The Storm King

If Leon took the time to stop and think about the problem, he’d probably regret agreeing so readily to Marcus’ party invitation. It would likely consist of dozens, if not hundreds of other people, and he was rarely, if ever, in the mood to mingle.

Still, Tiberias was probably going to be there as well, and that presented an opportunity.

As soon as he got back home, he explained everything to Elise, who had gone back without him—as they had agreed on before the ceremony. She hadn’t gotten home so soon that she had changed, though, so once she agreed to go with Leon to the party, she didn’t change clothes.

She wore a tight red sleeve-less dress made of blood-red silk. Her hair was done up in a stylish ponytail that left much of the hair closer to her face loose enough to frame her features. Beneath her dress, she had indulged a new habit she had picked up after the attack on her and Leon’s villa and wore black leather pants enchanted to provide excellent protection against physical attacks and more moderate protection against magical attacks. Her dress had been similarly enchanted, and she wore an onyx pendant studded with tiny rubies that had been charged with fire magic. If she wanted to, she could release five small fireballs using the power stored in those rubies—once he’d learned of these enchantments, Leon had suddenly felt like an idiot and had a great many more ideas for his own future enchantment work, but he pushed those out of mind for a while.

Just in case, though, Elise gave Leon a change of clothes for him to store in his soul realm. Elise didn’t want to show up at whatever this party turned out to be and find herself overdressed.

Leon, on the other hand, cared little for fashion and changed out of his black and silver outfit as soon as he returned home. He went for a much simpler look consisting of plain grey pants and a white shirt. If anyone took issue with that, he’d thought, then it was their problem to deal with, not his.

Marcus had indicated to him that the party would begin two hours after the graduation ceremony. Leon’s friends would show up at his villa a little early, and then they’d head on over. That still left Leon with about an hour to kill, but he used it wisely. First, he dove into his soul realm and evaluated the condition of his armor, weapons, invisibility ring, and stockpile of spells.

He had a set of generic unenchanted armor made of leather and cloth that would hide his features while still providing some amount of protection—courtesy of Elise—his invisibility ring had been completely repaired, and his spells were numerous enough that he could take on a small army if he had to. His primary set of black armor was in perfect condition, though it was too notable for him to use unless he absolutely had to. The only thing he needed to do once he returned to the physical world was to put his ring back on his finger.

Other than that, he bit the bullet and decided to check in on Naiad.

Leon walked over to the guest rooms that Naiad had been staying in, and as soon as he extended his hand to knock on her door, it opened, revealing the smiling river nymph.

[Need something?] she asked.

“I’m going to kill someone today, and you offered to help me,” Leon replied.

Naiad said no more. She was already completely dressed, in contrast to her usual state of being, and followed Leon back into the main living room.

On the dining room table, Elise had laid out a detailed map of the noble district. The Royal island in the center of the lake was mostly unadorned, in keeping with regulations stating that no map of the island could be held in private hands, but the rest of the district had every road, every estate, and every small river and canal upon it, save for those that might have been built in the past few months.

“Ready for this?” Elise asked, her voice trembling a bit in anticipation and anxiety. Leon was used to death, but she wasn’t, and Leon indicating that he was about to kill another noble didn’t sit as well with her as she pretended.

Still, it was Tiberias that Leon wanted to kill, and since Tiberias had tried to kill him before, then Elise was willing enough to end the nobleman’s life that she wasn’t going to try and talk him out of it. Especially so since he’d refused to leave her alone for years.

“I am,” Leon answered without hesitation.

[As am I,] Naiad replied, though she didn’t think the question was directed at her. Regardless, Elise spared the river nymph any dirty looks and simply nodded.

“Good,” the fire-haired woman replied.

For the next few minutes, Leon stared at the map. Elise had already marked their location, the Aeneas estate, and the Decimius estate. Over the past few weeks, Leon had taken to scouting out Tiberias’ estate from afar, mostly watching it when he had some time and walking through the surrounding streets. He wanted as complete a picture of the layout of the district in his head as he could get. Unfortunately, much of that scouting was now useless since Leon intended to move the site of their attack. No longer would he need Naiad’s help to kick in Tiberias’ door.

After those few minutes were up, Leon pointed to a certain spot on the map and said, “Here.”

The other two looked where Leon was pointing. It was perfectly discernible to Elise, but Naiad wasn’t that great with maps, though she refrained from asking any questions.

“Why here?” Elise asked.

“Most remote location, and it’s a good distance away from any of our estates,” Leon answered. Most of the streets in the noble district were winding and not well-traveled. They were used almost exclusively by the nobility and their servants, and as such were well insulated from the hustle and bustle of the capital’s outer districts.

The location that Leon picked was even more so than usual. It was a winding road that he figured Tiberias would have to take from his estate to Marcus’, or at least on his way back home after the party was over. On either side were expansive, relatively well-forested estates, giving the road a feeling of privacy and seclusion even though the road was wide and there was plenty of grassy space between it and the outer walls of the bordering estates. The road could still be seen from the estates, and it was more than within range of the strongest mages in the Kingdoms’ magic senses, but that was what the generic armor disguise was for.

There wouldn’t be many people around to stop him and Naiad, and it was one of the most secluded areas in the entire noble district. In other words, it was perfect for the killing of a nobleman.

[What should we do if the city’s mages show up?] Naiad asked, her eyes locking onto Leon. [From what I’ve come to understand about humans, the Kings of this land won’t appreciate the killing of their subordinates in their own city…]

“They won’t, but we won’t be caught,” Leon said. “Legion patrols are rare in the noble district. Most estates rely on their own security. It took the Legion about half an hour to arrive at our estate after it was attacked, so I’d estimate we have about that much to accomplish our task. Shouldn’t take more than about five minutes, but still, if it ends up taking longer, then we should bail.”

