The two that should have never met, the two who hold the two ends of the rope, the two whose history goes deeper than anyone would even imagine.
Eleanor was a proud child, a Princess raised in the center of attention, a true project of a Queen.
No, she was the Fated Queen, for the first six years of her life, she was the Heir to the Throne. She was a force of nature in every aspect starting from Talent to Appearance. Not even the spirits would deny her right of rule.
Of course, that was not meant to continue by the birth of a male Prince. Still, she maintained her popularity in front of the Heir Apparent and even rivaled his authority with sheer charisma.
Eleanor was even willing to pull the carpet from under him and be titled the Queen if not for the fact that the former King made sure that this doesn't happen.
Eleanor's obsession with the throne couldn't be redirected away with her father completely crushing all her political support to enforce the Prince's power. The actions which led the Princess into a rebellious phase that is very famous among the Upper Society as "Reign", the Mercenary Company most famous in Amber.
Reign was the name Eleanor chose and it had five senior members. A Dwarf Prince, a High Elf Sorceress, and three of the most talented young individuals in the country among them are the Eldest Princess Eleanor of Amber and the Illustrious Rose of the East, Annabelle Merlin. This band of talented individuals slew dragons and hunted demons to the edges of the continent leaving behind some grand tales which could only be recorded as Legends.
With these achievements, Eleanor ruined her father's attempts to shun her out of the limelight but before she returned to Amber from the last expedition, the King was already dead and the Prince was crowned to be King August II of Amber.
With strong opposition and immense pressure, the Mercenary Company was dissolved and both Eleanor and Annabelle were to marry. Annabelle's marriage was arranged in the Dark Family long before her birth and Eleanor had a secret lover who happened to be the most handsome young man in all Amber at that time, Duke Henry Godfrey, and they eventually married.
Eleanor, however, may have lost the chance to become the Queen but she had one last remaining aim and that is to be the Queen Mother thus she raised her daughter Alice to aim for the throne and the throne alone. The perfect candidate to marry Alice was a Heaven's gift that was perfectly made for her and that was Leon.
Leon was untalented to a shocking degree but he was brave and faithful, he was a good child and Eleanor loved him dearly. Thanks to his lack of talent, he wouldn't pose a threat to Alice's immense talent and she would always protect him. With the fact that Alice liked Leon and he has shown affection towards her, everything went perfectly well.
All Eleanor needed to do is to discredit the current heir, get rid of her brother, and install her daughter as the ruling Queen with Leon on her side as not only the Puppet King but the noblest figure in the Kingdom with the Highest Noble standing to even bless the Throne. The son of the Dark Family, the grandchild of the Merlin Family, the Son-in-Law of the Godfrey Family. Three Ducal Families known together as the Lords of the East.
It all fit together. It was all perfect.
But one variable threw all her plans in the wind.
One day during winter, pirate longboats invaded the shores of Godfrey Duchy coming from Udyrheim during a visit from the Duchess of Dark. The Ursine tribe (Bear-folk) went into a trance and invaded the city all the way to the Palace. That night, Leon and Alice who were playing in the gardens were chased by the Ursine pirates. In a defenseless situation, the 10 years old Leon took an injury on his back as he shielded the 9 years old Alice with his body, the injury that saved her life and endangered his.
When Leon was saved by Vadim and Erielle, everyone praised his bravery and the world revolved around the talentless kid. In his happiness, Duke Godfrey announced the engagement of Leon and Alice in one of his drunken parties, the news which reached the capital in one night.
Before Leon would even recover, his father showed up with the company of the Royal Knights and by force, he took Leon with him under the pretext of protecting his son.
William Dark has long since abandoned his wife and youngest son by that time. Since the moment Leon's lack of talent was revealed, the Duke took his second wife and her children and moved from the Dukedom to the Capital. Now after many years, he came to claim the child he so much wanted to deny.
Vadim and Erielle protested. Annabelle went ahead and directly confronted her husband who treated her violently and with his power, he injured her badly.
