Prime Originator

A few minutes passed before Leon was fully healed back to peak condition. Looking at his dirtied clothes, Leon shook his head before returning to the Capital. 

"Might as well sweat a bit in the workshop, since I'm already this dirty…" 

Leon headed straight for Upper North District on his way back. Shortly after entering, he arrived in front of the workshop tower.

"What brings you so early to my workshop this time, my boy?" Ignis greeted him jovially with a few pats and gave the ragged Leon up and down glances. "What happened to you?"

Leon shook his head. "Never mind that, I came to use your forge again, father-in-law." 

The atmosphere in the workshop was the same as yesterday, bustling, and noisy. Nothing has changed. It was like the attack on the entire Upper District last night did not happen. 

Some people grieved for their lost ones and an upcoming large-scale funeral service will be held soon. It was said that the king would be attending personally and making a speech, but that would be it.

It was unfortunate, but the world would still be spinning, and life had to go on. There was work to do and money to be earned.

"Sure, sure you can use my forge again. Do you need my help again… hm?" Duke Ignis paused as he realized something. "I guess you don't."

The Duke sounded a little depressed towards the end of his words. After Leon recovered his awakening cultivation and even made large strides in it. The Duke could not see through it, but he could tell that his son-in-law's cultivation was already higher than his. 

However, the Duke was not a person who would remain dwell on his depression for long periods. In a short instance, he had already recovered and moved on.

"Oh, that reminds me. The Scribing Pen was amazing! It worked wonders as you had described it! Do you want to see the first working levitation stone we made? I can't believe such a simple answer plagued us for years."

"…Nah, I'm good here." Leon smiled wryly. He already expected such a result. The Lancasters had perfected runic lines engravings.

 Although they did not understand the details behind the effects, he had given them the blueprint for the levitation stone inner workings. Once everything was retraced by the Scribing Pen, it was not strange for the levitation stone to come to life after receiving the energy to kickstart it.

"I… I see…" Duke Ignis was a bit disheartened that Leon did not share his enthusiasm for such a groundbreaking matter. "Aren't you a bit excited at all, boy? Don't you know what this means? Think about it, it will be the booming age of airships!"

Duke Ignis was simply sparkling at the thought. How amazing would that be? However, Leon was not moved.

"What's so great about airships if you can already fly and have interspatial storages to carry stuff?" Leon asked nonchalantly. 

Duke Ignis was immediately tongue-tied for words and began questioning his life's work. Leon had a great point. He had nothing to counter that argument and became depressed.

"I mean… Not everyone is able to fly and have interspatial storages, so it would still become a great asset to the kingdom. At least there will be no shortage of people who would want to own one…" Leon tried to console the Duke.

"Alright, let's not talk about that anymore." Duke Ignis shook his head and his eyes became sharp. "Let's talk about you."

"What about me?" 

Leon became stunned at the sudden shift of topics.

"When are you going to visit my daughter? You know, both of you have been engaged since birth and it has been some time since you both last seen each other. If you do not interact, how do you plan to cultivate your feelings? I don't know what happened, but as future husband and wife, you both need to get along harmoniously, no?

The Duke skillfully fishing out two pills from his interspatial ring and returned them to Leon. Leon glanced at the two pills and frowned with confusion. They were the Forgetting Nightmare Pill and Reminiscent Trial Pill he refined for Rachel.

"Rachel… she hasn't taken any of these pills yet?" 

It was obvious in plain sight with the presence of the two pills in front of Leon, but he still could not help but ask the question with doubts. He wanted to know why.

"She's… quite the stubborn girl." Duke Ignis said helplessly. "She wanted to overcome the trauma by her own efforts and not take the easy solution provided by you."

"By her own efforts, you mean…"

"She's been facing a bucket of blood every day."

Leon was speechless. What was Rachel trying to prove? A woman's thoughts were hard to comprehend.

Fear of blood was not difficult to overcome, but the blood that invokes a traumatic memory was not so simple to overcome. Rachel was basically torturing herself by going about it the hard way when she did not need to. 

Nevertheless, he had to at least commend her for her spirit if that was what she had been doing for the past month without giving up.

