Chapters 96 - 103 Revised (Patreon)

I'm not going to commit myself to any kind of schedule for these, they'll come out when I feel like they might need some fresh eyes.  I can't say when more chapters will be released, but I am starting to get back into the swing of revision, so the next batch shouldn't take as long as these did.

You may notice the absence of the brief interlude of chapters 94 and 95, where we see the battle between the Grave Warden and Jason Keraunos.  That's because these chapters are probably going to be repurposed as this story's prologue, and completely rewritten, not just revised.  That will happen after the rest of this round of revisions has been completed, though, along with me scouring through other later chapters to bring them in line with the changes I've made in this past year.

There are some fairly significant changes in these chapters, with the way that Leon and Elise's 'first date' went, when they went to pick up Xaphan's potion ingredients, with a new encounter with Tiberias to replace the one that was cut earlier in the revisions.  This time, instead of being kind of obviously sociopathic and entitled, I wanted him to be more cringy without losing that entitlement.  His little encounter is probably the part of this chunk of revisions that I'm most unsure of, so be sure to let me know what you think down in the comments!

Beyond that, most of the changes were essentially just cuts.  I didn't exactly keep track of just how much I cut, and since I wrote quite a bit to replace some of that, I wouldn't be surprised if the overall length of these chapters was about the same as they were pre-revision, but I don't necessarily think that's terrible.

Still, if you all think that something isn't working right, don't be shy about leaving your thoughts!  This isn't being posted anywhere else, so there's still plenty of time for things that aren't working to be changed!

Anyway, I hope you enjoy reading through these chapters! =D

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Chapters 96 & 97 - Safety Measures

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The mood in the Snow Lions’ camp was beyond jubilant; they had managed to secure not only their own banner, but they’d also even gotten the Deathbringers’ banner! And since no one knew where they had gone after leaving their tower, there was next to no danger of retaliation.

If they weren’t as tired as they were, they would have undoubtedly started partying. Instead, they split off into their own small friend groups to excitedly chat about what to do over their first weekend break in more than a month.

Leon’s group, consisting of himself plus Charles, Alain, and Henry, all collapsed onto a number of chairs carved into the side of the cave to discuss how they wanted to spend the next day—stuffing their faces with as much food as they could fit won out over everything else.

After about fifteen minutes, the Instructors arrived—though they hadn’t actually been that far away, having constantly monitored the Snow Lions’ assault from beginning to end to ensure the safety of all involved. All the Snow Lions were called to gather around them in the largest cavern.

“That was damn fine work, everyone! Get those banners over here so we all can see!” shouted the Senior Instructor. Normally, he was of an exceptionally stern and sober disposition, but once both Castor and Aemilius, the Snow Lions’ bannerman, brought the captured banners out, he allowed himself to crack a rare smile.

The two Snow Lions raised the banners high, and the rest of the unit couldn’t help but puff out their chests in pride. A few of them even cheered. They quieted down quickly when the Senior Instructor indicated that he had something to say, though.

“Now, as I told you previously, the restrictions I placed upon the unit preventing you lot from heading into the city can only be enforced for units that don’t have banners! You have seized yours back, so those restrictions are now lifted! After breakfast tomorrow, the three of us will hand out the stipends, including the money that has backed up over the past month, then you will all be released to enjoy the day! Just keep in mind the time you’re supposed to be back! If anyone’s missing, we’ll be kicking all of your asses as punishment!”

With that said, the Instructors departed, leaving the Snow Lions standing in stunned silence in the cavern. The surprise was understandable for them as the Instructors had told them that they would be receiving a much larger amount of money than they were expecting.

That silence didn’t last long, and the Snow Lions broke back into their usual groups. Most didn’t stay awake to talk for very long, heading for their bunks less than half an hour after the Instructors left. They wanted to be fresh and well-rested for the following day.

Leon intended to spend some time training before bed, feeling that nothing would cap the night off like some good restful meditation, but Castor seemed to have other plans. He approached Leon and inquired, “Hey, do you mind if we talk a little?”

Leon frowned but shrugged and nodded in acceptance.

“Good. Head to our meeting chambers, I’m going to get Alphonsus to join us. We need to make some plans in case the Deathbringers attack us in the streets again.”

“Not much we can do to stop them save for attacking them as they leave their tower in the morning.”

“… Hopefully, that won’t be necessary.”

Leon certainly had more to say about that, but he ended up holding his tongue and silently walking to the meeting chamber while Castor went to find Alphonsus.

Once Castor found his fellow noble, the two walked to the meeting room in awkward silence. They were friends, born to a pair of southern noble houses whose lands bordered each other, yet neither were able to find any words to say to the other. Things between them had become awkward ever since Castor supported Leon’s idea to move out of the tower and into the caves. Alphonsus had argued vehemently against the idea as he was loath to leave the comforts of the tower behind, but in the end, his unwillingness to give up the finer things lost to Castor’s and Leon’s desire to move the Snow Lions to a safer location while giving them much harder training conditions.

“So,” began Castor once he and Alphonsus entered the meeting room and joined Leon, “there’s no doubt in my mind that the Deathbringers will be planning some kind of retaliation.”

Alphonsus raised an eyebrow in confusion. “Oh? I thought…”

“What?” asked Castor after a moment of silence.

“Nothing…”

“Come on, my friend, out with it!”

“… It’s just that, I thought this talk was going to be about the unit moving back into the tower.”

Castor looked at Alphonsus in confusion, not quite sure he’d heard his friend correctly. “We… It was never the plan for us to leave these caves, Al. They give us a tremendous advantage since none of the other units know where we are and they’re quite defensible even if they somehow manage to find out.”

“I guess…” muttered Alphonsus. His shoulders slumped down a little and the happy light in his eyes vanished. He didn’t even look at Leon, but Leon silently agreed with Castor that leaving the caves at this point would be a little premature.

“Back to the matter at hand,” continued Castor after Alphonsus made it clear through his body language that he wasn’t going to press the issue, “we ought to prepare some kind of counter-strategy.”

“Well, there isn’t much we can actually do to prevent the Deathbringers from retaliation, though it probably won’t be tomorrow,” said Leon.  The possibility of the Deathbringer’s Senior Instructor invoking the same policy that his counterpart in the Snow Lions had that deprived the unit of their weekend privileges only crossed Leon’s mind long enough for him to dismiss it; their own Senior Instructor had indicated that such an invocation was rare and thought to be cruel enough that the Knight Academy’s commanding Legate had considered banning it.

“What makes you say that?” asked Castor with genuine curiosity.

“There isn’t much time for them to coordinate assaults on our guys again, especially with the morale blow of losing their banner and needing to wait for their unconscious people to wake up. Maybe they’ll seek retribution next week, but I think tomorrow ought to be fairly safe. Maybe I’m wrong, though, and the anger and humiliation will be too much for them to bear.”

“It’s that second possibility that has me worried,” Castor muttered. “I think we should come up with a few rules for our unit to follow, just in case. For instance, those who were ambushed in the city back then were only attacked when they were in relatively low-traffic areas. If our people stay in more crowded locations, we can hopefully avoid those kinds of attacks.”

“If you reallywant to avoid anything happening, we could always do what I mentioned earlier and just ambush the Deathbringers on their way out of their tower…” Leon said with a ruthless smile.

“No. Let’s not get too personal here—that’ll only make permanent enemies rather than friendly rivals. If they make moves against us off Academy grounds, then that’s another story, but for now, let’s wait and see how they handle losing their banner. These are our fellows, and we could be fighting together in some war in the future. Let’s not push them too far.”

Bbut if they do attack us in the city…” Leon began.

“Then we’ll hit them back at our first opportunity,” responded Castor without hesitation.

“Good,” Leon said, the smile he was wearing growing slightly wider.

“Additionally,” Castor continued, “we need to make sure the rest of the unit travels in groups of three or more. Safety in numbers.”

“Makes sense,” Leon agreed.

“And come to think of it, are we allowed to carry our training weapons outside of the Academy?”

“We can ask the Senior Instructor tomorrow. Moving on, we should also move as an entire unit back to the tower…” Leon paused for a moment to fetch a detailed map of the training grounds. “… and we ought to decide on a good route. If I were in charge of the Deathbringers, I would have someone watching our tower just in case anyone returned. If the returning group was small enough then they would be open for an ambush, while if it wasn’t, simply following the direction they came from could give a clue as to where the camp was. We need to figure out an approach direction beforehand so that we don’t give away the location of our caves when we leave, then proceed on to the city from a more oblique angle.”

“That’s an excellent point. We can also have our trainees meet back up in the tower when their business is done in the city, then we can return to the camp together.”

“Exactly what I was thinking.”

Leon and Castor spoke for a few more minutes to hammer out the remaining details. Despite Castor’s lack of reaction to the assaults, both were determined not to let their unit suffer such attacks again.

As for Alphonsus, he didn’t participate much, having been too put down by the realization that they weren’t leaving the caves anytime soon. Castor didn’t seem to think it too big of an issue, though, so while Leon was a little worried about their fellow third-tier mage, he didn’t stress too much over him.

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When the morning came, the air in the Snow Lions’ camp seemed charged. Everyone had woken up early from the excitement of finally heading back into the city and were expressing that in various ways, from pacing to training.

There was some slight tension when Leon led a larger-than-usual group of a dozen trainees back to the tower to pick up the unit’s breakfast, as they weren’t sure if there would be any spies watching the tower or not. Fortunately, Leon had been leading the food run-group on fairly long and winding paths every day to and from the tower for the past couple weeks, and he chose a different route every time, so he wasn’t that concerned about an ambush. But given his suspicions that someone might be watching the tower, he left his group about a quarter mile from the tower and went ahead to scout out their tower’s surroundings.

His caution wasn’t necessary, though, because the area around the tower was deserted.

‘Maybe the Deathbringers haven’t gotten their act together yet; it hasn’t even been twelve hours, after all. Not enough time for the news to spread, either, so no other units would be watching…’

Regardless of the reasons why, it was clear to Leon that it was safe to begin transporting the food back to camp, which he immediately began doing after signaling to the waiting group that it was safe to approach their tower. Leon didn’t let his guard down for the entire time his group was there, though, and he resolved to be extra alert for the next week or two for the inevitable response from the Deathbringers.

