Chapter 17: Return to normal? I wish!

At the end of the day, Leo was so tired that even taking a bath was too much work for him. First the weird club, practically worshipping him, then taking care of his older sister who refused to do her job so she could convert more people in the club.

"Aaargh... this was tough..."

Leo looked at his status screen as he usually did nowadays and noticed a new title called Workaholic.

"Great I needed this..."

Leo, who spend several days hunting bandits and other famous criminals to use for his experiments, as per permission from the Goddess of Judgement, was at his limit. Gruben and his wife were the last famous criminals in the kingdom he had to hunt down.

His new skill, Soul manipulation, allowed him to replant souls into different bodies as well as create a bond between two souls simmilar to Soul binding, minus the power sharing.

"Good thing the festival is now over… one more day and I would need to split myself… could I do that? I managed to do it with inorganical things, and there is also the (Parallel mind) subskill of the King of Wisdom…"

Leo fell asleep not knowing how much will his days change starting tomorrow.

The next day the classes returned to normal, but the morning classes were used for clean up of the school ground. Leo and Victina made it little easier for themselves by using space magic spells that they developed together.

"Alright everyone. Good work during the Hero's festival. Now that everything is done, we will have a special class," the homeroom teacher said with a smile, "Now allow me to call in some special teachers. You can enter!"

The people who entered were three in total.

"Huh? Mom?! Brother Gavin and Sister Hina too?!"

"Hey there little brother!" Hina smiled with a wave.

"As you can see, the three here are former top scorers of our academy and the Netrose family's Sareen Hina Netrose, also known as the [Witch of Complete Destruction]."

"Hiya! I'm Hina Netrose, as you know, when I graduated I was given title of [Void Crusher]."

"And I, Gavin Netrose, was given title [Thousand scarlet blades]."

The twins bowed slightly as they introduced themselves to the class.

"Our class will be specialized in what happens after Warrior's blessing ceremony, in other words, the evolution of people. As you know, when human evolves, they became Majins, but they are unawakened. It's when they surpass their limits when they awaken. But not all majins are same. There are three types. Gavin, Hina."

""Yes mother!"" the two nodded, closed their eyes and gathered their energy. Leo, thanks to his Evil eye (Magic sight) managed to notice that they covered themselves in magic power and harden it into horns.

"As you can see, when you awaken as Majins, horns starts to grow from your forehead. When you grow one horn, you are called Bladed Majin, these majins have lower magical prowness, but their physical prowness is almost unparalleled. Questions?"

"If I may, does that mean their magic deffence is lower too?"

"You are… ah, yes, here you are, Calcan Calcia. It does mean exactly that. The magical deffence is low, but healing factor of Bladed Majin is the highest of all three types of majins. Anyone else?"

When met with silence, Sareen continued with a warm smile on her face.

"Second type of majin is called Manas Majin. They are purely magic orientated majins. Though their physical abilities are the lowest of the three. Leo?"

"Yes. A question. Given there are three types of majins, does that mean that the last type is more ballanced?"

"Yes, but also no. Let me show you." Sareen smiled and collected her energy. In that moment, a feeling as if they were about to meet their death spread over everyone, though Leo, Kiira and Taru were unaffected.

"The last type of Majin is called Crowned majin," Sareen said with a circlet of black light-infused horns glowing on her head, "Crowned Majins are the strongest becouse their abilities are ballanced and their special ability is hasten thinking, which allows for faster casting, not to mention using multi-cast."

"And their magic core is on par with that of Adamantite blue ranked monsters, though if they train properly, they can even surpass them," big sis Hina added.

"Not all people evolve into Majins though. Elves tend to evolve into Sky elves, Forest elves, Mountain elves and rarely into High elves. Beastmen evolves simmilarly to humans and in most cases they even get ability to Beastificate. Now, anyone have an idea how to awaken?"