This was the worst day in Eleanor's life. Aside from the others, she knew what kind of power the royal family actually wielded and was ordered to stand down.
Vadim was being suppressed by ten knights, Erielle was surrounded and almost on the verge of starting a fight, Annabelle was confronting her husband, Duke Godfrey was shouting his lungs out against the Royal Messenger, and Leon was being carried away by a Senior Knight. Even Alice was standing behind a window crying as tears slid down on her little rosy cheeks.
Only Eleanor was there… left alone standing.
"Auntie!" Leon shouted, "Auntie!" He screamed.
She was the closest. She was his favorite auntie.
And she turned her face away. She turned away with his cries echoing through her core, the cries that pulled her back to the present reality.
"Betrayer!" He cried.
And nothing felt as bitter.
"No!" She cried back.
She wanted to just stop it, to say something, to justify what happened. The only problem was that it is impossible to justify it with that look on Leon's face.
He wouldn't accept it, he wouldn't believe it, he wouldn't want to even hear it.
The scene must have been engraved not only on his soul but on his very essence. In his nightmares, in his agony… the same as it did with Eleanor.
Auntie! It was the word that haunted her the most. It stole the sleep off her eyes for six long years. The image of Vadim being pinned to the ground shouting all those curses and insults at the knights, the image of Erielle being held at arrow point in case she uses any of her bizarre magic, the image of Annabelle hitting the marble stairway as she was pushed towards it for her back to be injured to this day, the image of Henry and Alice feeling the immense guilt of being powerless against the power they are up against.
Those images didn't only haunt Eleanor but surely Leon who witnessed them all first hand.
And his dagger was finding its way to her heart with malice, hate, and rage.
Instinctively, Eleanor defended against the dagger and Leon's attack was deflected away.
"Leon, wait!"
Just as she wanted him to stop, there was no stopping the madness train. Stabs, punches, kicks, all sorts of martial skills were displayed in the passage of five seconds.
The finesse in those skills impressed Eleanor to the point of bewilderment. Not any assassin she ever witnessed was as precise or as deadly. Surely there were more who are immensely powerful but not profoundly refined.
A Gem in the rough of an incredible value. Polished basics, terrible magic application. He's very much relying on the System of the World, not on Mana Application.
He wasn't taught Magic properly.
This moment of clarity was the thing that pulled Eleanor back to reality. She was almost swallowed by that agony surrounding him, by the darkness flowing through the white of his eyes.
"Leon, hear me out!" She called, "Please, listen."
"BETRAYER!"
He wasn't willing to do so. He was purely driven by hate and grudge.
Such a thing! How can a kid barely in his 16th year of age be swallowed by such hate? How can he lose the baseline of innocence which is the foundation of his very humanity?
Eleanor realized it at last, she understood what Vadim and Eleanor were trying to say. This Leon is someone who has changed to the point of almost no return. Maybe the only things that link this Leon to the past one are grudges.
A sad existence, he is! Eleanor felt that she can no longer be bound by what happened in the past if she was to save that Leon in front of her now.
Still, the sin is hers to bear forever, it is so much a part of her identity now.
Leon punched and she steadily dodged by leaning aside, he hacked with his dagger at her blindspot but she pushed him away with her left. He was so relentless that he rolled backward with the push and double-kicked to keep her from counter-attacking but she didn't even go after him.
He is focused yet so consumed by the grudge. It is as if two minds were manipulating one body.
His old self, his new self.
What a marvel!
Eleanor may have had that voice inside her but she pushed it aside and immediately cast a barrier on her and Leon that enclosed them both. Not only that, she even tightened his footing not to let him gain any ground but still be close to her.
"Hold Person!"
With a burst of illusionary mana, arcane shackles were formed around his arms, legs, and body holding his movement from within no matter how he struggles. He could move slowly but he was very restrained. He landed on his feet and his back hit the invisible barrier which completely hindered his martial ability.
"Leon, listen to me."
"MOVE!"
His rage consumed his sanity and he let out the Magic he knows towards her eyes.
"LIGHT!"
"What?"