Leon’s group returned to the camp in the gorge without any trouble, much to everyone else’s relief. About half an hour later, after everyone had finished their meal, Castor got up in front of them to explain the new rules he and Leon had decided on the previous night, with both Leon, and more surprisingly, Alphonsus there with him.

While Castor was speaking, the Instructors arrived at the camp. Castor paused for a moment, but the Senior Instructor ordered, “Keep going, don’t mind us for now.”

However, once Castor was finished going over the new safety rules, the Senior Instructor felt that there wasn’t much for him to add. He merely reiterated his usual warnings about staying away from shady areas and the importance of returning to the Academy on time. Then, he indicated to the other two Instructors to begin passing out the silver stipend to the trainees.

While the Snow Lions were distracted with the enormous bags of silver coins the Instructors had brought, the Senior Instructor quietly approached Leon and gave him a notice the Knight Academy had received from Heaven’s Eye, addressed to Leon.

Leon raised his eye in momentary confusion before realizing what it probably was. It seemed that Elise had made progress with finding some of the ingredients Xaphan needed for his recovery potion.

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While the Snow Lions were busy preparing themselves for heading back into the city, the third-tier nobles in charge of the Deathbringers were having quite the heated conversation in their common room at the top of their tower.

“This isn’t something that can go unanswered! They’ve humiliated us!” shouted Actaeon, his face red from passionate argument.

“But we haven’t a clue as to where the Snow Lions are! We can’t just storm their tower again, can we?” answered Linus.

“Then we find some Snow Lions and beat them until they reveal where they and the rest of those cowardly rats hole up!”

“You’re suggesting to attack them in the streets again?! That was a terrible idea then and it’s even worse now! How would it reflect upon us if it were to be found out that we had our subordinates attack our fellow trainees outside of the Academy?! How would it look to our families if it gets back to them that we’re engaging in such underhanded and blatantattacks on our countrymen?! If we gain a reputation for such dishonorable means, then we are no better than common thugs, terrorizing people in back alleys!”

“We’re encouraged to fight amongst ourselves! This is just an extension of that prerogative! We need to retrieve that banner or we have no honor to save!”

“I can only speak for myself, by my honor is more than a piece of fabric! I won’t sully my hands with such an endeavor, and I will stop any attempts to attack the Snow Lions off the Academy’s training grounds! We may have lost both banners we held, but we are noble, our reputations are worth more than a thousand banners!”

Throughout this argument, Gaius remained quiet. In fact, it appeared that he wasn’t even paying attention; his chin was resting in his hands, and he was staring into the fireplace with a tired look that suggested he’d been awake all night.

He certainly felt the expected amount of rage and indignation at the Snow Lions’ seizure of the banners, as well as the personal defeat he and the other two third-tier mages suffered in that final arrow barrage, but he was just so tired of this feud he had with Leon. The seizure of the Snow Lions’ banner had been his first real taste of glory, and while the order he gave to assault their people in the streets weeks back had been cathartic, it just didn’t hold a candle to defeating Leon in the open as he’d done in the assault on the Snow Lions’ tower, even if he hadn’t actually beaten Leon personally.

He’d left Lentia with such dreams of glory and honor, but he couldn’t say that he’d acquired either in these past few months. And all of that was due to this conflict with the barbarian. The savage had beaten him, and making matters worse, he’d then started growing closer to Valeria and utterly ignored his warnings to give her more appropriate space. Gaius needed vengeance, he needed to punish the barbarian for his insolence and utter disregard of his place… but with this latest humiliating loss, he wasn’t sure he had the will to continue down that path. As far as he’d walked so far, he’d only found more humiliation and dishonor, and he just wanted it to end.

“Actaeon, would you just… shut your mouth?” Gaius asked with a pleasant yet fatigued tone, though the way he glared at Actaeon made it clear it wasn’t a request.

“Wha-Why?” Actaeon demanded indignantly as he turned to face Gaius, but as soon as he made eye contact, he sheepishly continued with a “Su-Sure…”

“Good,” said Gaius. He then took a deep breath and paused for a moment to search for the right words.

“… I… understand the desire to seek immediate vengeance. I think that fact is not lost on anyone in this entire Academy; I haven’t exactly been subtle with my hatred of the barbarian. And that attitude has gotten me here, having suffered several humiliations, recriminations from my family, and the loss of our banner.”

Gaius paused again, his eyes repeatedly flitting between Actaeon and Linus. Both were equally silent, puzzled and concerned over what Gaius was now saying.

“We can certainly pursue pure vengeance today, seeking out and ambushing what few Snow Lions we can find in that enormous city. We’ll get four, maybe five, and then they’ll respond by ambushing us. We don’t know where they sleep, so we won’t be able to retaliate again, except by ambushing them in the streets of the capital another time.

“They’ll move in groups, sticking to more crowded areas, I’m sure. Our people will be seen, and our reputations will suffer, while theirs will only grow after enduring these assaults and successfully counter-attacking.”

Gaius paused for a third time, letting his eyes wander around the room for a moment as he thought his words over. Neither Actaeon nor Linus dared to break the silence. They were both quite taken aback at Gaius’ seriousness and somber attitude. Just half an hour beforehand, the two nobles had expected him to emerge from his room ready and willing to hunt down any Snow Lions they could find in an attempt to retrieve their banner, his rage and damaged pride finally pushed past the breaking point.

But now here he was, calmly analyzing the situation and considering their options, without a hint of rage in his face, his pride practically nonexistent.

“Assaulting our rivals in the streets may be gratifying, it may bring us some momentary satisfaction, but that is not what we need right now. We need a concrete plan, one that doesn’t degrade us, one that doesn’t make us look like a bunch of spoiled rich boys throwing a temper tantrum, a plan that won’t end with our people being ambushed on the road outside our tower. We need a plan that retrieves both our banner and our honor, and most importantly, befits our nobility.”

’… A plan that shewon’t abhor…’ Gaius silently added.

As Gaius finished, his two noble comrades could only stare at him in shock. So, to kick them into gear, he thought he’d get them to do something productive—he didn’t want the more impulsive members of his unit heading off on their own and bringing him further dishonor by proxy.

“Go tell the second-tier trainees my decision: no one attacks the Snow Lions until I say we’re ready.”

“They’re not going to like that…” Actaeon said with a grim expression.

“It doesn’t matter what they like. I’mthe leader of this unit, so I make the decisions and they follow them.”

“That won’t change the fact that they’re out for blood after losing the banner, especially those first-tier trainees who were stunned in their sleep. Apparently waking up after that brings a massive headache…”

Gaius glared at the two of them; he made it clear with his expression alone that he didn’t want to hear these things that sounded like excuses. Linus and Actaeon got to their feet and made for the stairs to relay Gaius’ decision. They returned several minutes later after forcing every second-tier trainee in the unit to personally swear not to attack the Snow Lions for the time being.

Gaius used those few minutes to think, and when the other two third-tier mages sat down at his table, he let them in on his thoughts.

“So, it seems to me that wherever the Snow Lions have been, they’ve used their time well. Their teamwork was far better than ours, and they knew exactly what they were doing. They moved with purpose, stealing our banner as quickly and as quietly as possible, only sparing the time to stun those who were absolutely required. I’d guess they practiced a few times in their own tower.

“We’re going to need a similar level of teamwork if we’re going to fight them on equal footing. As it is, even if we knew where they were hiding, I’m not sure we could win in a straight up assault as we did last time, especially not without outside help from someone like Tiberias…”

As proud as Gaius was, and as opinionated as he was about the northern barbarians, he couldn’t deny Leon’s strength anymore—or the strength of his unit. After all, if he continued to say that Leon was just a weak barbarian, then it would say nothing good about him, having lost multiple times to the savage.

“So,” Gaius continued, “we’re going to double down on our training. And not just for the three of us, we’re going to get the Deathbringers as ready for our next fight with the Snow Lions as they can possibly be.”

Linus and Actaeon slowly nodded in agreement, steeling themselves for the hard training that was to come.

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Chapters 98 & 99 - Acquiring Ingredients

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Not long after the Snow Lions were dismissed by their Senior Instructor, Leon pushed open the doors of the Heaven’s Eye Tower. He had wasted no time making his way over, though this did mean that he’d had to cancel getting food with his friends. He’d been looking forward to hanging out for a while with his friends, but Xaphan’s potion took priority. Leon could sense the demon’s excitement growing during the journey to the Tower.

Despite losing out on trawling for some of the best food in the capital, Leon truly didn’t mind helping out Xaphan. Especially since it also meant he could spend more time with Elise, who he found himself liking more and more, though it would take quite a bit for him to admit it to anyone else.

He didn’t need to admit his excitement to Xaphan, though, as the demon could sense it just as easily as Leon could sense the demon’s anticipation. However, probably out of a stubbornly stoic and childish desire not to admit to each other how excited they both were, neither spoke very much after Leon received the priority message.

When Leon entered the lounge, he glanced around a bit, but he didn’t immediately see Elise. He wasn’t sure if he was grateful that he had a few more minutes to steady himself before seeing her, or if he was disappointed that he had to wait those few more minutes. Regardless, wait he had to do, and he soon found himself escorted to a seat in a nearby booth by one of the attendants, who then scurried away to bring him a drink he couldn’t help but order.

He sat there in the booth growing increasingly nervous with every passing second, trying not to constantly look around in anticipation. But, about ten minutes after the attendant brought his drink over, he heard a vaguely familiar voice call out over the general din of the fairly crowded lounge, “Lady Elise!”

His heart jumped up into his throat, and he found himself looking around almost in panic, hoping that he didn’t look stupid or embarrassing as he searched for the gorgeous fire-haired attendant that had been so helpful these past few months.

When he glanced in the direction that the voice had come from, though, he saw not the beautiful woman that had him in such a state of worry, but rather the tall, lithe figure of Tiberias, the leader of the Black Vipers, and the third-tier mage that had attacked the Snow Lions’ tower with the Deathbringers.