The students of S class looked over each other. After all total number of majins in Ostillian kingdom barely reaches one hundread and even this number is higher then norm in surrounding nations. In Blue origin theocracy however is better ratio of awakened to unawakened majins then anywhere else. In the kingdom, there was only six awakened majins. The Netrose trio here, king with queen and lastly the first prince.

"If I may."

"Sure Leo, go on."

"From what I've read in most books it seems like you need to do a heroic act, but after I've studied some books from grandfather I belive you need to overcome near-death situation."

"Ding-ding-ding!! That's correct! Good work finding that out Leo. It is exactly as you said. Though I doubt that someone who made a dungeon his personal playground will have easy time finding a battlefield like that," Hina smiled teasingly.

"Yeah, I guess I will have to defeat a dragon again," Leo smiled back.

"These two," Gavin supported his forehead looking at his siblings, hiding his eyes in the process.

Claping hands interrupted the scene "Alright you all, this is end of our lesson. Now I'm sure you have a lot of questions, but leave it for later," Mom took a deep breath, "In two months time, a special [Survival expedition] will be held near as students of S class you will be in leading position over your team. You can team up, but that will result in increased difficulty."

"May I ask what our objective will be?"

"Practical question. Ten points," miss Kalineli smiled and continued mom's information delivery, "As any year, we will have the S class lead a group of your classmates from classes A to F. This is without a doubt important part of your future training as you will more likely then any others have to lead people. The Survival expedition will force out your inner self. It's more then just likely that you will have to fight monsters on regular basis. That was why miss Sareen said that teaming up will result in more monsters targeting you."

"I see... but where will it be held? Our year have some rather important people. It would be disasterous if something bad happened," Kiira added glancing over her shoulder over towards Victina and Gloriosa.

"Good point. Ten points to you too, miss Kiira. The place where the expedition will be held is to the east of the capital. It's nearby our border town Zainrose. There is a mountain that was recently confirmed to be a Monster Den. Your objective, and final goal will be to go to the forest and bring Spring Acorndeer's antlers. After confirming your levels we deemed it possible for you to defeat them."

"True. Spring Acorndeers are usually level twenty or so. But these monsters not just on rare occasions give birth to a Higher species like Frost Acorndeers or Summer Acorndeers."

"How are you so knowledgable about monsters Leo?"

"Weird, we never fought those before."

"I've read it here," Leo raised his hand above the table and a book suddenly appeared out of thin air.

"Hey, isn't that..."

"Heh, definitely."

My family clearly knew this book.

"Monsterpedia volume 59 by Garnet Grima Netrose."

"I never thought someone would actually go over all those books... most of the time she just writes about stuff like what taste each meat have..." some, more knowledgable people had sour looks on their faces.

"Belive it or not but the banquet I held in my mansion had diner heavily inspired by these books, though, minus the monster meat," Leo smiled at his classmates.

"Indeed. Some of miss Garnet's recipes were quite highly regarded in Sorcery kingdom. Especially the Kraken dishes became so popular that they became mainstream back there," Gloriosa smiled as she remembered the taste.

"Oh? I've never tasted Kraken before. Would it be possible to ask your chef to prepare it for us of I procured the meat?"

"But of course! I'm sure Dennis would be happy about that!" Gloriosa looked like a puppy right now in Leo's eyes.

***

Later that day, at hidden beach at the south of the kingdom.

"So how did you found this place?" Kiira asked as she was knee deep in the salt water.

"Like I said, I was looking for that Golden quince's secret port and found this beach." Leo shrugged as if it was no big deal and opened a parsol he took out of his dimension storage.

"So you decided to take us here?" Taru smiled at him as she hugged her knees sitting on a beach chair.

"Well, obviously. This might be the most Earth thing we have did since comming to this world, no?"

"Now that you mention it... it's correct... I never would've thought about it this way," Kiira walked out of the water and joined us for some light snacks.

"Alright, I guess I will go for a quick dip in the water too. I'll be back in the minute."

"Sure!"

"Be careful!" the two girls waved at Leo as he submerged into the water.

"So, wanna build a castle?"

"But no earth magic."

"Of course!"

