Instead of going towards the barracks where most soldiers stayed, Leonas, having a great understanding of his team, went towards the food distribution.
Walking around his eyes kept shifting towards the new addition to his team.
Dio's looks and his aura gave off a sense of incongruence.
Black ruffled up hair, snow white skin and a birthmark right under his eye that accentuated his innocent looking face..
With a small stature reminiscent of a kids and a beautiful face you could feel a desire to protect him.
But combined with the eerie aura of death surrounding this young man, the seemingly innocent facade looked like a mask hiding his ugly insides.
While Dio was too young to be someone truly corrupt, Leonas could see that his heart was covered in black tar that bubbled up from time to time.
Every smile the young Dio showed gave Leonas the feeling of being lied to, as if even the pretense of happiness was a foreign concept to the young boy.
"Where are you from Dio?"
"I'm from Taltar."
"Oh I know that city, are you familiar with the bakery in the south district of Taltar?"
….
….
"Oh… no….. sorry I grew up in the east district of Taltar so I wouldn't know."
The boy had lied to him without batting an eye.
The south district of Taltar was full of alchemists and factories, someone from Taltar would know this even if he lived in the east district, after all the smoke and smell of the south district was the number one shame of Taltar.
"Well how about your family? Do they live in Taltar as well?"
Just as he mentioned the young man's family the black tar covering the man's heart started bubbling up ominously.
"Yes they live there as well. We actually have a small shoe shop, you should come visit us once this dreadful war is over."
The boy expertly changed the topic, Leonas didn't mind this, he knew that family was a sensitive topic for most soldiers.
But after talking to the boy for some more time he noticed that the boy lied compulsively and changed topics to bring the attention away from him.
In the end he found out almost nothing from the boy.
Others might not have noticed this, or would've taken the eerie atmosphere as a sign of the harsh upbringing this young man must've had.
But Leonas was different.
Leonas was born with the innate talent to see a person's heart.
Which was also the reason he became a captain at the young age of 20.
Although his loose connection to the house Graham as the head's bastard son had much to do with it, without his innate talent and the teachings from his real father who was a hunter and former admiral, he would've never gotten this position.
And even it was only thanks to him being the counts bastard's son Leonas felt it more appropriate to thank his real father and his own efforts instead of Count Graham who he had never seen before.
And because of this innate talent he could see right through people, he knew whether they lied or told the truth, whether they were happy or sad and what kind of personality they had.
Even with such a strong gif , thanks to his father who had taught him responsibility and righteousness, he had grown up to be a kind and righteous man.
His father used to say, "If you misuse your power you might one day be surrounded by people with hearts of gold, while your heart is just another shade of black."
And the young Leonas had taken this to heart.
Despite seeing a person's heart and knowing their true character he could not act upon that knowledge, after all he was the only one who could see their heart.
And even if he could justify killing the boy with a heart filled with black tar…. he would not do so.
He had seen too many people change for the better to make such a selfish judgement.
Or maybe he just wanted to preserve his own soul.
Still the boy would be looked at very carefully, but for now he would not make his final judgment yet.
Leonas just hoped he would not come to regret this decision.
— — —
He was weird, he didn't seem like a bad guy.
Neither like someone I could trust.
Well there weren't many people to trust in the militia or anywhere.
No pure hearted soldiers, only naive or stupid soldiers incapable of causing harm.
And being weak was no virtue at all.
This guy on the other hand was capable of killing me, I was sure of that.
Just looking at his athletic physique and his aura, was a dead giveaway.
Maybe if I ambushed him I would have a chance, after all he was still human and a bullet would surely kill him….. right?.
Still, it was weird.
It felt like he was thinking about killing me.
But it didn't seem like he would.
This was incomprehensible to me.
Looking around the fact that there were less people around than usual made it more eerie than I was comfortable with.
Leonas on the other hand cared little about my state of mind.
"I think there's something going on at the food distribution."
He said.
After which he increased his walking speed.
To keep up with him, I had to jog a little, oh how I hated tall people….
Always looking down on me. (literally)
I could hear people shouting.
The closer we got to the food distribution, the louder the shouting became.
If there had been any doubt of whether there was trouble undergoing at the food distribution, those doubts were now gone replaced with certainty.