Leon didn’t like him too much, but that was almost entirely because of that assault. He hadn’t had much interaction with Tiberias otherwise, so he couldn’t really say what kind of a person he was. For all Leon knew, he was an upstanding sort of guy.

Tiberias had his hand raised in greeting, a smile on his face, and a handsome twinkle in his eyes. Leon followed his gaze and saw at the other end of the lounge Elise, dressed in fairly casual clothing compared to how she usually dressed, her hair pulled back into a loose ponytail, and only light makeup applied. But her expression seemed polite, but somewhat strained as she smiled back at Tiberias and returned his wave. Then, strangely enough, her eyes swiveled in Leon’s direction, and for just a moment, he thought they seemed a bit pleading.

Leon wasn’t quite sure what to make of that, but his heart was certainly beating quite a bit faster after making eye contact with her. It took him a moment to rise to his feet, and by then, Tiberias had already sauntered forward and started loudly complimenting Elise, drawing quite a few looks from some of the other guests within the tower with the unabashed volume with which he spoke.

“Oh! You are just the vision of beauty!” he said, the smile on his face growing with every word. “Truly, no other women can possibly compare to your ravishing looks! Please, my Lady, would you grace me with your presence while I partake of the fine pleasures that Heaven’s Eye affords?”

He spoke quickly, hardly letting Elise get a word in edgewise, and as he did, one of his hands was digging around in a small pouch at his hip secured onto his belt.

“I was actually dearly hoping I would run into you, fair lady,” he shamelessly continued as he pulled out a box small enough to fit in his palm. “I brought you a gift—please, nothing would make me happier than it you were to accept it from my humble hands!”

By this point, Leon had no trouble seeing the strain in Elise’s smile, and her eyes were repeatedly darting in his direction as if pleading for him to interrupt. Leon approached from behind, so he couldn’t immediately see what it was that was in the box, but as Tiberias opened it, he saw several people behind Elise who were watching the spectacle practically stare boggle-eyed at whatever was revealed.

“I know that your mother is richer than just about anyone else in the Kingdom, but I had to express my admiration for you in some way!” Tiberias almost shouted, and Leon felt his cheeks burn with second-hand embarrassment. “It’s a paltry thing compared to your beauty, but if you were to wear it, I would be the happiest man alive!”

Finally, as he paused and waited for her response, she was able to say a few words. But she stared at Tiberias for a moment before saying, “What is going on with you today? You’re being so weird…”

“I apologize,” Tiberias responded, finally lowering the volume of his voice a bit. “I couldn’t be sure if my previous attempts to court you were working—all of my gifts were returned, and my letters received no responses, so I decided to get your attention in the only way that was left to me! Now, how about we head upstairs, or somewhere else more private, where we might be able to talk?”

Elise’s smile remained on her face, but she took a small step backward, away from Tiberias. At the same time, Leon finally came around from behind Tiberias and saw what was in the nobleman’s brandished box: a golden bracelet, intricately carved with various floral patterns, and set with half a dozen glittering emeralds, each one the size of a fingernail.

“By the Ancestors, those are some big rocks,” Leon loudly whispered as he stepped in close enough that it was clear he was joining them, not passing by.

For just a moment, Leon thought he felt a hint of killing intent flare through Tiberias’ aura, but it was gone in a heartbeat, and the nobleman just stared at him, still smiling.

“Leon Ursus,” he said. “So good to see you outside of the Knight Academy. But—and I don’t blame you for this at all, you are a barbarian, after all—Lady Elise and I were just having a private discu—”

“Leon!” Elise loudly said in greeting, ruthlessly cutting Tiberias off. “I’m glad you’re here! Does that mean you received our letter?”

“I did,” Leon said as he pulled the folded latter out of his pocket.

“Wonderful!” Elise stepped forward and took one of Leon’s arms, staring at him for a moment with a strained, almost pained look that pleaded with him to follow her lead. “Your buyer is waiting over in the Alchemist’s Forum. We can go there right away!”

Then, she turned to the silent and still smiling Tiberias, who was watching with a look of complete innocence on his face, though he still held out the box with the emerald bracelet for Elise to take, which she appeared to be ignoring.

“Tiberias, it was… good to see you again,” she said as professionally as she could, “but Leon and I have some business that we have to see to. But please, don’t refrain from making use of our services here on my account!”

With that, Elise began to pull Leon toward the door, not giving Tiberias another look. Leon, a little confused, but certain that there was more going on here than he was aware of, just went along with it. Tiberias was left standing there, in the middle of the lounge, the opened jewelry box still held out, his smile slowly fading.

The last that Leon saw of him, he was staring after them, his smile gone, his eyes fixed on Leon. Though his expression had merely fallen to something more neutral, Leon thought that with Tiberias’ severe looks, it seemed almost hateful.

Just before leaving, he heard a woman somewhere shout, “If you’re looking for someone to take that bracelet off you, I’d be happy to accept it!”

Her call was punctuated with a round of laughter from many who’d been watching the scene, though Tiberias didn’t acknowledge a one of them. And then Leon and Elise walked out of the door, and he saw no more.

Elise steered them away from the Tower quickly and didn’t say a word until after they’d put an entire block behind them. She then let out a deep sigh and said, “Thanks for that. Tiberias comes on strong even on the best of days.”

“Uuh, yeah, that was certainly a sight to see,” Leon muttered, still unsure of entirely what had happened. It almost didn’t seem real, as if Elise and Tiberias had just acted out a play in front of him. “I didn’t think someone would actually act like that in public.”

Elise sighed again. “He’s been sending me gifts and inviting me out for years, now. It was funny three years ago when he was only thirteen, but now, it’s getting… a little out of hand. I’ve tried to tell him that I’m not interested, but he’s refusing to take the hint.”

“Maybe he doesn’t want to take it?” Leon responded. “Maybe he thinks that if he’s dogged enough in his pursuit that you’ll just let him catch you?”

“I’m not a hare,” she shot back, but a deep smile broke out across her face. “Anyway, would you mind if we took the long way to the Alchemist’s Forum? Tiberias kind of threw me off my game, and I think I could use some fresh air to clear my head.”

“If you insist,” Leon murmured in reply. Elise was still tightly gripping his arm, and he was in no hurry to shake her off.

“Thanks. I really should talk to my mother about him, his behavior is getting… honestly, in public…?”

“Your mother?” Leon asked.

“Hmm? Oh, my mother’s the Tower Lord here. And Ajax back in Teira is my uncle. Didn’t I mention that before?”

Leon blanched slightly. Her mother was the Tower Lord, then that meant that she was essentially in charge of all Heaven’s Eye operations within the entire Kingdom. And that made her one of the single most powerful people on the entire plane, let alone the Bull Kingdom, with enormous financial resources at her disposal. Elise wasn’t nobility, but in the face of that kind of power, she might as well be.

“Good to know…” he whispered, momentarily contemplating the merits of continuing to associate with Elise, given his need to remain relatively beneath notice until he was stronger, but when he glanced at her, he found her grinning back at him, her emerald eyes glittering as she watched him react to this information, and all desire to put more distance between them vanished from his mind.

He liked Elise, and he didn’t want to start shunning her just for who her mother was.

“So… anyway…” Leon babbled, hoping to change the subject, “how far away is this forum?”

“About an hour’s walk,” she said. “Come on, let’s go this way. There’s a beautiful park that I love walking through on the way…”

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The Alchemist Forum was a paradise for all alchemists within the Bull Kingdom, whether they were mere apprentices or venerable masters. There were dozens of buildings surrounding the forum, awash with color from bright tile murals and exceptionally detailed paintings depicting plants and flowers of all kinds. The forum itself had over two hundred smaller stalls filled with gorgeous flowers and other luminous and regal alchemy ingredients. All the rarest and most expensive products were kept indoors where they could be easily protected, but there were enough exotic materials around that the density of magic in the air around the forum was considerably higher than in other areas of the city.

It was a very important place to the Bull Kingdom and was afforded all the security such a place deserved: dozens of guards posted around the clock at key points in the forum and dozens more constantly patrolling around the shops and stalls. Most of them had little to actually do, though, as their presence was so great that street crime in the area was nearly nonexistent. The primary job of the guards was actually to remove any loitering mages who were hoping to use the atmosphere to train, rather than to do business.

Despite its name, there were far more than alchemists browsing the various wares in the vast jungle-like marketplace. Alchemists were certainly in the majority, but there were also enchanters looking for interesting or unconventional materials to mulch into paper or ink, and servants of nobility looking for flowers to fill out a garden or courtyard. There were even a number of merchants looking for new products, trying to buy the seeds of whatever caught their eye.

An hour and half after leaving the Heaven’s Eye Tower, Elise and Leon were on their final approach to the forum. Elise no longer held his arm, but the two still walked much closer together than Leon would’ve been comfortable with were Elise anyone else. They’d found plenty to talk about on the way, from the city attractions they passed, to the beauty of the park they cut through, but Leon initially worried that he wouldn’t have much to say. Fortunately, Elise was kind of fascinated with the culture of the Northern Vales, seeing it as rather exotic, and when Leon mentioned a few things off-hand, began to bombard him with questions about his former home, wondering if the real place lined up at all with the barbaric hellscape that was depicted in Bull Kingdom culture.

“So there’s none at all?” Elise asked, the disappointment in her voice impossible to miss.

“Well, human sacrifice isn’t common, but it’s still around in some places. I grew up in the east, and Torfinn Ice-Eyes all but put a stop to the practice a few years ago. Which, as I said, doesn’t mean it’s gone completely. I’ve personally seen some of the Valeman priests put a couple murderers to death in the name of the Mountain Father.”

“You said that it’s only recently dying out in the east, but what about the west?” she enthusiastically asked.

“I can’t say anything for sure about the western vales, but I have heard a few stories. Most of them aren’t particularly pleasant…” Leon trailed off, hesitating to repeat what he had heard, but Elise wasn’t dissuaded.

“Surely you don’t think I can’t handle a few horror stories?” she asked with an impish and expectant grin.

