The Storm King

Chapter 477: Wavering Certainty

Leon wasn’t going to pretend to anyone that seeing the executions of Duronius and dozens of other nobles who had thrown their lot in with Octavius wasn’t satisfying. However, he didn’t revel in it, and Elise, who had accompanied him to the throne room to witness it, had even less enthusiasm for it than he did. As a result, they soon took their leave, meeting up with Maia who had waited in the lake nearby.

They returned to their home—not Emilie’s palace, but their villa, which had been returned to them by the King. It had been effectively looted by Octavius when it had been seized, but there had been little of worth there anyway since Elise and Leon had taken pains to leave nothing behind that they would miss.

Still, Leon’s enchanting workshop had been completely emptied of all its stored resources. Even the poor-quality, unenchanted gear that he had stored there to test his enchantments on had been taken, though he wasn’t about to start trying to pressure the Kingdom into giving that garbage back.

In restocking the place, Leon had also turned in his ruined armor to be repaired. He’d have to reapply all the enchantments once the repairs were finished, but he considered that a bonus since his skills had greatly improved in the years since he started, and he knew he could do a much better job of it now than he had when he first started.

‘Perhaps I’ll even be able to combine my armor with my flight suit somehow, or install some miscellaneous magical weapons on it…’ he’d thought as he handed over the scrap metal and tattered fabric that his armor had become.

Leon and Elise’s relationship had improved since the initial fallout from Leon coming clean about his confrontation with Valeria. That wasn’t to say that everything was all fine, but Leon greatly preferred it to the way things had been before the civil war had kicked off. She had known about Valeria back then, too, but Leon was loath to return to keeping such things from his lover.

Or rather, lovers, for Maia had joined them in the villa, and this time, she certainly wasn’t sleeping in a guest bedroom. She was a much simpler person than Elise, preferring to spend her days lazing around the villa when she wasn’t helping Leon with some of his water magic training and learning to use her mental communication technique, or lost in the pile of limbs that the three became whenever they were in bed.

Valeria, on the other hand, was far more involved in Leon’s affairs. She insisted on training with Leon whenever he was in the training dojo and accompanying him whenever he left the villa. As his first knight, she reasoned, it was her place to be at his side wherever he went. As a result, she had taken up residence in one of Leon and Elise’s guest bedrooms, as she was still technically a knight in his service even though he was no longer a knight himself.

Fortunately, she didn’t insist on being with Leon when he was restocking his enchanting workshop, and when Asiya and Cristina returned to the city, she had a few more reasons to leave rather than staying in the villa waiting for Leon to do something.

As for Alix, she decided that she still needed some time to think about her future. She didn’t want to leave the Legion or the Kingdom behind so flippantly, even if she was sorely tempted to follow Leon south to the Central Empires. As a result, she wound up staying in the barracks at the Legion Headquarters instead of Leon and Elise’s villa, and she didn’t swing by all that often in the week they’d been home.

Any other knight might’ve been offended or angry that one of their subordinates wasn’t attending to them, but Leon understood her reluctance to leave everything behind and gave her all the time and space she needed to decide what her future might look like. He did, however, make sure that she knew his upcoming schedule, just in case, for he wasn’t going to be staying in the capital for much longer.

He felt that it was about time he returned to Teira.

—

Leon woke up spooned up against Elise’s toned backside. Maia was on the other side of their fire-haired lover, the two practically buried against each other with Leon’s arms around them.

It took every scrap of strength Leon possessed to rise from his bed and leave them sleeping, but he had some last-minute work he needed to finish. He should’ve gotten it done the night before, but his ladies had been rather aggressive in pulling him into bed—not that he’d resisted all that much, but it did mean that he had to get up early.

It had been almost two weeks since he returned to the capital with August and the rest. No one had stopped by to visit him and neither had he gone to the palace to visit them. From what he knew, though, he was certain it was more because they had to stabilize the Kingdom rather than because they didn’t want to see him. He felt sure that August and Roland would’ve tried to persuade him to stay by now otherwise, but it was what it was.