Naiad frowned. [What about the guards around these estates? Can we expect them not to attack us when we go about our business?]

“They won’t get involved, assuming they even notice in time,” Leon said. “These estates are large, and it would take noble’s security a good few minutes to show up. If they do…” Leon almost said that Naiad was free to kill them, but he thought better of it. Killing Tiberias was bad enough, he didn’t want to add to that crime any more than he had to. Besides, those guards had done nothing to earn his wrath, and he could even understand if they wanted to intervene in his killing of Tiberias. “… If they do, then we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it…”

At that moment, Leon heard some whooping and amazed gasps coming from outside; his friends had arrived. He wasted no time and pulled the map into his soul realm. It was evidence and he didn’t want to leave it lying around. Fortunately, since ascending to the sixth-tier, it was incredibly easy to pull things into his soul realm. Instead of wrapping it in his magic power and pulling it in that way, all Leon had to do was take hold of the map with his magic body and just pull it into himself.

To be more specific, Leon’s intangible magic body ‘overlapped’ with his physical body, and all he had to do to draw something into his soul realm was to be in contact with it. If his magic body were to be projected for any reason, then it wouldn’t work, though, as it needed access to his soul realm through his heart. He needed both his physical and magic bodies working together, otherwise he would be stuck with the much slower way he’d been doing it in the past.

The map vanished into his soul realm in less than a second, whereas if he were of the fifth-tier, then it might’ve taken a couple of minutes.

[Who are they?] Naiad asked, her tone sounding hostile as her voice resounded in Leon and Elise’s minds. Her aura spiked and she glared at of the nearest window at Henry, Alain, and Charles.

“Friends,” Leon replied, and Naiad seemed to relax a little, though she didn’t bring her aura back down to normal conditions. She was ready to use her magic at a moment’s notice.

Leon went over to the front door and walked outside into the peristyle surrounding the courtyard. His friends had entered through the unlocked main gate and were still in the front yard practically gawking at the villa and the vibrant garden that Elise had surrounded it with.

Seeing him, the three were put a bit at ease—there were no signs in the noble district, so they weren’t entirely sure they had the right place—and ran over.

“Leon! Is this place really yours?!” Henry demanded to know, his look one of awe.

Leon responded with a smile and a head nod.

“It’s a beautiful place,” Alain said.

“Indeed, I can’t help but feel a bit jealous,” Charles added. “How much did this place cost?”

“Does it matter?” Leon asked, an eyebrow cocked in amusement.

“A bit,” Charles said. “As a knight, don’t I now have to keep these things in mind?”

“No one’s forcing you to,” Leon replied.

“Regardless, this place is amazing!” Henry marveled.

“Come on in,” Leon said as he invited them inside the villa itself.

Their appreciation of the place didn’t stop upon entering the villa, with its marble floors and luxurious furnishings. It wasn’t nearly so decorated as most noble homes or even the government buildings in the Bull Kingdom, but it had a simple, yet extraordinarily comfortable charm that the three couldn’t help but respect and appreciate.

And then they saw Elise and Naiad, and everything seemed to freeze. Even Alain, a man with three fiancés, couldn’t help but stop and stare in abject shock.

“Hi there,” Elise said with a friendly smile and a wave. Their reactions were a bit extreme and it embarrassed her, but she covered it up well and gave them a friendly smile—it wasn’t a new reaction for her, though she was far more used to it being played a bit less honestly, as nobles would sometimes exaggerate their own reactions to her appearance to try and curry favor.

Naiad, on the other hand, barely looked at them, treating them like they were tiny beings below her notice.

Alain was the first to recover, and he returned Elise’s greeting with as much respect as he could. “Hello, My Lady,” he said, smiling at Elise and slightly lowering his tall and muscular frame in the slightest of bows.

Charles was next, and he did likewise, giving Elise a warm greeting and managing not to make himself look too foolish. Henry took a bit longer, and he didn’t conduct himself as well as the other two.

“Ummm… h-hi…” he sputtered. He could barely even look at Elise, let alone Naiad, as every time he tried, he could feel the weight of their auras bearing down upon him. In terms of magic power, he was the weakest person there, and Elise’s fourth-tier and Naiad’s eighth-tier auras were immensely heavy; he wasn’t able to gracefully handle that pressure.

“This is Elise… and Naiad,” Leon said, walking over to both ladies and formally introducing them. He then did the same for his friends, though Naiad basically didn’t pay any attention at all, though Leon felt certain that every movement of theirs was caught in her magic senses. She was too proud and too powerful to acknowledge them, but she never once truly ignored them. River nymphs were fairly territorial, after all.

After introductions were over, Elise excused herself and took Naiad into another room, claiming that they had some last-minute preparations to take care of. In reality, after the extreme reactions Leon’s friends had, she wanted them to talk things out for a few minutes before they all left for Marcus’ party.

As soon as the door was closed behind the two ladies, Henry’s eyes went a bit wild and he turned to Leon and asked, “What in all the hells?!”

Leon gave him a strange look, silently asking what he was talking about.

“Hey,” Alain said, drawing Leon’s attention away from Henry. “We all knew that Leon was dating a girl here in the capital, though that was years ago. This isn’t that great a shock, is it?”

“You know, I kind of expected her to not be real,” Henry said. “I especially didn’t expect to find two ladies here. And double especially not two ladies who’re fourth-tier!”

“I think I’m with this idiot,” Charles said as he threw an arm around Henry and his other around Leon’s shoulders, ignoring Leon’s usual dirty look from unwanted physical contact. “I think you’ve got some explaining to do, buddy…”