Chapter 10 Family Heirloom!
Author: M_W Cancer
Grammar Checker: M_W Nomral
After they agreed with the deal, Leo immediately established a Blood Contract with Princess Cassandra, finally making her his slave.
Although Leo knew that Princess Cassandra was unwilling to establish a Blood Contract with him, it was still a must-do so that nothing unexpected would happen to him in the future.
Soon after, Leo also finished signing a Blood Contract with Madam Silva, though a less restricted one compared to Princess Cassandra. It was also not called Blood Contract, but instead Magic Contract since only members of the Blood Race can perform Blood Contracts, albeit it serves the same purpose except there's no slave-master relationship. She also reminded him to be prepared because the opening of the Mage Academies throughout the entire Silver Kingdom was two days from now.
That's right! All Mage Academies form an agreement with each other to have the same day for opening for enrollment into their school. This was done so that they'd have a fair and just competition with each other. Otherwise, famous and powerful Mage Academies will always have an advantage compared to their counterparts. In addition, this prevents any Mage Academies from recruiting students any time they want.
Lastly, Madam Silva gave Leo a few Mage and Magic-related books as a gift before she finally allowed him to return to Heart City.
As soon as Leo left the Silver Kingdom's south gate, he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, "What a stressful day!"
Leo stretched his body a few times before they started walking to where Butler Xiao and Fatty Ben had left their horses.
Because they were in a rush when they arrived, Fatty Ben just handed their horses to a nearby house near the gate before leaving to follow Leo.
After paying the old couple who owns the house with a little silver for taking care of the horses, they quickly rode their horses and started rushing back towards the Heart City.
They weren't safe yet!
Only in Heart City could they feel safe.
However, because they only have three horses with them, Princess Cassandra... No, she was no longer a princess since she had become Leo's slave... Despite her feeling unwilling; she was left with no choice but to ride on the same horse as Leo.
At first, Cassandra insisted that she should be the one to control the horse because she was feeling embarrassed hugging Leo from behind. However, Leo didn't agree and instead insisted she just sit tight, relax, and rest on his back to avoid potentially worsening her injuries.
Faced with Leo's caring eyes for her, Cassandra could only agree and embarrassingly hug him behind his back.
Halfway through their path, Leo meets with Kevin and the 50 soldiers with the latter. Looking at them all wearing solemn faces, he didn't know whether he should laugh or not.
Honestly, he had totally forgotten that Fatty Ben had told a scout earlier to order Head Guard Kevin to rescue them.
Leo quickly urges his horse to move towards Kevin, assuring the latter that they are not in danger. But Kevin was feeling doubtful of his words as he pointed his finger towards Cassandra who was currently hugging his back.
At this moment, Cassandra was embarrassed since she was being stared at by fifty pairs of eyes from Leo's soldiers.
"Oh... She's my slave now!" Leo explained. He doesn't have enough time to explain further to Kevin since they are still in a rush to Heart City for safety.
"How...?" Kevin said, wanting to know the reason behind it.
"Let's talk as soon as we get back to the Heart Manor, it's still not safe out here," Leo said as he quickly interrupted Kevin and reminded the latter that they were still not safe from being possibly discovered by the other Blood races.
Kevin immediately understood what Leo wanted to say.
"Protect the Young Master and the Young Miss!" Kevin turned around as he sent out an order to the 50 soldiers with him. They quickly surrounded Leo and Cassandra.
"Faster, soldiers, let's protect the young master's woman!"
"Yes, sir! Everyone, protect the young master's woman!"
"Protect the Young Master's woman!"
"Protect the Young Master's woman!"
"Protect the Young Master's woman!"
Staring at them while shouting that she was Leo's woman, Cassandra could almost die in embarrassment. She wants to quickly look for a hole and bury herself within, never to be seen again. They were not only staring at her but had also mistaken her for Leo's woman. She immediately turned her eyes towards Kevin as she stared at him full of hatred.
Kevin did it on purpose to avoid further escalating the problem. Only he and the few squad leaders had received the information about Cassandra's background, hence they thought that the fewer people knew about Cassandra being the princess of the Crimson Rose Kingdom, the safer they would be.
Along the way, Leo and his group encountered a few Blood Race people who had smelled a familiar scent of their princess within Leo's group. Without any hesitation, Leo ordered his soldiers to kill every Blood race to avoid any future trouble and to also burn their bodies to ashes.
Kevin and the other squad leaders nodded their heads as they immediately sent out an order to their respective squad.
The soldiers quickly followed their squad leader's order without asking any more questions.
Though they felt curious about the reason why. But since their leaders don't want to inform them, then it could only mean that it was something confidential. Asking any questions would only make them offend Leo and the leaders, so it was much better to just shut their mouths and follow the orders.
All the soldiers quickly launched themselves towards every Blood Race they had to meet along the way.
Cassandra can't help but grit her teeth in anger and empathy while watching her fellow race being slaughtered by Leo's soldiers every time. She wanted to stop Leo, but the latter just told her to close her eyes if she didn't want to see them dying. She knew though that Leo was only doing it so that she would be safe from any possible danger. If Leo indeed allowed one of those Blood Races to live just because she felt pity for them, then they would be in danger later on after those people reported their existence to the Crimson Rose Kingdom.