As he discharged a burst of Light Mana, Eleanor couldn't anticipate this rare Element and instinctively closed her eyes. Surprised by her blunder, she wanted to retreat but Leon was onto her as he punched right to her torso.
"Rude boy!"
In a split of a second, Eleanor teleported outside her Barrier leaving the angry Leon to punch the Magical wall like an enraged beast.
This was… mentally exhausting.
Eleanor closed her eyes and started to breathe again as she could no longer maintain this much stress level without wanting to lash out and she hasn't lashed out in two days already. A record for someone with hair-trigger temperaments.
She looked at Leon who was now fully silent to the point where it scared her a bit. He was just standing there with his hand pushing against the Barrier.
In his mind, Leon was struggling with something far more painful than what Eleanor can help with. All his piled-up anger was being summoned out of him as if he lost control.
Memories that aren't his, cries of a child that doesn't sound like him. It was just a dark place.
"Leon?" Shady realized and his aged face broke into a sad expression, "Poor kid!"
As he knelt down to touch the back of the child hiding in a corner, he felt an incredible agony like a fire burning through that hand he patted on the child with.
"You are suffering not for yourself but for both of us?" He asked, "This is not meant to be your suffering alone, you know that?"
Words fell, unheard by the mournful cries.
"Let go of my pain, it isn't yours." Shady spoke, "Your mother is alive, mine is not, my pain was not meant for you, kid."
As if it is news to him, Leon reacted.
"Yes, that dead mother you see, that is not your memory. It is painful, you say? Yeah, tell me about it."
And as if to use the chance, Shady dug his palm into Leon and it went through like he was pressing against air.
And his hand went through the barrier.
"Impossible!" Eleanor stepped back with a pale face.
The Leon in front of her was much different, much calmer, much more dangerous. She felt it as if her skin was being looked under.
"Don't wake up the kid. Bad news for everyone." He said.
His eyes were back to normal… no, just one eye. The left one was still submerged in darkness.
Don't wake up the kid. These words terrified her. What's in front of her terrified her. Seeing her magic being rendered useless terrified her.
"What's going on?" She asked.
"It is called Reading." He replied with a slight grin.
< Analysis Complete! >
< You have learned [Space-Time Magic - Barrier] >
The reason why Leon managed to break Eleanor's Barrier wasn't just the [Read] spell but he formulated a counter to the Barrier from inside once he learned it.
Unrestrained Magic, Reading, Barrier, 200% Proficiency. Each of them is a miraculous power of its own accord and with Leon's imagination, he can do unusual things.
His power didn't lie in his ability but his application and imagination. The Unrestrained Magic gives his imagination the ability to be applied thus he can discard what's possible and create what is impossible.
Bringing down a cave by Air Magic, reversing a Barrier to dispel it. Leon started to perfect this style of his by one more step.
Now as the barrier was down…
"Rush!"
… Leon ran, he snatched something from the ground and instantly escaped.
He can't wait any longer.
*BANG*
The cave shook once again and at the entrance blocked by rocks started shaking under an immense blasting power.
"Barrier!"
With that newly gained spell, Leon covered the entire pile of rubble with a Barrier and applied a forceful pressure pushing everything from the rubble to the blast back.
From his point of view, he moved it all aside. From the outside, the blast reversed itself out as something came running from the inside.
The Prince, the Students, the Knights, every one of them didn't expect to see what they saw.
Leon was no idiot, his face was hidden, his features were not seen. He just rushed out.
They saw him, everyone saw the hooded figure running from the cave. The Prince who raised his hands in readiness and the students who organized themselves were all ready… or so they thought.
"Stop!" The Prince called the rushing figure which seemed like a human more than anything else, "I command you to stop!"
"Command me?!"
And… Music!
Music of this arrogant prince begging for his life, while the unknown masked expert speaks in both common and goblin!
i think the mask was lost by this point at least i think it was but still we get to see the prince beat down maybe
@AjaxDragonBane I thought it was the mask he picked up before escaping from under Eleonora's nose. She found it. Not usre, though. :D
Blob Neutral