Chapter 37 Clouded State Of Mind

Valdmor, in a private room.

"Are you still incapable of contacting them?" A middle aged man sat on a round table, accompanied by Mason and Andrew, but his question was directed at Azalea who stood respectfully behind him.

"I've been trying for a while now but to no avail…" Azalea responded with her head lowered, much like her voice.

"There's no point trying, Jason. For some reason, we couldn't contact them either, not even their Excellencies could do anything about the weird interference influencing the region as we speak." Mason interjected the futile conversation.

"That's right," Andrew added in a grave tone, "We can only wait."

There were several similar meetings ongoing throughout the underworld of Valdmor, even Jeffery was on tenterhooks while waiting for a response from her Majesty since he couldn't contact Leonardo.

Just as he was getting anxious, his communication bracelet, one more advanced than Leonardo's, lot up and projected a wide static screen accompanied by a gentle voice.

"Fixed it! We can have a look at the battle situation now… But I'm anxious, do you think he's still alive?" Queen Adeline asked hesitantly.

Jeffery felt like crying, what monarch would expose their weakness to a subject? What about putting a false, strong front?

"What's with that expression? You think it's no good too, don't you? Aiya! I should have ignored everything and sent one of my Sky Angles, I have twelve of them anyway!" The Queen began to whine in a distressed tone.

"Absolutely NOT!" Jeffery panicked, shouting, scaring the living daylight out of the Queen who went silent on the other end.

Jeffery coughed awkwardly and added, "Let's not underestimate him, your Majesty, how about we take a loo first and decide on what to do later?"

"Alright…" The Queen agreed, having been too anxious and lost her grip on her emotions. Then, the wide screen flickered and revealed the scene of the battle's aftermath.

Or rather, the aftermath of a massacre.

"Ah!" The sight of which elicited a shriek from Queen Adeline, having never witnessed so much death and destruction in the sanctity of the holy lands under the three ruling powers.

Thousands of bodies lay dead, and with her cultivation, she could instantly count their numbers so she could answer Jeffery's following questions.

"How many corpses do you count?" Jeffery asked.

"Nine thousand… Nine thousand and three corpses…" Queen Adeline replied in an unnatural tone, on the verge of puking her lunch.

"Good lord, they're all dead…" Jeffery muttered, but then he noticed something weird and was quick to point it out.

"Hey, the majority of them are unharmed at all, at the rear of the formation, how did they die?"

Queen Adeline was also confused and focused her consciousness, only to conflict with two other consciousness no weaker than her own. As a result of which, the entire broadcast crumbled under the backlash.

"Ow!" She whined, "I couldn't see much, perhaps some powerful expert made a move in the shadows… I assume it is that powerful expert who warded off the area from probings as well."

Jeffery professionally ignored the whines and whimpers, putting on a stoic facade while nodding his head. Those three just triggered a hornet's nest it seems.

In the other and only room where the representatives could rely on the power of the three ruling powers to inspect the battlefield, an oppressive silence engulfed the entire room.

Azalea covered her mouth and shock and then fear of what might descend onto her homeland if such savages were to comb through the land. And for the most part, her fears weren't unfounded, as countless times had the thought of retaliation against the Regalia Kingdom popped up in Leonardo's mind.

However, he simply shook his head clear from such thoughts, at least not until he was officially allotted a land and a title, as any acts from that point onwards are considered an act of war and conquest.

For now, Leonardo and company were having a peaceful trek through the hilly countryside behind the stretch of mountains located behind the great ravine, the little siblings being none the wiser to the massacre that occurred right behind them.

It seemed that Leona had gotten quite attached to Aria, always hugging the fox to her bosom with one arm and holding onto Leonardo's hand with the other, happily discussing matters of life, or at least whatever thoughts that came to her mind with the silent animal.

Kieran was the opposite. Although he progressed enough to voluntarily take the initiative to hold Juvia's hand, he didn't speak much but rather curiously skimming his gem-like brown eyes about the terrain all around, feeling excited even though his expression didn't show it.

"Although we don't know how to make our way around this region and into Sylvia's Kingdom, we could find some business caravans and offer our services as commissioned protectors, or we could join a caravan and hire protectors of our own to show the way and explain the situation across the realms."

As the party made their way through the lushly countryside, Juvia proposed a course of action she found best. However, Leonardo who was awfully silent this whole time didn't hear her.

He was engrossed in the process of capturi the feeling of wielding that archaic halberd, and the influx of information regarding its origins that surfaced in his mind. Only now did he understand why someone as powerful as Nier didn't bother arming up with protective gear or fancy weapons; she didn't need any.

He had to admit that this martial intent is tailored for battle, and he now could understand the crisis such a bloodline would invite if they didn't have the power to protect themselves from the greed of mankind.

"Leader!" Juvia called out with an exasperated tone, for the fifth time.

"Hm? What?" Leonardo blinked, noticing that everyone was giving him looks of concern. Juvia recounted her plan to Leonardo, which he accepted with a casual nod of the head, his response as simple as it could get:

"Sure, whatever works."

Juvia noticed that Leonardo wasn't in the right mindset, but she didn't blame him for it. After giving the matter some thought, she suggested, "How about we settle down in a nearby inn for the night and look for a caravan tomorrow?"

"Sure, whatever works." Leonardo nodded absentmindedly, still lost in a peculiar state of mind. Juvia sighed again, simply giving Leona a look, and the smart child understood her meaning and nodded with a smile.

Then, Leona began to subtly guide Leonardo by pulling at his hand, and the young leader simply followed along without paying attention to the overall situation and environment. It was so comical that Leona couldn't help but lead him to walk in circles around the circumference of a large tree, and surprisingly, Leonardo didn't even notice that.

The two of them circled the tree about twelve times when Juvia couldn't take it anymore and gave Leona, who was struggling to not laugh, a stern look.

Leona rolled her eyes and mouthed silently, "Godfather is acting silly today!"

Perhaps only Aria was aware of what went through the young man's mind, and she couldn't help but give the elven beauty a look of approval. What Leonardo needed now was to simply sit down and sort out his thoughts, as comprehending the intricacies of a high law isn't something to scuff at.

Thus, the group entered the nearest town and rented three rooms for the weekend.

Juvia shared a room with the children, Pandora slept alone, and Leonardo absentmindedly entered his own room, but Aria stealthily sneaked in as well, a curious glimmer in her crimson eyes.