Chapter 5 An Unexpected Encounter
Author: M_W Cancer
Grammar Checker: M_W Nomral
The next morning, Leo woke up early and he quickly started preparing the things he needed for the trip.
Going in front of his cabinet, he took out a hidden large treasure box.
Inside the box was the money that Leo had saved for the past 10 years, exactly 10,000 gold coins. This money was supposedly the emergency money for the Heart City. But, since he had earned the affinity to become a Mage now, using it has become a must.
"I'm too poor... I own a city, yet I'm only capable of saving 10,000 golds after 10 years. About 1,000 for every year, and a mere 83 gold and 33 silver for every month." Thinking about it, Leo wanted to cry.
Although Leo had said that 83 gold and 33 silver coins every month, it was actually not like that. The money he could earn every day depended on how many Magical Beasts he could kill on that same day. Sometimes he would be able to kill a lot of Magical Beast, and sometimes only a few.
10,000 gold coins for 10 years was not an astonishing feat, too. The majority of the Nobles, even mercenaries and soldiers, would be able to earn such an amount or even more if they could hunt Magical Beast every day for 10 years straight. This just shows how poor currently is the Heart City.
Shaking his head, Leo took the large treasure box as he went downstairs to eat his breakfast.
Reaching downstairs, Butler Xiao quickly greeted Leo as he took the treasure box from him, before guiding him to the kitchen to have his breakfast and leaving to prepare everything for the trip.
Leo was planning of only taking Butler Xiao, and the Head of the Logistic Department, Fatty Ben, on his trip this time to the Silver City, the capital city of the Silver Kingdom. Bringing everyone would be a terrible idea since it would leave no one to manage the affairs and security of the Heart City, two would be more than enough.
As soon as he finished his breakfast, Leo walked out of the Heart Manor.
Outside, Kevin was already waiting near the stable with three horses prepared.
"Good morning, Young Master!" Kevin greeted as he pulled a horse towards Leo.
"Good morning, Kevin, where is Fatty Ben?" Leo asked since he didn't see Fatty Ben around.
"He told me that he will just meet both of you at the north gate because he has something to take care of before leaving," Kevin answered.
"Okay then, let's go, Butler Xiao! See you later, Kevin!" Leo said waving his hand.
Kevin could only wave his hand unwillingly. He really wanted to go with Leo. In fact, he would always be with the latter every time they made a trip to Silver City.
.....
Just like what Fatty Ben had said, he was indeed already waiting in front of the north gate of Heart City.
"Are you done with your preparation?" Leo asked as soon as he reached Fatty Ben.
"Yes, Young Master! I made five of my men proceed ahead to scout any possible dangers on the road." Fatty, Ben quickly explained.
Leo just laughed it off and said, "What possible dangers could there be?" Even if there was one, they could definitely take care of it just fine considering that the route is one of the safest due to the regular clean-ups done by the soldiers from the Silver City.
Fatty Ben suddenly took out a poster from his pocket.
The poster has a missing person word written on top of it and a woman's picture on its center.
"I heard from one of my men stationed in Silver City that the people of the Blood Race of Crimson Rose Kingdom have been running around causing havoc around the Silver Kingdom for a while now. Based on the report I received, one of the princesses of the Crimson Rose Kingdom apparently went missing a month ago and was still not found till this present time. The Blood Race suspects that the Fourth Prince was the one who had abducted her since the Fourth Prince had a history of collecting beautiful women of Foreign races in the past."
The Blood Race was one of the races closely identical to the Humans. The difference between the two was only their white hair, red-colored pupils, their vampire fangs, and they liked to drink blood from other races. Blood Race also has another name, Vampires, since the people from this race are similar to the tales and myths about vampires back on Earth.
Leo stared at the poster as a beautiful woman with white hair instantly caught his attention, "So, the Fourth Prince still didn't change such fetish despite almost destroying the entire east coast of the Silver Kingdom? Last time was because of the unexpected kidnapping of a princess from one of the Sea Races, and this time is the princess of a Blood Race?"
In the past, the Fourth Prince suddenly brought back a beautiful woman of a Sea Race, specifically the Mermaid race. He was telling the whole Silver Kingdom just how honored and proud he was that he had met the most beautiful woman in the Celestial World, and he immediately planned to make the woman his concubine. However, the prince wasn't aware that the woman was actually from a powerful Kingdom of the Sea Race called the Blue Fin Kingdom.
Apparently, after the Blue Fin Kingdom, which the princess belongs to, heard such news, the east coast of the Silver Kingdom was immediately invaded by a powerful Magical Sea Beast.