The sand castle the two build was as magnificent as any other that was build by amatures. It was mostly just a pile of sand.

"Uuu, what did we do wrong?"

"Don't ask me Taru, we kept it wet and even— what was that?!"

A small earthquake suddenly appeared and made a big wave.

"Oh no you don't!" Taru smiled smugly and with simle wave of her hand she made the wave split in half, keeping the two of them safe.

"Thanks Taru."

"It's fine. I have water and ice and you have fire and earth, that's how we split our positions after all," Taru smiled and opened her private dimension storage added with enchants to her bracelet. From there she took out her Draconic staff and striked a weird pose.

"Get ready, there are monsters coming."

"Yeah, I know, give me a moment," Kiira stood up leisurely and unsheathing her sword.

"Oh, it's a Long necked ancient sea beast."

"It's level fifty four, are you sure we can beat it?"

"Dinosaurs should be extinct don't you agree?"

The two girls took so relaxed attitude while seeing the monster that it would confuse anyone. After all, both of them went through hellish training on the surface and in the dungeon. This monster was nothing.

Name: [None]
Level: 54
Race: Long necked Ancient sea beast
Titles: Wave crusher

Skills:

Supreme: Water manipulation (10), Water armor (10), Scale shot (5)

Extra rare: Increased mana recovery (9), Magic manipulation (9), Hide presence (8), Sense presence (8), Shock absorbtion (8), Intimidation (8), Weakness spotting (5)

Rare: Water magic (9)

Uncommon: Sense temperature (8), Diamon skin (6), Charge (5),

Common: Leap (8), Keen hearing (4), Deffence shell (9), Long sight (3)

"Yeah. I just checked it's status. This guy is already extinct."

Maybe due to their idle chitchat, the Ancient beast realized something was wrong and started moving it's body back to the water.

"Running away, are ya?!" Kiira's voice imbued with Taunt skill made the beast look only at her.

The Ancient beast already fought humans before. It knew that blades do nothing against it's skin. It was that mage behind the swordsman he need to fear. Better take her out first.

"Tsk. Single taunt can't do enough. Taru!"

"Already on it! «Ice wall»"

Pale blue light came from the mage, and the Ancient beast smirked when it realized it didn't hit...

"Hey, he's smirking."

"What a pitiful thing. It thinks it can still get away."

...but somehow the two were completly calm.

I need to attack now! Humans can move well in water so I will raise the water around them! the beast thought.

But there was one enourmous mistake the beast did not count for. It's sturdy and element proof scales did nothing against cold.

GUR-RAAAAAARH!!!!!

"Oh, did you already found out?" Kiira smiled smugly as she took her time walking to the beast.

The beast however did not let it end like this and released it's razor sharp scales towards the swordsman.

"Oh, what a cute gesture," Kiira simply cut each and every single one of the scales heading towards her with almost inhuman precision.

"Now's my turn," as Kiira said that, she blurred before the beast and appeared behind it's neck. But, the neck was already cut and she sheathed her sword.

"What a lowly creature," Taru looked coldly at the beast's giant body.

"Thanks for the help. In the end it was just like any other slightly more intelligent beast."

"Indeed. It defeated few humans and already thought it was above them. What a silly being. Let's take it appart and have Leo cook it for us."

"Yes! Great idea!"

And so the two went to work once again, dismantling the monster and storing it in their storages.

***

"Yo, I'm back," Leo waved at the two girls as he appeared from the water.

"Hey the— why the heck are you covered in black?!"

"Aah, this? I fought a kraken behind that small island over there," Leo pointed at a rock formation so far away that it was barely visible without using skills like the Long sight and even that wouldn't help much.

"Don't tell me you wanted that speciality of Sorcery kingdom that much."

"Hahah! What can I say, I like it when I'm not the one locked in the kitchen all the time."

"Uuuuuuh..." Kiira got instantly depressed and hold her knees close to her chin to the side of the rug and was mumbling, "sorry I was such a bad wife..."

