"Don't tell me you came all the way here just to cry?"
Inquired Leonardo, somewhat caught aback by her attitude. Azalea clenched her fists before taking a deep breath. She looked up, "Every faction in Valdmor wants me dead, just an excuse to placate the masses and their subordinates; blaming me for the chaos which ensued after your departure."
"The only reason why I can stand here today is Jeffery helping me under the pretense of kidnapping me, the source of the storm. It was me who asked him to send me here because my only path to survival is under your protection."
Leonardo stared oddly at this sometimes smart, sometimes naive, and oftentimes stupid young woman. Azalea was just an ordinary non-cultivator, just like Jeffery and the rest. If someone really wanted her dead, a slap would blow her brains out.
He could only assume she was stuck to someone influential whenever she left her apartment to stroll the streets.
Leonardo pointed at the two dead slaves on the ground and said, "Are you sure? Didn't you see the armies at my doorstep? Let me tell you, these two were supposed to come suing for peace, you're clever enough to understand how things went down."
Azalea acted as though she didn't see the corpses and said, "I still believe that this place is the safest for me! You can't turn me down, not after all I've been through!"
Her tone towards the end was filled with plea and despair, shouting, thinking Leonardo was finding a random excuse to turn her down after their muddled history together. Perhaps they stood on opposing ends in the past, but now it's different.
Leonardo sighed, "I don't care whether you stay in this palace or not. Honestly, you may be safe temporarily, but when the war erupts, I can't guarantee the safety of the hundreds of thousands of people outside my gates, let alone you."
"You're simply too weak, a weak woman who lost her position and favor with her lord, then came seeking asylum with her lord's enemy. Tell me, should I simply open my arms and welcome you in?"
pαпdα Йᴏνê1,сòМ "Wrong!" Azalea shrieked, her dry cheeks stained wet again as she exclaimed, "It was them who cast me aside! They sacrificed me; they wanted to sacrifice me for some greater good in the hopes of placating your anger or whatever delusions they have about a gesture of goodwill!"
Leonardo was stunned for a moment, confused. However, when Azalea saw that stunned confusion, she assumed that a delegation from Valdmor was yet to arrive. Rather, they never left because the war between House Regalia and House Grace already escalated beyond the phase of making amends and negotiations for peace.
"Didn't they fear that your reinforcements would target them next? Or focus on their lands and people? Isn't that why they felt like tracking the problem to its roots and cutting them clean? Aren't you angry at me for threatening Leona and Kieran?!"
Azalea was borderline hysterical, clutching at her long black hair while shaking from helpless anger. The more she spoke, the more she realized that maybe, just maybe, Leonardo wouldn't have enough goodwill toward her to protect her.
What a joke, wasn't she the one to point the knife his way to being with? Even if the knife was forced into her hands, the choice to use it ultimately fell to her discretion. Thus, even if she could rebuke seven parts of the blame, she couldn't avoid taking responsibility for the remaining three parts.
What reinforcements? Now Leonardo was truly confused. Judging from her tone, she seemed legitimately convinced that he dispatched a strong force to cause trouble throughout the Forbidden Domain. He realized things aren't as simple as they may seem.
He decided to send Azalea into one of the bedroom chambers to wash up and relax, for now, he would hear all about these reinforcements from her later. However, Aria wasn't as patient as Leonardo, her eyes glimmered with a foreboding light as they narrowed lazily.
Seems like some people are simply too tired of living, she thought to herself before snuggling up closer into Leonardo's abdomen, too comfortable to go and check the situation immediately.
…
Hundreds of thousands of miles away in Valdmor, Xavier was accompanied by two middle-aged men as they approached the inner region of the ancient town. Xavier was curiously observing the old, yellowish structures with a hint of modernization laced into their walls.
"I heard your people talking about some Prince Leonardo?" Xavier asked in a flat tone.
The ones walking together with Xavier were shockingly Mason and Andrew, and they had yet to believe they'd come into contact with the leader of the Devil Saints Group, Xavier.
They were called the Devil Saints because of their conduct over the past few months of conflict. There was nothing they wouldn't dare do, and killing their enemies was the easiest and simplest way to go down when opposing them.
They didn't differentiate between young or old, male or female, beast or man; they simply targeted them all. All of them were at the peak of their first cycle, with many unheard-of battle skills, magical arts, and martial intents.
Of course, the humans weren't like the elves who wouldn't tolerate any acts of disgrace towards their race, and they surely weren't like the beastkin who would kill first and talk later.
Humans were smart, scheming, borderline despicable, and shameless. They would rather watch the world burn in agony as long as they didn't suffer directly. Hell, they would join in and tear it down even more if they could snatch some of it for themselves.
Xavier understood this point very well, hence he wasn't surprised that the battlefield had been severely lacking in human cultivators for the past few months. Since he knew how they thought and what they were thinking, he decided to personally give this ancient town a visit.
He never expected that the moment he was within earshot of the gossip going around, he heard the news of an upstart prince wreaking havoc in the Human Domain, seemingly in retaliation against two of the ruling powers and a vassal kingdom.
After a bit of soul-searching here and there, he ended up locking targets on Andrew and Mason, the supposed enemies of Prince Leonardo. From the fearful expressions of these two and the ongoing gossip, Xavier seemed to realize something.
"Haha," Andrew laughed nervously, his back drenched in a cold sweat as the information clearly dictated that Xavier was a saint going through his second cycle. Although Valdmor was protected by powerful old monsters who were going through their third cycle, that didn't give him any sense of security.
"Of course, Prince Leonardo is a suave figure that everyone respects nowadays. From a businessman to a Foreign Prince, and all he did was toy the various powers into achieving that position without lifting a hand!"
"He's very smart, too smart if you ask me… Honestly, he tossed the entire domain into chaos and war before leaving as though it had nothing to do with him…" Andrew spoke cautiously so as to not say something too offensive. After all, he didn't know Xavier's position on Leonardo's case, he could tell that they weren't familiar with one another though.
His mind spun, could this young man be on a tempering experience as well? However, if that was the case, what sort of powers lay behind the Sky Mountains, nurturing such frightening figures?
Xavier was a bit intrigued and asked, "You mean to say that the huge war we encountered was something orchestrated by Prince Leonardo?"
Something that went unnoticed by Andrew and Mason flashed in Xavier's eyes when he asked.
"Of course, it was a painful but beautiful move!" Andrew quickly went over what transpired on that day at Tesla's. Hearing the full recount of the grand scheme, even Xavier was shocked by Leonardo's intelligence.
Truly befitting of the youngest CEO of the biggest international enterprise of his era, Xavier thought to himself. Having used the human green to hoodwink them from an obvious trap, that was truly a beautiful move.
Perhaps if they weren't anxious about buying the shares to the point of immediately hosting a gathering, they'd have noticed the movements from the other two domains. By then, let alone the current price of the shares, it would have been unknown as to whether anyone would get any shares to begin with.
The sole profiteer in this situation is, without a shadow of a doubt, Leonardo.
"Brother Andrew, brother Mason, would you like to accompany me for dinner tonight and tell me more about Prince Leonardo? I'm very interested!"
"Of course! Of course!" Andrew and Mason quickly agreed.
News that the boss of the Devil Saints came to spend the night in Valdmor quickly spread, and many representatives of the various powers came to join the dinner.
If only Xavier knew how lucky he was to spend the night in Valdmor, as this was the same night Aria decided to make a personal trip to the enemy ore mine and chat a little with the so-called reinforcements.
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