Chapter 9: 9. Encounter & Reward

Leo and Grayfia jumped down from where they were and landed on a slightly wet ground. There wasn’t much in the place, but as they looked around there were some broken down pieces of wood, some new, some old and rotten.

“Smells like…I don’t know, but it smells odd.” Leo said, but when he looked at Grayfia she was frowning. “Is something wrong?” he asked her.

"No...it's nothing, Leo-sama. Let’s keep moving." Grayfia decided to take the lead.

Unknown to Leo, this was the smell of rotting corpses, the dead bodies of quite a number of humans. While Leo had seen a lot of things in life, he had never smelled death before. No normal person would know what death would smell like, unless you are in a certain profession. So Leo remained oblivious.

However, Grayfia knew this smell all too well. It had only been a few years since the Civil War in her world after all. Prior to the war, she also had to fight and kill opponents. Therefore, she had her fair share of battles, and knew what dead bodies and corpses smelled like.

Leo-sama has no idea…the smell of death…and…a familiar magical signature is here… Grayfia’s eyes widen. Even though she had only known the girl for one day, she had recognized her signature.

Grayfia’s emotions are increasing. What’s getting her so worked up abo—. As he thought of that, Leo also decided to use his Ki and scan ahead of them, but he felt something similar too. T-that’s…Melisa?! What’s she doing down here…?!

“Grayfia…”

"Yes, she is here." Without saying anything else, they sprinted forward. Both of them knew where Melisa was, and even though they didn't know whether she was in danger or not, they were determined to save her.

Grayfia and Leo ran through cave tunnels that joined with man-made tunnels, as well as some wider natural cave rooms and rooms that had been excavated. In those excavated rooms there were man-made equipment like saws, drills and other types of machinery. But this confirmed one thing for Leo, the world was quite advanced.

Ageha has said a lot of things about Oseon, and that it’s basically leading this world in its technology. If there are tools and machinery like these...then it makes me wonder what kind of continent Oseon is. Even at the speed they were moving, Leo could still see clearly around them, and he saw many cages as they passed by those rooms. She’s getting closer!

Finally, both of them arrived in a particular room. It was dim, damp, and there was blood everywhere. There were also multiple cages, and in some of them were bodies—dead bodies. However, in one of them—.

“Melisa!” Leo shouted and ran over to the cage. Upon hearing her name, she looked up and tears were already rolling down her cheeks. She started shouting while her mouth was still bound by tape, so her shouts were muffled.

Leo summoned his [True Longinus] again and destroyed the cage, and peeled the tape from her mouth. “Are you okay? Who did this to you?” Leo checked her body and could see she wasn’t that badly injured, just a few cuts and bruises.

Melisa couldn’t answer him, but just hugged him and started crying. Leo hugged her back as a reflex. He was still on high alert but was also concerned about her. If she’s here, what happened to Patrick? Leo became worried about the man. Even though their meeting and time together was brief, he enjoyed his company.

“F-father…h-he…” Melisa chocked up as she tried to tell them.

“H-h-help…” but they were interrupted by the same voice from earlier. When Leo and Grayfia turned around to see where the voice was coming from, they saw the same man from earlier. His throat had been slashed and he was having a hard time speaking.

He tried to speak again, but his voice was now gurgling. A look of real and true panic was stretched across his face. I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die! Why?! Why?! I only did it to survive! He cried in his mind.

However, those were his last thoughts in this world. As his head hit the cold hard ground, his eyes turned blank and he stopped breathing. The man had finally died. Leo looked at the man with pity, but didn’t feel too bad for him. He had no history, nor did he know the man.

All Leo could do was give him the standard ‘pity’ that he would give if he saw some celebrity on TV had died, and give his condolences to their family. Melisa looked up to see the man from earlier and shrieked.

“W-what’s wrong?” Leo asked and she shakily pointed at the dead man.

“H-h-he helped it…”

Helped it…? What does she mean by ‘it’? Leo was confused but now thinks something else, apart from the werewolves were in here with them.

—Awwwooooooooooooooooooooooo!!

All three of them heard it, the same howl from earlier. Leo hugs Melisa closer to him and Grayfia stands in front of them. A few of the werewolves appeared in front of Grayfia, but they didn’t move, they did not do anything. They simply stared at them. A slightly taller werewolf stepped forward and gestured for them to follow and they all turned around and ran away.