"Well, I wouldn't exchange you for anyone else," Leo patted her head, "After all, being able to cook isn't the only thing needed for helthy relationship. The first thing needed is..."

"Surging amount of love!" Kiira instantly revived and hugged Leo so quickly that they both fell back.

"You two are really..." Taru took Leo's head and placed it on her lap while carrasing his hairs.

"You should get some rest Leo," Taru smiled and just like this the trio fell to deep slumber.

About three hours later, the trio returned bact to their home.

"Sir, I bring you some informations collected by our Shadows," Ruzu who just returned from her trip overseas submitted her papers.

"Yo, how's it been Ruzu? Did you get safely to the Sorcery kingdom?"

"Indeed I did. It took some time, but I was able to get to the foating capital with relative ease. But collecting information on noble structure was really hard."

"Didn't your High elf status help you a little?"

"Indeed it did, but I was just travelling as a councilor of your company so many nobles were interested more in you then me, my lord," Ruzu sit on the sofa and took a big sip of her tea.

"Quit that polite talk, it doesn't suit you at all."

"Heheh, I know, I know. Well, the thing is that there are some things that you may find interesting."

"Like for example?"

"Many nobles were interrested in your space magic. Most of the time, the reach and number of people it can transport. They claimed to be interrested only as a researchers, but when I offered the more techical details, they walked out."

"Oh? That's interresting. What did you find out about them later then?"

"Heheh, yes, you seen right through it, am I right?"

What the hell is she talking about? Leo thought to himself, but nodded approvingly nonetheless.

"The thing is, there were some that were genuinely interrested in the technical details. From what the Shadows were able to find out about them, they were from the Second prince faction, while the first group was from the First prince faction."

To explain what Shadows are, we would need to look back a little. After crushing the illegal auction, where Leo got Idra and Daika, Leo had Nina read memories of the slaves in secret to find other places where Golden Quince had their illegaly obtained slaves. Following that, they crushed the places and took away those slaves. As most of the slaves were Rabbitmen like Luna, Leo decided to train them and about 9/10 of them after reaching level 49 and going through Warriors blessing ceremony evolved into higher Rabbitmen species called Moon Rabbits. These Moon Rabbits became new secret intelligence unit of Dragonrose family under Luna's watchfull eye.

Oh, I see, they are opposing each other. Leo breathe a sigh of relieve, but Ruzu continued.

"As you might know, the first prince does not have really high magic power in him, but he have numbers on his side. The second prince, while having fewer numbers have overall higher magic power. It's most likely that these two factions will fight in near future."

"Any connection to the faction that wanted to push Gloriosa to that duke of Knightly kingdom?"

"It seems that both factions wanted to marry her off, but the first prince's faction was pushing for the candidate being someone from this kingdom. To say the least, they were interrested in you."

"Yeah, that's not happening."

"I thought you would say that so I gave them vague responses."

"Good work."

I really don't need any more fiancées. I have Kiira, Taru, Goli, Nina, Alette, Victina and Lulu. That's seven. Seven! It's like to have a girlfriend for each day of the week! Though in this world a week is ten days long… ANY-way, I don't need more wives! I'm not interrested in expanding the numers, but in developing mutual feelings.

I can't say I really love them all, but I do care about them more then anyone else… thinking back, I told Kiira I love her after six months of us dating, I'm really bad at putting these things into words.

As Leo was thinking about his plights of ballancing time divided between his fiancées, Ruzu finished her tea and continued her report.

"Also, I've procured this information for you," she sliped a paper to Leo.

As Leo picked it up and give it a quick glance he smiled like a wolf seeing his pray, "Well, well, it seem my Guard Knight time is over."

***

A week has passed since the Beach time. Leo delivered some Kraken meat to Gloriosa and had her cooks prepare it for their diner.

Today was the day. The day of the diner. Servants were lined up. Leo, Kiira, Taru, Alette and Nina arrived first with Victina and Lulu coming after them.

The diner was held in the usuall manner of noble customs and quickly ended on a high note. However, one of the onlookers of the diner was clearly not happy with how lively everyone was.