“… I’m sure you can…” Leon muttered, a faint smile appearing on his own face. “There have been some recent changes in the north. A man named Hakon Fire-Beard has united most of the western vales, and his methods of ruling are… extreme—assuming that what refugees that flee his territories say can be taken at face value and haven’t been overly exaggerated.

“They say Hakon Fire-Beard is extremely fond of burning people alive, and that he’s put entire villages to the torch to appease the Mountain Father. He’s also allegedly had captured warriors of rival tribes crucified for a whole day, then burned as a sacrifice to the Sky Mother.”

“Hmm… So there’s no cannibalism? No flaying of enemies and wearing of their skin for clothing?”

“No. Or at least, not that I’m aware of.”

“Oh…”

Leon chuckled, then said, “You sound almost disappointed.”

“I am! You’re basically telling me that those mystical and unnatural rites that everyone in the Bull Kingdom knows about aren’t true! Or at least, aren’t nearly as common as people around here claim…”

“So sorry to let you down,” Leon said with a sarcastic grin. “The people in the Vales value peace and stability as much as the people in the south. They’re just not quite so organized, which leads to more conflict.”

“Well, are there at least demon-worshippers? Tribes of werewolves that interbreed with actual wolves? Ancient vampires that live in caves high up in the mountains and feed on any unfortunate soul that strays too close?”

“I… Where do you even hearthese things?”

“So they’re not true?”

“The first two, definitely not. The last one, most likely not, but the Frozen Mountains are quite large, so who knows?”

[There were demons in those mountains, though. Or at least, one demon…] murmured Xaphan.

[But you weren’t being worshipped, were you?] Leon shot back.

[No, though I should have been. It isn’t every day a Lord of Flame shows himself…]

The demon didn’t continue, so Leon turned his attention back to Elise. She was cutely pouting because Leon had ruthlessly shot down her preconceptions, but her face brightened up considerably when she felt the distinctive change in the air as they got close to the Alchemist Forum.

They both couldn’t help but pause for a moment as they entered the forum, both taking a deep breath in wonder and delight, as the bright and vibrant colors, heavenly scent of the flowers, and high density of magic in the air created a near-overwhelming feast for the senses.

The two wanted to stand right where they had stopped and savor the atmosphere, but the throngs of people coming and going from the gigantic market weren’t going to stop on their account, so Elise and Leon pressed onward. For ten minutes, they did nothing except wander the outer stalls of the forum, where the wares were little more than decorative. Elise even spotted a number of one of her favorite flowers, a lotus-like plant that gently glowed red in the mornings, purple during the day, and blue in the evenings. She made a big enough show of smiling and staring at them that even the socially inept Leon could tell that she wanted one, so he dug out a few silvers and bought one for her.

In response, Elise threw her arms around his neck in a tight hug, sending his heartrate skyrocketing. Once Leon managed to extricate himself from Elise’s arms, the stall keeper handed him one of the flowers with a wink and a nod and even knocked a couple silvers off the price—only taking a single token silver coin from Leon.

At first, Leon was only going to give the flower to Elise, but she smiled and leaned towards him while giggling and tilting her head. Leon was utterly baffled as to what she was doing, but fortunately for him, Xaphan was watching in fascination and came to his rescue.

[She wants you to put the flower in her hair, dummy.]

Leon didn’t respond to the demon, but his face immediately went red and his hands started shaking. He managed to gently thread the vivid purple flower behind one of her ears despite his nervousness, though.

“So, how do I look?” she asked, giving Leon a sly look.

Leon was about to respond, but when he made eye contact with her, his words caught in his throat. He had to take a deep breath to steady his heart before he could finally say, “You… you look stunning.”

She smiled and happily took his arm.

After several more minutes of rather mindless browsing, Elise led Leon into one of the biggest buildings around the forum. Its walls were opulently decorated with lavish paintings of forests and mountains, and the entrance hall had no roof both to allow sunlight to reach the indoor gardens and to give them a greater feeling of openness.

As soon as they walked in through the door, Elise was recognized by the Heaven’s Eye representative she’d sent over several hours beforehand. As he walked over, Elise released Leon’s arm and took up a significantly more authoritative attitude.

“Lady Elise! Everything’s ready and waiting for you,” the representative said, skipping the pleasantries and getting right down to business.

“Good. Lead the way,” responded Elise, barely glancing at him.

“Yes, my Lady.” The man started walking further into the building, giving Elise and Leon a considerable amount of space to follow.

“This should be quick,” Elise started explaining to Leon, “we’ve already hammered out most of the details and negotiated a fair price. All that’s needed now is for you to finalize the deal and take your Kagu flower.”

Leon nodded in acknowledgment.

Once they left the entrance hall and started walking through the more private areas of the building that were reserved for transactions far too large or important to be handled by the public employees, it became clear just how rich the owner of the place was. The walls were just as richly decorated as they were outside, but the roof here was made of actual living tree branches, kept alive and permanently green through the use of complex nature magic—a blend of earth, light, and water enchantments that greatly aided plant growth while providing a host of other benefits.

Leon and Elise were shown into the largest meeting room in the building where three people were already waiting. The oldest of these three, a man who appeared middle-aged, immediately stood up to greet Elise. He noticed the flower in her hair and the fact that she had brought a man with her after informing him that she would bring the client to pick it up from his place. But as soon as he smiled knowingly and made a comment about it, Elise’s face became stern and stoic. With a few barbed words that implied she had been insulted, she made the panicking merchant lower his price by ten percent.

Leon barely registered any of that. As soon as he walked in the door, his eyes were drawn to the beautiful volcanic flower on the central meeting table, and the small glassy orb filled with pulsing red light right next to it. The orb didn’t exude much magic power, but the flower radiated fire magic, raising the temperature of the room so much that the other two people waiting in the room—not even being first-tier mages and thus having little defense against such magical auras—were quite obviously uncomfortable, nearly sweating through their clothes.

Leon drew closer to the table to get a better look at the flower and the orb; he could feel Xaphan’s rising excitement so clearly that it compelled him to make a quick inspection. The flower was barely larger than his palm, with hundreds of long, needle-thin red-orange petals radiating out from the central bulb, a shining golden sphere, while the orb was like a solidified chunk of fire magic—being the core of some kind of magical beast, that was essentially what it was. But Xaphan’s attention was almost entirely focused upon the flower rather than the orb.

[Yes, yes, ever-everything looks fine…] muttered Xaphan, desperately trying to keep his crackling voice calm. The Kagu flower was by far the most important part of the potion he needed. The other two ingredients could be a great many things, though he had specifically asked Leon to find the two he had believed to be the easiest to acquire.

“Is… is there any problem?” the merchant timidly asked. He still hurt from Elise gouging out a huge chunk of the money he had expected to make, so he wanted to make sure that Leon hadn’t seen anything that would drive the price down further.

“They’re both fine,” whispered Leon, not taking his eyes off the two ingredients now before him.

The merchant breathed a sigh of relief, and what followed was several minutes of paperwork between his assistants and the Heaven’s Eye representative to organize the money transfer. Leon didn’t even need to pull out his card, Elise had taken care of that part when he’d placed the order.

Fifteen minutes after they had walked into the store, Elise and Leon walked back out with Leon carrying a big wooden box under his arm. The box would keep the Kagu flower’s aura sealed within, to prevent it from bothering anyone around him. It had only been unsealed in the meeting room to facilitate his inspection.

The orb turned out to be the core of some kind of fifth-tier salamander, but Leon hadn’t paid too much attention to it when other than to make certain it was what Xaphan needed. The core could be replaced relatively easily, but the flower was a different story.

“So…” Elise hesitantly began, her severe facade fading away now that their primary business was finished, “do you have any other plans for the day?”

Leon guessed that she was subtly suggesting that she would like to spend more time with him, which excited him to no end, but he could feel Xaphan’s impatience almost literally hammering on his soul realm. “I… I’m sorry, I’ve got to go, these ingredients need some preparation before they’re ready and it’s not something that should be put off… I can at least walk you back to the Heaven’s Eye Tower, though. I wouldn’t want to abandon you before knowing that Tiberias has gotten lost.”

Elise gave him a dazzling smile and said, “I’d like that.”

They walked through the streets in silence, simply enjoying each other’s company. They didn’t talk much on the way, only lightly chatting until they reached the Tower, when they spoke their goodbyes. Just as Leon was about to turn around and head back to the Knight Academy, Elise hurried forward and swiftly kissed him on the cheek.

She laughed quietly, then said, “We’re working on getting that fourth-tier feather for you. In the meantime, don’t be a stranger.”

She happily walked back to the tower doors and, with one last wave to Leon, she went back inside.

After another moment, Leon finally managed to respond. That kiss had made him freeze up, but he gently touched his cheek when he regained control of himself. He looked at the Tower one more time, then made his way back to the Academy with the biggest smile on his face.

---

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Chapters 100 & 101 - The Following Weeks

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After another half hour spent in the capital spent gathering a few alchemical tools that Xaphan needed for his potion, Leon finally made his way back to the Snow Lion camp in the gorge. There weren’t many people in his unit who had returned to the caves so early, and those that had—or simply never left in the first place—weren’t particularly numerous and kept to themselves, which suited him just fine. He made his way farther in all the way to his private room.

[Alright, first things first,] Xaphan began as soon as Leon set down everything he had bought, [Use that curtain to block the entrance to the room.]

Leon quickly complied, hanging a thick black curtain over the entrance of his door-less room, then quickly dug out a few small magic lanterns to scatter around so he wouldn’t have to constantly channel magic into his eyes to see in the pitch-black caves.

[Good. The salamander core shouldn’t be a problem, but when we take the Kagu flower out of its packaging, it’ll emit far too much magic for you to avoid questions. That curtain should block the magic aura from spilling out of this room, though, and keep anyone from noticing anything,] said Xaphan as Leon unpacked the rest of the alchemist’s tools that he’d bought on the way home.

First, Leon took out a narrow two-foot-tall stone cylinder and accompanying lid, both with a few small, subtle lines of runes carved into them. Then, he pulled out half a dozen water-coals, so-called for being able to burn in water. They were fairly cheap, but they would work for his purposes.

