This line stuck with Leonidas for the rest of the night. It wasn’t because it was profound or able to leave a mark on his heart. Rather, it was because of the sheer ridiculousness of it all. He couldn’t bring himself to take Jowell or any of the others seriously. Every word, every action, was hiding dense layers of political double-speak and numerous facades. Even between an aunt and a nephew, nothing changed. The only meaningful interaction he had had that night was being looked down upon for his Class choice. The rest was all so empty.

When Leonidas rose to leave, his mind couldn’t help but linger on these thoughts, so much so that he almost didn’t notice when his path was blocked.

Leonidas looked down to find the petite form of a young woman before him. The first thing he picked up wasn’t her appearance, but rather the delicate fragrance wafting from her. It was subtle, almost like roses floating on the surface of a lake.

She was quite young, maybe only three or four years older than Leonidas. It was quite rare for him to see such young women that weren’t prostitutes, at least. Families were far more worried about keeping their daughters out of his clutches, many of whom held fears of a charming fox coaxing their daughters away and tainting them for a lifetime. And maybe they weren’t wrong, if you ignored his previous terrible posture and sickliness, his face did hold a sort of fatal attraction. Not that his body could ever follow through on a promise to capitalize upon it, though.

This particular young woman didn’t seem to have any parents ready to pull her away.

She looked almost straight up to meet Leonidas’ crimson gaze, her deep brown eyes being a size too large and giving her an adorable appearance even given her age. Her body was slender and quite small, but she still managed to accentuate the curves she did have with a formfitting dress that managed to still remain modest.

“Your Lordship, my name is Anabel, a Knight of the Siris family. I hope I am not bothering you. I just wanted to introduce myself.”

Her voice was reserved and quite touching. It made one want to reach out and protect her, if somehow her adorable appearance hadn’t done enough to force said issue.

Leonidas was a bit taken aback. Just a day ago, he was on the verge of breathing his last breaths, realizing that he would die as an ant barely worth more than a common slave. But now, a young and beautiful woman was calling him a Lord... He didn’t quite know how to respond for a moment.

However, the rational side of his mind took hold soon after.

‘A honey trap?’

In the past, Leonidas wasn’t worth enough for anyone to take such measures against him. But, as one of the only eleven Apostles of Violet Waters, his status had skyrocketed overnight. He had read many books about the dangers and pitfalls of status and wealth without foundation, so this was something he was prepared for.

Leonidas was also aware, though, that with his status, women would naturally gravitate toward him as well. It wasn’t necessarily true that this Anabel was sent by another person. And, even in the case that she was, said individuals might not have sinister intentions.

The Siris family was one of the many Knight families beneath the Bruthers and Rardin families. Such Knight families had aspirations of producing Paladins beneath the charge of an Apostle, but Paladins were very expensive to make. With such heavy investments involved, loyalty had to be proven through several trials and tribulations, and even then, it still might not be enough.

The appearance of an Apostle unattached to the Bruthers or Rardin represented an opportunity. The Sirises happened to have a young female Knight who had already passed marriageable age. Due to her talent in combat, Anabel was able to escape the fate of her fellow sisters of being sold off as political pawns. But, now that Leonidas had appeared, such a luxury was no longer something she could continue to cash in.

The Siris family only had a single Paladin remaining and due to his old age, he had already fallen out of favor with his Apostle. It was no longer worthwhile to invest Blessings into him and the Siris family needed to produce another Paladin quickly, or else their standing would fall by another measure.

Usually, it wouldn’t be an issue for the Head of the Siris family to grandfather in one of his descendants to replace him. But, the Apostle the Siris family had relied on had died. Without much of a surprise to anyone, that Apostle was the very same one Lady Eve had betrayed.

The Sirises were caught in a whirlwind of terrible timing. The death of an Apostle had made the Rardins fall behind in their clash with the Bruthers family, they didn’t have time to care for the Siris family. At the same time, all of the other Apostles of the Rardins had Paladins of their own and with the current climate, it simply wasn’t time to train up another Paladin.