"Uuuu, that was great, I never would've thought that Kraken can be such a delicacy," Victina cleaned her mouth with a satisfied look.

"I shall deliver your words to our chef, then," Gloriosa smiled at her friend and signaled for servants to clean up the table.

"Your highness, if I may say something," Leo asked politely.

"Feel free to do so," Gloriosa, the host nodded approvingly.

"Thank you. There are two more people who wish to attend the tea break can I bring them over?"

"What?" a knight captain glared at Leo.

"You may," Gloriosa nodded and smiled as she sipped her tea.

"Thank you."

"But princess! It's inappropriate to accept guests for diner party after diner!"

"It's fine, be silent like a good knight, countess Maira," Gloriosa shot her main guard a cold glance before returning to her tea.

"«Gate»" Leo used his spell and opened a gate to some other place and two people came through.

""Father?!"" Gloriosa and Victina got both surprised as the two kings walked through the gate.

The king of the Sorcery kingdom, a tall slender man with short pointy ears. He was a half elf like Kiira, but unlike her, he failed to evolve to High elf at his Warriors blessing ceremony, now sitting comfortibly at level 59 he was one of the highest leveled people in the room.

"Y-your majesty!!" Maira quickly took a knee, visibly confused.

"Please don't mind us. We just came to have some tea on sir Dragonrose's invite," the Sorcery kingdom's king looked at me.

"I'm honored," I bowed in exaggerated manner.

"Well Leo, tell us what did you find out. What is your reason for calling all of us here."

"Right to the matter at hand, I see. Well, let's all sit down so we can talk."

After recieving a nod from everyone and the kings took their seats, I declared in loud voice.

"The reason I called everyone here is that I solved who was after the princess' life."

"What?!" the room shook slightly with excitement and expectations.

"But, let us talk in order of the events, shall we? First of the clues was the money the bandits were paid in for their attack on princess when she disembarked from the ship. They were paid in coins of Sorcery kingdom. That could mean that the person either forgot to exchange them, or to throw of potentional questioners. Either way it was a stupid attempt as it lowered the potential candidates."

"So the one behind that was someone of low standing? Like for example a middleman of commoner origins?" Gloriosa poke the hornet's nest.

"Not quite. The person who hired those bandits was without a doubt at higher position, however the leader of the bandits, who was the only one who saw the request giver run away with the money. The attackers were already ready for the assault so they tried to carry out the plan, hoping for high ransom. The guest giver must've been enraged as he, now through the middleman hired the Mage slayer to kill the bandit boss. However at the site of his death, the Lilly of the Valey appeared too, which was weird. To hire two high ranked criminals was unlikely so I investigated the area and in the ashes I found some interresting things. Like for example a family of three who were not confirmed dead, yet were last ones who checked in the local inn."

"Yes, we were investigating those as well, but only find their daughter. Among the items of the parents we found evidence of their involvement in the crimes of those two criminals," Victina's father nodded.

"And that brings me to this letter I recieved," Leo flashed a black paper with red letter on it, "it seems that our criminal slayer Kogane got to him first and extracted information from him."

"What?!" Victina's father jumped up.

"I get your enragement, but please wait. I've also recieved a list of people who hired him previously. I will share it with both kingdoms at later date, but now let's get back to the matter at hand. The last job he recieved was from the same person who hired him for that bandit boss extermination. This last job was to kill princess Gloriosa."

"So that's why he contacted you…" Gloriosa's father looked at me.

"Indeed. To the next topic now. The attack when I was sick. This was fifth attack on the mansion, however this was first one that succeeded in entering the grounds. The previous four did not posses the ability to pass my barrier and were instantly send to my prison."

"So the last one… how did they get past the barrier?" Gloriosa asked.

"The way they get past it was with the items I gave everyone in this mansion to go through the barrier. That means that the person who did it, is now in this mansion, no, actually that person is in this room."

"What?!" the crowd erupted at once.

