After the battle in the Earl Kingdom, Leto realized many things. He was too weak, too slow, and too young. His body was very young and not fully developed so, before he could begin the dreadful gods conquest again, Leto would need to train for several more years. The first thing he decided to work on was stamina, he ran as long as he could for half the day and took an ice bath in the already freezing northern environment to soothe his muscles. The other half of the day was spent either resting, strength training, or sword practicing.
Leto had breakfast, lunch, and dinner mostly by himself as Mara was very busy protecting the border and fulfilling her duties as head of the house. When they did eat together, Mara acted like a mother to him, asking if he got enough to eat, if he got enough rest, if he was feeling okay, and many other motherly questions. Leto didn't dislike this because his sister used to do the same thing, but it wasn't the same. How could anyone ever replace Halia? She was the only family Leto ever knew.
After six months of the same routine, Leto was feeling fairly confident in himself, he'd only missed a few days due to injury or the physician telling him to rest. And so, Leto decided to ask Mara if he could join her at the border defeating monsters the next time they had a meal together.
"Ms. Mara, could I join you next time you visit the border? I've been training nearly every day and I feel like I'll be able to handle it."
Mara paused and she looked at Leto with confusion.
'Did he really just ask… to go to the border with me? To defeat monsters? Oh my, what have I gotten myself into with this kid.'
"I don't think that will be a good idea kid."
"I- I have my own armor! I'm able to make it stronger if I infuse magic with it, but I still need to practice that, and I can even use ice magic!"
Mara placed her hand on her forehead and sighed.
"That's not the point, kid. You're young and the border is a very dangerous place and someone so young should never go there. It doesn't matter how much you've trained, your not used to the conditions. You will get torn apart in minutes."
Leto lowered his head and let out a childish sigh.
'I can handle it. If I can kill thirty palace guards alone then I can definitely handle some lousy, dumb beasts. She's always like this, never letting me do anything.'
Mara seemed to notice what Leto was thinking and shook her head.
"You know I'm just trying to pretext you. I know your goal has something to do with the gods and I don't feel like defying them… or letting their lackey die."
"I'm not a lackey, I'm a liaison and an executioner. I receive gods messages and do what I must, that's all there is to my existence."
"You know, there's supposed to be more than that to a person, no matter their circumstances, right?"
Leto glared at Mara and smirked.
"You think have the freedom for that? I'm tied to god no matter what path I take. But, I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I got rid of some wild beasts while I train. So, you can either let me join you on your expeditions or I'll leave and go on my own."
Mara shook her head and stared at her plate. She'd grown used to having Leto in the lonely manor, and if she wanted to keep the company, she would need to make a better offer or allow him to join her at the border.
"We'll talk more about this in the morning. Eat your food."
Leto finished his food and retired to the guest bedroom for the night. He was excited, thinking he'd get to sharpen his skills against the vile beasts of the northern mountains.
In the morning, Leto was quick to finish his breakfast and headed up to Mara's office, where they would converse further about the matter. He'd spent a few hours visualizing what it'd be like on the front lines and couldn't hide his glee, there was a large smile infecting his usual stoic face as he walked the halls.
"Ms. Mara, when do we depart for the expedition?"
"Well, Leto, you have two options. One; stay here, rest up a bit more, polish the basics of swordsmanship, and join us in six months. Two; come with us now, experience it for a month, and depending on how well you hold up, stay two more months or return here and train more."
Leto pretended to ponder for a few seconds and opened his mouth to speak, but then closed it. Because he really did start to slow down and think. He had hardly any combat experince, and the little he did haven ended up with him nearly dead. He knew how badly he wanted more practice in combat, but was it the right choose?
"I'll go now. I'll hold my own perfectly fine, just you wait and see."
"Don't come crying to me when you regret this, Leto. Also, I'm not letting you venture off on your own, you will have someone with experience guarding you at all times. That's my condition whether you go now or in six months."
Leto was fine with this as if he wanted, he could find a way to kill the gaurd and not have any prying eyes on him, not that he would need to, but just in case.
"We dapart tomorrow when the sun rises, be ready or your getting left behind."
Leto spent the rest of the day resting and preparing for the journey, he needed to pack multiple bags with warm but flexible clothes, say goodbye to Halia for a little while, and practice his magic circulation in his armor which he could do while lazing around.