"I'll visit her after I'm done here, father-in-law." Leon shook his head and said.

"Alright… then I'll leave you to it for now."

After the Duke took the lift to a higher floor in the workshop tower, Leon went ahead and fired up the forge and prepped the materials. 

There were quite a few items he intended to forge today now that his awakening cultivation had been unsealed. With his metal and fire manipulation, the forging time was cut down to a fraction of the previous time taken. 

By the time Leon was done, there were several more interspatial rings, a few swords with rune enchantments, and even his own black spear had undergone reforging and enchanted with the power of runes.

Leon was quite satisfied with his work. If there was one thing to nitpick about all the items he produced in the span of four hours, it would be his aesthetic sense.

Ignoring the underlying runes hidden underneath and the quality of materials poured into it, the surface appearance of the sword itself was as plain as any other common sword found in the kingdom.

There simply no intricate design or beauty to it. Anyone would mistake it for cheap swords and rings at first glance. 

Nevertheless, there was nothing to nitpick about the sword's performance. It was just slightly inferior to his enchanted black spear that received a 150% improvement to its overall quality, whether it was its durability, attack power, and sharpness. The black spear also weighs a staggering 400-jin, thanks to weight rune enchantment he added.

Nodding with satisfaction, Leon wiped his sweat and stowed away the items in his Worldspace before leaving. 

Shortly after a quick wash at a public bathhouse, Leon arrived in front the Lancaster's mansion. It had been some time since he last visited.

"Halt! Who goes there?!" 

A servant guarding the gate stopped him at the entrance. 

Leon looked left and right, before pointing to himself with a weird expression of doubt. Was 3 months too long of a period that servants of the Lancaster family would forget a person of his status? He was not just the prince but the Duke's future son-in-law. 

Another new guy that did not do his homework, perhaps? Did Bloodfiend Sect also attack the mansion last night and killed some servants? Where did the Lancasters find this guy?

"Are you talking to me?" He asked doubtfully.

"Who else would I be asking if not you? Quickly state your business here. Not just any cats and dogs can enter this estate." The servant rolled his eyes rudely.

"You must be new, right? With your cultivation, any cats and dogs are still stronger than you. I really wonder where your arrogance comes from." Leon shook his head as he was too lazy to bicker with a servant. "I came to see Rachel."

"You want to see the pearl of the Lancaster family? Who do you think you are? So, what if I am new? I have the Lancaster family behind me. Don't you know the Lancaster family will soon be related to the royal family by marriage? Stop dreaming about the young lady and just give up. You don't have a chance!" The servant said with disdain.

With Leon's young appearance and noble attire, the servant had completely taken him for another annoying young noble admirer who came to pester the young lady.

Leon was quite speechless. 

"Who do I think I am? Who do YOU think I am?"

"Hmm, why don't you state your family name and I will tell you who you are? I am quite familiar with all the young nobles in the Capital." The servant said pretentiously after studying Leon's features.

"Crawford family," Leon said flatly with a not-so-impressed expression.

"Crawford family, huh? Then you must be… wait, Crawford?" The servant started off with an arrogant momentum, but the nervousness in his tone could not be hidden towards the end of his words. "Hahaha… I must have heard wrong, what did you say your name was again?" 

"Leon Crawford."

Boom!

It was a casual response, but it rang like thunder in the servant's mind as the servant's knees began wobbling with weakness. He did not hear wrong, it really was the Crawford royal family! There could only be one person from the Crawford royal family that would match the person in front of him.

It's over! How could he behave so atrociously and rude to the prince? Who gave him such courage? Who?! If only he knew...

"Erm… please enter as you wish, your Highness." The servant said with an ashen face and forced smile that looked worse than crying.

Leon strolled forward with an impassive expression. As he walked past the servant, he patted the servant on the shoulder.

"A word of advice. Riding on the Lancaster family's fame does not give you the right to become arrogant. Learn to be more humble in the future, lest you lose what you got by luck. The Duke and Duchess really hate these types of people."

Leon did not need to say too much and just left. Recalling the past, he had been quite impulsive. Now, he did not care too much about making things difficult for these small fries. 

After he entered the estate, the servant collapsed to the ground with trickling cold sweat.