Chapter 4 Heart's Household
Author: M_W Cancer
Grammar Checker: M_W Nomral
"Young Master!" Butler Xiao suddenly barged inside Leo's room in a slight panic.
A few minutes ago, as soon as he heard Leo's shout, he quickly rushed upstairs. Though it sounded like his Young Master was excited, or was that just imagination...? Since he won't know unless he asks him personally. So, he didn't hesitate to charge upstairs toward Leo's room to confirm.
"Oh, what's up, Butler Xiao!" Leo greeted, followed by a short chuckle. Obviously, he had already expected such a reaction. Well, his voice was indeed a little bit too loud...
"I heard your shout awhile ago, so I hurriedly went to your room to check if there is any problem, but it looks like nothing is wrong..." Sizing up his Master from head to toe, Butler Xiao became confused as he discovered that nothing was wrong with his Young Master. 'What was that shout all about, then?'
"Umm, about that..." Leo was pondering whether he should tell Butler Xiao or not about him having the affinity to become a Mage now.
Finally, after a few seconds of pondering, Leo decided to just tell Butler Xiao the truth. There was no use in hiding it anyway since eventually, the entire Heart city would still know that he had the affinity to become a Mage now.
Leo put his hand in front of Butler Xiao as he showed the latter the Mana stone, which has turned into an ordinary stone at this moment.
"The Mana stone... What happened to it?" Butler Xiao became stupefied while looking at the ordinary stone. That was the Mana stone from before, but now it had turned into an ordinary stone.
"I absorbed the Mana in it!" Leo said, puffing his chest proudly.
"What... But how? Wait... It's not a question about how, but doesn't it mean you... You have the affinity to become a Mage?!" Butler Xiao said in shock.
Leo nodded his head while smiling brightly, "Hehehehe..."
With Leo becoming a Mage, the thought of finally being able to have the chance to make his family's dream come true quickly surfaces in his mind. Even though he recognized that achieving such a dream was still distant, the fact that he had gained the affinity to become a Mage marked his initial stride toward it.
Leo can't help but hug Butler Xiao in joy.
"Young Master..." Butler Xiao was also feeling thrilled and joyous, a slight trace of a tear had even appeared in his eyes.
Butler Xiao's family has always been the Butler of the Heart's family for many generations, even back on Earth, and he, as Leo's personal Butler at the present, had also long known about the dream of the Heart Noble Household after being transported into the Celestial World with them. Realizing that Leo has the affinity to become a Mage now, he can't help but also feel the same emotion as the young master.
Excitement!
Happiness!
Joy!
Leo's family has fought hard on the battlefield of the War of Races so that they can achieve their dream. But sadly, they still failed, which had cost their lives. But with their son, Leo, now earning the affinity to become a Mage, the dream of making the Heart City a shelter for the Humans and a place to calm the Humans' hearts has now rekindled back again.
"Young Master, you having the affinity to become a Mage now is such a joyous event! As such, it needs to have a grand celebration to complement it!" Butler Xiao happily suggested.
Pulling himself from the hug, Leo quickly shook his head and said, "No need! Let everyone take a rest today. Tomorrow, let's go to Silver City to buy some books related to learning Magic."
"But..." Butler Xiao wanted to persuade his Master, but he was interrupted.
"Let's not waste any money anymore, starting today. Being able to have the affinity to become a Mage doesn't technically mean that I would automatically become strong. I still need to learn some Magic Spells and other related stuff to officially become a Mage. And this matter would surely cost us a lot of money. Both of us already knew that with how small the Heart City is, the income we earn from it would just not be enough to support any Mage,"
Despite really wanting to celebrate, Butler Xiao didn't continue the argument anymore. 'What the Young Master had said was indeed true!'
In the first place, this was the exact reason why they only got to know Leo's affinity to become a Mage now. Because of how poor the Heart City is, there's no way they would squander their money to buy a Mana Stone when there are more important matters to take care of first.
The Heart City was indeed really poor...
It's even to the point that Leo has never used the money he had earned honestly from the city for his interest, even once. Instead, all the money earned from the city's tax, including his wage, was immediately thrown back into the development of the city as soon as he received the money.
All the soldiers in the Heart City were also aware of such situations. After all, they knew that the pay they received every month was truthfully the money that Leo had earned after selling the Magical Beast that was hunted from the wilderness instead of the money from the city taxes.