If things continued like this, the Sirises, who had been allied with the Rardin, could easily get swept up into a conflict. They were simultaneously not of any use to the Rardin and a potential threat to the Bruthers. On top of that, there were always lesser families eager to make a name for themselves and a failing family like the Sirises was prime for the taking.

The only instance of good luck the Sirises had remaining was the fact that Leonidas was a man and Anabel was a young woman.

Many of these things were matters that Leonidas, as a former commoner, couldn’t quite grasp or understand. But, he had his own guesses and they weren’t too far from the truth at all. Seeing Anabel’s smiling and slightly fidgety attitude, he felt something within him that he had never felt before…

Power.

Leonidas didn’t feel any pride from this. This was an opportunity that had fallen into his lap, the one drop of goodwill the skies that had loomed over his head for a lifetime had given him. Even now, he could still hear the echo of the spirit’s laughter when he asked if he had become a Fallen Apostle. It was a reminder to himself that he was weak, that to the people of even this small town, he was still too worthless.

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Leonidas took a breath, the beating of his heart slowing to a crawl. This was an opportunity he would grasp for all that he was worth. He wouldn’t allow anything to stand in his way.

Just as Leonidas opened his mouth to respond to the increasingly fidgeting Anabel, the sound of footsteps interrupted him.

The pair still stood within the confines of the Church. Leonidas didn’t have accommodations in Violet Waters, so he could only take up housing here. The facilities compared to Clergymen were leaps and bounds ahead.

Leonidas didn’t turn immediately, but he could sense Anabel’s nervousness turning to panic.

“You can go.”

The voice was somewhat cold and detached. Leonidas was unused to hearing this individual’s voice in this shade, but he still recognized it as Lady Eve’s. These words she had spoken were clearly for Anabel as she wanted to speak to Leonidas alone. But, instead of turning back and obliging, Leonidas did something unexpected.

“Hold on, Anabel.”

Anabel had already been prepared to rush off. Lady Eve might have been estranged from her family, but she was still a Bruthers in her eyes on top of being an Apostle. Those were already two solid reasons why she didn’t dare to offend this woman.

“Ah…” Hearing Leonidas stop her retreat, though, Anabel felt like a kitten caught between two fierce lions. She involuntarily let out a small cry that could have easily been confused with a whimper or a plea for help. She had no idea what to do.

“There’s no need to be nervous, she can wait a moment.”

Lady Eve’s gaze narrowed as she stared toward Leonidas’ back. She couldn’t seem to fuse the images of the stable boy with the young man who dared to say such words in her presence.

For the first time in his life, Leonidas’ voice carried with it the command it was always meant to. The deep, rumbling forcefulness had an air that could hardly be disobeyed. Anabel fell into a daze, forgetting that she should have still been panicking.

“Tomorrow, come to my living quarters an hour after dawn. We can speak then.”

“Ah… Yes, yes. Right! I—I will be there!”

Anabel went through several emotions. However, she didn’t have the luxury of feeling them now. She bowed deeply, not willing to look Lady Eve in the eye before rushing off. It was only then Leonidas turned back, meeting the gaze of the lioness that could crush him with a single stomp.

It had to be said that Anabel’s timing and location selection was perfect. Leonidas was the only Apostle in history to be poor enough to actually live in the Church. In a Main Shrine, this might have been hotly contested. But, in a dilapidated Sub-Shrine like this one, there was only the bare minimum to find here. For these nobles who were used to their lives of luxury, this wasn’t enough.

The location was just before the accommodations for Apostles on the highest floors of the Church. Anabel had remained to wait for Leonidas at the top of a winding flight of stairs that was considered to be in the grey region of the rules. After all, a single step higher and she would have been in Apostle-only territory.

Lady Eve stared toward Leonidas deeply. She seemed to half still be in disbelief that he was actually alive, and another part of her was baffled that he actually dared to be so rude to her.