This left Leo confused, but Grayfia was still quite skeptical of them. What was that about…? Leo glanced at Grayfia and they silently agreed to pursue them. Leo looked at Melisa and the girl was still quite terrified. “We’ll try to get out of here, Melisa.” Leo says while getting up. He carries her bridal-style and looks at Grayfia.

“I will lead us, Leo-sama.”

“Yeah.” After saying that, Grayfia started to run at a moderate pace. Leo was right behind her. Both of them could sense the werewolves. They had to take a different path from where they had come from earlier.

The area they were in was starting to become increasingly large. The narrow caves and tunnels they had passed through earlier were a lot more spacious now. The crystals of the cave were the only things illuminating the place, however, it didn’t look like they were going to stop any time soon. Leo looked at Melisa and noted that she had fallen asleep in his arms.

She’s probably emotionally and mentally exhausted. From the bandit attack earlier in the day, to whatever happened to her during the time we were away. I’m also worried about Patrick; I wonder what happened to him? As Leo thought of this, they eventually came to an even larger area.

“Leo-sama.”

“Yeah.” The area that they came to looked like a giant mine shaft. Rails, carts and other abandoned machinery were everywhere. Leo scanned the place, as did Grayfia and they found someone.

“Patrick?” In front of them was Patrick. He was crawling towards them, and he was bleeding profusely. Leo starts to walk towards him, but Grayfia puts her arm in front of him, preventing Leo from advancing towards him.

Leo looked at Grayfia and then back at Patrick who hadn’t said anything. This…this is way too odd. What’s going on…? Leo looks back at Patrick again. “Patrick?”

“Y-yes, it’s me…please help me…it attacked me…!” he said in a hoarse voice.

“Attacked you? Who did?” Leo was still on guard with this 'Patrick'. He wasn’t sure if it was him, or something else entirely. However, the combination of both Grayfia stopping him and the 'Ki' that this Patrick was emitting stopped him from approaching. The feeling was different from the one he had earlier in the day.

It just felt off to him, and he wasn’t sure why. So, Leo wanted to test something out. Leo walks up beside Grayfia and hands Melisa to her, and Grayfia readily accepts her. Leo stands just a little bit away from Patrick.

Closer…come closer you piece of…come on! The demon thought. He was getting a little bit impatient.

“Hey, Patrick, we’re friends, right?”

“W-why are you asking me that now…?” replied Patrick in confusion.

“Come on, we’re friends, right? You, me—Ted, Patrick and Ted, friends for life, right?” Leo asked. He pretended his name was Ted. He just thought of the name on the spot, and wanted to catch this ‘Patrick’ out on a lie…

“…Y-yes…we’re friends, please…help me…Ted!” the demon answered quite hastily.

“Yeah…” Leo reached out to Patrick—.

Boom!

From the outstretched hand of Leo came a large fire attack. Everything in front of him was decimated. Grayfia, who was behind him countered with her demonic ice and stopped it from reaching them.

‘Patrick’ who was hit screamed in agony but it didn’t last long as he started to laugh. “Hyhahahaha! You’re a lot smarter than you look, human!” Once the fire was extinguished, there stood a human-like thing. It had red skin, glowing red eyes, and horns on its head. It wore some ornate clothing and had white hair tied in a ponytail.

“I guess I can’t play that stupid role forever, you have something of mine, I’ll be taking it back!” the demon says and appears behind Grayfia, but as he reached out to grab Melisa, ice erupted from the ground and hit the demon! His eyes were threatening to pop out of his eyes as he was pierced in the stomach and hit the wall!

He’s faster than me…I could barely keep up with his speed. Leo turned around to look at the demon who was now very pissed off.

“You fucking bitch!” he howled and broke the ice that pierced him. Once landing on the ground the demon powered up even more. The air around him started to vibrate, the stones around him started to float, and he was grinning even more. “Die.”

Boom! Clank!

“You!”

“Grayfia, go. I’ll beat him.” Leo instructed her. She was hesitant, but in the end, she vanished from the spot. Leo wanted to fight this demon by himself. Yes he knew he was outmatched, but even though it was reckless, he wanted to grow as a fighter right now, even if he died trying.

