The Conquerors Path

Chapter 252-Rising The 'Hero'　　I watched from a distance as Leonardo practiced with the sword, right now he wasn't using Durandal, in his hands, an ordinary sword moved, each of his moves was quiet yet beautiful, some of the passing students would glance at him but they didn't move forward to disturb him, after the Seth hint he did get some minor popularity.

Plus he's been challenging the sword garden a lot, trying to take the throne for the number one seat, he defeated some and he lost some, well he lost most, it was quite natural as his strength hasn't started increasing, the future troubles he went through was what made him strong and those 'challenges' of his was related to the capture targets.

And right now he hasn't been with any of them, which made me curious, how will he grow? and the protagonist hadn't disappointed me, within the 3 weeks of his joining he went on 2 missions, and on both of them he ended up getting some sort of 'benefit', heck that bastard even found a lost technique that created something called the sword body.

Makes one jealous of his luck, not like I can complain, anyway, things have been well for him, doing mission, slowly grinding in his strength, he was also well treated in my faction do to his 'sunny' personality, all was well but that wasn't my final goal, after all, I must take everything from him and make his life miserable.

And the best way to do it is to watch him reach the top and then take away everything he thought was his, personally, there might be no enmity between us but when it came down to me or him, I am picking on myself, sometimes just the reason to survive is enough to turn angles to devils and its, not like this guy is a complete saint.

His ignorance and his dense character are hurting everything that is around him, in the last mission he gave some gold coins to a kid to help him, who ended up almost dying due to it if the people I hadn't set up intervene the poor beggar child would have been killed mercilessly, then there's the fact that a certain 'hero' mentality is growing on him.

Unlike the game, here he is a living, breathing person, the situations around us shape us and make us who we are and it seems to be doing a great job of making Leonardo feel like the world revolves around him, he does the 'hero' action and leaves not knowing how his actions impact the surroundings around him.

He has an innate ignorance of outcomes, there are many examples of how his actions have caused more problems, destroying a small gang, not knowing that this gang was protecting the people from danger, helping and guarding a salesman not knowing that this was destroying a whole family, freeing some slaves and just leaving them, they were once again captured and brutally tortured to find information about Leonardo.

Being good is great but being ignorant is a sin, I'm no good guy but I accept that and I learned to live with it, what I can't take is this guy's attitude, so what if he's innocent and kind? if you're helping someone do it till the end, don't half-ass it, from all that I have seen he has just disappointed me more, shaking my head I walked towards Leonardo,

"Excuse me, are you Leonardo?"

"Yes, and you are...?"

He turned towards me trying to find out who I am, I just smiled and spoke, 

"Barley, the names barley Schoff"

"Do you need anything?"

Leonardo asked, seemingly impatient to get back to his training, I nodded my head at his words,

"Yes I do, I need your help"

"My help?"

"Yes but can we have this conversation in private, I promise you that what I have to say won't disappoint you"

"Um....okay"

After thinking for a while Leonardo finally agreed, just as I thought he couldn't say no, a few minutes later we both appeared outside as we headed towards a cafe, entering one, we took seats as we ordered our drinks, 

"So, Barley what did you want to talk about?"

"Before we begin, I want to tell you that this has to say confidential, can I have your promise on that?"

"Yes"

Leonardo nodded his head seriously,

"Good, just what I would expect from the holder of Durandal"

"You!....how?"

Hearing my words Leonora's eyes widened as he looked at me, his eyes trembling,

"Shush...calm down and hear me out"

I spoke calming him down, it took a few minutes before which he relaxed, looking at me wearily he asked,

"How did you know?"

I shook my head at his question,

"I can't answer that but what I can tell you is that I need your help to take care of an issue that might plunge this world into darkness"

"What do you mean?"

Leonardo asked his eyes filled with confusion, to this I took out a file as I gave it to him, taking the file with questions plaguing his mind, he started to read and the more he read the more his face twisted in anger, seeing it a small smirk came up to my face,

'Checkmate'

Bang!

Leonardo hit the table with his fist, anger burning in his eyes, 

"H-How could something like them exist!"

Each of his words was filled with burning anger, how couldn't it, when what I showed him consisted of some of the 'dark' things that the organization hid in dark had done, of course, not all of them were true and I did exaggerate some, my plans were Leonardo was simple, he would be my little toy that would run across the world, taking on this organization in the dark.

All the pressure, life-threatening dangers, and the bullshit half baked villains will all be his, while I would chill in the background and take all the gifts that he should be having, it was a win-win situation, Leonardo will be able to satisfy his thirst for heroism and I will laugh on the background as he plays on the palm of my hands.

Of course, even though he's naive, he's no idiot to just believe my words and that's where Durandal comes in, being a weapon of Legend quality, he was able to discern lies and truths and I am sure that whatever I spoke was being filtered by the sword, from what I knew, I could lie and no one could tell the truth, heck even the supreme Goddess couldn't much less a sword.

And I will be using this to my advantage, while he's off saving the world, I will be savoring the capture targets, just then I was broken out of my thoughts by Leonardo's voice,

"Just who are they?"

"Sigh.....calm down a bit, I will tell you all about them"

My words seemed to have helped as he calmed down a bit, seeing it my back straightened as I looked at Leonardo with a serious gaze,

"What I should is just the tip of the ice burg of what these people had done, their evil knows no bounds, and their desire will endanger the world"

"Who are they?"

Leonardo asked, his eyes burning with righteous desire,

"They have many names across the different Era and they have brought death and destruction, all they desire is to watch the world burn, the number of death in their hands is beyond count and we been fighting them for a long time"

"We?"

"Yes, we"

I nodded my head, trying my best to hold back my laughter, god knows how I am able to maintain a straight face, 

"We the 'Illuminati' have been fighting them for some time and now we would like to have you join us"