"Traveling alone sure is peaceful..." Leo spoke to himself as he walked up a hill. After climbing over this, he would be able to see Zu City, the capital of the Drunken Kingdom, in the horizon.
"It's closing fourteen years now that I've been reincarnated in this world,"
After saying this, Leo began to ponder on the events that had happened this year and his mind suddenly drifted to a sudden scene.
Back at Shenghuo village, in one of the earliest days of the village kids' training, Mars asked each and everyone one of them before training, "Why are you training? Why do you want to earn strength?"
Majority of the kids answered that they thought it sounded cool and the minority answered that they wanted to be stronger so that they would be able to protect their parents since many of the villagers were war refugees.
Leo's mind then drifted to all other moments where he asked someone, "Why do you want strength?"
Having a sudden crisis over this, Leo began pondering...
Why do I want strength?
Suddenly, Leo's face completely dropped as he couldn't think of anything.
"Ahhh!" Leo shouted in sudden frustration as his brain was devasted at the fact that he could not find an answer for this.
"I always thought that living in a reincarnated world with powers and me saving people would be amazing but what is the use? I just beat up bad guys? That's a bit boring?" Leo began thinking.
Think! Leo! Think!
I carry the will of mom and dad!
Wait did they even have a will?
"Damn... my brain has hit a new low," Leo thought as he continued walking upwards.
Ah!
I remember!
'I am doing this to protect Lex and Aurora from future troubles!' Leo shouted in his mind but then as if a brick hit him on the head, his face changed again.
Oh!
'If I am protecting them, then why did I sent them away?' this exact thought appeared in Leo's mind, disturbing him immensely.
"This is not going to help me with life right now..." Leo spoke with a downcast expression as his mind continued drifting as he made it to the peak. He had made it but his mind was far too distracted to admire the view at all and he quickly made his way down the hill with his mood slowly turning sourer and sourer.
Fifteen minutes later...
"Mom and dad told me to protect Lex and look after them but at this point, they should be able to protect themselves, right?" Leo mumbled as he stumbled upon the city gates and absentmindedly paid the entrance fee.
"Look at this numpty," a guard commented after seeing Leo's empty eyes, causing Leo to suddenly come back to reality.
"Huh? I'm already here? Wasn't I still climbing the mountain?" Leo spoke confusedly as he turned around and looked towards the hill that he passed about an hour ago.
"I need to stop getting distracted. I'll ponder over this later," Leo spoke before looking to the guards, "Excuse me, could you tell me where I can find news on everything in this city?"
"Just follow this road to the centre of the city, there will be a large building called 'Westin'," the guard answered.
Having a route now, Leo thanked the guard and walked off going in the direction of the centre of the city and he eventually reached the building.
It was extremely huge with white quartz walls, making it look like a Greek temple with a huge sign that had 'Westin' written in an extremely fancy font.
"Damn... This place is quite big..." Leo commented in admiration but then his face dropped, "finding who I want will only be harder now..."
And so, with an incredibly unwilling and low-expectation mind, Leo walked over into the building that had its front doors already opened and headed inside.
However, contrary to his expectations, the place was weirder than he thought. Inside the building was a small atrium about half the size of the Nether Mansion's main atrium and at the back walls was a large desk with a female receptionist at the table and next to her on either side were two wooden double doors. And at the front were a series of empty benches.
Heh?
Confused, Leo made his way to the reception desk and asked, "Excuse me, but is this the place where I can find news on everything?"
"Yes sir. Welcome to Westin, we have information on almost anything that you would like," the attendant answered.
"Ok, I would like to know where the Princess's head guard, Eya, resides," Leo directly spoke.
Hearing this, the attendant's face suddenly changed before speaking, "I see why you came here."
"What do you mean? Is her status that much of a secret?" Leo asked curiously.
"Yes. There is not much information on her ever since the princess came back so the cost of this information may be quite pricey," she replied.
"Forget it then. I don't want to pay. Do you know where I would have the highest chance of meeting her?" Leo asked, waving off the matter of Eya's identity.
"Oh... If you don't want to pay then I'm afraid I can't help you," the attendant replied, must to Leo's dismay.
"Uff. Fine, I'll give you a rank five sword for her location," Leo spoke as he brought out a thin sword.