Leo brought up his foot and kicked at the demon, but the demon pushed him away and distanced himself from Leo. The flaming spear Leo had that parried the attack managed to hold itself and not be destroyed. No holding back then… Even though Leo said he was going to use the [True Longinus]…he decided not to for now.

I want to see how far I can go without it! Leo summoned a flame spear and got ready.

“Pathetic weakling…you made a mistake facing me.”

“Maybe.” Leo says with a smirk.

Boom! Bang!

Leo and the demon both disappeared from their spots and met in the middle. Their clash created a large shockwave that shook the area, but the stronger one was the demon as it started to push Leo back. Leo couldn’t help but grin. If I beat him…I can devour him!

Leo gathered some flames in his mouth and breathed them towards the demon who didn’t expect it!

Fwwsh!!!

Leo felt the weight from his flame spear disappear, and the demon started to laugh. “You fucking psychopath! No human has tried to do such a stupid move before! Ahahaha! But you really went and put fire magic in your fucking mouth?! What are you, stupid?!” the demon asked Leo.

However, our protagonist just became confused as he didn’t think it was strange. He had seen some characters in his past world do it, so why couldn’t he? Unless the magic of this world worked differently from how he and Grayfia could use it.

“I’m just built different.” Replied Leo and covered his body with Ki.

“Ki and Magic, huh? I underestimated you, fine…I’ll take you seriously then!”

Doom!

? The demon disappeared again, but Leo couldn’t keep up with his speed! Shit! Was he holding back earlier?! Like earlier, in his sparring match with Leywarldo, time started to slow down, all of Leo’s instincts were on high-alert and before his mind could register it, his body moved to the side, and a sharp hand thrust past him!

“What?! You can still keep up?!” the demon shouted in surprise.

I don’t know what the hell just happened but I’ll keep going! Leo grinned but also knew he couldn’t rely on whatever this ability was. If he faced someone even faster, and could bypass the slow-motion effect, he would be a goner!

Let’s stick with Fake Ultra Instinct for now. Leo parried another strike from the demon. Since he was using his touki, Leo’s physical abilities had also increased. Therefore, he thrust towards the demon.

Lucky for him, the demon was still underestimating him because he had powered up even more. The thrust Leo used pierced the demon’s shoulder! “Ugh?! Y-you piece of filth!” This angered the demon even more. The demon sent a flurry of jabs and thrusts of his own towards Leo!

Leo dodged them all! But not perfectly as some of the attacks grazed him and he started to bleed from them. This made the demon grin. Even though Leo was somewhat able to keep up, he wasn’t fast enough to keep on doing so. “What’s the matter, human?! Hyahaha!”

Ting! Tang! Ting! Bang!

“Here, here, here, here!! Keep up! You’re starting to slow down and bleed more!” the demon screamed. What he said was true. While Leo managed to parry, block and dodge some of his attacks, he couldn't keep up any longer.

Okay, I've found my current limit. Time to stop fucking around! Leo jumped away and the demon didn’t follow him. That was his first mistake. Leo summoned his [True Longinus] and pointed it at the demon. The demon looked at it. That was his second mistake.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!” the demon screamed and clutched his head. Leo was aiming his intent and the spear's power at the demon.

The [True Longinus] can cause severe damage to devils, and in this case, even demons by just looking at them! This also holds true for hybrids! The demon was still clutching its head while screaming on its knees.

“…You gave me a clear idea of my current limit, so I’ll thank you for that.” While Leo had been pointing at the demon, he had been gathering some light at the time of the spear. Just like how he killed those slimes, he was going to eliminate this demon in one shot.

“I don’t know what you did to Patrick, but…this is for him. Eat shit, asshole.” Leo muttered while glaring at the demon who hadn’t stopped clutching its head.

Boom!!

A large torrent of pure light erupted from the tip and covered everything in front of Leo. The screams of agony from the demon were music to his ears. However, it also destroyed that part of the cave and the entire area started to collapse! Can I still…?

<Yes! Devour him!> Ageha screamed at Leo.

“Devour!!” Leo screamed and pointed his free hand towards the stream of light. The jet-black aura covered the white light briefly before disappearing. Leo fell to the ground and let go of the spear as he felt strange.

W-what the hell…? Leo in the past had only consumed people and monsters that were equal or weaker than him. That demon was still Tier 1, but it was A rank, and Leo was still only D rank. Leo just consumed a being that was of A rank. He wasn't sure what would happen to his strength next.

