Leon carefully sized up Alcander’s opponent. ‘Daniel’, as Narses had called him, was a rather handsome man, but generically so, in Leon’s uncharitable opinion. Classically handsome, but his eyes were just a little too close together, black hair that was just a little bit too long, and a long neck. His body seemed fit, but his shoulders were kind of narrow and out of proportion with the rest of him.

Most relevantly, however, was his fairly stable fifth-tier aura. Alcander was fifth-tier as well, so it seemed like this little duel was going to be evenly-matched. However, Leon still found it rather distasteful, as he quickly shared with Elise.

“Violence at a celebration?” he whispered.

Valeria responded first. “Are you surprised?” she asked. “It is Narses…”

“I suppose not, but I guess I thought that he might show a little more restraint for someone else’s celebration…”

Elise responded, “It really isn’t just Sofia’s celebration, though. This party is a way for Narses to celebrate with his peers and subordinates, for them to become familiar with Sofia who might follow Narses’ footsteps and join Heaven’s Eye, and for Sofia to allow those in Heaven’s Eye who are interested either in her or Narses to try and court her.”

“Yeah…” Leon murmured. “Yeah… I figured as much. And now we’re part of the entertainment.”

Valeria replied, “This isn’t entertainment for Al.”

Leon grimaced slightly when he saw the deadly seriousness on Alcander’s face. He could understand, as Narses had allowed the two combatants to speak while Leon was conversing with his ladies, and Daniel was busy making his hostility clear.

“… for some uncouth ragamuffin coming down here to take our women! I’ve picked more valuable things than you from between my toes, boy! And yet you still have the audacity to reach beyond your station! If no one else will show you the door, then I will take it upon myself to perform this service!”

Alcander had turned red with obvious anger, but he kept himself in check. Leon could feel the killing intent emanating from him, but even then, it still felt quite regulated compared to whenever Alcander found himself in violent situations. But then, as Narses indicated that it was Alcander’s turn to speak, he simply glanced toward Leon, and did so obviously enough that quite a few others in the room followed his gaze, including Daniel.

And Leon smiled as he returned Alcander’s gaze. He held it for a moment, understanding just what Alcander was doing, and then nodded once.

[If you lose, Al, you’ll have nothing but bread and water for a week,] Leon growled into Alcander’s mind, though he had little intention of following through on the threat. He just wanted to make sure that Alcander knew he had license to go as hard as he needed to.

Alcander’s smile widened. He was wearing an immaculately tailored suit, black and trimmed in silver, that hugged his body tightly. With an exaggerated flex, he tore the suit right off his body almost without moving. What few rags were left stubbornly clinging to his torso, he incinerated with a quick blaze of fire.

He didn’t say a word, merely glaring at Daniel like a lion eyeing prey.

Leon felt pride in his retainer, and in the reactions among the crowd. He could tell that Alcander had just made quite the impression, and while it wasn’t uniformly positive, he could see a look of approval in Narses’ eyes, and Sofia herself looked more than thrilled at Alcander baring his fantastically built chest for all the world to see.

Daniel, however, hardly even blinked, and simply assumed a fairly neutral fighting pose, raising his hands and lowering his center of gravity. It wasn’t until Leon felt the air in the courtyard start to swirl around that he realized what Daniel’s chosen element was.

“Now, then,” Narses said, “this is a duel to honor my house, and to honor my niece Sofia! So this fight will not be to the death! We will not fight with weapons, but with fists and magic! A true test of personal strength, absent any tools! I will step in when I have decided the fight is over, and Sofia will declare her chosen winner! So fight with honor, and glory will surely be yours, even if you don’t vanquish your opponent!”

Leon smiled, recognizing that Narses had just given Sofia carte blanche to choose whoever she wanted to win, regardless of how the fight played out.

Alcander quickly assumed a fairly aggressive stance, and a moment, Narses and his family backed up. Then, the Chief of Security shouted, “Begin!”

Alcander moved first, blazing across the few dozen feet between him and Daniel in fractions of a second, unarmed, but his hands burning with red fire. With fiery fists, Alcander punched at Daniel again and again, and while the latter didn’t seem to be dodging with ease, he still dodged and deflected all of Alcander’s strikes, not once letting Leon’s retainer touch him with even a spark of fire or a single flake of skin.

“You’re going to have… to try harder than that!” Daniel shouted, the quiver in his voice apparent to Leon, though it seemed not to many others. Leon saw Narses minutely scowl, though the expression was gone in favor of a wild smile as he tossed back a cup of wine.

Alcander didn’t rise to the bait, to Leon’s pleasant surprise. Instead, he doubled down, lunging with fist, then elbow, and then with knee and shin, his limbs alight. It seemed that Daniel was having more trouble than he was letting on, though, for in keeping with the traits of fire magic, Alcander moved with explosive speed, but that speed came in bursts and couldn’t be sustained. After every strike, he was left vulnerable to a counter for a fraction of a second, but Daniel seemed either unable or unwilling to capitalize on that opening, despite his otherwise superb defense.