He felt a little uneasy about the entire affair, though, now that he had some time to think and take stock. It felt a little bit like he was abandoning everyone by quitting so suddenly, and he had to admit that he kind of was. However, his future lay outside the Bull Kingdom, and he didn’t want to get pulled into any more of the Bull Kingdom’s wars before he could leave. With Octavius bound for the headsman’s block, there was little else that he wanted to stick around for, even if he was going to grudgingly miss some of the people he’d come to know.

Leon made himself a quick breakfast and went to his workshop. He’d completely depleted his stores of offensive spells in the early stages of the civil war and hadn’t much of a chance to restock, so that was what he threw himself into during most recent days as he waited for his armor to be repaired and the King’s permission to access Argent Palace to come down.

It was quite liberating, not having much of anything to do and no one to answer to, he could devote all of his time to his personal goals and passions, such as studying enchantments and training.

But those were only short-term goals. The King had sent the promised dispensation that cleared Leon to have access to Argent Palace only several days previously, and Leon wanted nothing more than to return to his family’s archives, this time with more time to explore and search for secrets and knowledge. Those bronze golems that maintained the place he found particularly fascinating. If he had to guess, they were probably similar to the stone giants, and if he could make more of them… the possibilities were almost limitless.

It wasn’t long before Elise, Maia, and Valeria were all awake. It was going to be a long journey north to Teira, so they didn’t waste much time before they packed themselves into a huge wheelless carriage and got on the road. Anzu rode behind them in another carriage built to transport war beasts like him in comfort, while all of their luggage that Leon wasn’t carrying in his soul realm was packed into a third carriage. Then they had three more carriages for their Heaven’s Eye escort, making for quite the caravan escorting them to Teira.

“So,” Elise said as they got themselves comfortable in the carriage—it was spacious enough for them to all have enough room to sleep if they wanted, “let’s go over everything again, just to make sure we’re on the same page.”

“We’ll stop by the Tower first,” Leon said, the carriage pulling out into the noble district and leaving their villa behind. His tone was a little down, less enthusiastic than he might’ve thought it would be. He felt some small pangs of regret, leaving the place so soon after moving back in, but he had a terrible sense that if anything happened in the city while he was still there, he’d get pulled in regardless of the fact that he’d quit. It just made sense to him to get out of the capital for a while and let everything cool down and stabilize before spending too much time at home.

“Right, we have to visit Lord Ajax,” Valeria responded. “We’ll get ourselves situated before doing anything, we don’t know how long we might spend at Argent Palace.”

“Hopefully not too long,” Leon replied as he turned his eyes out of the window. “I don’t think there’s much of worth left there that isn’t in my family’s archives. Still, that might take us at least a week just to take a cursory look at what all is in there.”

Maia visibly stifled a yawn. She couldn’t read, and there was little that bored her more than staring down at thick stacks of paper and ink.

“What else can we do in the city?” Valeria asked. She’d never been to the city before and didn’t know what kind of attractions the city had.

“I was hoping to check out the Lightning Fields,” Leon said with a little more energy. “I can’t help but get a little worked up over the possibility of seeing a field of lightning rods designed to help lightning mages train…”

“Not surprising,” Elise replied with a resigned smile. “I was there for two years, but I confess I didn’t get out too much. Maybe we could see a few races or plays? Konstantine’s Dome features at least one series of gladiator matches every week, and there are chariot races at least once a month. They even have other kinds of magical competitions there almost every day. There are also plenty of other places on the plateau we could spend some time. I think there are hot springs close by that we could visit, a few lakes where we could spend some time swimming, maybe go hiking in some of the more exclusive reserves.”

“Maybe your uncle will have some suggestions,” Leon replied, his eyes still turned out of the window, “but most of that does sound like fun.”

A brief silence followed as Elise and Valeria stared at him.

“Love,” Elise whispered.

Leon’s eyes finally swiveled back to her. “Hmm?”

“Are you all right?” his fire-haired lover asked, her face lined with concern.