However, the strange feeling Leo felt started to disappear. But he couldn’t rest since the cave was still collapsing on him! He dismissed the spear and started to run out of the cave! Shit! I need to move faster! Leo thought and—.

Kaboom!

“Wha—?!” Leo increased his strength and appeared at the first spot they arrived at! Leo looked up and saw the hole they had jumped down into. Leo bent his knees and jumped up! But he wasn’t used to his new strength, so he jumped past the basement, smashed through the floors and came out of the roof of the rotting house!

“Crap, I didn't think that through!” Leo screamed and looked below him. The attack he did was quite powerful, because the house beneath him also started to collapse, and a giant hole started to form! Think! Wait…! Leo just gained new strength and he would use it since he didn’t want to fall back into the hole!

Leo focused all his strength into his right fist and punched the air in front of him! New Hampshire Smash! He shouted in his head. The force that was generated propelled him backwards! Leo blasts through the air! However, he didn’t plan far ahead as he shoots past the town and crashes further away! “Shi—.”

Boom!

A large dust cloud is created upon impact. However, as Leo grew in strength, his body also became a bit more durable. “Fuck…what the hell…?” Leo coughed and swiped away at the dust he created from the impact. Leo looked below him and he had accidentally made a relatively large crater. This is fine…

Leo quickly left the spot, and was surprised by the new power he had. Ageha, what—.

<Tier 1 – C. You jumped from D to C, and if you consume a few more monsters, you’ll reach B. You’re on the cuffs of achieving Tier 1 – B. Well done on the ‘fight’, Leo.>

Leo was stunned by Ageha’s praise. He wasn’t expecting it and blushed a little. I-uh, thank you…?

<Don’t blush at me, weirdo.>

Never mind then! Leo instantly regretted thanking Ageha. He sighed to himself before setting his sights on the town in front of him. To Leo’s surprise, dawn was starting to break. We were down there for that long…? But as Leo was approaching the town—.

“The werewolves…” In front of him were the werewolves he had seen and had led them to the cages. “Do you guys want to fig—.” Leo got ready to fight but the ‘leader’ from earlier stepped forward and put its hand up.

The werewolf started to write something in the air. The word said: [Thank you]. Leo was briefly confused, but then it hit him. Wait are these guys…? Before Leo could finish his thought, the werewolves started to kill themselves!

“Wha—?! W-what are you doing?! You’re those adventurers, aren’t you?! Some of the town folks too! Why are you killing yourselves?" Leo shouted at them. He started to run toward them, but the leader wrote something again.

[Irreversible.] were the words that floated in front of Leo. Another werewolf stood beside the leader…it somehow resembled a female. It walked towards Leo, and stood in front of him. It reaches out and holds his hand, and places something on it.

The werewolf smiled at Leo before walking back and killing itself. Leo looked at the item he was given…it was a pendant. Leo opened it out of curiosity and it was a family picture. “…!” Leo’s eyes widen. “Y-you’re—.” but before he could say the words, the female werewolf killed itself.

The leader was the only one left. It wrote one final message to Leo……[Devour. Us.] and then killed itself. Leo looked at the words in front of him for the next few seconds without saying anything. Leo took a long breath in…and exhaled. “All right. I understand your resolve…and I’ll honor it…devour.”

From his hand, a jet-black aura shot out, consuming everything in front of him...including the blood that stained the path. Once it was done, Leo felt even stronger.

<Interesting. They were all quite powerful. They pushed you to the middle of Tier 1 – B. Congrats, Leo.>

Yeah. Great. Leo felt a bit conflicted, as he gripped the pendant in his hand and started walking back to the town. As Leo walked back to the gates of the town, he felt the morning sun hit his back. This was the start of a brand-new day, a brand-new beginning, but for Leo...he wasn’t looking forward to telling Melisa that both her parents had finally departed.

That was you, wasn’t it, Patrick? Leo briefly glanced back at the spot where the ‘leader’ of the werewolves killed itself. He realized too late, but that was the real Patrick, and he didn’t get a chance to properly befriend him.

You are reading story Epic of The Black Lion at novel35.com

“…Fuck.”

●●●●

Once inside of the town, the towns folk started to come out of their homes and they were all surprised to see Leo alive and well. Leo ignored the stares and located Grayfia’s Ki. She was at the town hall, so he made his way there.