[Next,] instructed Xaphan, [fill that container about halfway with water.]

Leon grabbed the cylinder and made for the bathroom. As with the tower, the trainees had made the discovery that the caves had their own bathrooms that even had fully functioning water enchantments. It had been an incredible morale boost, as they had for several days been living primarily on the water from the stream in the gorge and a few smaller water runes made by Leon and the others who were in the enchanting class.

The cylinder was soon filled with the requisite amount of water and Leon hurriedly returned to his room.

[Drop the coals into the water,] said Xaphan. As soon as Leon did so, he impatiently continued with, [Now the core.]

Leon dropped the core into the cylinder as instructed, letting the glowing red orb sink to the bottom and rest among the coals. On contact with the coals, the fire magic it transferred ignited the water-coals, causing them to gently burn a dull blue at the bottom of the cylinder.

[And the flower, stem first.]

Leon carefully extracted the Kagu flower from its box, saturating his room with sweltering fire magic, though he found the heat strangely comfortable. Leon gently dipped the long stem of the flower that had been hidden in the box into the water, threading it through the gaps between the salamander core and the water-coals. To finish up that part of his preparations, he set the rest of the flower onto the surface of the water, where it stayed floating even as he closed the lid of the cylinder.

There wasn’t any concern about allowing the flower access to sunlight; all it needed was heat and fire magic to stay alive for as long as Leon and Xaphan needed it to. The coals would provide that heat and magic so as not to drain the core before Heaven’s Eye managed to find the final necessary ingredient. Leon would need to change out the coals every week, but that was a fine sacrifice to make given how much it cost to buy the salamander core.

[Finally,] said Xaphan, interrupting Leon as he leaned back onto his small stone bed, [we need to inscribe a few simple runes onto the cylinder so that the burning coals don’t transfer too much heat into it instead of the water. We want as much of the heat and fire energy to stay in the cylinder as possible.]

[What?] Leon complained, [Why didn’t we do that to begin with? Now I have to do this when it’s full of water and expensive ingredients?!]

[It was far more important to make sure the Kagu flower was properly taken care of and that the core’s magic wouldn’t dissipate into the surrounding environment. So hurry, we need to make sure the water doesn’t boil away. I mean, the lid should keep most of the steam in, but there’s no point in relying on ‘should’.]

Leon sighed, but he still said, [Fine. What’s needed?] As soon as his mind was open to Xaphan’s information, Leon felt a sharp pain in his head, and he saw exactly what had to be done. He reached for his ink and spell paper and got to work.

It took about an hour of careful work and more spell paper than Leon would care to admit, but even Xaphan couldn’t find any fault with his work. Leon plastered the side of the cylinder with the paper, which stuck as soon as he activated the enchantments.

[Any more steps?] asked an exhausted Leon. He was perfectly willing to perform any more necessary steps but writing the enchantments had left him feeling mentally drained.

[Nope. We’re just waiting on that feather, now. Nothing else to be done except drop in new water-coals every three or four days.]

Leon gave a deep sigh of relief as he laid back onto his bed. He missed the bed back in the Snow Lions’ tower.  He’d made the stone bed in the cave relatively comfortable with a few blankets, but it still couldn’t hold a candle to a proper mattress designed for a noble.

Regardless, he fell asleep almost as soon as he got settled. He certainly hadn’t intended to sleep, but he was just that tired.

---

The Deathbringers didn’t make a move against the Snow Lions the entire day.

In fact, almost no one saw the Deathbringers at all throughout the weekend. The other units found them strangely somber and silent during meals, and it was only on Monday that they learned why, when the Deathbringers arrived at the training field with no banners. Since none of the other units had either banner that had been in the Deathbringers’ possession, it didn’t take long for everyone else to realize that the Snow Lions had taken their revenge.

Some playful insults were thrown around from the other units, but the Deathbringers endured them with a quiet dignity that was most uncharacteristic of them. Gaius especially seemed to have taken the loss completely in stride, interacting with the other nobles as if nothing had happened.

Even during the afternoon enchantments classes when he and Leon shared the same room, Gaius hardly even blinked in frustration or anger. He did send a few looks Leon’s way, but they didn’t carry the tiniest hint of malice, hate, or killing intent. Not even when Leon and Valeria exchanged a few greetings did Gaius’ mood change.

He knew that he would only bring dishonor to his family if he acted rashly and without a plan, so he remained calm and in control, as if his father were watching over his shoulder, coldly evaluating everything that he did—though, given that Gaius’ brother was a Tribune working at the Academy, it wouldn’t be that inaccurate to say that Duke Tullius was doing just that.

But even then, Gaius found his frustration oddly easy to suppress. He’d started to accept Leon’s fighting strength and skill and a degree of respect couldn’t help but follow, despite his hatred of the Snow Lion. Consequently, rather than waste his time with rage, Gaius channeled that energy into his training. Over the weeks following the Snow Lions’ seizure of the banners, Gaius threw himself into his training and dragged the rest of the Deathbringers with him.

Actaeon had put up some token resistance, wanting to venture out into the training grounds to flush the Snow Lions out of their hiding place, but he loved training and had gotten on board with Gaius’ new policy quickly. Linus could see the benefits of the extra training, and though he personally valued his off-time, Gaius was able to convince him to join the training as well.

With all three third-tier mages on the same page, no one else in the unit was able to go against them. They trained hard, with the nobles supervising the lower-tiered trainees and giving out pointers where needed. Additionally, their Senior Instructor had contemplated invoking the same right as the Snow Lions’ Senior Instructor had, that of revoking all weekend privileges until the Deathbringers had retrieved their banner, but he found that he didn’t have to; Gaius had already forced the Deathbringers into weekend training, much to their consternation and constant complaint.

But Gaius knew they were behind. The Snow Lions had over a month of hard training on the Deathbringers, and Gaius needed to push his unit to catch up as he doubted the Snow Lions would halt their intense training despite recovering their banner.

That training paid off less than two weeks after it began, as the heightened attention to security that the increased training brought allowed them to repulse an attack from another unit that tried to exploit their seeming weakness. Securing the front door of their tower every day was made a priority, so when another unit arrived to try and bully the Deathbringers, it took them several minutes to force their way into the entrance hall. By then, they were faced with the prepared Deathbringers, fully armed and armored and ready to defend their dignity. And they did so with aplomb, eliminating two of the enemy’s third-tier trainees and a dozen others besides with an initial volley of arrows, giving the Deathbringers the advantage in numbers.

That outcome gave pause to the other units that were hoping to throw their weight around and use the Deathbringers for their own training, thus giving the Deathbringers the time and space that Gaius wanted to improve their skills. And he made use of every second that he could.

---

The weeks passed by quickly for the Snow Lions. The other nine units had started fighting for each other’s banners in earnest, but their conflicts meant little in the secluded gorge. The Snow Lions simply got into the habit of continuing their squad-level training, which meant running many more patrols and sitting through more lessons from their Instructors.

The other units did the same training, but they stopped after lunch; the Snow Lions continued well into the evening, with only Leon and several others keeping up with their extra classes. Since the extra classes weren’t necessary for graduation, almost all of the Snow Lions were perfectly comfortable skipping them, even after the Senior Instructor stopped forcing them to stay in the gorge and train.

But the gorge wasn’t that large, all things considered, so their training patrols were gradually moved out into the forest. This gave the Snow Lions an unparalleled understanding of the Academy’s geography, with even the dullest of the first-tier commoners in the unit confident in his abilities to navigate around the forest and mountains.

The other units expanded their training areas out into the forest as well, but they rarely ventured out more than a thousand feet from their towers. And, since they barely ever saw them, they had long since started to forget about the Snow Lions. As far as most of the trainees in the cycle were concerned, there were effectively only nine units in the Academy, not ten. Of course, they weren’t exactly wrong, given that the Snow Lions weren’t participating in the inter-unit battles or morning training sessions.

Two units that were quite enthusiastically taking part in said battles were the Steel Century and Crimson Tigresses. The Steel Century, led by the strategically gifted Marcus Aeneas, had managed to seize two other banners, leaving them with a total of three.  The first banner to be seized was taken in a night-time raid on one of the other units’ tower, while the second was taken in an ambush as the opposing unit was returning home after dinner.

As for the Crimson Tigresses, they had taken theirs in a significantly stealthier manner, infiltrating the enemy tower and stealing it in the night. Their tactics were quite similar to the Snow Lions, with them eliminating the rather inattentive first-tier trainees on the first floor, then taking the banner from the undefended shrine. Unlike the Snow Lions, however, Asiya fared much better at removing the banner from the shrine than Castor and took it without triggering the alarm.

In every training cycle, the other nine units would always be extremely hesitant to attack the Crimson Tigresses. That was the unit that all the ladies who joined the Knight Academy were sent to, after all, so the vaguely chivalric notions of the third-tier nobles would always leave the Crimson Tigresses safe from attack until they began their own attempts to steal banners. But that also gave them the initiative, letting them take their time and only move when they were ready. They could focus on their training and create a good plan, which meant that the ladies would invariably make the other units pay for not attacking them first.

Under Valeria and Asiya, the Crimson Tigresses truly lived up to their name, attacking four different units in the span of a week and causing far more casualties than they received—though they only managed to take the first banner they went after. They only had about half the numbers of the other units, and that was a hard difference to overcome no matter who was involved. That being said, after these attacks announced to the rest of the training battalion that the ladies were ready for battle, they repulsed three assaults on their own tower without ever being in danger of losing their two banners.

Tiberias’ Black Vipers participated in a couple battles as well but didn’t do much to distinguish themselves. This was, oddly enough, by Tiberias’ own design. He was saving himself for the ending competition, so he led the Black Vipers to attack only two other units. He didn’t even target their banners; he would simply retreat after a few token casualties were inflicted.

But that wasn’t to say Tiberias and the Black Vipers were sitting on their thumbs all day. They had actually filled much of their time with additional training, in the same vein as the Snow Lions and the Deathbringers—though not as intense. Tiberias and his fellow third-tier Black Vipers weren’t helping to train their lower-tiered trainees, only making them practice what they had learned during that day’s morning training.

