The Storm King

Chapter 534: Rounding Out the Retinue

Following Marcus and Alcander’s departure, Leon found himself unable to immediately return to work. He simply sat in his living room idly twirling the cards they’d written their contact information on between his fingers, his thoughts lost in speculations about the future. He had his lovers, and now he had two nobles—soon to be former-nobles, if what they had told him held any water—and he wanted Alix on his side, too. It had been more than a month since he’d last spoken to her, so, about an hour after the other two left, Leon almost leaped up from his sofa and left his home, a new conviction in his heart. He needed supporters, and he needed to know that his friend that had been through two wars with him was going to come south with him or not.

He wasn’t entirely sure where Alix was, especially since she’d entered into a kind of ‘limbo’ following his resignation where she wasn’t entirely part of the Legion, but she wasn’t his knight anymore, either. He knew where she had stayed before the civil war, but that undoubtedly changed after all that had happened. So, he figured a good place to start would be at the Legion headquarters near the Knight Academy.

It took Leon about an hour to reach the Legion headquarters after getting Anzu ready to go, but fortunately, things proceeded much more quickly after his arrival. The Legion Headquarters was a massive, if rather dry and boring building. It had an ostentatious façade, with the lower third of the building painted in Legion red, and a huge marble pylon leading into the front courtyard decorated with thousands of reliefs of Legion soldiers winning battles. The place was large enough that Leon had been seen long before he dismounted Anzu at the pylon’s entrance, and there was already a Centurion waiting for him.

“Hail, Leon Ursus!” the man called out as Leon slid out of Anzu’s saddle. “Do you have business with the Legions?”

“I do… I guess…” Leon replied, a little taken aback. He’d spent essentially the entire ride over wondering just how he was going to ask for the information he needed and who he’d need to talk to and dreading the bureaucratic hoops he might have to jump through, but he hadn’t once thought that someone would greet him outside.

The Centurion quickly waved to a few second-tier mages who took Anzu to the huge nearby stables, then said to Leon, “Follow me, please. I’ve been ordered to see to whatever you need.”

“Thanks…” Leon hesitantly replied as he followed the Centurion inside, this reception taking him off-guard more than a little.

For a short while, the two spoke about the current situation, during which Leon learned that the previous Consul of the Central Territories, the old noble named Avidius, who had been replaced by the Duke of Valencia during the civil war, had been executed by the King, and his post had yet to be filled. As a result, when Leon finally steered the conversation in the direction of finding Alix, it was to a Legate that the Centurion brought him.

The Legate was a serious man who seemed to be busy when Leon arrived, so after a brief exchange of pleasantries, he had Leon and the Centurion sent to the appropriate offices to be given the information.

As a result, Leon left the Legion Headquarters barely half an hour after he arrived with the location of Alix’s assigned barrack. He was practically numb from surprise as he retrieved Anzu from the stable and began riding off, frequently turning in his saddle to stare in light disbelief that the Legion had been so quick and helpful. As someone who wasn’t in the Legion, he wasn’t sure if they were going to give him what he needed, but he was grateful that they did. He supposed being a seventh-tier mage, a prominent knight that fought on the winning side of the civil war, and correctly rumored to be last member of the most powerful noble House in the realm had something to do with it.

Regardless, he arrived at the barracks that Alix supposedly stayed in only about two hours after leaving his villa. Much like most Legion buildings, the barracks were quite uninspired, architecturally speaking, with little notable about them. The only way that people could find their way through them was by the numbers attached to every building to indicate where they were.

Leon lucked out and was seen again as he slowly rode in. He’d barely even paused long enough to dismount Anzu when Alix appeared from the front door.

“Leon!” she called out as she waved at him with surprising cheer. Such a mood was not reflected in the handful of others lounging or walking around who could see the two of them, most of whom were giving Leon a wide berth.

Leon smiled and met Alix in front of the barracks, clasping her wrist in greeting as she did the same.

“It’s been too long,” he said. “How’ve you been?”

“It hasn’t been that long,” the brown-haired woman replied in a warm tone. “Barely been more than a month.”

“Long enough to feel your absence,” Leon replied, his tone nothing but friendly. “Have you been here the entire time?”

“I haven’t…” Alix replied as she led Leon back inside, though not before giving Anzu a quick head pat. The griffin was forced to wait outside, but at this point, Leon knew he was more than well-behaved enough to be left on his own for a while. Besides, he was a fifth-tier war beast, so he doubted anyone would make too much of a fuss about him.

As Alix showed him into her barrack, she quickly summarized what had occupied her time since leaving Leon’s service shortly after the civil war. She’d actually headed north not long after Leon had, visiting her parents for a few days before returning to the capital. She’d actually only beaten Leon back by a few days, though upon entering her rooms, Leon found that the vast majority of her things were packed and ready to go.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about where I want my life to go,” Alix said as she drew attention to her packed things with a wave of her hand. “I love my family, and I enjoy being a knight in this Kingdom, but staying here forever isn’t something I want to do. I didn’t join the Legion to serve the Kingdom, I joined it to get the hells out of my home village. I want to experience new things, visit new places, see all the wonders that this world can offer. So, if you’ll forgive me the time it took to finally come to this decision, and if the offer is still open, I’d like to re-enter your service. When you go south, I want to come with you.”

