The rhythmic clopping of horse hooves along the dirt road was quite soothing. One would think that listening to it would be enough to calm the spirit and the mind, but this was anything but true for Anabel. So many questions were swirling about in her mind and she couldn’t seem to decide where to start, let alone begin to gather up the courage she needed to ask.
“You’re running out of time,” Leonidas spoke plainly. “Things won’t remain so simple once we return to Violet Waters, so this is your last chance.”
Anabel’s head snapped around, but she blushed when she realized Leonidas was talking to her.
“… Why? If you were so powerful, why did you hide it? And most importantly, why didn’t you use your real strength against the Lower Ogre? You almost lost your life.”
Leonidas looked back toward Anabel and shook his head. He was never close to losing his life against the Lower Ogre, he simply took calculated risks to end the battle as soon as possible knowing that they could have been trailed. He had known from the very beginning that even if he claimed a mission before anyone else had seen it, too many people were paying attention to him for them to manage to sneak out of Violet Waters unseen. If anything, choosing a mission before anyone else could see it only bought them some time, but that was all Leonidas needed.
“There are people watching me all of the time. You don’t understand how weak I was six months ago, even carrying my own body weight was a chore. Even if it meant making your family believe that their investment in me was a mistake, it was a necessary evil.”
“But isn’t the Church safe?”
“No. There’s nothing safe or secretive about the Church. The only privacy I have is within my living quarters, and even that is only to a certain extent. What I exchange for and even the amount of time I spend within is all information that can be used against me by those that have sinister intentions.”
What Leonidas didn’t say was that he was certain someone was spying on him. When he went on his first mission with Lady Eve, he distinctly remembered her saying that someone had recommended him to her. He didn’t think much of it at the time, but it had been a nagging thorn at his side ever since he returned. If he had heard Benet’s words about his weaknesses, he would have been even more certain of this and thankful for his own cautiousness.
“But against the Ogre…”
“Are you aware of how many reconnaissance Blessings exist? Even if I was cautious and hid my strength, there’s still a glaring flaw in my backstory: how did I manage to become an Apostle before anyone realized one had died?”
Becoming an Apostle involved so much, it cost even more than becoming a Paladin. So how did the son of a whore gather enough Blessings to become one under their noses?
Then there was the fact that Leonidas was a Half-Beast and they were all aware that Yves would treat him more favorably as a result. This would make them even more cautious. No matter how much Leonidas hid his strength, it would only catch their attention all the more.
“So I needed to trick them into believing they had figured out at least a large part of my secret. My control of Mana Blade has reached such a fine level that it hardly leaves a residual impact, it ultimately gives what is a Level 1 Technique Blessing the strength of a Level 2 or 3 Technique Blessing depending on the situation. But, no matter how controlled I am, if I use it like I just did and go all out, it will leave a marker behind.”
“Then…” Anabel panicked, realizing that Leonidas had exposed himself.
“Yes, once they come across that Paladin’s corpse, they will be able to confirm that I am definitely a Mage. But, by then, they would have already missed their chance to catch up with us on the way back.”
As powerful as Leonidas felt he had become, that picture of himself as the weak teenage boy who could hardly hold his own head up was still firmly imprinted into his mind. He didn’t take anything for granted, nor did he overestimate himself.
He was confident in defeating a single Level 2 Fighter alone. If he was forced to fight two, he might not be able to escape with his life. And, if there was a Level 3 Fighter in the mix, he might as well hand over his head right now.
However, once Leonidas stepped back into Violet Waters, not only would they no longer be able to kill him out in the open, he had just gained a large windfall of Blessings he would use to increase his strength.
“Had I not managed to kill an enemy Apostle, I would have taken a different and riskier approach to maintain my façade of weakness. But, with this sort of breathing room, what I can do just expanded by a whole world.”
Anabel fell into silence as the shadow of Violet Waters grew in the distance. She knew that the moment they laid eyes on it, Leonidas had won this battle. It was still hard to say if he’d win the war, but this was definitely a victory.
“… I’m sorry.”
Leonidas turned his gaze toward Anabel who was galloping a measure behind and to the side of him.
“I really had doubted you this entire time, it was just that it was too late to save my reputation because I had already stayed the night with you, so I had no choice but to hold on. I’m sorry.”
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Anabel had spent a very long time with Leonidas and everything suddenly clicked. This was maybe the most intelligent man she had ever met. She didn’t doubt that he could see through her as though her eyes were a windowpane into her mind. Understanding this, she felt that hiding how she really felt would only be an insult to him.
Leonidas turned away and remained silent for a moment. Anabel lowered her head, feeling that maybe her relationship with Leonidas would end right here. But then, he spoke.
“When I was younger, I fell in love with a girl.”
Anabel’s head snapped up. The last thing she had expected was for Leonidas’ baritone voice to speak these words.
“She was nothing special, but she was the world to me. She was a whore, just like my mother. Not as beautiful, nor as popular, but it didn’t really make a difference. She was forced into the line of business like many others were.