“… Yeah,” Leon unconvincingly replied. “Yeah…”

“You don’t seem that confident in your answer,” Valeria observed as she leaned back in her seat and stared at him, her concerned look demanding an answer from him. “You seem like your attention is elsewhere, not here with us.”

Leon frowned, instinctively almost denying that assertion, but he caught himself.

“I suppose it is…” he murmured, his voice barely audible despite the carriage being incredibly silent.

[You’re conflicted…] Maia said into all of their minds. [I can sense it, you’re having second thoughts about leaving.]

Neither Elise nor Valeria said anything, but they leaned in, prompting Leon to give voice to whatever was weighing upon his mind.

“I suppose…” he hesitantly began, unsure exactly how he ought to articulate it. “Well, when I quit and the King accepted it, I suppose I felt free. Freer than I had in years. I could do anything I wanted, go wherever I wanted, devote myself to my own pursuits for once. I guess it really hammered home just how discontented I was in the Legions…”

“Are you having second thoughts?” Valeria asked. She took this incredibly seriously, given the tone of her voice and the stony expression on her face. She and Leon had a tentative alliance, but if he was now thinking about not leaving the Bull Kingdom…

“Absolutely not,” Leon replied, instantly dispelling those thoughts. “I’m just… I just kind of regret how I went about it. Not the resignation itself, though. Should’ve waited a little longer, I think. Maybe… I don’t know, I guess now that I’ve had some time to think and relax, I just feel a little guilty about leaving everyone hanging in such a tumultuous time. Not that I think I could’ve helped much… they need administrators, not swordsmen…”

Elise and Valeria went quiet for a moment, empathizing with Leon’s feelings. Maia, however, was a little less empathetic.

[Let those who have the skills and the will fix what’s broken, it’s no longer our business,] she declared. Leon raised an eyebrow and turned to face her, only for her to take his face in her hands and literally hold his gaze. [You owe them nothing. You’ve killed for them, brought that Austin or whatever back to this city, and ensured the defeat of their enemies. What more could they ask for?]

Leon smiled, agreeing with her on most levels and not intending to go back, but there were still a few twinges of guilt running through his mind. “It’s not about ‘owing’ anyone anything,” he said, taking her hands and pulling them down into his lap. “I wouldn’t really consider them friends, but… I have a good impression of men like Roland and August. If they’d asked me to stay, if they’d insisted they needed my help… I can’t say my conviction to leave would’ve held. I might’ve gotten myself stuck here for years more. But I can’t help but think that maybe they could’ve used my help in some way, keeping the peace or whatever. It feels right that I did this, that I quit and left, but… I’m still more invested than I’d like to be in seeing this place at peace.”

“Is that why you quit as suddenly as you did?” Elise softly asked, reaching over and resting her hands upon Leon and Maia’s. “You wanted as clean a break as possible between yourself and this Kingdom?”

“… Yes,” Leon replied. “Maybe I wasn’t as conscious of it in the moment, but that’s what I wanted. Just to go my own way, to move on from here and deal with my own horseshit from now on.”

As he spoke, Leon’s eyes found Valeria’s. Wordlessly, he communicated that he wasn’t forgetting about their deal and the business they shared. Or at least, he hoped that’s what he was communicating.

“Focus on that, then,” Elise said. “We’ll make plans to leave the Kingdom soon-ish. Maybe in a few months, just to make sure this place is as peaceful as you want it to be. A year, maybe.”

“I really hope it doesn’t take that long,” Leon responded with a tired chuckle.

“It shouldn’t,” Elise replied. “The King is back in charge, August is now Crown Prince, Octavius is in the dungeon… Everything is fine. So how about we all just settle in, then, and enjoy this peace that all of you worked so hard to achieve?” Elise pulled a small metal lever on her seat, letting it slide down almost into a thin bed. “It’s going to be a long journey to Teira, so we might as well get comfortable.”

The other three smiled and leaned back in their own seats, continuing to talk about nothing in particular as they relaxed and enjoyed the ride in all the comfort that Heaven’s Eye could provide.