Leon felt immeasurably better when he left his soul realm than he did when he entered it. He knew what he did and didn’t want to be, and he had the next few moves of his life planned out. He would build a new family, a new Clan, out of House Raime, and he would run it as he saw fit. No slavery, no using sentient creatures as magic power generators, and no needless and selfish conquest. Hopefully, if the day ever came when he wore the crown of the Storm King, any stigma associated with the old Clan would’ve been washed away.

From what Justin had told him, he had a lot of work ahead of him if he wanted to redeem the descendants of the Thunderbird in the eyes of the people of the Nexus—assuming that he ever could, given their apparent disdain for those with Inherited Bloodlines—but despite that, Leon still felt lighter and freer when he awoke on his sofa than he did when he’d closed his eyes.

He had the framework of a plan, something to work toward, something that wasn’t just ‘find person who wronged me and kill them’. And it felt good.

He was still left with two or three days alone in his villa, though, with Elise, Maia, and Valeria still on their way from Teira. Just because he had a good plan for how to proceed with his life didn’t mean he had a good plan for what to do with himself for the next few days.

To that end, he decided to spend as much of that time in his enchantment workshop as he could. He’d get some lessons from Nestor, but for the moment, he wanted to restock on his spell stockpile and read through some of the books he’d taken from the archives below Argent Palace.

So that’s what he immediately started doing. For two hours, he pored over spell paper, pen in hand, a book open not too far away with useful references and explanations regarding spell theory. He made some good progress, but that progress was interrupted when he heard some muffled knocking at his front door.

At first, he wondered if he was hearing things correctly, but a moment later, once his attention had been fully torn away from the spell he’d been working on, he heard it again: the unmistakable sound of knocking. His seventh-tier senses were too sensitive to mistake it for anything else once he was focusing on it.

With a profound sigh, Leon set aside his work and left his workshop, his mind now refocusing slightly on the fact that he had yet to fully re-implement the suit of enchantments that had once filled his home, but that he’d destroyed the night before breaking August out of prison more than half a year ago.

When he reached the door, he found a fairly pleasant surprise waiting for him: Marcus and Alcander were both there, waiting for the door to be opened. They seemed slightly nervous and were looking around at the villa and the surrounding grounds, but not in a particularly sinister way; rather, Leon felt like they weren’t entirely sure if they ought to be here or not.

Regardless, he felt like they wouldn’t have shown up without cause. He hurried over to the door and opened it, doing his best not to show his mild irritation at their disturbing his work.

“Ah, Sir Leon!” Marcus said as Leon revealed himself. “I wasn’t sure if we had the right house!”

“Indeed, it’s good to see you,” Alcander added with a wide smile crossing his face.

“You too,” Leon replied. “What brings you two out here?”

“We’ve, uh, we were in the capital and decided to pop in for a little while,” Marcus said. “You know, catch up on everything that’s happened over these past few weeks, and all that…”

Leon saw that Marcus wasn’t entirely comfortable standing there in his front courtyard, so he ushered the two young noblemen inside. Calling upon all of his social graces, he offered them something to drink before leading them into the central living room.

“This is a nice place,” Marcus said politely as he sat down.

“Thank you,” Leon responded with as much patience as he could muster—he was still in work mode, and suddenly switching gears to hosting guests wasn’t easy. “So, how have you two been?”

“Ah, well, you know, we’ve been all right,” Alcander said. “Not too great, but things can’t be perfect, can they? Especially not in these times.”

“What’s making things not great? Surely you two would be doing all right since your families supported the King, no?” Leon couldn’t imagine what the problems these two might have could be, but he was certain that they weren’t doing nearly as badly as they’d implied.

“We were kicked out of the Legion in all practical senses,” Marcus explained. “What’s more, with the King’s recent focus on revoking the titles of landed nobility and overhauling inheritance laws to make the Bull King, whoever that may be, the sole beneficiary of landed titles, it’s pretty much a given that we’re not going to inherit our family’s titles. Our parents are young, so they won’t be passing on those titles anytime soon, not before the King legally ensures that those titles will be his or August’s.”