I could see a circle forming around some guys.
And this could only mean one thing….
A Fight.
Usually soldiers didn't have the peace of mind, energy, or even motivation to fight.
But this short respite we had was the perfect moment to let off some steam.
"A fight."
I said.
"Yeah…"
He answered.
"FUUUCK YOU WHEERES MA RUM?!"
A shout thundered through the camp.
A shout that gave you goosebumps and made the crowd cheer.
Someone in the middle of the circle had shouted.
I didn't know the person shouting, but Leonas seemed to do.
He planted his hand on top of his forehead and shook his head ever so slightly.
"You goi–.."
I tried saying something.
But changed my mind, seeing his eyes widen as if to focus.
He walked right up to the circle, rolling up his cuffs like he was preparing to fight.
I was a bit surprised,
This captain of mine was in no way like others.
Interested in what he was going to do I made my way through the crowd of rowdy soldiers..
Catching glimpses of the brawl, which looked like an uncoordinated fight with no clear purpose.
One guy with huge forearms was rolling around trying to choke his opponent with slicked back hair.
While a smaller soldier jumped on the back of a fat black dude who was pummeling someone that couldn't be clearly seen but was sprawled on the ground.
But the most eye-catching of them all.
Was this huge giant of a man, with tattoos all over his body, a bald head and a beard.
He was fighting a group of guys.
Well calling it fighting would be a lie.
After all, it was three against one.
And they were getting absolutely demolished.
2 of them were already sprawled out on the ground with another following suit.
"FUCK YOU YOU SHOULDA BEEN SHARIN THAT RUM."
Shouted the menacing, tattooed giant.
If you looked carefully you could see a small chubby soldier trying to hold back the giant.
He was holding on to the giant's torso trying to hold back the giant.
Coming ever closer to them was Leonas who pushed away anyone in the way making his way through the crowd.
Was he going to start fighting too, or was he going to lecture them?
Maybe he would punish them severely or try to talk it out with them.
Depending on how he would handle this I would be able to see more of his character.
The big black fella who had dealt with the soldier on his back now came towards the giant.
This one looked like he could actually hold a candle to the tattooed giant.
This was going to be a good fight.
— — —
How had we gotten into this situation?
I just wanted to enjoy my food in peace and quiet.
We didn't often get to eat without mortar fire or gunshots.
Although my little brother liked to say that this was "the calm before the storm" I just hoped that wasn't the case and that I would be able to see my little brother at home without having to go through another storm
In short it was nice having some rest after that long battle.
That's when 3 guys got right into Brock's face.
At first I had no reason to worry and just continued eating my rations.
"You dirty bastard, son of a whore, I want ya to apologize right now, or die by my hand."
Even when they kept insulting him I could have cared less.
"I heard your mother killed herself after ya was born. She couldn't believe how ugly ya was so she done and did it ya ugly bastard."
Brock was harmless,
someone you could hit in the face and probably just hear a loud grunt.
I heard that he got stabbed in his sleep and only noticed it the next day.
What I wanted to say was this :
I had not once seen Brock lose his cool.
Except when it came to alcohol.
"FUUUCK YOU WHEERES MA RUM?!"
"BANG"
Brock had thrown a punch that had launched the guy away by about 5 meters.
Seeing this, his buddies had their eyes pop out of their sockets
Brock stood up, towering above them.
"Brock don't do it."
He raised his right arm.
"Brock I said don't do it, I don't want to be involved in an-.."
His fist flew as he punched the next guy launching him into a table full of soldiers
Everyone present already had their eyes on us except for fat matty who was completely focused on his food.
Someone else sitting at that table had a dangerous glee in his eyes and before I could say anything he had already started a fight of his own.
That's probably when everything went to shit.
I was still trying to hold Brock back.
But he just took one step after the other.
While the 3rd guy of the trio was taking a step back for every step Brock took.
"h-he-y m-ma-man n-no bad b-b-blood between us ye-ye-yeah"
The poor guy had small tears forming in his eyes.
"Brock you heard him, It's enough already."
That's when Brock rushed him, while completely ignoring me and shouting.
"FUCK!!!! YOU SHOULDA BEEN SHARIN THAT RUM."