“I was 14 years old at the time and she had maybe just turned 20. She never really knew her own age as she had been taken from her family at a very young age.
“At that point in time, I was quite aimless. The only schooling I received was self-taught, the only jobs I worked were as a tool and errand boy for the brothel because my body wouldn’t allow me to do anything else, and my whole world was that musty building filled with those disgusting scents. However, because of her, I somehow made myself believe that I could make myself into a great man, just so that one day, I could bring her out and show her a world beyond those foggy walls.
“I guess she took a liking to me as well, but it was probably because I was the only man who interacted with her that didn’t want to fuck her, or so she thought. In reality, due to my body’s condition, while I wasn’t functionally impotent, I technically was for all intents and purposes. As such, we all lived in our own fantasy worlds, and continued to do as such until she awoke to reality and realized how ridiculous it was to waste time on a 14-year-old cripple who wasn’t even useful for manual labor.
“Soon after that, she managed to woo a middle-of-the-road man and became his concubine. In the following years, I saw her in town from time to time, living a life she found her own happiness in. She was never rude to me, she never ignored me, nor could it be said that she broke my heart. She was just a normal woman making a logical decision.
“Do you know what I learned from that experience?”
Leonidas seemed content to allow the silence to linger as he looked up into the skies.
“… A few things. For one, humans are often easily satisfied so long as they don’t know any better. If she had been born into a good family and became the concubine of an average man, would she be so happy?
“I offered her the world, I promised to bring her even the moon should she want it. And yet, she was happy with an average man. Why? It was because she never believed the words I said to begin with.
“That was the second lesson I learned. There is no one who believes in you as much as you do, even if the belief you created was based on said person from the very beginning.
“And that led to the third thing I learned: when a man has a reason, there’s no mountain that he wouldn’t climb. I am the bastard child of a dead Lower Ogre and a Half-Beast whore, I was a mut who would gasp for breath just mopping floors, I was a boy who fell in love with a prostitute, and yet I still managed to convince myself that I could become something because I had a reason.
“When I lost that reason, I became a shell of myself, a more pathetic husk of what I had already been. My mother must have noticed the change, but she didn’t quite know what to do about it. So, she bought me a book. I don’t know what she went through to get it, but I didn’t need to know. I was wallowing in my own self-pity and had already worn through the previous books she had managed to get me, so I sunk my teeth into this new one, losing myself in its pages and the tale of Leonidas.
“I read the book three times through before I put it down for the first time. That was the day I chose to change my name, but that decision only reaffirmed the second thing I learned. Most didn’t even take me seriously. It was only my mother, who had lovingly given me my original name to begin with, who didn’t hesitate to abide by my wishes.
“It was all quite meaningless, though. In the five years between then and my mother’s death, I accomplished nothing. I could only watch her continue to be happy and I could only watch my mother return more beaten and bruised day after day until the night came when she never returned again.
“Reality was like a slap to my face, a shoe print on my cheek that reminded me just how empty and vapid my overblown, undeserved pride was.
“It was that vacuous arrogance that made me promise her the moon. It was that same arrogance that caused me to change my name. It was the very same arrogance that almost didn’t allow me to grasp the chance my mother left behind for me.
“However, at the back of my mind, that third lesson always lingered. That constant pursuit of a reason enraptured my heart and claimed my thoughts.”
As foolish as it was, a part of Anabel hoped that Leonidas’ next words would be that she was that reason, but she knew just how ridiculous those thoughts were. She could only sit on her horse as Violet Waters drew closer, clinging to his final words on the matter.
“Someone managed to enlighten me to that reason, though. I was thrown out of his shop when he tried to shove his cock down my throat and I thought better to almost bite it off completely. That day when he forced me to dig up my buried mother because I wouldn’t be his toy, that was enough of a reason.
“My pride was my downfall, but I will make it my strength. My mother is an insult, a stain on my reputation, a jab that can feel like a piercing pain in my heart and a slap that can sting more than a thousand cuts, but I will make her my strength.
“There’s nothing they like to say more than that my name is far too overbearing to be my own. They’re always quick to label me a bastard, a son of a whore, a worthless, cursed spawn…”
Leonidas’ expression gave way, its calm turning into a fiendish, murderous grin. His tail twitched, his crimson hair growing a size and increasing in volume.
The horses shivered, their steps wavering and nervous braying leaving them. But, the glow in Leonidas’ eyes only grew fiercer.
“A woman will never be my reason again.” Leonidas’ voice rumbled. “If that is what you’re looking for, you still have time to leave. However, if what you want is a man who can give you the moon, who can pluck the stars and force the sun to rise, who can split the earth with a stomp and topple a mountain with a roar, then stay by my side.
“I will give you the World.”
By the end of his words, Leonidas’ voice echoed out in an undying roar. Even Benet and the others, chasing after them as fast as they could, heard it from kilometers away. It blanketed Violet Waters. Whether it was a citizen, Knight, Paladin or Apostle, they all heard it.
Leonidas was announcing his triumphant return, unabashed and unworried. This time, he would enter the town with his head held high.