SORRY ASS CRAFTERS

Gervaise's eyes flashed.

"If you would like to continue expanding the kingdom and want to have concubines, I will not mind. I know of your heart and of your ambitions, and I know that you act for reasons much larger than yourself. I have held you back enough."

Roesia gave Gervaise a delicate smile. She didn't seem to mind at all, but it was that sort of selfless smile that could make a man willing to give up anything for a woman. Gervaise looked at his wife for a long while. Just moments ago, he was preparing himself to lose her.

Had he gone too far?

"We… can consider these matters another time." A rare hint of hesitation sparked in his words.

Roesia didn't mind it, but that was when Leonel's voice rang out.

"Gervy? What a cute nickname. I'll be sure to use it."

Gervaise's expression froze, and Roesia covered her lips in a light laugh before fixing Leonel's hair.

"You've yet to be punished for what you've done, but you've gone and broken several more rules. Do you think my Ascension Empire is your playground?"

"Yes, actually." Leonel nodded seriously as he pushed himself up. "But that aside, this isn't like you, old man. You look flustered. What was that retort? Not nearly as sharp and witty as usual."

The usual Gervaise would never show his hand like that, and certainly not without already having a plan of action. He was clearly only mentioning such a thing in order to avoid embarrassment, but Leonel wasn't going to let such an opportunity slide that easily.

"This matter isn't a joke, Leonel." Gervaise replied calmly.

As expected of an old coot, shameless to an extreme. His face was so thick that even Leonel couldn't see the slightest hint of a change. It was as though he had cemented himself into that expression.

Fascinating, indeed.

"It's not my fault you let your grandchildren run wild. Is my wife someone they can have thoughts about? I'm only helping you clean up some trash. They were never going to be useful to you anyway. Blame your sons and daughters."

Gervaise didn't say much, but he did look at his wife. Roesia had seemed to decide not to care anymore. She was still looking at Leonel with a bright smile on her face as though he was the only apple of her eye.

Inwardly, he sighed. He would have never thought that such words from Leonel would actually make Roesia feel more assured.

There were simply too many children. Roesia was working on her 17th, but what did that mean for the number of grandchildren she had? Even Noah had returned to find that he had several more brothers and sisters. Clearly, that uncle of Leonel's had been hard at work.

By now, the number of grandchildren was into the hundreds, mostly because many of the Imperial Princes had taken several wives to birth even more children for them.

On top of that, there were already many more great-grandchildren running around. It was seemingly endless.

This was something that Gervaise encouraged, but for Roesia, who wanted to have a close relationship with her family, this was especially difficult on her. It made her feel like the world was being further closed off from her, and even worse, by her own actions on top of that.

"I do have some advice for you, though, old man."

"And what's that?"

"You probably shouldn't punish me too much, because I know you need me, and I'm definitely going to end up killing more. I'm sure you didn't work this hard to build up the Ascension Empire, only for your own sons and daughters to run it into the ground in a single generation, right?"

Leonel's meaning was clear.

If Gervaise punished him now, he would be setting a precedent. That precedent would be incredibly important going into the future, especially if Leonel was going to kill again.

There was only one way out of such a thing, and that was to either not push Leonel at all, or to cleverly plan this punishment so that in the case Leonel were to kill again, it would be far easier to manage.

"These people are still your family, Leonel." Gervaise replied just as calmly.

"This can't be considered a family, it is a cabal of people you brought together for benefits. I haven't been here for long, but just the fact that people would be willing to go after the wife of their own cousin or nephew says enough, don't you think?"

"I'm aware. These things are still under my control." Gervaise said calmly.

"What are you going to do? Drop a few islands on their heads too when things go out of control?" Leonel sneered, still referring back to the Paradise Island incident.

"I thought you had grown up."

"I did." Leonel said. "And now I'll kill those who stand in my way and help those that don't. Simple enough to understand, right?"

Gervaise's gaze finally had a hint of a flicker in them.

There was a silence that fell over them all before he slowly began to speak again.

"You will be taking over a battlefield. You'll serve for either a hundred years or until the war is over."

Leonel yawned. A boring punishment indeed, but still something that was more than manageable. If he killed again, Gervaise would just extend the time and make him battle more.

Clearly, Gervaise didn't believe that the war against the Four Great Families was going to end any time soon, especially considering the fact other God Realm existences were using them as a proxy to pressure the Ascension Empire.

However, Leonel didn't mind it at all because it was also a flexible punishment. Who was going to oversee the fact he remained on the battlefield? And with the Segmented Cube, wouldn't he be able to go on vacation whenever he wanted? All text © NôvelD(r)a'ma.Org.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever. Now, let's get down to business. Where are my rewards for saving your sorry ass Crafters?"