All of this meant little to the Snow Lions, who continued to do their own thing, gradually becoming something that—to their Instructors at least—started to resemble a proper company of Royal Legion soldiers.

---

Valeria continued sitting next to Leon during their enchantment classes. She and Leon had gotten quite used to sitting next to each other, exchanging short greetings when the class started, and they had managed to start relaxing in each other’s presence. They still refrained from actually conversing with each other for more than a few sentences, though.

When the class was over, they’d say goodbye or something to that effect and proceed to their evening activities. Their respect for each other was profound enough that both greatly desired to train together, but since neither could start a proper conversation with the other, that desire had to go unfulfilled. But then, a little over two months after the Snow Lions regained their banner, Valeria was approached with an offer that could potentially result in the two fighting again.

Marcus Aeneas, following morning training one day, quietly approached Valeria with an offer concerning the Snow Lions. She didn’t have much business with Marcus, but she heard him out anyway.

And when he was done with his proposition, she agreed. After Marcus left, she let her stoic demeanor drop for just a moment, and a smile of anticipation slowly spread across her face.

---

The day after Marcus made his offer to Valeria, she was absent from the enchanting class. Leon found it quite odd, but absences weren’t uncommon if the trainee in question felt their time would be better used for something else—in fact, the class itself had already lost four second-tier noble trainees who simply never bothered to show up anymore. Still, neither Leon nor Valeria had missed a single day the entire cycle, and Leon felt a little unsettled by the sight of her empty seat.

[Who cares where that girl is.] muttered Xaphan after sensing Leon’s unease. [Look, boy, don’t go biting off more than you can chew. You can barely talk to that Erika girl—]

[—Elise,] Leon corrected rather testily.

Xaphan continued with barely a missed beat, [—without getting all red-faced and tongue-tied, I can’t see you juggling two ladies like this. Stick with what you know, and just let this one go.]

[Your faith in my abilities never ceases to amaze me, demon,] Leon grumbled.

[What abilities?] Xaphan playfully mocked. [You look like nothing more than a young kid thinking with his wrong head.]

Their back-and-forth ended there as the enchanting instructor arrived and the class began. Afterward, Leon made for the Snow Lion tower, as had become routine. As he leisurely jogged down the forest roads, though, he suddenly realized that he was being followed. This wasn’t too unusual, he had fought off spies sent by other units before, but he had a bad feeling that this time was different. His pursuer was staying off the road so Leon couldn’t see them. Whoever they were, they moved so silently that if the wind hadn’t carried the sound just so, Leon might’ve missed them entirely.

Leon frowned but kept moving. There wouldn’t be much point in confronting the enemy right there in the middle of the road as Leon couldn’t know their numbers or identities, though he guessed that it couldn’t be more than one or two. There might be even more out in the forest somewhere, though, and that thought had his heart start to beat faster, and his fingers instinctively curling in anticipation of grasping a blade.

The other returning trainees didn’t take such a slow pace and arrived at the tower before he did, so once he entered their sight, he motioned for them to head inside. This group of Snow Lions, half a dozen strong, had had to fend off enough spies to create a protocol for it, which essentially boiled down to heading inside to strategize in a place where they wouldn’t be overheard. If anyone did try to take the opportunity to attack while they were inside, then while the attacker was busy with the locked door, they could leave out of a window and make a break for it.

When Leon made it to the door, he took one last look over his shoulder before making his way inside. He didn’t see anyone, but he could still feel their eyes on him from the forest. That he couldn’t locate this mysterious enemy in the terrain he was most comfortable in unnerved him.

“What’s going on?” asked one of the other Snow Lions.

“We’re being followed. Don’t know how many, but they’re out there.” Leon’s attitude caught the others off-guard.

“What… what should we do?” asked another of the second-tier trainees.

“Hmmm…” Leon muttered, having been mulling that very problem over since he first noticed the uninvited guest. “We don’t have enough people to fight off a coordinated attack from another unit… For now, we’ll head north instead of west and try to lose them in the forest. If we’re lucky, our pursuer will get bored and leave. If we’re not lucky, then… we scatter. If everyone runs in a separate direction, at least one of us should escape. Our mystery pursuer will probably go after me, seeing as they should also be third-tier if they’re hiding from me so well…”

“Define ‘not lucky’…” asked the first trainee who spoke up.

“If they attack us. Let me know if you see anyone, and if we’re attacked, then do as I said and bail.”

The other trainees frowned but accepted his plan. They were in a terrible position, but there wouldn’t be much they could do other than hope for the best if even Leon was so obviously expecting the worst. The six men trusted Leon, though. His defense of the tower when the Deathbringers attacked and his actions afterward had won over most of the second-tier nobles, helped greatly by Castor’s friendly attitude towards him. They weren’t Leon’s followers, but since Castor wasn’t there, they accepted his authority without much reservation.

“Well, we’re not going to get anywhere if we just hide in here,” said Leon as he turned back to the entrance. He paused before opening the door to listen, but after not hearing anything, he pushed it open and confidently led the others back outside.

The group nervously walked across the open area surrounding the tower to enter the forest, expecting arrows to rain down on them any second.

They made it to the tree line without coming under fire, despite their anxiety, and sped off into the forest, with Leon setting a pace brisk enough to make it nearly impossible for anyone to follow them silently. But follow them silently the spy must have because Leon couldn’t hear or see anything. In fact, after about five minutes of running through the quietforest, the thought that Leon was mistaken had started to creep into the minds of the other Snow Lions.

And then an arrow sped through the trees, narrowly missing both Leon and one of the second-tier nobles.

---

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Chapters 102 & 103 - Ambush

---

The arrow came out of nowhere and blazed right past Leon’s leg, barely missing him and another Snow Lion by a hair. The strategy Leon had decided on was to run away if attacked, but one arrow hardly qualified as something they needed to run away from. That being said, as none of the Snow Lions had any ranged weapons of their own, they all immediately sought cover behind trees while trying to see who was shooting at them.

Once the initial panic from being attacked wore off, Leon poked his head out from around the tree he had ducked behind. He knew the arrow had come from roughly ahead of him and to his right, so that’s where he focused his gaze.

He didn’t see anyone, but he did see hear a few quiet, but hurried footsteps pushing deeper into the forest. Whoever had shot that arrow was on the move, but it didn’t quite sound like they were trying to get away—their footsteps weren’t quite hurried enough for Leon to think that. Instead, he thought that they were probably just displacing after their shot, just in case Leon and his Snow Lions charged in the direction the arrow had come from.

‘Whoever is following us isn’t going to give up quite that easily…’ he thought to himself. Better to see who it was and to deal with them, if he could. The last thing he wanted was to deal with this every single time he and the Snow Lions needed to come to their tower for some reason, and the best way to deter people trying this was to retaliate with strength.

He wasn’t sure he could do this with the rest of the Snow Lions, though. He glanced backward, taking in the others with him. None of them, in his opinion, were good enough outdoorsmen to keep up with him or their mysterious archer.

“Get out here,” Leon ordered the other Snow Lions. “I’ll deal with this. Just stick to the strategy.”

He got a few worried looks, but as soon as he gave the order, several of the trainees bolted off into the forest without hesitation. That essentially forced everyone else’s hand, and the rest of the Snow Lions began moving in different directions, scattering into the forest to make their own way back to the gorge.

Leon smiled as the others vanished into the forest. ‘They’ll be fine, I’m sure,’ Leon told himself, suppressing his few misgivings.

He pushed himself to his feet and rushed in the rough direction the last arrow had come from. As before, he didn’t see the archer, but that didn’t stop him from looking around. He dug deep and used every tracking trick he knew about, and after several minutes, he managed to find a promising trail. It was faint, proving the skill of the mysterious archer, but it wasn’t anything Leon couldn’t track.

Leon smiled in anticipation of a good fight, then took off in pursuit of the archer. The trail wound around and doubled back several times, but Leon kept following, determined as he was not to let the archer escape. The longer he followed, though, the more unease he started to feel; he couldn’t hear the archer anymore, and that had him feeling more than a little nervous. He slowed down significantly, the worry that he was dealing with more than a single archer growing with every step. He didn’t want to stumble into an ambush, so sacrificing some speed for caution was a fair trade, in his mind.

He stopped completely when the trail led down into a sparsely vegetated valley surrounded on three sides by large, forested hills. Leon and the Snow Lions had trained in that very same cul-de-sac only a week prior, so he knew well enough that once he went in he’d be at the mercy of anyone on those hills. The slopes of the hills near the entrance of the cul-de-sac were relatively gradual, so had he not been there before, he probably would’ve walked straight into a terrible position without realizing until it was too late.

Leon’s smile of anticipation faded away, to be replaced with a deep frown—this, more than anything else, had him thinking that this was an obvious trap, meant to draw in any Snow Lions foolish enough to dive into the valley without thought. He peeled off the trail, moving in a wide circle around the hills surrounding the cul-de-sac. The tallest of the hills surrounding it was on the opposite side, and that’s where he wanted to be.

It had been over an hour since Leon’s group had left the Snow Lions’ tower, and Leon was still getting back into the groove of hunting his prey. He’d managed to do some hunting before the Snow Lions had moved into the western gorge, but since then, he hadn’t done much to keep sharp. But following that trail had been like flipping a switch; Leon fell back into old habits and moved through the forest like a ghost, making no noise and leaving no trail anyone else in the Academy could easily follow.

It wasn’t long before he had circled around the entire hill cluster and began ascending his target hill. The short journey had given him some time to think about who might be interested in ambushing him. His first thought had been the most obvious, the Deathbringers. Gaius had no shortage of reasons to seek his revenge on Leon, but such an indirect plan didn’t strike Leon as being his style.

Leon’s second thought was Tiberias. He definitely got the idea that Tiberias hated him, and that it was probably due to his relationship with Elise. That look the man had given him as Elise walked off with Leon to get Xaphan’s potion ingredients, in particular, made Leon think that he’d made an enemy that day. Leon didn’t know enough about Tiberias to confidently say it was him, though.

