Chapter 33 Departure

It was already evening of the same day when Leonardo made it back to the inn with the little fox in his arms. However, right at the foot of the stairs, Azalea and Jeffery were waiting for him. Though, from the looks of it and their subtle body language, they might have arrived separately.

"Thank goodness, you're finally back!" Jeffery was the first to speak, sighing as he approached Leonardo with a bitter smile and said, "Everything about your identity has been prepared, except for the name of your household; I need that information."

Leonardo blinked, remembering that he never mentioned his last name to anyone yet. Then again, the last name on his home planet is definitely something else from the household name in a place like this.

Moreover, using House Hestia's name could become a major point of contention in the future since he doesn't have the necessary qualifications to flaunt that name around. After giving the matter some thought, Leonardo finally came up with a suitable name for now.

"Just list it as House Grace, that shouldn't be a problem."

"It shouldn't be." Jeffery nodded, feeling envious of Leonardo for having a certified household name, unlike commoners of his stature. He then handed Leonardo a bracelet while explaining its functions.

"This bracelet is connected to your ten thousand slaves through their soul imprints. All of them can cultivate, albeit the mortal cycles are the limit. You can sense the presence, location, and thoughts of every slave under your banner the moment you bind the bracelet to your will."

"The bracelet also has a secondary feature to function as a distant communication device; one simply needs to sync with the frequency of another device be it automatically through proxy or manually. I have already added my contact information to your bracelet."

​ Leonardo nodded, "Is that all?"

Jeffery went stiff for a moment, about to respond indignantly, but a little girl's silhouette could be seen rushing down the stairs while shouting Godfather, not allowing Jeffery the chance to speak up.

The little fox curiously watched the little girl from Leonardo's embrace, only to be shocked by the presence of an unfamiliar martial intent, albeit a fledgling, within the girl's body, let alone her divine physique.

What's a divine physique doing on a planet like this one? The fox thought to herself, only to notice the little girl staring her way with an equally shocked expression.

"As expected of my little girl's intuition," Leonardo smiled faintly as he wasn't surprised that Leona could sense a trace of emotions from the little fox. He patted her head and introduced, "Leona, say hi to Aria, you can take her to play upstairs and pack up your things, we will be leaving soon."

Leona snapped out from her shock, only for the little fox to enter yet another shock. This girl was Leonardo's adopted child? Where are her parents?

A small girl and an even smaller fox stared at one another intently before Leona finally couldn't take it anymore and rushed to take the small thing into her flat bosom. She shrieked happily and rushed back upstairs, all the while screaming I love it so much, thank you Godfather.

When the episode was finally over, Azalea pushed herself between Leonardo and Jeffery with a stern expression while asking, "What do you mean you're leaving? My superiors have business to discuss with you, and I've been coming here for the past few days waiting on you."

Leonardo gave her a flat smile before voicing out his thoughts, "Your superiors should have nothing to do with me, unless they want the saints under me. Be whatever it may be, I don't have the time to waste running around from one household to the next knowing that you have nothing of interest to me."

"You!" Azaleas fumed, her heterochromatic eyes spitting daggers at Leonardo as she blurted out, "Just because you're now a Prince, don't forget that-"

"I might have been nothing but a beggar for all I care, my plans for this god forsaken domain devoid of a decent population and life have come to an end. I'm a busy man, and don't even bother pulling the same trick of threatening my adopted children as I'm pretty sure you'll have much more important matters to tend to in the few coming days."

Leonardo's flat tone of rejection left no margin of discussion, but the last sentence in particular caught Jeffery's attention, being the meticulous business he already is.

He couldn't help but think back to anything related to Leonardo in one way or another throughout the past few days. However, the only thing that came to mind was the stupid coercion tactics in Tesla's the other day, where nothing of significance happened.

Wait, nothing of significance?

Jeffery's eyebrows locked together as a bad premonition crept into his heart, he knew Leonardo wouldn't simply have someone threaten his child and get off with a pat on the wrist. The more he thought about it, the more confused he became.

It was only when he saw Juvia coming down the stairs with the other three that he seemed to have been enlightened. More accurately, when he saw her trademark elven features while simultaneously contemplating the connection between Leonardo's words and Tesla's.

When he finally connected the dots, an explosion went off in his head, causing him to sway in place before leaning against a wall for support as he glared at Azalea with bloodshot eyes.

Seeing her obstinately trying to make things difficult for someone who wasn't far off from a devil incarnate, Jeffery blew his tops.

"SHUT UP ALREADY! Don't you realise it yet?! It was a public conversation at Tesla's! FUCKING TESLA'S!" Jeffery didn't care one bit about his fitness and ran off, his destination unknown.

The sudden outburst scared Azalea senseless, not knowing what went wrong with the guy's head. As for Leonardo, he chuckled bitterly.

Fat Jeff is as sharp as always, just a little hint and the cogs in his brain went full cylinders.

"What's going on?!" Azalea had a bad premonition and began to wrack her brain as well, giving Leonardo a look of discomfort.

Leonardo sighed, didn't this woman call him a smart young man the other day?

"Say, are you playing dumb or something? Haven't you noticed a sharp decrease in elven and beastkin population the past few days? Or did you attribute that anomaly to a holiday or some twisted curfew?"

Leonardo's words buzzed in Azalea's ears like a clap of thunder. In addition to what Jeffery just said, she was finally aware of how grave the situation is. With a pale compliment, she cursed Leonardo out for being a cunning, devious son of a bastard and rushed into the distance.

Juvia, being Leonardo's future secretary, watched with awe as she marvelled at her leader's multilayered schemes. Everyone was already here, and Leonardo was shocked to see everyone dressed in speckless white clothes much suited to his sense of aesthetics.

The little fox Aria struggled out from Leona's arms and rushed into Leonardo's, making herself comfortable while subtly eyeing Juvia and Pandora. She could already tell what type of a relationship they shared, and she felt like flaunting her position to the crowd.

"Aria!" Leona pouted, feeling betrayed by the cute little thing.

Kieran shook his head, keeping to himself as the introvert he was, simply latching to the hem of Juvia's sleeve.

Juvia picked up Kieran in her arms, Pandora picked up the grumpy Leona, and Leonardo could only hold the fox in his arms while giving Leona a helpless smile.

Then, the three of them simply vanished into thin air under Pandora's domain, and rushed out from Valdmor a moment later.

As for whatever chaos may engulf the town, the mining location, and the domain as a whole…

Leonardo and company would be all the way across the great sea and within the borders of the human domain when all that happened.

Would they give a shit? Not exactly.