Leon’s smile widened considerably. “I wouldn’t even think of leaving one of my best friends behind,” he said as he almost pulled her into a hug. The only thing that stopped him was instinctive aversion to physical contact. Instead, he held out his fist, which Alix quickly bumped with her own in solidarity.

“So, how much will you pay me?” she asked. “I’m hoping for a significant salary, I am giving up just about everything in my life to follow you, I might not even come back here for years and years…”

Leon chuckled, and the two quickly hashed out a contract similar to what Leon had with Valeria. Alix was a fourth-tier knightess and that meant she could command a good salary from just about anyone. But Leon had significant resources at his disposal, so by the time he left Alix’s barracks about half an hour later, Alix had committed to resigning her knighthood to follow him. Their time together had also given him ample time to explain what their immediate future may hold: hunting down Octavius, which Alix was only too willing to help with.

Over the next week or so, Alix would be moving her stuff out of the Legion barracks and to a small apartment she’d scouted out the day before. Leon had enough room in his villa for her to stay there, but both of them were a little hesitant about that option. They were friends and nothing more, so her moving in might’ve been a little awkward with four other people in the villa all in some kind of relationship with each other.

Assuming Valeria was going to stick around, of course, which Leon wasn’t sure she was going to do. He hoped she would, but he wasn’t going to count on it happening, despite everything they knew about each other.

So, with no more business to take care of outside, Leon and Anzu quickly made their way back to the villa. Leon had to restrain the immense urge to simply fly there, but that had given him plenty of inspiration for how to fill his time when he got back.

Practically as soon as he was through the gates, he let Anzu play in the backyard while he got set up in the workshop going over his flight suit designs. He still had to reapply the defensive wards to his villa, but there was a burning in his blood that demanded he focus on flight, first.

He didn’t get too far, merely copying down the enchantments onto paper and evaluating their advantages—of which there were few based on how he’d built the flight suit—and shortcomings—of which there were many. Still, by the time he went to bed, his instincts had been satisfied.

The next couple of days passed by almost in a blur. He received no word from the King regarding Octavius’ whereabouts, and was only interrupted in his work once when Alix popped in for an hour or so to update him on her living situation. Other than that, he spent nearly all of his waking time either in his workshop or in his soul realm.

He gritted his teeth and started to buckle down into Nestor’s enchanting lessons. The man was infuriating in attitude and arrogant about his abilities, but Leon had to admit that when it came to enchantments, he knew exactly what he was talking about. He was so well-versed in the art that even after two days, Leon had learned enough to make reapplying the enchantments on his villa almost child’s play.

He also learned how to make a small offensive enchantment that would blast anyone he touched with gloves so enchanted with a tremendous amount of lightning for far less magic power than would be required to do it ‘manually’—a useful thing to keep in mind for whenever he got his armor back.

Nestor promised a great deal more, and even helped Leon to refine a few of his spell designs. Leon’s spell supplies weren’t exactly replenished, but with Nestor’s help, the spells he made during this time were a little more potent than those he’d made on his own.

However, for all this, Leon wasn’t going to take everything that Nestor had to offer. After all the thinking and reflection that he’d done over the past couple of weeks, he couldn’t just let Nestor and their Ancestors do all the work for him. He’d never have full confidence in himself if he did that.

So, when Nestor offered to pass along some of the more dangerous or esoteric spells that made full use of Leon’s Thunderbird blood, Leon refused. It was enough to know that such spells existed, and he felt certain that, given enough time, he’d be able to figure them out on his own. Nestor wasn’t so sure, but Leon wasn’t so dependent on Nestor’s opinion that such an opinion hurt him too much.

It did sting a little, though.

Regardless, Leon proceeded with his lessons, going over many of the basics of enchanting with a master of such skill that even just that much was enlightening. So absorbed was he in his work that he didn’t even realize that someone had entered his villa until the door of his workshop was flung open.

Leon whipped around, dropping the pen he’d been using to carefully draw runes upon spell paper as he conjured his blade from his soul realm. He was startled that it wasn’t until the blade began to spark with lightning magic that he finally realized who it was that now stood in the workshop doorway, the outside light giving her an almost angelic halo: Elise, one hand on a cocked hip, an amused smile on her face, her piercing green eyes mirthfully narrowed despite Leon’s violent reaction.

“I knocked several times, you know,” she said, her silvery voice calming Leon down until he laughed at his own reaction and stowed his blade.

“Sorry about that,” he said as he strode forward and took his fire-haired lover in his arms. “Welcome home.”