After those two came the Steel Century. There wasn’t much to back Leon up on that possibility, but he knew Alcander wanted to duel him and the tower closest to the cul-de-sac belonged to his unit.

Leon looked forward to confronting who had prepared this for him, assuming he wasn’t simply being paranoid. That thought had occurred to him as well, that maybe the archer had only passed through the valley and that he’d made the detour for nothing. Leon truly hoped that wasn’t what was happening, as he’d have undoubtedly lost too much time going around the hills to catch the archer if it was.

It was because of that final possibility that Leon felt relief when the top of the hill came within view and he saw a young man hiding behind a boulder, watching the clearing at the center of the hill cluster like a hawk. He had a bow, a small quiver of training arrows, and a training sword strapped to his hip.

Leon smiled and silently crept up on the man from behind. The man was too engrossed in his vigil to notice Leon until he had pounced like a lion on its prey. It was over in less than a heartbeat; the man lay stunned at Leon’s feet and barely a sound had been made. Taking the opportunity to get a good look at the man, Leon pushed him over onto his back. He immediately recognized the guy as being one of the third-tier nobles who led the Steel Century.

Leon rolled the unconscious noble out of sight with a frown. He’d watched both Marcus and Alcander fight multiple times during the first month of the training cycle and knew they were both extremely capable warriors. Leon’s frown grew deeper when he took the noble’s place behind the boulder and cast his gaze down into the valley. Down there, he saw Marcus, sitting on a wooden stool out in the open with a bow slung over his shoulder. He was alone in the clearing between the hills, but from Leon’s vantage point he could see at least two other people, though they were hiding in the trees covering the hills, and he couldn’t get a good look at their faces.

He guessed one of them would be Alcander—he saw one of them had a long pole on their back, not unlike the haft of Alcander’s ax—and the other had to be the last third-tier noble leading their unit. What gave him pause, though was that both of them were on the same hill, which would leave one hill undefended had Leon not already made a move. He figured there might be others on that last hill that he couldn’t see, and who they were had him feeling rather nervous. He’d already seen the Deathbringers make an alliance with the Black Vipers, and that had lost the Snow Lions their banner. He was confident in the strength of his unit to face down any other unit in this training cycle, but if they were allying against his Snow Lions, then that changed things…

Despite the horrible position it would put him in, Leon made the decision to head down there and see what Marcus wanted. Even if he were walking right into their ambush, at the very least, the mysterious allies ought to be revealed.

Besides, he wanted to confront the people who’d done all of this.

‘They’ve gone to so much trouble to invite me here that not speaking with Marcus would be rude!’he thought, holding his training sword in a vice-grip and smiling at the thought of the fight he was sure would come, despite his enormous disadvantage. If things went poorly, he could always retreat back into the forest where he was confident he could escape with little trouble.

Leon’s smile grew wider and he started moving.

---

Marcus grinned as Leon finally showed himself. Leon was walking in from the entrance of the cul-de-sac, the direction that Marcus had been expecting. He was looking extremely cautious, and kept scanning the hills, showing himself to be not foolish enough to think that Marcus was here alone, but the simple fact that he walking into Marcus’ trap had the noble feeling just a little disappointed. It was more than that that had Marcus feeling a little let down, though…

‘Hmm, he’s a little later than I expected…’ the third-tier noble thought for a moment. He banished that thought, though—he could revise his opinion of Leon later, but right now, the Valeman was walking in his direction. Marcus had to get his head in the game, otherwise he would end up like Gaius, and that was the last thing he wanted.

“Leon!” Marcus said, pointedly not calling Leon a barbarian. “I’m so glad you were able to find this place! I have to admit that I wasn’t sure you’d accept my invitation!”

“How could I not when it was so carefully delivered?” the Valeman shouted back, and Marcus couldn’t help but smile a bit wider in appreciation for the banter.

“I didn’t expect you to appear alone. Having more of your unit with you would have been much safer, no? Or are you just that confident in your abilities?”

“Had the others retreat,” Leon replied with an almost arrogant smirk.

“Really? That’s certainly… unorthodox…”

Leon didn’t answer, instead choosing to slowly walk in a circle around the still-sitting Marcus. He seemed to still be staring out into the forested hills, but he couldn’t possibly see anything, Marcus knew his allies were hidden to well for that.

“Cautious, aren’t you?” said Marcus with a light laugh. “Don’t worry, I only invited you here to talk, I mean you no harm.”

“Odd way to invite a man if you don’t want violence…” Leon pointed out as he glanced rather pointedly at Marcus’ bow.

Marcus put on a bashful face and went a little red from embarrassment. “Ah, well… I’ve been told that I have something of a flair for the dramatic…”

A moment of silence followed, during which Leon stopped circling Marcus and stood to face the noble with his back to the largest hill.

“Well, dramatic or not, I’m here now. Why’d you go to the trouble of all this?” Leon bluntly asked.

“There are actually a couple things I had hoped to bring up with you if you would indulge me,” answered Marcus, his smile turning into more of a smirk as Leon placed his back to the hills, unwittingly leaving himself open for Marcus’ bow-armed companion on the largest hill. “I’m quite curious as to where the Snow Lions have been these past few months, as I’m sure many others are. Perhaps you could enlighten me as to where you all have been?”

Leon’s answer was swift and came without hesitation. “No.”

“Really? Why not?” asked Marcus as he put on a hurt expression. “I’m really curious, surely you could give me this one small indulgence?”

“Why would I?”

“… To make a friend?” responded Marcus as he turned to properly face the Valeman. Leon rolled his eyes at the weak justification, but Marcus just laughed it off. “It doesn’t matter what you think, you’ll tell us the location eventually. Which brings me to my second point! My friend has witnessed your skills from afar and has consequently been inspired to test himself against you! I would appreciate it if you could indulge him…”

Marcus continued to jovially smile at Leon, but he raised his fist into the air in a signal to those waiting in the trees to show themselves. Alcander emerged from the trees to Marcus’ left with a smile of great anticipation, his huge ax already in hand, the last third-tier mage of the Steel Century, sword already in hand, at his side.

Leon, curiously, didn’t seem that surprised at Alcander’s appearance, but what happened next certainly had his eyes opening wide in shock.

Valeria appeared from the trees on the opposite hill, her glaive at the ready, a subtle, but playful smile on her lips. Asiya, too, popped out from the trees, looking thrilled as she blocked the path that Leon had taken into the valley.

Asiya happily jumped into the air, giving Leon an exaggerated wave while shouting, “Hi there!” Leon waved back, though not nearly in such a bubbly manner, then nodded to Valeria to acknowledge her as well. She nodded back making it clear to everyone that she wasn’t there out of malice. Marcus wasn’t sure if Leon could appreciate such finer details of civilized life, but Leon certainly didn’t look aggrieved.

“So, is it Alcander or Valeria who wanted to fight?” Leon asked, despite looking like he already knew the answer as his eyes tracked Alcander more than anyone else.

“… It was Alcander,” Marcus responded, but the smile he wore was growing shallower as his final third-tier mage failed to appear from the largest hill behind Leon.

‘He’d better not have fallen asleep waiting for the ambush again,’he thought with rapidly-growing irritation.

“And if I lose, then I have to tell you where my unit is hiding?” Leon guessed, seemingly unaware of Marcus’ brooding.

“That’s right,” said Marcus, who turned his attention back to Leon. Even if he was down one third-tier mage, there was still more than enough force to follow through on his plan.

“Well,” began Leon, “I’m not going to tell you, no matter what happens.  And I won’t agree to anything that could possibly end with me telling you what you want to know.”

“Are you sure? You haven’t even heard what we’re willing to wager—"

“I don’t care what you offer, it’s not happening.”

“So you won’t fight him?”

“I’m perfectly willing to fight him; in fact, I’d quite like to, but I’m not going to put the Snow Lions or their banners at anyrisk.”

Marcus frowned at Leon, then gestured again to the other four third-tier mages. “I guess we’ll have to think of something else to entice you with. For the time being, I’m going to have to ask you to come with me back to my tower—"

“Fuck you, not happening,” Leon bluntly interrupted, throwing Marcus completely off.

“Well that was extremely rude…” Marcus said in response. “You’re outnumbered, you don’t really have much of a choice. I don’t want things to get out of hand, so why don’t—"

“Aren’t you curious as to why your last guy hasn’t emerged yet?” Leon interrupted again. Marcus looked at him blankly for a split second, before Leon’s slight smile clued him into what had happened. But, before he could move, Leon was already lunging forward and drawing his sword.

Marcus barely managed to raise his arm to block, but he was knocked flat on his back and his right arm was stunned into paralysis. He hadn’t expected Leon to attack him with so many other third-tier mages around; he thought he’d been in complete control of the situation and had been caught completely off-guard.

Marcus shouted in surprise and pain and could do nothing as Leon turned around and sprinted for the largest hill. Alcander, Valeria, and Asiya all moved to engage him, but they were caught just as off-guard as Marcus and Leon managed to make it up and over the hill before anyone could stop him. Alcander and Valeria pursued Leon into the forest while Asiya stopped to examine the noble Leon had knocked out earlier. Concurrently, the last third-tier trainee from the Steel Century had gone to check up on the flabbergasted Marcus.

“Why would he dothat? He was supposed to surrender or fight here!” Marcus shouted indignantly, angered more at Leon not doing what he predicted than his temporarily paralyzed arm. But the anger soon passed, and the thrill of the hunt set in as he sprang to his feet, charged up the hill, and took off after Alcander and Valeria with Asiya in tow, leaving the last third-tier noble behind to take care of his stunned comrade.

---

Leon sprinted through the forest with Alcander and Valeria in dogged pursuit.

“HAHA! THIS IS FANTASTIC! NO GOOD MEAL COMES WITHOUT AN APPETIZER AND NO GOOD FIGHT COMES WITHOUT SOME BUILD UP!” Alcander bellowed. He’d been yelling himself hoarse for a while, having quickly realized that Marcus and Asiya had fallen behind him and Valeria. So, he’d taken it upon himself to shout loudly enough to practically let the entire Academy know where they were. He wasn’t even paying that much attention to what he said, the point was just to make sure Marcus could follow them even if they’d left his sight.