Leo passed by the ‘boss’ of the ‘Crab Formula’ and his eyes widened in shock. Leo just gave him a curt nod before continuing on his way. He wanted to ask Alma a few things. He got more out of this quest than he bargained for.

●●●●

Leo quickly entered the building and made his way to Alma Haven’s room. Once there he found Grayfia, Melisa and Alma. Alma had a face of guilt while Melisa was sitting on a chair with tea in hand. Leo looked at Grayfia and they nodded to each other.

Leo makes his way to Alma and stands in front of her. “So, do you mind telling us the truth now?” Once he asked this, Melisa looked up confused.

“T-truth…?” she asked confused. Alma sighed and sat down. As Alma looked at Melisa's face, still filled with guilt, she began speaking.

“I started investigating this incident 4 months ago; we found the cause relatively quickly, but ...all the people who came with me on the investigation were killed by a demon. They knew I was the mayor and I had control over the town, so they used me.” Said Alma. Melisa, who was sitting there, stared at her in disbelief.

“So…I have been feeding that thing for the past 4 months. I started with the ones who wouldn’t be missed, the orphans, the rowdy kids and the ones hated by our small town. Once they were gone, I started to look for adventurers or even bandits. That had been working until…” Alma looked at Melisa sadly, and the realization was creeping up on Melisa.

However, she refused to believe it, so she waited until Alma told her everything. To Melisa, this sounded like a horrible nightmare, the opposite of a fairy tale. Something like this couldn’t happen to her. Alma was just joking, right? But this was her reality now…she was an orphan now, but she was just a year from becoming an adult, so she had to hold on until then.

“Your mother…she liked heading out for walks, didn’t she? That abandoned house...I don’t know who owned it or why it’s even there, but...she went for a walk over there, and the demon who hides underneath our town got her......I'm sorry, Melisa.” In response Melisa dropped her teacup. A look of despair was evident on her face.

“Your father was next…and that was just a month ago…Melisa, you have been living with a corpse for a full month. Your father was killed, resurrected, and had some kind of magic and magical item used on him to make him look and act normal. I’m sorry.”

Alma bowed to Melisa. However, Melisa didn’t respond. The girl simply stared at the ground.

So, there’s some kind of magic that can turn someone into something else? If all those killed were turned into werewolves...then it makes sense. The demon probably changed them into it, and forced them to work for him. Leo concluded and gave Melisa a pitying look.

“B-but you killed it, d-didn’t you? Y-you freed this town! W-we won’t have to suffer anymore!” Alma tried to look at the positive, but—.

“You sacrificed too many people. How long were you planning to do this until the right adventurers picked it up? Or until the guild decides to increase its rank? You would eventually run out of people to feed it…” Leo said to her and she looked down at the ground again.

What Alma did was something inhumane, but at the same time…Leo understood she was put in a difficult situation. So she chose to sacrifice the less fortunate, the ones society wouldn’t miss…the pebbles at the side of the road for society. But Alma didn’t think far enough ahead. She was running on luck, and she was lucky enough that Leo and Grayfia took on this quest.

“This entire town, including you would have been killed eventually. No, some started to understand what was going on here. So they might have just left along with other families after warning them, and if that happened, what then?” Leo asked her but she didn’t answer him.

But before he could continue, Melisa threw her teacup to the ground shattering the glass. Leo prepared for Melisa to attack Alma, who was ready to accept this result, but what surprised them was that she picked up a shard of glass and plunged it into her throat.

But thankfully, Grayfia was near enough to her that she stopped her from ending her own life. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as her grip tightened even more on the piece of glass and her hand started to bleed. “Why?! Let me die so I can join them!!” Melisa cried out.

Still sobbing, she let go of the shard of glass and fell to her knees. “Why…? My family did nothing wrong…they were good people, trying to do the right thing and…and….” She couldn’t finish her sentence as she kept on crying.

“I’m not some kind of Hero wannabe, Alma. But even I have my own morals and ideals. Even I find what you did kind of fucked up. I don’t know what authorities I can tell to make this right but…” Leo glared at Alma and the lady flinched.

