Several days after his and Lapis’ introduction to the court, Leon found himself heading toward the Royal Palace once again. He hadn’t been there since the audience, as Trajan had sent him a message to stay away for a little while, after which Leon hadn’t heard anything from the Prince. But just that morning, the Prince unexpectedly summoned him back without explanation, so Leon set out from Elise’s estate early in the morning with Anzu at his side. He’d also been told to pack his weapons and armor and to prepare to leave the capital for a few days, so he had everything he needed in the event violence broke out stored away in his soul realm.

Alix had been officially transferred to Minerva’s command, and after moving into her own barracks room, he hadn’t seen much of her. Leon wasn’t too broken up about it, as he knew that he wasn’t the best knight for her to follow, and he also knew that Minerva would be a far better teacher and mentor to Alix than he could ever be. Still, he did feel a bit lonely with Anzu as his only companion; he’d gotten quite used to Alix always being there, and her being gone was going to take some getting used to.

When Leon finally arrived at the Royal Palace’s island, he found that he wasn’t the only knight in Trajan’s retinue to be summoned; about one hundred and fifty knights, their men-at-arms, and their squires had been assembled, many of whom Leon recognized. The only knight present that Leon knew well enough to speak with, though, was Adalgrim, but he was lost in conversation with a handful of other knights and didn’t notice Leon’s arrival.

Fortunately, Leon didn’t have to stand around awkwardly for too long, for Lapis was still spending its time around the palace courtyard—no one knew exactly how to deal with the stone giant, but given that it seemed perfectly content just standing around in the courtyard, no one was in a hurry to change its situation.

“Leon, it’s good to see you in good health,” the giant said in greeting as it approached him.

“And you, too,” Leon automatically responded. Lapis was as massive as it always was, and the blue streaks flowing through its gray stone sparkled in the morning sun. “At least, it looks like you’re in good health… do your people even get sick?”

“Not in the way that humans do, as our stone bodies aren’t susceptible to disease,” Lapis explained. “However, these bodies are only shells, our true forms are pure magic, and we do occasionally get… I guess it could be described as ‘sickly’ if we are in a magically inhospitable environment, such as at sea.”

“I see,” Leon said as his interest was piqued. It occurred to him that, for all that the giants were supposedly loyal to him, he hadn’t actually taken the time to get to know them. He found it hard to trust these inhuman things, at least as hard as it was for him to trust a stranger. However, he had to admit that Lapis had earned more than a modicum of Leon’s trust, and Leon decided at that moment to make a bit more of an effort to get to know the giant. “So there needs to be a sufficient amount of earth magic in the air for your people to function?” Leon asked.

“Indeed,” Lapis confirmed.

Most of the magic in the air lacked any elemental power, as most elemental magic came from living things, with humans and other intelligent creatures being the most common source. However, elemental magic was occasionally generated in nature, not to mention some elemental magic stayed in the environment after a mage used their power. Mages below the fifth-tier couldn’t make use of that power as they were unable to control it, but mages of the fifth-tier and up could absorb this ambient power through their lungs and either fuse it with their blood or store it in their soul realms, though there typically wasn’t enough elemental magic in the environment for this to make much of a practical difference.

However, it seemed there was enough earth magic in the air around the capital for the stone giant to remain healthy, even so far from Lapis’ home mountains which Leon guessed were much richer in earth magic.

“So, your bodies are just ‘shells’?” Leon asked. “Does that mean you can… like… shed them? And get another?”

“We are not snails, Leon,” Lapis said in its deep, rumbling voice. Its tone didn’t sound any different than usual, but Leon still got the impression of mild amusement from Lapis, as if it were answering the questions of a child that didn’t know any better. And to be fair, compared to the stone giant, Leon was sure that he was essentially a child in its eyes, no matter how many times it may have called him ‘Divine One’. “Our true selves are bound to our bodies, and without the latter, the former cannot exist.”

“Huh…” Leon mumbled in thought. That did bring to his mind questions of reproduction, and he was sure that Lapis would explain that to him if he were to only ask, but he felt like it was probably a sensitive issue—or at least, he knew that he would never want to explain human reproduction to Lapis if the giant were to ask—so he restrained his curiosity.

Fortunately, Leon wasn’t left standing there in awkward silence as the doors of the palace opened and Trajan and about half a dozen Legion knights of varying strength came walking outside. Leon felt Trajan’s gaze linger on him for a moment, but the Prince didn’t stare.

“Gather ‘round!” Trajan called out from the front steps, and all those that he had assembled started to congregate around him. Once he felt like he had everyone’s undivided attention, he explained, “As I’m sure most of you are already aware, I have decided to loan out a portion of my retinue to the 1st Legion to aid them in their peacekeeping duties. That portion will be made up of all of you. I expect all of you to follow the orders given to you by the 1st Legion’s Legates as if they were my own for the duration of your assignments. Policies for rest and relaxation after any missions will be the same as at the Horns.”

Once he was done with his spiel, Trajan silently waved to one of the Legion knights behind him, an elderly Legate with a head full of snow-white hair and a pale face more wrinkled than a plowed field.