Seeing it, the attendant's eyes glimmered with surprise, she did not think that someone like Leo would be able to offer up a sword of such rank that easily. The highest-ranked blacksmiths in the whole of the continent were only rank eight.
An evil smile appeared on the attendant's face as she took the sword and answered while looking down at it, "Your best bet is finding her in the palace. She is often hanging out near the princess and her lodging is quite near her."
'Getting into the palace is going to be difficult,' Leo thought, 'But oh well, I'll try the front door first. If it doesn't work then I'll just creep my way inside.'
"I see. Thanks then!" Leo spoke.
"Your wel-" the attendant's sentence was forcefully cut short as she raised her head and saw that Leo had immediately disappeared from the building.
In the next few minutes, Leo made his way to the palace, it was extremely huge and was nothing like the Lapis kingdom's castle. It had a multitude of separate buildings for the many important people in the kingdom and there were also countless gardens and practice arenas inside it. It could be called a mini town.
"Dhamn, this place is massive," Leo exclaimed in amazement. He thought the Westin building was impressive but this was much more. He did not expect the palace to be an area in itself. It was about the same size as the Decan clan but was much grander and the concentration of energy was a lot denser here.
The entrance to the palace was around a large moat that was connected by a long bridge and on palace end of the bridge was a large gate with three heavily armoured guards that were at origin realm stage one.
As Leo made his way to the palace, he was immediately stopped by the guards, "Halt!"
"What are you here for?" one of the guards asked cautiously.
"I'm here to meet Eya," Leo simply replied.
"What is your relation to her?" the guard asked, wanting to confirm Leo's identity.
"She's my brother's master," Leo replied.
Hearing this, the guards suddenly changed as they took stances.
"Impudent! You dare spew such false words to try to get into the palace!" the guard shouted in anger as he brought out his spear.
"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Wait a minute! I'm not here to cause trouble. My brother was actually taken here by Eya," Leo spoke quickly shaking his hands that he was harmless.
"Haha! As if! What is his name?" the guard scoffed and asked with a wicked smile.
"Lexus. Lexus Areia," Leo answered.
Hearing this, the guards suddenly froze.
'They must know Lex,' Leo thought as he felt that he had been cleared and would be able to go in.
But suddenly, the guard that had been conversing with Leo suddenly jabbed his spear outwards with a lot of force, "You dare to speak the name of the prince!"
But as he jabbed out, Leo's face suddenly changed as he caught the blade of the spear and crushed it.
Crack! Shatter!
Pieces of the spear scattered all over the stone-bricked ground. The face of the guard had turned to shock and before he could say anything, Leo had turned towards the palace and he took a deep breath.
"He is preparing for an attack!" the guards shouted as they braced their spears, preparing to throw them.
But unexpectedly, Leo did not attack and instead shouted loudly, "Eya! Pwea! Leo is here! Let me in!"
Blink. Blink...
The guards looked at each other in confusion... He was preparing for a shout? After saying this, Leo then turned and walked back about halfway across the bridge and sat down.
"Don't attack me again. Let's just wait," Leo spoke to the guards.
The guards were shocked to their core. Wait? This type of situation had never occurred in the years of service. What was Leo doing?
Nevertheless, now that he had shouted, someone inside was bound to hear him so they decided to wait for a while and if no one would come out then they would have to ask Leo to leave.
Lucky for Leo, after about a minute passed, the gates of the palace suddenly began creaking as it slowly opened.
Hearing the loud creaks, Leo turned around towards the palace and he saw a familiar young woman walked out. It was Pwea.
"Leo?" Pwea asked in slight disbelief as her eyes opened-wide from seeing the young man.
How was he here? Wasn't he supposed to be busy with the Lapis Kingdom? I need to find out more about this... she thought calculatively as she approached him.
"Yes, hello," Leo spoke with a light smile as he stood up and walked over to her, "How have you been doing?"
"Good. I didn't think you would be visiting the Jade Empire so quickly," Pwea replied, "Follow me, I'll take you to Leader Eya."
And they both of them walked off, leaving the guards who had their mouths opened in shock.
"Did you see that?"
"We just attempted to attack a young man who knows the Princess's head guard!"
"It should be fine. Didn't you hear Lady Pwea? She said that she did not expect the man to be here so we can get out of this situation."