“I see…” Leon said, though he didn’t feel that much sympathy for them. Maybe it would’ve been different a few weeks ago before he’d decided to eschew the direct legacy of the Thunderbird Clan in favor of building something new, but right now, he didn’t think it was all that bad of a situation. “Your families are still quite wealthy, though, so it’s not like you’re being thrown out onto the street…”

“Not going to lie, kind of feels like we are,” Marcus said.

“And we’re not alone, a lot of nobles who were in the Royal Legions are being ‘encouraged to resign’ just as we were,” Alcander added. “It looks like the King doesn’t want people who would benefit from his orders not being followed to be the ones also charged with enforcing those orders.”

“I can understand that,” Leon said, still not feeling too sorry for the two.

Marcus took a deep breath and sighed, then said, “It’s not that great of a situation, but like you said, we’re not exactly going to be turned out onto the streets; our families are still quite wealthy even without their titles and associated lands. We’ll live. But please don’t mistake our intentions, we didn’t just come here to bitch!”

“Oh?”

Alcander suddenly leaned forward, his fourth-tier aura starting to roil and churn with uncontrolled excitement. “Sir Leon, is it true what the people are saying about you? That you’re a long lost son of House Raime?”

Leon smiled in amusement.

‘I suppose that rumor’s spread far and wide by now, hasn’t it?’ he thought. He didn’t want to be Leon Ursus anymore, and with Justin in hand, he didn’t have to be.

“Yes,” he said with hardly any hesitation. “My real name is Leon Raime. My father was Artorias Raime, the second son of Kyros Raime, the last Archduke of the Great Plateau.”

Alcander’s smile widened and he began to laugh to himself, while Marcus stared at Leon with a thoughtful smirk. “I wondered about you, Sir Leon,” he said. “I always doubted that you were really just a Valeman, though I have to admit, I never imagined your real background to be so… illustrious…”

“I am going to choose to take that as a compliment,” Leon replied. It sounded a hell of a lot like Marcus was insulting the Valemen, who Leon still identified a little more with than the people of the Bull Kingdom, but he didn’t seem to mean anything malicious by it.

“It was a compliment,” Marcus said good-naturedly. “You know, there’s a lot of people talking about you. I mean, who you are isn’t just a rumor going around, there are people in the Northern Territories who have been trying to set up a meeting with you.”

“Really?” Leon asked exasperatedly, his face contorting with displeasure. “I haven’t heard anything about that, and to be honest, I’d rather they didn’t even try.”

Alcander raised an eyebrow in surprise. “Why is that? You don’t want to be the new Archduke? Though, I suppose the King wouldn’t give away that title when he’s getting ready to take away everyone else’s titles…”

“Even if he wasn’t, I wouldn’t want it,” Leon answered. “I won’t be long for this Kingdom. I plan on traveling south toward the Central Empires just as soon as all this business with Octavius is finished.”

“Are you…?” Marcus whispered, a strange look coming across his face. “Listen, Sir Leon—”

“It’s just ‘Leon’, please. I resigned my knighthood.”

Marcus smiled a little awkwardly, but he took it in stride. “Very well. Leon, truth be told, Alcander and I didn’t just come here for a friendly chat, though a friendly chat is always something nice to have…”

Leon imperceptibly tensed up. He didn’t once think that they’d come here on a whim, and now that they were getting to the heart of their purpose, he wanted to be ready for anything they might say.

“We actually want to go with you,” Marcus said, sending Leon almost physically recoiling backward in surprise. He expected many things to fall from Marcus’ mouth, but that statement was not one of them. Marcus continued, “Without the guarantee of our titles and our removal from the Royal Legions, our prospects in this Kingdom are looking a little bleak. I know a lot of other nobles are looking to leave, too, but we don’t just want to go to another Kingdom, we want to go to the center of power on this plane. We want to go somewhere new where we might be able to start completely fresh. And if that’s where you’re going, then we would like to ask you if we could accompany you there as your partners.”