I read the handbook and unless we’re in a large city or kingdom, things like this will be swept under the rug. I can either force her to go back with me to the City of Vrearc or… Leo looked out the window and remembered the others who were aware of what was happening. Let mob justice do its thing…

This was a fantasy world after all. The common sense that Leo knew and had abided by for the longest time usually won’t be followed or exist. So relying on the authorities here was basically impossible if it’s a small town or village. So Leo decided to let the next best thing deal with it. This town’s citizens. He’ll let them know what happened and take it from there.

Leo turned to look at Alma again as he had started to look at the ground while thinking. “I’ll let the mob choose what kind of justice they want.” When Leo finished saying that, Alma appeared horrified. When she tried to run away, Leo caught her and lightly chopped her neck, knocking her out.

I didn’t think that would work…thank god it did… Leo’s mouth twitched at the thought of accidentally killing her if that failed. Now that this is done… Leo looked at Melisa and Grayfia. The maid seemed to be thinking of something to say, and she finally spoke up.

“Melisa.” Grayfia spoke up and Melisa looked at her still crying. “I also lost my little brother recently…I miss him dearly, I also lost many friends due to fighting…I want to speak to them, have those days we previously had, have a care free life…but…” Grayfia pulls Melisa up and holds both her hands with hers.

“I also thought of ending my own life.” Grayfia admits, stunning Leo. Grayfia briefly glances at him but looks back at Melisa. “But after thinking about it for a long time…I don’t think any of them would have wanted me to do that. They would have wanted me to keep on living. So keep on living…and when the day finally comes, you’ll surely meet them again, and once you do…”

To Leo, time seemed to have slowed down even more than when he fought the demon or Leywarldo. Whatever moment Grayfia was having with Melisa, it was definitely working as the girl was still crying, but looked quite hopeful now.

“Someday, in the future…when you meet them again, you can tell them you lived a happy life after their untimely death.” After saying those words, Melisa cried even harder and hugged Grayfia. However, Grayfia silently hugged her back, as she held back her own tears.

“…” Leo silently watched the pair from a distance. He wasn’t the best at expressing himself outwardly, unless it came out naturally and he didn’t need to think about it. However, otherwise, he would be very awkward at it.

As the two of them started to calm down, Leo took this as the right opportunity to give the pendant to Melisa. So he walked over to the two. “Melisa, I have something for you.” Leo says and then grabs Melisa’s hand, and places the pendant on her hand. Leo stepped away and watched Melisa open it and got a bit teary-eyed again, but didn’t shed a tear.

“Thank you…” she thanked Leo before hugging the pendant. Leo nods before turning back to face Alma.

Time for mob justice then. Leo looked at Grayfia and they silently agreed that she'd watch over the unconscious Alma. Leo left through the balcony and jumped down onto the street surprising some people. Leo was en route to ‘The Eaters’ restaurant. It didn’t take him that long to get there. Once he was inside, all the patrons there looked at him in shock.

“I’m alive and well. Anyway, to cut a long story short, we killed the thing terrorizing this town. However, we need help with Alma...no, more like we need your help in convincing the rest of the town to find your own justice.” Leo tells them.

Everyone that was there looked at one another before the elder man from the night previous walked towards Leo and put his hand out. Leo accepted the gesture. “I must apologize for how we were back then, young adventurer, but you must—.” Leo stopped the man.

“I know, you don’t need to go into detail. I get it. But can I leave that part to you?” he asked him and the old man grinned at him and nodded. “Good, we’ll be in the town hall.” He informed them.

“Of course, we’re all quite liked in this town, and hold some influence in it. We can rally the rest and come to a satisfying conclusion.” The man says with a grin. Leo nodded and left the restaurant.

Everything is ready, all I need to do now is wait for the crowd to gather at the town hall. Leo looked back at the restaurant and saw the old man giving some kind of speech to the others. Leo shrugged and headed back to the town hall.

●●●●

Leo sat down on the roof of the town hall. He briefly checked up on Grayfia and Melisa. The two of them were speaking about something and Alma was still unconscious. Therefore, he saw no need to interrupt the two while they were still speaking. From his vantage point, Leo could see the men from the restaurant running around the entire town speaking to people and slowly building up their own groups.

“This will take a while, but it looks like the people in this town are more than happy to deliver their own justice to Alma.” Leo looks up at the sky and sighs. “Shit, what about our pay then…? I mean, realistically, we could just take the 25 gold..." it wasn't beyond Leo to just take his payment by force since he didn't think Alma would live till tomorrow.

