CHANGES (2)

Leonel was about to open his mouth to say more, but Gervaise flicked a finger and a badge of some sort landed on him. Before Leonel could react, he was teleported away. "I'll remember this, old man!"

Nilrem found himself standing alone at the bottom of the throne. He coughed lightly. "Pleasant weather we're having today, aren't we?" owns all content.

Silence.

"Hehe, I'll take my leave, then. Don't mind that disciple of mine, everybody. He's a kind soul at heart."

Several gazes flashed when they heard this. When had Leonel become Nilrem's disciple? Since when had Nilrem ever been close to anyone? All this guy did all day was chase skirts, but they also knew just how much of a powerhouse he was.

The process of establishing their Empire on the God Realm wasn't easy; several battles had been fought. But the moment this man appeared, it was like everything was solved within moments. Several armies retreated without doing anything, and those that dared to stay suffered terrible losses.

Afterward, there were many sideline powers who agreed to let the humans through so long as Leonel was handed back. These powers included the Sylvans who were enraged by Leonel's use of their geniuses for resources. But in the end, even those far more powerful powers were sent away with their tails tucked between their legs.

Many of these people knew next to nothing about Nilrem other than the fact he was a powerhouse. It had been a while since they settled down, and many thought to use this opportunity to get closer to him.

Getting closer to the Emperor was like climbing beyond the skies; it was next to impossible. But Nilrem seemed to be just as strong, and yet far more open to interacting with people. They had thought it would be easy to get close to him… only to find out that the man's shamelessness knew no bounds.

Normally, in a political relationship, there would be some give and take. But Nilrem only knew how to take and never gave anything in return. To make matters worse, he would even pretend to not understand the underlying implications of their words as though he was a complete greenhorn and not a powerhouse that could destroy worlds with a thought.

Still, a powerhouse was a powerhouse. None of them dared to be enraged, and many of them wanted to see if this was just a method Nilrem was using to weed out the weak of will. There were plenty of experts who were hounded by people every day. It was hard to differentiate between the serious and unserious amongst them, so they kept trying… what they didn't expect was that things would end up like this.

Of course, if Leonel was telling the truth and his grandfather was truly their Emperor, which was clearly the case or else the cold-hearted leader they knew wouldn't have been nearly so lenient with him, then maybe it made sense… but even these thoughts didn't last long.

In these years, Gervaise had had several more children, birthing more uncles and aunts for Leonel. On top of that, these uncles and aunts had many of their own children. Among these grandchildren of the Empire, there were many who had tried to get on Nilrem's good side, and yet none of it had mattered.

So why this grandchild in specific? Was this the child of Goddess Alienor? The one she had died for?

It finally seemed to click for many who Leonel was, and then his earlier words finally seemed to make sense to them. For some, this made their expressions soften, some had contemplative expressions, and a minority group didn't seem to react to this information at all as though it was meaningless. Still, they all had the same question.

Why Leonel?

From what they understood, Leonel had once been a great talent, but it was mostly taken away. There should be no reason for Nilrem, who only seemed to care about himself, to take him as a disciple. It didn't even seem like Leonel was particularly respectful to Nilrem either, calling him by a completely different name.

Many made promises in their hearts to check out this situation later. There were clearly many things about this that they didn't quite grasp.

Nilrem waved to everyone and then vanished.

**

By this point, Leonel was standing in an unfamiliar region. It took him a bit to adjust himself and understand where he was. His mind was in a very dizzy state for a few seconds before he understood.

'Oh, not bad. I guess you're less of an asshole than I thought.'

Leonel and his grandfather had never truly seen eye to eye on anything. Their approaches to life were vastly different.

But what Leonel knew was that he wasn't entirely stone cold either. He did have the capacity to love, albeit a bit selfishly. The heart and care Gervaise had had for his mother was real and true, and at least in some part, that transferred to Leonel. In the end, though, Gervaise was the most interested in investing in those descendants that could give the most returns.

Still, there was no denying how much Leonel had done for the Empire, and Gervaise wasn't yet to the point of cutting ties just because he felt Leonel wasn't nearly as useful as he had been in the past. In the end, Leonel was still his grandson.

If Leonel wanted to waste away the rest of his life in peace on his grandfather's dollar, Gervaise was fine with that. But, today, Leonel's words had made it clear that he was very much not. Obviously, this was to say that this was the real reason Leonel hadn't been given such a Title or responsibility. Gervaise wasn't sure what kind of mental state Leonel would be in when he awoke.

But now he knew.

As for where Leonel had been sent, it was none other than the treasure room of the Fawkes Empire.

It was time to make out like a bandit.