Some soldiers have even refused to receive their pay and had instead just suggested to only be given some rations and some other things so that they could somewhat help Leo ease his problem. The majority of those soldiers were the loyal men of his parents and brother, specifically the people who were saved by the Heart Household when they first came to the Celestial World.
"Now, let's go to the kitchen to eat some wolf meat! The others should have been waiting for so long already." Leo said to diverge Butler Xiao from its depressing thoughts.
As soon as Leo and Butler Xiao reached the kitchen, three people could immediately be seen sitting on the chair around the table.
"Young Master, I heard you shout so loudly a while ago, did something bad happen?" A 30-year-old muscular man asked Leo in concern.
The muscular man was Kevin, the Head of Leo's personal guard. Kevin was an orphan who was adopted by Leo when the former was still a teenager. He had grown up alongside Leo and had always been acting as Leo's personal bodyguard. So, he was finally given the role of the Head of Leo's personal bodyguard when he grew up old and strong enough for such a role.
In addition to that, Kevin was talented in being a leader. In fact, Leo was even thinking of promoting the former to a General once he could successfully establish an army for the Heart City.
Lastly, Kevin was one of the people who refused to receive any pay from Leo and only insisted that Leo would allow him to keep on serving him until his death to repay the kindness given to him.
"Nothing much, I just earned the affinity to become a Mage, that's why..." Leo replied acting nonchalantly as he sat down on his chair.
The three were immediately stupefied hearing such a claim.
A mid-20s slender man quickly followed up while letting out an awkward laugh, "Young Master is really good at joking, hehe..."
The slender young man was Van, the Head of the Finance Department of the Heart's City.
Van was a subordinate found by Leo while he was escorting a merchant's caravan. At that time, no one has ever discovered Van's ability in mathematics and in handling distinct types of business yet. Van was also very good with the abacus, even Leo was personally shocked at Van's calculating speed.
After finishing his mission of escorting the merchants' caravan at that time, Leo immediately offered Van to become the Minister of the Finance Department of Heart City, which the latter gratefully accepted.
From time to time, Van would also follow Leo to hunt the Magical Beast around the Heart City, aiding the former's financial crisis.
Van was also one of the people who refused to receive any payment from Leo and had instead suggested allowing him to live in the Heart Manor for his service and just some other random stuff to be given to him occasionally.
Apparently, Van was extremely grateful for Leo after being hired as a Minister of the Finance Department at Heart City. Based on what the former had said before, "From the very beginning of my life, only Leo has ever shown appreciation and trust in my passion for mathematics!"
"No, I wasn't joking," Leo said as his right hand grabbed the wolf meat on the table while his left hand showed everyone an empty Mana Stone. He had been carrying the ordinary stone for a while now so that he could use it to explain to the others.
"After arriving, I immediately started researching how to use the Mana Stone that I had found during the hunt. And just three hours ago, I had successfully absorbed the Mana stone." Leo let out a brief laugh before taking a bite from the piece of wolf meat on his fork.
"Then, such a thing deserves a celebration!" A fat man the same age as Van immediately suggested.
The fat man was called Fatty Ben. The fatty in his name was just something he had accepted since everyone liked to call him that way due to his fat body. Fatty Ben was in charge of the logistics department. He was also Leo's brother's personal attendant at first, but after his brother's death, Leo then assigned Fatty Ben to the Logistic Department. Aside from the purpose of supporting the day-to-day operation of Heart City, the Logistic Department was also in charge of collecting all important information throughout the entire Silver Kingdom, hence allowing Leo to keep updated on a lot of important matters happening outside of Heart City.
It was Fatty Ben though who had suggested such a spy-like operation to be implemented. According to him, Leo's brother didn't die on the battlefield but was assassinated by a fellow Human Noble when the former was returning to the Heart City.
Leo also agreed with Van's claim because he had received a letter from his brother when the latter was returning to Heart City. So, he can say for sure that his brother didn't die on the battlefield but was purposely killed by someone. He even believed that he knew who it was...
Along with Butler Xiao, the three people made up the entire whole of the Heart Noble Household. Simply put, they were now the people who helped Leo achieve everything and were now treated as a present member of the Heart Noble Household.
Leo shook his head in reply to Van. He just left the explanation to Butler Xiao. He really needed to sleep early today since they were going to Silver City tomorrow and he was also very tired from his hunting.
The dinner proceeded as usual, and after finishing his dinner, Leo hurriedly went back upstairs to his room to take a bath and sleep.
Tomorrow, they would begin doing a lot of stuff...