“Let’s just wait and see, everything should be ready in a few minutes…” Leo says to himself while looking back down.

●●●●

Around two hours later the majority of the town had congregated outside of the town hall. They had also been shouting quite loudly during those last two hours too. Once they found out what had been happening in detail, they were obviously furious.

Our protagonist, Leo had been sitting on the roof the entire time, watching it all unfold for the last two hours. He would occasionally check in on Grayfia and Melisa, but found the pair still talking so he left it at that. However, in the last 40 minutes, he found that Alma had woken up and left her to be utterly terrified of her upcoming fate.

Leo got up, stood at the edge and saw the old man. Both of them made eye contact and gave a curt nod to each other. Let’s start then. Leo turned back and signaled for Grayfia and Melisa to join him, and at the same time he grabbed Alma and forced her to go with him.

Once on the balcony, he thrust Alma near the edge and the crowd below him screamed louder.

“Kill her!”

“I lost my mother because of that witch!”

“Both my brother and sister went missing!”

“I couldn’t get that date with that adventurer because of her!”

Leo heard many comments from the people below him. Well, her fate is quite obvious at this point. However, I think the final decision will fall to that old man. Leo brought her to the edge and dangled her, causing the crowd to cheer. However, the old man from earlier put his hand up making them fall silent. The two nodded at each other again and Leo let her go.

Alma hit the ground with a loud crack. She broke both of her legs. Of course, this prompted her to scream in pain, but no one felt any remorse for her. The old man walks up to her and shakes his head. He then turns back to everyone present there.

“People of Sinzafa, what would you like to do to her?” he asked them in a monotone voice.

“Kill her!”

“Feed her to the monsters!”

“Throw her into the toxic wasteland!”

There were many suggestions and the old man heard them all, but the overwhelming consensus was that they wanted her to die. To Leo, they were all overcome with emotion right now. While he could have brought his own justice to her, he knew that leaving it to them was the wisest choice.

Leo and Grayfia were F-rank adventurers, and new ones at that. Who in their right mind would listen to them? Even if they did have power, if Leo chose to spare her, and let her have her ‘redemption arc’ most of the people here would still resent her for the deaths of their loved ones. The people there could also kill her after both Leo and Grayfia leave the town.

Perhaps it could have been different if Leo was some kind of prominent figure in the world, or a silently high-ranked adventurer, but that wasn’t the case. This was the reality and he had to work with it.

<Leo.>

What?

<I forgot to mention, but you gained a [Skill] from the demon earlier. Darkness manipulation. While he didn’t use it much, he still had the ability to use it. He was still underestimating you, so that’s probably why.>

Leo was a bit surprised but quickly accepted it. He would try it out later, but right now he refocused on what was happening. After the old man heard all the suggestions from the crowd, he put his hand up again asking them to stop. He turned to Alma, then to Leo and then back to Alma.

With a pained expression he tells her, “Today will mark the execution of Alma Haven. Take her to the center of the town.” He says and the men from the restaurant earlier grabbed her and started to drag her away.

“No!! Noo!!! Fasel, why?! Aren’t you my husband?!” Alma screamed at the old man, surprising Leo again.

Husband? Fasel? So he’s… Leo looked at the man named Fasel but he shook his head and walked away.

“That’s Fasel and Alma Haven. They have both been married for a long time, around 30 years, I believe?” Melisa says behind Leo. He turns to look at her again, looking confused. “I heard this from my father, but Miss Alma apparently used illusion magic to make herself appear young. She's the same age as Mister Fasel.”

“Ah, that makes sense.” Leo glanced at Grayfia who didn’t look amused and he looked away. “Illusion magic, huh? So…why are they against each other?” To his question Melisa shook her head.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know...but my father did say their relationship had been slowly worsening over the last few years, but he never elaborated in detail as to why.”

“I see…well, our work here is done. We don’t need to see what they do with her. What are your plans now, Melisa?” Leo asked the young girl. She was only 17 after all, she still had a lot of her life ahead of her.

The smile Melissa gave Leo was not a sad one, but a determined one. “I will keep on living…as Miss Bina said earlier, I want to live a happy life moving forward, and when I meet my parents again, I want to tell them everything that I managed to accomplish.” She smiled at the end.

“Sounds wonderful. I wish you luck then.”

“E-excuse me then, and thank you, Mister Leo, Miss Bina.” Melisa says and bows to the both of them before running away.