It made Cassandra's heart feel sad every time a Blood Race was burned to ashes, too. But she knew that it would be their ashes that would pave the way to get her kingdom back.
This was a must! She convinced herself with that.
Cassandra's desire to make those people pay just intensified further after watching those Blood Races being burned to ashes by Leo's group. Deep in her heart, she knew that some of these Blood Races people were unaware of what was currently happening. They were just blindly following orders. They were innocent, but for her goal, they needed to be sacrificed.
After more than two hours of travel, Leo and his group finally saw the wall of the Heart City.
Cassandra had long since fallen asleep on Leo's back along the way, too. She was tired of running from one place to another to avoid all those Blood races from discovering her existence.
Also, Cassandra was mentally tired of watching her fellow race being killed and burned into ashes. After all, they were her fellow race. Although they were currently pushing her into a dangerous situation, all of them were still her people. The people that her parents had risked their lives to protect.
Looking at Cassandra's beautiful sleeping face, Leo saw a tear suddenly sliding down from her eyes. He can't help but clench his fist. Her tear just made him suddenly remember a memory he wished to always forget.
Leo moved his hand to Cassandra's eyes as he carefully wiped away her tears.
As soon as they arrived at the north gate of the Heart City, a group of guards quickly opened the gate. Leo nodded at them before he hurriedly came back to the Heart Manor.
On the way to the Heart Manor, Leo told one of the soldiers to call Van to go to the manor as soon as possible for an emergency meeting. He also told Butler Xiao to buy some girls cosmetics, clothes, and other things that they could use to disguise Cassandra's face.
Disguising Cassandra's face was something really important, also they had to change the natural fragrance of a person from the Blood Race. Leo already learned that each person from the Blood race has their unique fragrance, hence he was having a hard time thinking of a way to solve this problem.
Thankfully, Cassandra woke up just in time and told Leo that the moment she became a Mage, she was able to have the ability to somewhat turn off that specific fragrance. However, because she didn't have any more Mana awhile ago due to her being exhausted, she was unable to hide it along the way.
Because of that, Leo's dilemma was finally resolved.
Afterward, Leo told Cassandra to choose whichever room she liked before going upstairs to change his clothes.
After fixing himself, he hurriedly went downstairs. Butler Xiao, Fatty Ben, Kevin, and Van were already there waiting for him.
Leo looked around but he didn't see Cassandra around. He thought in his mind, "Maybe she is still busy disguising her real face."
Leo then turned his attention to the four as he motioned them to gather in the meeting room.
Inside the meeting room was a circular table with 5 seats. They quickly sat on the chair around the circle table as they began discussing Leo's new plans related to the development of the Heart City.
The moment Leo had earned his affinity for becoming a Mage, he had also thought of changing some stuff related to the development of the Heart City.
Leo was already planning on enrolling himself in a Mage Academy before, but since the plan was pushed forward due to the deal that he had signed with Madam Silva, his plans for the development of the Heart City were also pushed forward, too.
Leo's plans were simple. Butler Xiao would now become the acting ruler of the Heart City while he was gone, hence he would be in charge of almost everything within the city. There was nothing to worry about at all anyway since Butler Xiao had always been by his side, so he knew everything, specifically second only to him.
Head Guard Kevin would now be promoted to a General in charge of protecting the safety and security of the Heart City. Every soldier, specifically 2,000 of them, would now be following all of Head Guard Kevin's commands. No! It would now be General Kevin.
General Kevin would also be in charge of training them, recruiting more soldiers, and dispatching them to a different task. Simply put, everything related to the security and protection of the City would now be his duty.
Fatty Ben and Van's position would not change, but they will now be joining forces to support Butler Xiao in the development of Heart City instead of Leo. There was already a laid-out plan for the city, hence their task was only to lend support in completing each of the plans.
After discussing more about some other stuff related to the development plan, the meeting was finally over. Leo stretched his body a few times before he went to the kitchen to eat.
As soon as he arrived in the kitchen, Leo again noticed that Cassandra was still nowhere to be found. Even after the meeting, there was still no traces of her. He could just shake his head. Although feeling a bit displeased, he continued eating.
Soon, Leo went upstairs to sleep. However, as soon as he got inside his room, he noticed that the small box on the table was shaking mysteriously. Based on his memory, that small box was where his family's Heirloom was put inside.
Leo had seen the contents of that small box before when he was still young. It was nothing but just a mere small red crystal cube that emitted unfamiliar energy. He showed it to Butler Xiao once, but the latter had only told him that it wasn't a Mana Stone or anything related. It also wasn't something that could be absorbed.
It was just a mysterious cube, nothing more...
However, Leo's parents had always told him that this was a secret weapon of his family.
When something dangerous was coming, this cube would protect them.
Leo didn't believe in such a thing, though. If it was true, then his parents or even just his brother would have not died in the past.
Shaking his head to dismiss such thoughts, Leo calmly approached the box, not feeling a little bit afraid of why it was moving, "Maybe it's just a small mouse shaking the box, thinking that food was inside..."
But, something unexpected suddenly jumped out as soon as Leo got near the box...