Author: M_W Cancer 

Proofreader: M_W Miss Fierce

It didn't take that long for Leo and the others to finish preparing themselves. 

At this moment, they were no longer wearing armors, but are now wearing formal clothing.

Leo wore a black suit, while Angel was wearing a beautiful white dress to contrast to his black suit.

On the other hand, Elvis, Iasiah, and Nightingale wore the orange-colored uniforms of the Mischievous Lion Guild, which is actually also the same uniform that the Mischievous Lion organization use.

For Leo, it's so troublesome to design another uniform for the Mischievous Lion Guild, so just like what he had done to the proof of identification, he decided to also copy the ready-made product of the Mischievous Lion organization. Although the production hasn't really started as of this moment yet since they only plan to start the production once they finally arrived at the Horizon Empire. 

As such, the uniforms that Elvis, Iasiah, and Nightingale are currently wearing were the uniforms from the members of the Smiling Lion group who are staying in the Smiling Lion Village along with Lex and Virgil to collect the more necessary information to help the Mischievous Lion Guild.

Leo and the others quickly got on the horses that Eilajah had brought for them from the stable of the Magical Beasts Center. 

"Let's go?" Leo turned to look at the Squad Captain by the side. 

"Hayah! To the Evergreen royal family's castle!" The Squad Captain prompted his horse and began leading everyone in front.

.....

The journey from the Smiling Lion Village to the Evergreen royal family's castle took more than an hour of time for them to finally saw the castle.

It wasn't only because of the far distance between the two places, but also because of the really strict security along the way. 

Soldiers stationed in the Noble Zone would stop them every now and then the closer they get to the Evergreen royal family's castle to ask for their proof of identification and the reason why they are here. 

Apparently, Leo's meeting with King Elfin the Fourth was keeping under the strictest confidentiality. That's why they were still stopped and questioned by the soldiers. 

Aside from a few certain people that the Evergreen royal family trusted, no one else knew the real reason for Leo's visit to the Evergreen royal family's castle.

The only information that was made known to everyone was that Leo had only come to the Evergreen royal family's castle under the request of one of the princesses to meet him. In such a way, people would only assume that one of the princesses is interested in Leo, nothing more and nothing less.

Fortunately, there was no longer any of that strict security as soon as they entered the territory of the Evergreen royal family's castle.

They arrived at a huge lake where they then immediately saw the magnificent and enormous Evergreen royal family's castle located at the very center of the lake. 

To get to the Evergreen royal family's castle, they crossed a really long stone brick bridge. 

Because of the beautiful view of the lake, Leo and the others didn't find crossing the long bridge annoying or irritating. They simply relaxed themselves and enjoyed the view while riding on their horses. 

Along the way, Leo would sometimes tease Angel, resulting in him receiving a painful pinch on his side and a sweet smile. 

Soon, they finally arrived at the edge of the long bridge. By the side, there was a small hut where the Gatekeeper stays at. 

"Pull down the bridge!" The Gatekeeper exclaimed loudly after he finished checking the Squad Captain's identity.

Cronggggggggg! 

A huge draw bridge slowly fell in front of everyone.

Bang! 

After a minute or two, the long bridge and the Evergreen royal family's castle were finally connected by the draw bridge. 

Following the lead of the Squad Captain and his men, Leo and the others finally entered the Evergreen royal family's castle. 

They move around a fountain in the center as they soon stopped in front of a huge door. 

In front of the huge door was a young Royal Magical Knight. 

Leo and the others disembarked on their horses and looked at the young Royal Magical Knight.

"Welcome, Guild Leader Loki. I'm Luke, a Royal Magical Knight of the Evergreen royal family. Please follow me closely, I will lead you to meet with his majesty, King Elfin the Fourth," Luke turned around as he then walked inside the castle.

Leo and the others left their horses to the Squad Captain and his men before they followed after Luke. 

As they walked in the hallway of the castle, Leo and the others can't help themselves from admiring how rich the Evergreen royal family is. 

Everything that they saw was made out of precious and definitely expensive materials. Such as the multiple vases, sculptures, and armor stands.

"Say, if I replace one of these armors with something much cheaper, would anyone notice the difference?" Iasiah suddenly asked. 

"Try to steal something much smaller to test it. Like for example... that vase over there," Nightingale pointed at the vase in front of them.