“Greetings, everyone,” he said politely, drawing everyone’s attention. “I am Caelestius Leo Hostilianus, an admin Legate with the 1st Legion. I’ll be handling the assignment of your duties, so you’ll be effectively reporting to me for as long as His Highness is willing to loan you all out to my Legion. For the time being, I don’t have much for any of you, but there are a few knights that I’ve taken the liberty of assigning an immediate task.”

Leon began to subtly frown. He greatly enjoyed the laid-back days he had had at the capital, filled with little else but Elise, training, and finally finding out some details about the fall of his family. However, he knew from Caelestius’ statement alone, let alone Trajan’s previous declarations to get him out of the capital that he was going to be one of those few knights. Regardless of his mild reluctance to go on missions for this Legate, though, he did acknowledge that the capital was a dangerous place for him to be and that not being around would be a lot safer.

He turned out to be correct, as both he and Adalgrim were called out by the Legate, along with about half a dozen other knights.

Once he’d called who he intended to, Caelestius said to the rest, “I have nothing else for the rest of you, so go home and rest, but report to the 1st Legion’s base at the Legion Headquarters tomorrow morning at nine a.m.”

For a moment, most of the knights looked to Trajan, but once Caelestius was finished, the Prince nodded and turned around to leave, saying as he went, “I’ll leave the rest to you.” This was as definitive a dismissal as the Prince was going to give them, so the knights who were not called out began to file out of the courtyard.

Once the Prince returned to the palace, Caelestius said to the small group who stayed behind, “I’ve singled you all out because I’ve been told that you’re the go-to knights for dealing with more monstrous opponents. Was the person who told me that correct?”

The knights all glanced around at each other, but it was Grim who was the first to respond. “You were not lied to, Sir, we are the best in His Highness’ retinue at killing the less mundane threats to our Kingdom.”

“That’s encouraging to hear,” Caelestius said, taking note of Grim’s confident tone. “Well, we have received word of a possible werewolf that has been killing livestock about a hundred miles north of the capital. I’m tasking all of you with heading over to the farms who reported this issue and hunting this werewolf down, assuming it exists. Since this is information from peasants out in the boonies, this could just be a big wolf or other such misunderstanding. Regardless, you’ll be handling it.

“Additionally, since all of you are fifth-tier mages, I’ll leave it to all of you to decide on your leader, but I want it settled right now.”

There wasn’t much deliberation among Trajan’s knights, Grim was the one with the most experience in these matters and he was well-liked to boot, so he was unanimously chosen to lead the team. Given his own history with the knight, Leon fully supported Grim’s leadership, as he felt the older knight had the perfect temperament for a job like this. Despite this, Leon had a few misgivings about working with the man, given Adalgrim’s familiarity with demonic power and the demon resting in Leon’s soul realm.

Still, there was little choice in the matter, and Leon trusted Grim reasonably well.

“So, can we expect some specifics?” Grim asked Caelestius once his leadership was decided upon.

“Your destination is a farming village about a hundred miles or so north of the capital’s outskirts…” Caelestius explained, quickly giving Grim the specific directions and ensuring the knights knew the way to their destination. “You can requisition horses at the stables, but this shouldn’t be a job that lasts longer than a day or two. Still, take all the time you need to do this right.”

“Got it, Sir,” Grim said.

“Now that all of that is over and done with, I’d like to be perfectly candid,” Caelestius began. “I think that sending all of you out there for a single werewolf is extreme overkill. I don’t think that this thing, if it even exists, is any stronger than the third-tier, so sending eight fifth-tier knights after it is a gross over-use of resources.”

“If you think this, why send us at all?” one of the knights asked.

“Because His Highness insisted,” Caelestius answered. “I guess the thought of having all of you sitting on your asses and relaxing in the capital, as you all deserve after pushing those Talfar bastards out of our Kingdom, wasn’t something His Highness was able to stand. It’s not my place to question the orders of a Prince, though, especially when he’s lending me so many good fighters to keep the peace with. I just wanted all of you to know that, what you do with that information isn’t for me to decide.”

With that, Caelestius walked right past the knights and started making his way toward the bridge back to the rest of the capital and the Legion Headquarters. In fact, his parting words and his immediate departure was so out of nowhere that it wasn’t until a few moments after he left that any of the knights were able to do so much as grunt in confusion.

“What was all that about?” a blond middle-aged lady knight wondered out loud. “There was no need for him to say that! So why do it?!”

“I don’t… know…” Grim said, his speaking cadence stilted by bewilderment.

With a sigh, Leon said to the rest, “It doesn’t matter. If he wants to be an asshole, then let him be an asshole. However, he did essentially tell us to get lost for a couple of days, so we might as well just do that. Personally, I’m looking forward to spending a couple days outside of the city.”

“Not surprised you prefer the wilds, Valeman!” one of the younger knights playfully said with a laugh as he threw an arm over Leon’s shoulders, though Leon could feel a couple of the other knights subtly glare at him at the mention of where he had come from.

“Yeah, I guess we should get to it, then…” Grim rambled as he cleared the last few confused thoughts from his head. Leon was right, though, it didn’t matter why they were being sent out, only that there was a werewolf that needed killing.