“…Should we just rummage through her things to get the gold?” Leo asked Grayfia, which earned him a light smack from the maid. “I’ll take that as a no. Well, let’s just wait for them to finish and take it from there.”

“Yes, of course, Leo-sama.”

●●●●

Around an hour later, both Grayfia and Leo had arrived at the town square, and the crowd was already starting to disperse, many crying tears of sadness or joy. But most of them had solemn looks on their faces. Leo spots Fasel Haven and walks up to him.

“Fasel.” He calls out to the man and he turns around and gives Leo a heartbroken smile.

“Young adventurer Leo, I wish we met in better circumstances, but from me and the town, we would like to thank you.” Fasel thanked Leo and patted him on the shoulder.

He’s clearly upset about the execution of his wife… Leo sighed. “Yes, I agree…but what will happen now?”

“I will take over as mayor. I have the people’s trust and I have been working against my wife for the last few years. Therefore, they are more than happy to let me lead them...ah yes, here is your reward for the quest.” Fasel takes out a pouch from behind him and hands it to Leo.

In truth, Leo wasn’t expecting to get any reward after all that happened, so he was quite surprised here. Leo opened the bag and saw quite a bit of gold in there. “She originally put 25 gold as a reward, correct? I added a bit more. I believe it is appropriate. 50 gold coins are in there, young Leo.” Fasel said and smiled at the boy.

“Thank you, Fasel…but can you afford to do this?” Leo asked a bit surprised he could, but that just made Fasel laugh at him.

“Yes, yes, I can. We are quite well off after all, even if we started to lose money in the last few years. But it was due to her stupid spending, that’s the cause of our rift…well it matters not anymore. Please accept that reward.” He walks by Leo and pats him on the shoulder again. "I'm going to settle more matters. Please do come again to our quaint town.” With those words, Fasel left.

“Yeah…” Leo muttered as he shoved the pouch of gold coins into his pocket, but then felt them disappear. Ageha probably transported them somewhere…in total we should have 105 gold, does that make us rich in this world…? Leo asked himself.

<No.> but got a reality check from Ageha who didn’t elaborate.

“Let’s get going then.” Leo said beside Grayfia. "We've got a relatively long journey ahead of us…I want to take my time going back.”

“Yes, Leo-sama.” Grayfia answered as usual.

To Leo, when he first reincarnated here, he was excited and full of hope. While some of that remained the same, some of the harsh realities of the world hit him hard today. Leo would still try to have as much fun as he could, but wouldn’t try to act like this world was some happy magical adventure with zero consequences.

He now knew that he would have to face more events like this in the future, and he would have to trek through them, whether he liked it or not. As the two of them left through the gates, Leo looked forward with brand-new determination.

“Grayfia.” He called out to his companion. “You’ll stick with me, right?” he asked rhetorically.

However, Grayfia answered him genuinely. “Yes I will, Leo-sama.” Grayfia also saw that this world would be a lot more challenging than she initially thought. To Grayfia, she didn’t think she would tell a random girl she met the day prior one of her secrets, but she did. She felt vulnerable at the time. But she also saw it as a good thing.

“I see…let’s stick to being adventurers for a couple of years…after that, I might try building my own kingdom if we find a plot of land that’s free.” Leo declared making Grayfia look at him in surprise.

“A kingdom?” she repeats.

“Yeah, a kingdom. I don’t know the name yet, but I have high hopes for it. This will be my home, so I want to make a permanent home here.” Leo grinned. ‘I’ll make connections, build trust, and hopefully find candidates for my future kingdom as we journey through this world.’

Leo clenched his right hand. “Let’s go.” Without waiting for a response, Leo started to walk forward, and Grayfia followed him.

A kingdom…? That’s quite ambitious for Leo-sama. However… Grayfia looked at Leo’s back. To her, it seemed a little different from the day before. It’s not that clear yet…but I can see it happening. Leo-sama.

●●●●

In a certain person’s soul, a black-haired girl sighed and leaned back in her chair. “Haaa…I didn’t think it would start this quickly, but I guess them taking that quest on was a blessing in disguise. All right, Leo. Let’s see how you deal with this world…” Ageha grinned at Leo’s monitor.

“I can’t wait to see you grow more, Mister future ruler, my Leo.” Ageha smirked.

●●●●

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