The invaders demanded that the Fourth Prince should return their princess to their kingdom, or else they would destroy the entire Silver Kingdom.
And truthfully, they do have the power to execute such a threat.
Obviously, because of the Fourth Prince's rumored fetish, he didn't agree to let go of the beautiful princess. Hence, the east coast was quickly attacked by the Blue Fin Kingdom, causing countless Humans to die and their blood to flow like a river to the ocean. But, despite such a devastating event, the Fourth Prince still didn't let go of the princess.
Without a doubt, the King of the Silver Kingdom was enraged by such a ridiculous decision of the Fourth Prince. So, the King quickly went to the east coast, which was under the management of the Fourth Prince at that time, to punch and make his fourth son realize how dumb his decision was.
However, the moment the King arrived on the east coast, he soon became dumbfounded as he saw with his very own eyes that it wasn't actually the Fourth prince who didn't want to let go of the princess, but the princess herself doesn't want to return because she had fallen deeply in love with the Fourth Prince.
After hearing the reason, the Blue Fin Kingdom felt ashamed of their action. They gave the Silver Kingdom a huge compensation for the damages they had caused, and they had also allowed the princess to marry the Fourth Prince, but as a wife this time, not a mere concubine. And they also forbid the Fourth Prince to have any concubines otherwise they will take the princess away and destroy the Silver Kingdom.
What happened to the Fourth Prince has instantly become a laughingstock of the entire Silver Kingdom. Though no one has dared to openly laugh at it. But it was still being spread as a joke secretly by the people.
The people also described the Fourth Prince as what a man was supposed to be, being able to immediately make a beautiful princess fall in love at first sight.
Unfortunately though, despite it being treated as a joke, a lot of people still felt remorseful about what had happened. Due to not explaining the reason by the princess of the Blue Fin Kingdom, countless deaths have befallen on the east coast.
In conclusion, although being treated as a joke, it was also treated as a tragedy by the Humans of the Silver Kingdom.
"Honestly, the Fourth Prince has long stopped such ridiculous action after getting the princess of Sea Race Kingdom as his wife. Rumors said that the Fourth Prince was an 'Under' by his wife..." Fatty Ben said before he let out a loud laugh.
"Then why is the Blood Race still causing trouble?" Leo doubtfully asked.
"They don't believe such rumors. To be exact, their culture won't allow them to believe such an audacious thing. They believe that men should always be on the top of the hierarchy and the women will always be below them."
Leo finally understood that the conflict was because of the different cultures.
'What a stupid reason! With this conflict of culture, innocent lives are getting pulled into the mess. Well, the Celestial world was already a mess. A near to infinite complicated mess that no one could even understand!' Leo thought deeply.
After the discussion, they continued their journey to Silver City.
.....
As they neared the Silver City, one of the five scouts that Fatty Ben had sent out ahead suddenly went to report to them that he had found an unconscious injured woman nearby.
"But Young Master..." The scout was trying to explain further, but Leo immediately interrupted him.
"No more buts, let's go!" Leo quickly replied as he motioned the scout to lead the way.
Helplessly, the scout could only nod his head as he guided Leo and the others to where the injured woman was.
Driven by his curiosity and kindness, Leo immediately followed behind the scout to the location of the injured woman.
As soon as he arrived at the place, Leo quickly rushed towards the woman.
However, his face instantly changed to one of dread as soon as he removed the hood covering the woman's face.
The woman in front of Leo was so beautiful despite being covered in bruises. She has white snow-colored hair and skin, a perfect rounded breast and butt, and a slender, really sexy body. For short, the woman was devilishly attractive.
However, that wasn't the most important point. Despite being such a beautiful and attractive woman, Leo wasn't feeling the least bit of attraction or even lust toward her. Instead, he is thinking whether he should back out or not as soon as possible.
In short, he was feeling horrified and terrified at the same time.
"Why didn't you tell me the complete information!" Leo turned his head around as he yelled angrily towards the scout.
The scout immediately felt wronged, "But..."
"Aysh... Dammit! Is this what they called 'when you talk about the devil the devil will come knocking at your door' or something." Leo helplessly said.
Leo wasn't a narrow-minded person who would blame every mistake on his subordinates. Also, he is fully aware that he couldn't blame the scout, since, in the first place, it was him who didn't let the scout finish the explanation a while ago.
Looking at the devilishly beautiful woman, Leo can't help but shake his head helplessly.
The woman was the topic they were talking about a while ago, the Princess of the Crimson Rose Kingdom.
What an unexpected encounter!