Chapter 45 Chat Over Wine (1)

The nightlife in the border fortress was very peaceful, mainly because multiple saints were stationed to garrison the border on every passage between the kingdoms. Travelling from the border to the inland of every kingdom would consume a lot of time and energy, even for a saint. Therefore, Leonardo and company would wait out in the fortress' accommodations until a fleet of royal wyverns was dispatched to accompany the prince and his entourage towards the bequeathed territory.

Leonardo spent hours from dusk till dawn meditating over his bloodthirsty armament, and he made considerable progress, unaware of Aria's contributions to that endeavour. Although he was curious about the rest and their whereabouts throughout the night, he didn't feel like disturbing their time of peace after a few months-long arduous journeys.

Opening his eyes, Leonardo got off the bed but not before Aria stretched her paws and climbed to his shoulder. The little fox seemed exceptionally pleased to monopolise Leonardo to herself for the night, even though it wasn't anything of significance to occupy the man's lap.

Leonardo chuckled at Aria before stroking her silver-white fur, only to notice the pulsating red halberd on the back of his hand growing vivid to the eye. Nonetheless, he attributed it to his increasing comprehension of the bloodthirsty armament and discarded the subtle changes.

The moment he exited his designated sleeping chamber, he encountered a soldier on patrol in the hallway. With a faint smile, he inquired while simultaneously complimenting the man, "How diligent, here I thought I was the only one to wake up this early during the day?"

The soldier seemed updated about Leonardo's status and thus offered a salute before answering respectfully, "Your Highness must be joking, I haven't had a shred of sleep since last night."

The soldier felt somewhat on edge as rumours about the ravine of demise had circulated far and wide within the borders of Regalia Kingdom, even a border soldier like himself heard of them. Thus, he couldn't afford to offend this god of death under any circumstances.

"However, speaking of diligence, I think I noticed a group of five that have been training since the twilight hours of the night, they should be resting in the closed fireplace hall, they might be planning to continue later on."

"Is that so?" Leonardo raised his eyebrows. He could make an educated guess as to who those five were. However, he didn't expect them to be so anxious about the great culling as to start training without a proper rest from the tense journey.

"Yes, I'm pretty positive!" The soldier couldn't recognise the question as a rhetorical one, responding respectfully. Leonardo didn't hold the man to it, instead patting his shoulder with a nod before allowing the soldier to continue his patrol.

As for Leonardo, he made a detour and started heading towards the fireplace.

Currently, in the fireplace, the five survivors or so Leonardo liked to refer to them, sat on wooden chairs in a close circle to the raging flames within the modern-style fireplace. Although the hall was grand and spacious, it was too early and cold for most people's liking.

Misaka wasn't bothering to hide the twisted scar and rotting flesh of her side profile as she wouldn't shy away from her comrades that went through the trials of life and death with her. She didn't even wear a cloak, let alone a face mask.

Sitri was dressed in casual pants and a shirt as well. However, tattered bandages wrapped around his arms all the way into the short sleeves of his shirt, concealing his skin in its entirety save for his ordinary-looking face. However, who's to say that this face wasn't but another disguise?

Andreas was the largest of the bunch in stature, and muscles build-wise. He was a head taller than the rest, had a compact build, and had rough short hair. Unlike Kristopher who was as ordinary as ordinary could get.

One would categorise him as one of those who made it so far out of sheer luck, nothing more, nothing less.

Lucas seemed absorbed by his own drifting thoughts. While the rest of the group were either sharpening their weapons, warming up their knuckles, or simply tossing bits of stick and stone into the fire, he merely stared absentmindedly into the twining flames and crackling wood within.

They were so engrossed in their own little worlds that they didn't notice Leonardo who stood too close to the group.

"How lively," He spoke calmly, though the sound didn't seem so calm to the five combatants as they instinctively drew their sharp weapons and were about to strike with a lethal force that could obliterate any mortal from the face of this planet.

Luckily, but luckily for whom? Debatable…

Nonetheless, luckily, they snapped out of their daze and reflexive actions and managed to hold back. However, they had quite odd expressions seeing him carrying a silver plate with six wine glasses in one hand and a few bottles of wine in the other.

Misaka who was the most familiar with Leonardo's temperament, or so she led herself to believe, spoke up.

"Your Highness?"

Leonardo shook his head with a sigh, resting the plate and wine bottles on a nearby table before pulling in a chair for himself. Once he got comfortable, and under the dubious eyes of the group, he began to personally pour red wine for each and every one of them while talking in a flat tone, dressing his expression was a flat smile.

"Just call me Leo for now, I'm here to chat with you, not flaunt my worthless status." The moment his sentence came to an end, he correspondingly finished spreading out the drinks in each of the five's directions with an inviting gesture.

"You're hurt, I get it. However, you don't have the luxury to pent up all of these emotions so I have come up with a proposal." Leonardo took the lead by picking up his own glass of wine, knocking it down his throat with one shot before he began to cough with a red face.

One can see his alcohol tolerance at one glance. Still, he continued talking, "You either wash down those emotions with alcohol; lots of alcohol, or you cough them out with even more alcohol."

"So? What would it be?" Although he was asking them, the five knew that they weren't given the opportunity to decline, but to choose one of two evils. If not, Leonardo would have waited for their input on whether they felt like drinking, to begin with.

"Oh right," While everyone was hesitating on how to proceed, Leonardo took out a small box containing a herbal green remedy from his spatial ring. This is something from Nier's collection so it must be something good.

As for how good, Leonardo wouldn't know. However, it was surely one grade or two above whatever good medicine this place had to offer when it came to skincare and treating infections, poison, and burns.

He passed it on to Misaka while saying, "Take this, it should fix up that bloody thing on your face. If you're going to work for me, you need to be presentable at the very least."