interests with him while he was still getting to know her skills.

“… Yes…” she responded with a questioning tone.

“And you’ve been hoping that you could find someone who could teach you a bit about light magic, right?” Leon continued, and he thought he detected Anshu stiffen slightly. The man probably realized where Leon was going with this, and dreaded it.

Anna nodded, her long green hair spilling about her shoulders and sparkling in the few rays of sunlight that penetrated the thick overhead canopy.

Leon smiled almost apologetically before clapping Anshu on the shoulder. “I ask because Anshu over here, even though he’s only fifth-tier, is a light mage, if you didn’t know.”

“I hope you’re not suggesting what I think you’re suggesting,” Anshu grumbled.

“I probably am,” Leon shamelessly replied. He turned back to Anna, who was barely holding back a repelled look. Undaunted, Leon said, “Anshu can probably give you a few pointers in that particular element, if you want.”

“I think that there are better possible teachers…” Anna whispered.

As her voice died down, Anshu added, “It’s bad enough that the women you bring on are taught magic, but a man like me ought not to associate with unmarried girls. It might invite untoward rumors.” His statement elicited a chilling glare from Anna, but she didn’t immediately respond.

“Who gives even the slightest ** about rumors?” Leon shot back, his irritation at Anshu’s behavior creeping into his tone. “We’re going to be fighting alongside each other at some point or another. It won’t kill any of us to associate with the other—in fact, it would probably save our lives if we could all get along a little better than we have been.”

“I care about rumors,” Anshu bitterly murmured.

Leon sighed as a wave of guilt hit him. “All right. I apologize if I sounded callous, but the point here is that I’m in charge, and I want all of you in my retinue. And in the interest of making sure we all survive till we’re old and gray, or even until we’re all immortal and utterly tired of life, I want to make sure that we all get along.”

“I’m all for making friends, but not with those who are closed-minded,” Anna replied.

Again, Leon sighed. “There’s a middle ground we can reach here, I know it. How about this: Anshu, you work at not being quite so sullen, and Anna, you treat Anshu with absolute formality? Would that work?”

Both scowled, which Leon took to be a rejection, but he pressed further, eking out smaller and smaller concessions from both until they finally begrudgingly accepted. The crux of the matter, he found, was that Anshu was extremely uncomfortable around the ladies of his retinue. To an extent, Valeria and Maia weren’t so bad since they were in relationships with Leon, and Elise was tolerable since she was out and out married to Leon, but the others were too much for him.

Still, Leon managed to get him to commit to not being quite so distant around them. In return, Leon got Anna to promise to give Anshu plenty of space, and he promised to give the others the same instructions. Anshu felt like he would do a lot better with the ladies if they weren’t alone together, and they didn’t treat him nearly as informally as Alix was wont to do.

In the end, Leon wasn’t satisfied yet, but he considered it progress. Anshu was willing to take this step, which meant that maybe he’d be willing to take another later on.

As they hammered this out, they finally entered the swamp where the herbs Helen had her eyes on grew. It still took about half an hour of diligent searching to find them, even with Leon and Anna’s magic senses, but they finally found a mature enough patch for Helen to start harvesting.

The herbs themselves were fairly eye-catching, being bright red and covered in purple vein-like patterns. They grew in long, thin stalks that reached Leon’s hip fully grown, and ended in a cluster of between six and nine arrowhead-shaped leaves.

Helen left the stalks alone, instead picking almost every leaf off the stalks, leaving only one on each—she didn’t want to kill the herb, merely harvest what she could and let the herb regenerate later.

“What kind of potions do these things make?” Alix had asked when they arrived at the patch. “They kind of look poisonous…”

“Most medicines are poisonous if taken in large enough quantities,” Helen remarked. “Or, I suppose it would be more accurate to say that a lot of poisons can be used as medicine in small enough quantities. These, I can turn into potions that certain men might pay quite a bit of silver for…”

“Certain men?” Alix responded. “What men are you talking about?”

Helen smirked and said, “I can make potions that cure impotency with these. Some guys have even had success treating hair loss when using the potions as ingredients in certain salves.”

Alix went silent for a moment, then burst out into a fit of giggles. Anna didn’t seem to be paying any attention, but Leon detected Anshu not too far away rolling his eyes and bitterly mumble something about wasting his time gathering ‘dick juice for weak men’. Leon would’ve found it funny if he didn’t find it fairly concerning.

Altogether, though, he found it a fairly relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere. At the very least, Alix was bonding quite well with Helen, and Anna was being friendly enough that he didn’t think he’d need to worry about integrating her into the rest of his retinue.

But he should’ve known that this short expedition had been going too well to last. They’d harvested about half of the patch—enough to make about a hundred potions—when Leon suddenly felt strange, like something was wrong in the swamp.

A moment after he realized what he was feeling, Xaphan said from within his soul realm, Leon… you have some uninvited guests…

Leon summoned his magic power and conjured his blade into his hand. This wasn’t just any group of uninvited guests, this was a group of vampiric guests…