“Besides,” Alcander added, “you’re independently wealthy, yes? And you’re heavily connected with Heaven’s Eye. You have no cause to fear your assets being taken away, and you’ll always be able to pay those who sign on with you. Now, I don’t want to make it seem like these are our only concerns with wanting to follow you to the Central Empires, but I wouldn’t quite feel right if we didn’t address them. We want to see the limits of power on Aeterna, and we’ll follow you there if you’ll have us.”

Leon stared at the two young noblemen, his mouth hanging slightly open, his eyes squinting a bit in surprise. “Uh… I don’t… I don’t see a problem with that,” he said. Marcus and Alcander had fought quite well during the civil war, and much of that time had been at Leon’s side. They’d earned his trust, especially after fighting alongside him during his worst moment, the battle which had seen his company of giants all killed.

But while he’d tentatively agreed, Leon had some other questions. He couldn’t just let them come with him without ascertaining exactly what they wanted and what they expected.

“When you say that you want to accompany me, what are your expectations? A knightly contract to follow me as official subordinates, or just as co-equal friends?”

“Ideally, just as friends,” Marcus said as Alcander vigorously nodded. “I can only speak for myself here, but I don’t really want to become someone’s knight.”

“Neither do I,” Alcander added. “But that isn’t to say we wouldn’t follow you, if the need arose. You’re still much stronger than we are, and you’re a Raime to boot! I, personally, don’t have a problem following your lead!”

Marcus nodded in agreement. “We would like to be your friends, Leon. If you’re going to the locus upon which this plane turns, where the magics that can be learned are at their most potent, where the most powerful people in the entire world gather, then that’s where we’d like to follow you.”

“That… doesn’t sound too impossible,” Leon said with a sly smile. “I could use some friends, I wouldn’t mind having the two of you come with. However, I can’t leave anytime soon, at least not until this Octavius business is over.”

“Right,” Marcus replied, his tone dropping just a little bit as he averted his gaze in displeasure. “Can’t believe that traitor got away. His Majesty asked you to join the party that goes out to execute him?”

“King Julius asked me to bring him back,” Leon explained. “One way or another, that’s what I’ll do.”

Marcus nodded again, and Alcander asked, “If you’re going to go out there, too, would you have room for two more?”

Leon softly chuckled. “Are you sure you’re not asking to be my subordinates? It kind of sounds like you are…”

“Maybe a junior partner, or something,” Alcander replied.

A paltry distinction in Leon’s mind, but he accepted. The three of them had little other business to discuss, with Leon merely setting up their communication strategies so that when the time came, he could call upon them to join him in pursuit of the errant Prince, and a quick negotiation for payment—it wasn’t much, less even than what Valeria was being paid, but it was more about the sentiment, neither of them were going to go so far away without at least some guarantee of a livelihood.

Once all that was out of the way, they spoke about many other things. Leon learned that they’d been looking for him for a few weeks, now, and that it was Alix who had given them his address, which also reminded him that he had to check in on her, as well. He couldn’t very well leave the Bull Kingdom before he heard her answer about whether or not she wanted to join him beyond the Kingdom’s borders.

Leon also learned that he and Marcus were distantly related—Marcus’ great-great-grandmother had been from House Raime, and though from what he said, Leon knew that she had never had her blood awakened, by the Bull Kingdom’s laws, they were still distant kin. Leon took that news with as much grace as he could, for he didn’t truly consider Marcus to be kin. Marcus seemed to agree, for he quickly mentioned that he wasn’t out to start calling Leon ‘cousin’, but the two of them still spoke a little bit about that. It seemed that Houses Raime and Aeneas were close friends, being two serious-minded Houses that were quite devoted to the well-being of the Kingdom.

But, after a few hours, Marcus and Alcander said their goodbyes and departed. Leon didn’t immediately return to work after that, simply sitting back down in front of his villa’s central hearth and lost himself in thought.

Elise, Maia, Valeria, maybe Alix depending on whether she decided to join him when he left the Kingdom or not, and now Marcus and Alcander. He was starting to have the makings of a good group of followers to support his endeavors. He’d just have to make sure to support theirs, in turn, whatever they may be.