Leon quickly formulated a theory as to why as the fight continued: a thin layer of nearly-transparent frost had covered Daniel’s arms, showing him to be an ice mage of some skill. It was a subtle use of magic, but one that left him quite well-protected from fire unless Alcander was able to get in a good hit.

However, it seemed that that ice was having a detrimental effect on Daniel’s speed. Whether or not he could see Alcander’s openings, Leon couldn’t say, but it seemed clear enough to Leon that whether or not Daniel could see them, he simply couldn’t move quickly enough to take advantage.

It seemed that Daniel disagreed, however, and after several long minutes of being chased around the courtyard by Alcander, constantly on the defensive, Daniel decided to try and launch a counter. Or, Leon wondered, the jeers from the crowd were getting to the young nobleman.

“Get that barbarian upstart!” one of Daniel’s companions shouted.

“You’ve played with him enough, put him down!” another roared.

“End this farce! Put this dog down!” a third bellowed.

To the credit of the crowd, most of those watching were quite well-behaved, as much as spectators blatantly enjoying the show could be. It seemed that it was only Daniel’s friends who were being so insultingly loud. Leon thought that maybe a few others might’ve been inclined to join in, but he could almost feel anxious gazes land upon him from time to time as the duel continued.

Daniel, once he committed to whatever it was he was planning, straight-on blocked one of Alcander’s punches. Alcander had been utterly relentless up to this point, not letting his seeming inability to land a good hit on Daniel discourage him, and not letting Daniel take even a single breather. However, with the sudden change in strategy, Leon saw Alcander hesitate for just a moment, and in that moment, Daniel made his move.

A spear of ice perhaps six feet long appeared in Daniel’s hand, and he lunged forward with it, aiming directly for Alcander’s chest. To Leon’s eighth-tier senses, and with a little bit of lightning magic running through his veins, Daniel practically moved in slow motion. If Alcander were truly hurt, then Leon would be able to step in. However, as the ice spear lanced toward his retainer, Leon was completely relaxed.

He could see Narses monitoring the duel far better than he seemed, as deep in his cups as he was, and more than that, Leon could feel Alcander’s own aura rising to match Daniel’s. As the man who’d done the most to train Alcander’s fire magic, Leon knew that Alcander wasn’t going to let something like this slow him down. If Daniel had been trying to get Alcander to exhaust himself, Leon knew that the young nobleman would taste nothing but bitter defeat. Alcander was an experienced warrior, trained personally by Leon, and had received some measure of advice from Xaphan.

Sure enough, fire erupted from Alcander’s chest, and Daniel’s ice spear flash-vaporized in his hand, practically exploding and eviscerating the nobleman’s hand. Before Daniel even had a chance to scream in pain, Alcander was bringing his fist down upon the nobleman’s head, and with a burst of fire, smashed the nobleman into unconsciousness.

Daniel hit the floor, and the courtyard fell silent. Narses rather unhurriedly walked forward and tossed a very high-quality healing spell down onto the prone nobleman, then declared to the crowd, “Alcander has won! Is there anyone else who wishes to make a challenge against him?”

Alcander stood strong and defiant, glaring at the crowd with his arms crossed.

Leon briefly wondered if anyone would be stupid enough to follow Daniel’s example, but as he began clapping, he glared around at the crowd, his aura menacing, his killing intent palpable.

“Fantastic performance, Al!” he pointedly shouted. In a blatant after-thought, he added, “And well done, Daniel.”

Everyone else in the courtyard, even those who’d been clearly hostile to Alcander’s presence, began to clap as well, and not a single person stepped forward to challenge Alcander.

Leon spared Sofia a quick glance, and as far as he could tell, she was absolutely smitten. She stared at Alcander with hearts in her eyes, and Leon smirked, knowing that any chance anyone else had against his retainer was nonexistent, for it seemed he already had her heart.

“If no one will fight Alcander,” Narses continued, tacitly giving Alcander permission to return to Leon’s side, “then is there anyone else who wishes to fight? No good party can be called such without a test of strength, and many are tested at great parties!”

Narses swept his gaze around the room, making eye contact with all those who’d come for the chance to court Sofia, man and woman alike, clearly impressing upon them his seriousness.

It didn’t take long for a couple other young men who’d clearly been unhappy with each other’s presence stepped forward. At the same time, Daniel regained consciousness and was helped to some seats at the edge of the courtyard where he could nurse his bruised ego.

As Alcander rejoined Leon and his ladies, Leon said, “Good job.”

“I’d never bring you dishonor, My Lord,” Alcander said without a hint of sarcasm or irony.

“Good,” Leon replied. “Now drop the lord garbage until I’ve actually earned such title.”

“What if you’ve already earned it?” Alcander asked, flashing Leon a quick smile. Leon met his gaze, confusion lancing through his mind until Alcander quietly added, “You’ve always had my back, Leon. With the vampires. With the shit we got into in the north. With the civil war and the campaign in the Serpentine Isles… Now with this. I don’t think I can ever express my thanks to you, so I’ll do my best to make it clear through my actions. You’ve always had my back, Leon. It’s only fair that I always have yours.”