"Do you have any proof for that?" Maira asked me with cold look.

"Indeed I have, miss Maira," I flashed another paper, "this is information one of my subordinates collected for me in Sorcery kingdom. While she was working undercover as councillor of my company, she also collected rumors and different types of informations from the noble circles. This one report however piqued my interest. It's about the time princess Gloriosa met with the Duke Motorou from Knightly kingdom. With her summoning magic she threathen to take her own life while also keeping the rest of the people away. Of course, some people tried to fight their way to her and lost their lives. One of which, was your father, miss Maira," Leo glared at the knight commander.

"Grrrrrr…" she glared at me.

"Oh, did I hit the nail on the head?" Leo smiled at her.

"Activate!" a surge of energy exited Mairas body. It looked to be some kind of spacial inteferance skill. It's black and purple collor reminded me of the demon bird.

"You damned rodent!" clad in black aura, Maira attacked me with her sword.

"Oh, please. With this level of strenght, you can't even scrach me," Leo caught the sword with the tips of his fingers.

"You guys. Commence attack sequence." Maira's eyes turned black.

Name: Maria Maira
Level: 57
Race: Devilman
Titles: Lost children, Heretic, Lover of devil

Skills:

Supreme: Magic power armor (5), Fly (5), Crate wing (5), Death magic (5)

Exra rare: Increased mana recovery (6), Increased stamina recovery (6), Magic manipulation (6), Petrification gaze (5), Hide presence (5), Sense presence (5), Shock absorbtion (5), Shadow walk (6), Ghost magic (4), Intimidation (5)

Rare: Fire magic (5), Item box (5)

Uncommon: Quick feet (5), Etique (5), Hereditary (5), Diamon skin (3), Unmovable Kastena technique (5), Mist sword technique (5)

Common: Leap (5), Kick (5), hand to hand combat (5), Swordsmanship (5), Deffence shell (5), Long sight (5)

Blessings: Demon Lord (1)

As Leo confirmed her status, some of the nearby knights took out their swords.

"Shadow rabbits," in response to Leos calm voice, several hands appeared from the shadows and snaped the knights necks.

"We came to your call, master," the leader, completly covered in black clothes, with only her white ears standing on top of her head were visible, took a knee.

"You have nowhere to run, devilman," Leo declared calmly.

"That first wave disabled my magic, so we have to leave it to you," Gloriosa's father said to me while keeping his daughter close.

"Ah, that may be, but she is so weak… Goli take it over for me please," Leo waved his hand, looking completly bored and sipped his tea.

"What?!" everyone, except for Kiira and Taru who knew Leo the longest, stared in disbelief.

"Understood," with this short response, a shadow jumped from Leo's shadow and hit Maira with her spear, sending her flying. In next few second she choped off Maira's limbs, leaving only bleeding torso pinned to ground.

"Gah!" Maira let out a gasp and blood flew out of her mouth.

"Such weak and insignificant fly isn't even worth my main weapon," Goli lowered her spear and rested it on her shoulder. The spear was made from enchanted iron and cheep wood. It was the first weapon she used in the dungeon when she still was Leo's slave. Currently, her main weapon was the one made from dragon scale and with it she was able to one-shot Grubera dungeon's floor boss on floor 38.

"Why… why did it… end up like this… I was supposed… to become his… damn it…" Maira cried as she beed out.

"Except your punishment and hope gods will take pitty on you," Leo placed his hand on her heart and extracted all her SP and skills, killing her almost instantly.

"Ah… I see… he never cared…" as her mind was fading out, somehow it made her mind clear out, "be careful… he's dangerous, sir Dragonrose…"

"Well, that was it, I guess…" Leo stood up, thinking about those last words.

"Leo?" the girls worried about him and surrounded him.

"This is a really the end huh?"

"I sure hope so," Leo answeared Gloriosa who came over as the last one.

"Hey…"

"Yeah I know."

"We need to reward him somehow."

"We sure have to…"

As the kings were chating secretly, I cleaned up after our fight.