“Will you follow me in?” Leonidas asked.

Though he did so, he had already turned and opened the door leading into the corridor. Lady Eve didn’t have any intention of letting Leonidas leave like this, so she followed, a heavy aura hanging around her.

The instant Leonidas opened the doors to his living quarters, there was a strong surge of pressure. Leonidas had no ability to react before his head was slammed against a wall. His body spun out of his control and he found his neck being squeezed down a moment later.

Lady Eve gripped his throat, squeezing down hard. Despite the difference in their size, her body carried the strength of a behemoth. She raised Leonidas’ body up by his neck without even the slightest hint of effort. But… All she received in return was a pair of placid crimson irises.

“How did you survive?” She asked coldly.

Leonidas didn’t even attempt to respond. He calmly continued to meet her gaze, unmoved. The lack of air didn’t bother him in the slightest. Among the small tricks Mana could perform, acting as a replacement for oxygen was easily among them.

Lady Eve sneered. “It seems you want to die.”

Leonidas remained unmoved. There were definitely ways that Lady Eve could kill Leonidas in secret, but within the Church was definitely not one of them. Lady Eve might have been higher Leveled than him, but she was still a Missionary. In the eyes of Yves, they were equal. She had no right to unilaterally kill him.

Deacon Bruthers could do as he pleased with Leonidas’ life, but he had other matters to consider as well. The fact that the Rardin family could still be considered rivals to the Bruthers meant that even high-ranked Apostles weren’t necessarily omnipotent, there were certain balancing factors somewhere, Leonidas just wasn’t aware of them yet.

Regardless, Lady Eve and Deacon Bruthers had supposedly had a falling out. Even if the latter could be unfettered in his actions, it wasn’t likely that Lady Eve could ask for his help anyway, not to mention the fact that her doing so would expose that she had killed his son.

Lady Eve quickly realized that Leonidas didn’t seem fazed by her threats. However, rather than wavering, her gaze only became colder.

SNAP!

The sickening sound of bone twisting and breaking resounded. Lady Eve treated Leonidas’ arm as though it was a soft and pliable straw. With a single pull and a twist of her wrist, she snapped his forearm in two.

Leonidas let out a hollow breath. The initial pain was bad enough, like countless firecrackers going off in his mind as though his body would never grow tired of reminding him that his arm was broken. But, the fact Lady Eve continued to hold on, moving his broken arm about slowly and deliberately so that he could feel every inch of this wound only made it worse.

His gaze remained on the woman before him, his placid expression suddenly curving into a fiendish grin. Beneath the dim lights of his accommodations, his glistening canines seemed to sparkle and his crimson irises hovered like two flaming balls.

Of all the reactions Lady Eve had expected, this was the very last. It was the kind of reaction that made her want to forget about the consequences and kill this young man before her at all costs, the kind of reaction that told her that for every moment Leonidas lived, she was one step closer to no longer doing so herself.

Leonidas’ hair grew a size, flowing downward like steel needles. His tail had just enough strength to swish about, a low growl leaving his lips as the steady beat of his heart became faster.

Lady Eve’s hand tightened around Leonidas’ throat. Just an extra bit of pressure and it would snap, she was certain. Ogre bones or not, it was all too fragile beneath her strength.

Leonidas could feel death looming close, but it only made his gaze grow brighter. He was the madman who shoved molten iron into a fresh wound. A broken arm? Life being squeezed out of him breath by breath? How could these things faze him any longer?

He had crawled back from death once before, and he would do it again. He would crawl back as many times as he needed to reach that mountaintop. This small town wouldn’t be where he stopped!

BANG!

Lady Eve released Leonidas and left through the door, slamming it closed. Leonidas slumped to the ground, his heart still beating wildly and his fragile flesh threatening to collapse beneath it. But, he eventually calmed himself, his fiendish aura fading as he stared out into blank space.

He would put one foot forward at a time. Some might force him to pause for a moment. Some might force him to take a new path and deviate. However, none would make him stop.