Leon couldn’t help himself; a wide grin broke out onto his normally-stoic face and he had to look away from Alcander to keep himself from breaking down completely. It took him a long moment to regain his usual demeanor, during which both Valeria and Elise stared at him, wide grins of their own piercing directly to his core, telling him without words that they were never going to forget this moment, and were probably going to be bringing it up at least a million times before they were all dead and gone.

But for now, he focused on putting his usual expression back on, then turned back to Alcander and finally replied, “Sounds good to me.”

Alcander clapped him on the back, hardly looking at all like he’d exerted himself at all during his duel. Leon knew that there was no way in any hell he missed Leon’s mad grin, and he was grateful beyond words that he wasn’t going to address it.

So, to distract himself, he turned his attention to the rather boring duels that Sofia’s friends and suitors subjected themselves to, for her and everyone else’s entertainment.

---

Alcander wasn’t the only one of Leon’s retainers who had business with him; all of them were focusing on their own projects or training, and he made sure to carve out some time to touch base with everyone. Helen and Anna filled their days with their alchemy and beastmaster work, respectively—Anna was especially busy since the two wyvernlings that they’d taken from the aeries were growing rapidly and could no longer be housed in Leon’s villa, on top of the problem that their presence was bringing out Red’s territorial instincts. Gaius, Marcus, and Alix threw themselves into their training, leading Leon to think that they had no personal business they had to take care of. It wasn’t long before that impression changed.

Leon had just been walking back to the villa from his workshop when Marcus came running out to meet him. “Leon!” he loudly called out as he came an almost skidding halt in front of Leon.

“What’s wrong?” Leon asked, his heart rate spiking as he thought that something must be wrong if Marcus was so clearly disturbed.

“I need your permission to head out on a hunt!” Marcus asked.

Leon stared at him for a moment, then let out a deep breath of relief. After a moment spent calming himself down, he asked, “What’s going on? Why do you want to go hunting?”

Marcus didn’t immediately answer, but from the way he avoided Leon’s gaze for a moment, Leon thought something was amiss.

“I… I’m…” he sputtered for a moment. Marcus went quiet for a moment, and Leon let him silently gather himself before continuing. When he was ready, Marcus looked him in the eye and, with deadly seriousness, said, “I need a vacation.”

“Ah,” Leon replied. “I see. Not going to lie, you were making me think something much bigger was going on…”

“No, sorry about that. But Leon, honestly… well, things have been going pretty hard for a while now, even if the rest of us haven’t been directly involved in a lot of it. It’s been… mentally taxing, shall we say? And I got word from home recently! My older sister is actually in the Ilian Empire!”

“She is?” Leon responded, surprise blasting through his mind.

“She is,” Marcus confirmed. “Princess Cristina is still here as ambassador, and my sister was hand-delivering some correspondence from the Bull King to her. Since she was in the area, it seems she decided to look us up. I was hoping for a bit of time off—”

“No need for all the excuses,” Leon said a quick wave of his hand. “Your family is here, I need nothing more. Take all the time you need.”

Marcus’s face practically split in half from his smile, but he didn’t immediately accept. “Leon…” he whispered, “my sister… has also been pestering me for a meeting with you…”

“Has she said why?”

“Just to satisfy the curiosity of those back in the Bull Kingdom. Is seems that there are some back home that are curious as to how we’re doing, and my sister’s job isn’t just to deliver some mail for the Princess; she’s also here to make sure we’re doing all right.”

Leon nodded as Marcus gave his explanation. He couldn’t deny that he was rather touched that people like the Bull King were interested in checking up on him, but he hadn’t thought that he was close enough to any of them to warrant such concern. He hadn’t even been that bothered to do likewise. Cristina did come visit on occasion, but for the most part, she was more interested in meeting with Valeria and Elise, so he usually made himself scarce when she showed up.

“I brought up the idea of a hunt,” Marcus continued, “and she agreed…”

As he trailed off, Leon got the distinct impression that he wasn’t telling him everything. “… Were there some conditions to her agreement?” Leon asked, trying to force out whatever it was that had Marcus so out of sorts.

“No conditions, really…” Marcus anxiously replied. “However, she did say that she wouldn’t mind if you were to tag along. You’ve never actually met her, have you?”

“No, I haven’t…”

“She’s quite curious about you. I mean, she was sent all the way here partially to get an update about you for the Bull King, and from what I can gather, you’re still pretty frequently the subject of conversation back home.”

Leon sighed. “I’ll be honest, heading out on a hunt sounds damned therapeutic right about now, but it’s not politically convenient. Given all that’s happened recently, I need to stay in Occulara for a while.”

Marcus grimaced. “Right. Sorry about that, I almost forgot with my own family business on my mind. You’ll still meet her, right?”

“Of course, just send her my way when she’s in and has some time. I wouldn’t mind hearing how the Bull Kingdom’s doing, myself.”

Leon surprised himself with just how much he meant those words. It wasn’t that much, of course, but it was more than he’d expected.

Marcus quickly agreed, and ran off to arrange a quick meeting, and Leon began to mentally prepare himself for a meeting with his older sister.