Chapter 168: Leon’s Story [1]

"Hey!" Leon’s cheeks went red immediately. "What did you just say?!"

"Catch me if you can!" Aurelia was already running down the long sunlit corridor laughing and her laughter bounced off every marble wall.

"WAIT!" He ran after her and their voices filled the palace and it was the best sound either of them had ever made.

**

Back in the present Zeus’s heel pressed down and the fractured ribs shifted and Leon bit back the sound that tried to come out of him. The tears were drying on his face in the cold air.

He thought of her laugh. He hadn’t let himself think of it in a very long time.

**

He had been an orphan when this all started.

No family name. No crest. No home... A boy with an unnaturally large mana core and nowhere in particular to belong.

A royal alchemist had found him and one other boy and brought them before the King with the careful posture of someone presenting something valuable.

"Your Majesty. I strongly recommend keeping these two children under royal protection." The old man had bowed deep before the throne. "Their mana cores are unnaturally large. Far beyond anything seen in children of this age. With proper guidance they could become extraordinary warriors."

The King had looked down at the two quiet boys standing near the pillars. One slightly older than the other. Both of them small and uncertain in the vast throne room. "Prodigies?"

"If raised here they could one day become the ultimate guardians of this kingdom."

The King considered it for a moment. Then he gave a single nod. "Very well."

And so Leon stayed.

He grew up in the palace alongside Aurelia. She was the revered princess. He was a nameless orphan who was only there because his mana was interesting. But between the two of them titles had never meant anything. They played, argued, trained everything together. They became the kind of close that people who grow up beside each other become before they know enough about the world to overthink it.

Years passed. The children grew.

One warm afternoon Leon spotted Aurelia sitting quietly under a massive oak tree in the garden reading something. He crept up behind her with a grin that had disaster written all over it.

"Hey Aurelia."

She glanced over her shoulder. "What?"

He leaned in close and poked her cheek lightly. "Your face looks funny when you’re annoyed."

Her eyes narrowed. "Leon."

He poked her again. "What?"

"Stop teasing me!"

"Why?" A third poke. "It’s fun."

She puffed her cheeks and glared up at him. "You are so annoying."

"And you’re cute when you’re angry," Leon said.

It came out more smoothly than he meant it to. More naturally. Like it had been waiting in him to be said.

Aurelia froze.

The blush went up her neck and across her entire face in about a second flat.

"W-What did you just say?!"

Leon opened his mouth to repeat it with his grin at full power.

CHOMP.

"OWWWWW!" He yanked his hand back and grabbed his pointer finger with his other hand. "You bit me!"

Aurelia crossed her arms. "You deserved it."

"Look at it! It’s already swelling!" He held the finger up dramatically.

The stubborn look on her face cracked immediately into panic. "Wait. Did I bite too hard?"

"Of course you did!"

She reached over and took his hand gently and looked at the tooth mark left in his skin. "I’m sorry," she said softly. She pulled out a silk handkerchief and wrapped it around the finger with careful hands. "There. Better?"

Leon looked at the makeshift bandage. Something in his chest did something complicated. "A little."

Aurelia smiled. Then without any particular announcement she stepped closer and wrapped her arms around his waist and leaned her head against his chest.

Leon went rigid. Every thought in his head evacuated instantly. "W-What are you doing?!"

"You’re blushing!" she said against his chest.

"I am NOT!"

"You are!"

"I’M NOT!" He turned his head away but he could feel how hot his ears had gotten and he knew she could tell and there was nothing he could do about it. "Stop teasing me."

She laughed.

Neither of them saw the shadow standing on the other side of the oak tree.

Arvendis had been brought to the palace at the same time as Leon. Slightly older. Sharing the same status as a prodigy.

But Arvendis had always been on the outside of something between the other two that he could see clearly and could not enter no matter how close he stood.

When Aurelia was near Leon her eyes did something they didn’t do for anyone else.

Arvendis dug his nails slowly into his palm.

’Why him,’ he thought with cold precision. ’Why always him.’

**

Zeus crushed his wrist.

Leon had tried to lift his hand to form another runic thread and Zeus simply stepped his other foot onto Leon’s wrist and pressed down. The mana construct shattered before it could form.

"ARGH!"

Leon’s jaw locked. He didn’t let the full sound out. He would not give this man that.

His free hand clawed slowly at the dirt.

**

The day came for the demonstration.

The royal training grounds were packed. Nobles in the high seats. Military generals. Dignitaries from both kingdoms. Everyone there to see what the palace had been raising. What the investment had produced.

In the center of the arena the royal advisor raised his hand. "Are both candidates ready?"

Arvendis on the eastern side. Leon on the west. Both nodded.

"Begin!"

The moment the word landed Arvendis’s mana exploded outward. A blinding gold and turquoise aura erupted around his frame and twisted the air into violent pressure waves.

ROAAAAAR.

The Dragon Spirit came from somewhere inside him and filled the sky above the arena. Colossal. Ethereal. Its translucent body spiraled upward into the light and its scales caught the sun and threw it back in sheets of gold. Every person in those stands felt it when it roared. In their chests. In the back of their throats.

The crowd lost itself completely.

"A Dragon Spirit!"

"At his age?!"

"One of the absolute peak soul manifestations in existence!"

The noble officials were already nodding to each other with profound satisfaction. A spirit wasn’t just more mana. It was the true form of a mage’s gift. The ceiling-raiser. The thing that separated talent from something categorically different.

Arvendis stood beneath his dragon with an easy proud smile. "This is the power granted to me," he said and let his voice carry. "I will use it to shield this kingdom."

The cheers rose again.

Then everyone looked at Leon.