"But I don't have any vase inside my Storage Ring," Iasiah said.

"How about this, you switch that vase and that sculpture, and let's see whether they will notice the change or not the moment we leave?" Elvis suggested while smiling mischievously. 

"Good idea," Iasiah nodded his head as he quickly moved closer to the vase and the sculpture. 

In front, Leo can't help shaking his head helplessly. It seems like no matter who he chooses, all of them would still try to cause him trouble. 

Seeing Leo's action, Angel quickly holds his hand to comfort him. 

Bang! 

All of a sudden, one of the armor stands moved as it then drew its sword by its waist and pointed it towards the hand of Iasiah that was going to grab the vase.

"Stay your hands, thief!" 

"I..." Iasiah stared wide in shock at the armor stand that suddenly moved and completely caught him off guard. He really didn't expect that a mere armor stand would actually move the moment his hand was close to the vase. 

"Hahahahaha!" 

"Hahahahaha!"

Both Elvis and Nightingale began laughing loudly after seeing Iasiah's hilarious reaction. 

"The two of you-" 

"I really can't believe that you actually didn't notice that these aren't ordinary armor stands," Elvis put one of his hands on Nightingale's shoulder while continuing to laugh. 

"See that Magic circle in the chest plate, that's a Magic array, and that necklace over its neck is a Memory Crystal, which means to say that these armor stands are not just any ordinary armors stands, but are actually called Spirit Guardian," Nightingale immediately explained the reason why the armor stand suddenly moved just now. 

"Spirit Guardian?" Leo asked Angel by his side as he was intrigued to know more about the so-called Spirit Guardian. 

Angel quickly explained to Leo what a Spirit Guardian is. 

Soon, Leo finally has a rough understanding of what a Spirit Guardian is.

Spirit Guardians are somewhat similar to Golems. The difference between the two is that Golems are made out of rocks or just simply any raw materials, are created using Magic spell and could disappear whenever one wishes. While on the other hand, the Spirit Guardians are the spirits of specially made items, are naturally born through the passing of time, and are contracted to someone just like a Beast Companion.

There are different kinds of Spirit Guardians, which entirely depends on how old they are. 

A young Spirit Guardian is like a Golem who don't possess intelligence. So, for these young Spirit Guardians to make a move, one would need to order them or set a predetermined action that they will execute through the use of a Memory Crystal. That's the reason why when Iasiah thought of touching the vase, even without an order, the Spirit Guardian of that armor stand immediately assumed that he was planning to steal the vase, thus it drew its weapon and send out a warning. 

A decade-old Spirit Guardian is like a young child. They possess the ability to think but are still immature to make smart decisions. 

A century-old Spirit Guardian is like a teenager. They possess intelligence, but some of them are stupid, while others are smart. It completely depends on how their Master had taught them and how their way of thinking had developed.

Lastly, A millennium-old Spirit Guardian is like an adult. But their level of intelligence completely depends on their past experiences. If they have many rich experiences, then they could become a wise Spirit Guardian, but if they have poor experiences, then their intelligence would be negatively affected. 

Normally, Spirit Guardians would naturally die once they reached 10,000 years old as that is the usual set limit of the majority of the materials used to craft the majority of the Spirit Guardians, though they could also prematurely die if ever their vessel is destroyed. But if they are made out of legendary materials, then there is a high chance for them to exist forever and will never die even if their vessel is destroyed.

"I suggest that you don't touch anything randomly. You are really fortunate that you have only encountered a young Spirit Guardian. Some of these armor stands here are actually decade-old Spirit Guardians, which would not warn you anymore the moment you try to touch anything," Luke warned Leo and the others before continuing to lead the way.

"Damn, are you guys actually planning to kill me?" Iasiah turned to look at Elvis and Nightingale.

"You're a 7 Star Mage, even dozens of young Spirit Guardians won't be able to kill you," Elvis rolled his eyes. 

"Yeah..." Nightingale wanted to say something but was immediately interrupted by Leo.

"Did you hear that?" Leo shoots a sharp look at Elvis and the others, "Behave and don't cause me any more trouble, understand?"

"Yes, Guild Leader Loki!" Elvis, Iasiah, and Nightingale immediately stopped bickering with each other as they nodded their heads in understanding.

As they continued on walking, Elvis and the others behaved themselves and didn't cause any more trouble to Leo.