But even though Alcander made it easy for Marcus to follow him, his and Valeria’s pursuit of Leon wasn’t going nearly so well.

Out in the forest, Leon was proving himself to be unmatched. He was certainly proving his barbarian comfort with the outdoors, with the lead he had in the beginning only growing wider in the minutes since the chase had started.  He avoided every tree root, weed, and errant stone in his path as if he had run along this route a hundred times before.

Alcander wasn’t particularly built for speed, and he was struggling to keep up. It was only his stubbornness that kept him running so hard after Leon, and his mounting frustration not to let him go.

Looking to his right, he saw that Valeria clearly didn’t share in his mounting frustration. A rare smile had graced her lips; she clearly relished the chase.

‘That girl’s a damn monster…´ Alcander thought appreciatively as she pulled ahead of him.  Fatigue was setting in, and even his frustration could only keep his legs moving so quickly.

Valeria had no such problem, though.

“Don’t lose him!” shouted Alcander to Valeria in between roars for Marcus’ benefit.

“I won’t,” replied Valeria, “though it seems you won’t be getting the first bout.”

“Grrrah! Fine! Just keep him in sight!”

With those words, Alcander slowed down to meet up with Marcus and Asiya, letting Valeria handle the chase. He kept moving, though, doing his best to keep Valeria in sight even as Leon vanished into the forest.

After another few minutes, they started moving up a steep hill. It seemed to Alcander that they just might catch the Snow Lion as he slowed down enough to allow his pursuers to come back into visual range. But then, he crested the hill, and disappeared once more.

It only took Valeria a moment to get to the top of the hill, but as soon as she did, she practically froze in place. Her head swiveled in clear confusion, and Alcander soon found himself joining her at the top of the hill. Leon had vanished into the forest.

“He… where did he go?” Valeria wondered aloud as Marcus and Asiya finally caught up to them now that they had come to a stop.

“You said you wouldn’t lose him!” complained Alcander, groaning loudly in disappointment. His tone was light enough to make it clear that he was more frustrated with Leon than Valeria, though, and he gave her a quick smile of camaraderie, which she rather pointedly ignored.

“How could that guy just disappear like that?” Asiya wondered aloud as she joined the others at the top of the hill. She’d ran hard to keep up, yet her usual buoyant enthusiasm didn’t seem dampened in the slightest, which Alcander couldn’t help but admire. “Ooooh! Maybe he had some kind of invisibility spell or enchantment or something like that?! That would be sooo cool!”

“It’s possible, but I doubt that,” Marcus said, massaging his right arm and flexing his fingers.  “Such spells or enchanted items would sell for tens of millions of silver, so far outside of the price range of a Valeman that it would be ludicrous to assume he would have one… However, I think I might have something.”

The other three quickly moved closer to Marcus, who crouched down to examine the ground near the top of the hill.

“He didn’t vanish, he just changed directions. In the split second that Lady Valeria lost sight of him, he darted to the right.”

“Damn,” she whispered in a tone that suggested self-recrimination. “Did he leave a trail that you can follow?” she asked anxiously.

“He did,” answered Marcus, bringing a smile to the faces of the entire party.

He led them in pursuit of Leon at a fast pace—though it was quite a bit slower than when they were directly chasing him earlier. Every now and then he’d have to stop and examine the ground or a bush, but still confidently led them onward. Alcander was grateful; he was next to useless when it came to tracking.

“This trail is meandering west, towards the mountains,” Asiya pointed out. “Perhaps the Snow Lions’ camp is in the west, rather than somewhere in the forest as we had assumed?”

“Maybe…” muttered Marcus with a furrowed brow.

“Something wrong?” asked Alcander, noticing the unease that had started to creep into Marcus’ voice.

“It’s… probably nothing, but the trail seems odd…”

“… Could you be a little more specific as to it’s oddity?” asked Valeria after a long pause from Marcus.

“Well, every time I see a sign of Leon’s passage, it leads us in a certain direction. But, there’s only ever that one sign, and when we go far enough that I would need another clue, then bam! There’s another one just waiting for me. Maybe I’m reading too much into this, but it just seems oddly convenient.”

“Not getting cold feet, are you” asked Alcander in a teasing tone.

“Hardly. I just don’t want to lead us into a trap.”

“He’s oneguy! How much of a trap could he spring on such short notice?”

“Let’s hope we don’t have to find out…”

The group followed the trail right up to one of the doorsteps of the western mountains, a small footpath on the northern edge of the Academy’s training grounds that led into a series of rocky canyons carved by powerful earth mages centuries ago.

“Well, shit…” muttered Alcander as he looked up at the two imposing mountains that flanked the mouth of the footpath. His doubts about what Leon could do to them started to evaporate; the greatest danger to Leon fighting all of them at once was that one person could tie him down while the other three would attack his exposed flanks. The footpath, however, was far too narrow for such flanking action.

They would have to be fools to not acknowledge Leon’s fighting skill. They all knew that he was an equal at the very least to any of them, so combat against him in such a confined space would be far from easy, especially if he were to spring an ambush of his own.

“I’m going in,” Alcander declared, drawing the eyes of the other three. “We’ve come this far, and I, for one, am not going to just turn around and run when Leon is somewhere in there.”

Without another word, Alcander tightened his grip on his ax and strode with more confidence than he felt down the footpath, with Valeria only just behind him. Marcus and Asiya hesitated for a few seconds, but they, too, followed, and all four soon plunged into the rocky canyons that Leon’s trail led into.

---

“This damned place,” Alcander muttered as the group of four reached another intersection. They had followed Leon’s trail into the footpaths and had walked deeper into the canyons, the sky growing ever further away with every step they took.  They quickly found that the canyons were essentially a maze, probably built by some sadistic Knight Academy Legate who wanted to diversify the local terrain. If it wasn’t for Marcus—who had learned how to navigate in such terrain in his family’s holdings in the hilly and mountainous Eastern Territories—they would’ve gotten lost as soon as they made their first few turns.

Marcus had lost Leon’s trail, but the four nobles refused to give up without at least trying to find it again, and so had stubbornly kept exploring. All four regretted that decision, as there didn’t seem to be an end to the rocky crags and cliffs that surrounded and almost seemed to press down onto them.

‘Did he want to bring us here? Was it his intention to lose us in this place?’ Marcus wondered. If it was Leon’s plan for them to get lost in the maze, then he had to admit he was both impressed and disappointed.  Impressed at Leon’s simple but effective plan, but disappointed with the abject failure of his own plan.

“We should leave…” Valeria said quietly, her radiant blue eyes constantly swiveling in their sockets as she tried to keep everything in sight at all times, as if Leon could suddenly pop out of any of the boulders and attack.

“But this place is so cooool!” protested Asiya, her face beaming in joy as if she were here as a tourist.

Valeria pointed out, “This place is also probably where the Snow Lions have been hiding for these past few months. I’m sure they would know the layout far better than we do. Continuing onward would be asking to walk into an ambush.”  Asiya frowned for a moment, but didn’t disagree.

“Let’s press on,” said Marcus. “I have a feeling we’re about to find what we’re looking for…”

“You’re not wrong,” came a voice from above them, “but you really should have listened to the lady!”

The four immediately looked up, searching for the source of that voice, and saw Castor, Alphonsus, Leon, and eleven other Snow Lions staring back at them from the top of the crevice they were walking through. The cliff walls were low enough for third-tier mages like them to jump to the top of, only about three or four times the height of a full-grown man, but the Snow Lions didn’t give them the opportunity. As soon as they turned their eyes up and made eye contact, the Snow Lions loosed their prepared arrows.

Alcander shouted as he raised his axe to try and defend, but he was a large man and the four arrows aimed at him all found their mark, knocking him out.

Marcus tried to dodge, but both of his legs and one of his arms were hit and disabled.

Asiya and Valeria dodged as well, but an arrow grazed Asiya’s arm and paralyzed it. Valeria was the only one of the group who wasn’t hit. After taking a moment to take in her situation, she leaped into the air and landed nimbly on the top of the cliff.

And there she was faced with Leon, Alphonsus, and five other Snow Lions. Leon stood in front of her grinning in triumph, while Alphonsus raised his sword and glared from behind her.

“Draw!” shouted Castor from the other side of the crevice, ordering the rest of the Snow Lions to prepare more arrows to fire down on Marcus and Asiya. Then, he turned to Valeria. “If you fight, you won’t win. However, if you leave, we won’t follow you…”

Valeria looked at how badly she was outnumbered and surrounded, glanced back down at the other three, then reluctantly lowered her glaive, a scowl momentarily gracing her features as Leon stood only a few steps in front of her, still grinning triumph, no sign of fatigue from the run through the forest anywhere to be seen on his face.

“… We’ll go…” she reluctantly murmured, acknowledging that they had lost. Neither Marcus nor Asiya argued with her decision. Marcus actually thought the Snow Lions were being incredibly merciful for not simply knocking them all out and dropping them at the doors of their respective towers.

Valeria made to rejoin her group, but just as she was about to jump back down, she turned to Leon and said, “I’m looking forward to our next proper duel.” Then, she gave him a minute nod and jumped back down into the canyon.

“I’m looking forward to it as well,” responded Leon with a much bigger smile.

Marcus, Alcander, Asiya, and Valeria promptly retreated under the watchful eyes of the Snow Lions, with Valeria carrying Alcander and Asiya supporting Marcus until his stunned legs regained feeling. They cut amusing figures as the two young ladies carried two much bigger men with seemingly little effort. Marcus was still conscious, so he was easily able to direct them back to the exit. The Snow Lions didn’t follow them that far, but none of them were under any illusions that Leon, at least, didn’t know where they were.

‘Next time, we won’t lose,’ he thought as the competitive fire in his heart blazed with a fierce intensity. ‘Next time, we will seize those banners. When this cycle comes to an end, it will be the Steel Century who stands on top!’