Chapter 442 - Great Fire Plan
"Y-Your Highness, what happened to you?" A palace guard could not help but ask. Their prince went to the other side with pale skin but came back tanned like chocolate.
"You must have suffered a lot over there, right?"
"Not at all. This is just some color-changing cream I applied to my skin." Leon said amusedly with a shake of his head. Rather, he was the one who caused suffering to others.
After receiving the prince's answer, the palace guard nodded before taking a glance at the person by the prince's side.
"This is…"
Darlene had been hugging close to Leon, never leaving his side. While having her arms wrapped around one of his, she glanced around curiously at her new but dark surroundings.
"So this is the Human Domain… Doesn't seem much different to the Infertile Plains…" Darlene softly muttered.
Leon overheard her and ruffled her hair with a smile before saying, "You haven't seen anything yet. Wait till we leave this place."
"Un." Darlene nodded.
Shortly after, Leon turned to the palace guard and said, "Tell me everything that had happened in my absence."
"Yes, Your Highness!"
The palace guard saluted with honor and began recounting the details to Leon, listing three main points of interest.
The first was the integration of the three kingdoms, forming the soon-to-be Crawford Empire.
The second was the redirection of the railway construction focus to connect the Capital to the World Tree and concentrating resources in the Grassland Region to build a new capital.
Leon listened attentively.
Heinrich's plans to achieve high-speed transportation was no closed secret. After Leon learned about this plan from the palace guard, he was amazed.
His father had some pretty innovative ideas.
After the palace guard finishing informing Leon of the last point, he nodded and said, "Alright. I understand now. You can go back to your post."
"Yes, Your Highness!"
The palace guard left.
Leon glanced up at the skies and saw the dispersing dark clouds. It appeared that Aria's Transcendence was completed not long ago.
Recalling that angelic look, Leon's heart burned with a desire to see her right away.
"Come, I'll show you the Capital on our way to the Royal Palace," Leon said to Darlene.
"Mm."
Darlene quickly hugged close to Leon firmly. He held her around the waist before they both took off into the sky, flying straight to the center of the Capital.
The night sky of the Human Domain was clearer than the Dark Continent, and the Capital was thriving with activity and light.
Darlene's eyes slowly widened as she slowly took in the breathtaking view of the Capital.
The exquisite building infrastructures, designs, and material composition, the billowing smokes from the north, and the gushing springs of the south, everything was new and exciting to her.
More importantly, she had never seen the lush green grasslands before. The world beyond the Capital made her widen her eyes in awe. The grassy hills, fields of crops, and rustling leaves of trees astounded her.
"How is it? Still think the Human Domain is similar to the Infertile Plains?" Leon asked during their flight.
Darlene immediately shook her head and said, "I was wrong. This place is beautiful."
Leon smiled lightly and increased the speed of their flight.
In a short instance, they quickly arrive at the Royal Palace. After spotting a few familiar figures within the Inner Palace, Leon shortly made his way over before descending.
"Mom, dad, Aria. I'm back—"
Leon called out, but he quickly frowned when his gaze fell onto his father, Heinrich's shoulder.
Elizabeth and Aria turned their heads over in surprise.
They were immediately baffled by Leon's appearance. However, after a moment, it was changed to a pleasant surprise when they recognize the person.
"My son!"
"Leon!"
Leon made his way over with Darlene with a deep frown and immediately carried out medical treatment on his father while asking, "What happened here? How did father get hurt like this? Who did it?"
Elizabeth and Aria both had many things to say to Leon, but they could only save it for later, after hearing his strings of questions.
"We were visited by two unexpected Transcendents of unknown origins, claiming to be people from the Cortez family. The younger one attacked your father when he was interrupted while trying to ask for Aria's name… I tried catching them but failed to keep up with them in the sky suppression zone."
Elizabeth began explaining the events that transpired.
After Leon understood everything, traces of anger began sprouting in his heart. Not only did this person had their eyes on his woman, but this person also attacked his father unreasonably.
"Which direction did they go, Mother?" Leon asked with a low tone, suppressing his rage.
Heinrich's wound recovered to a perfect state after Leon applied some Tier 3 Golden Ointment and further boost the recovery speed with Wood Energy.
"Don't bother chasing them, son. These two Transcendents have deep backgrounds. Although the young one was rash, I am fine in the end. Besides, the older Transcendent has given us rich compensation." Heinrich said before adding, "Most importantly, you have not achieved Transcendences yet. It's not too late to look for them when you are stronger."
"So, we should just let them go, running around our kingdom as they please? I cannot accept that!" Leon stomped the ground with a loud boom, causing a deep imprint on the metallic floor.
How could he let go of someone who blatantly trespasses on palace grounds, attacking royalty and harming his father?
"I will make that person pay for what he did to you, father!" Leon said with a tightly clenched fist.
The shockwave of the stomp startled everyone around him. Only Darlene was not surprised by his brute strength. As a denizen of the Dark Continent, she had seen far greater physical prowess coming from humans.
"It seems you have made great improvement in your strength while you were on the other side of the Teleportation Array. It was my bad for underestimating you, son." Heinrich apologized.
Shortly after, he added, "However, I still think you should not pursue them and just drop the matter. Those people are most likely from the Geyser Kingdom, which we know next to nothing about. These past couple hundred years had allowed them to grow far more prosperously than we could ever imagine."
"Aria."
Leon glanced at Aria for an answer, seeing that his parents were unwilling to divulge the two foreign Transcendents' direction.
"They went that way…" Aria pointed towards the western direction after a moment of hesitation. She did not want to go against Leon's wishes.
"Thank you."
Leon was gratified, giving her a soft peck on the forehead. Her heart melted instantly, despite the pressure of Leon's parents gazing at them.
A deep blush hung on her cheeks.
"Please take care of Darlene for me… She is… Ahem, another sister I brought home."
Leon did not explain much bursting forth into the direction of the west, pursuing after the two foreign Transcendents that had long left.
He did not stick around long enough to notice a few subtle changes to Aria, while Darlene was left behind to fend for herself without much choice.
"Heinrich…"
"Elizabeth…"
Elizabeth and Heinrich cuddled each other while they watched their son leave with incredible speed and sighed pensively.
Aria arrived by their side and apologized with her head lowered. However, they shook their heads in response.
"It's fine, Aria. It would not have been easy to change his decision once he sets his mind on something." Elizabeth said.
"When children grow up, they will learn to make their own decision. It's unfortunate that our son has already sprouted his wings before we could watch him grow." Heinrich sighed.
Shortly after, Aria returned her attention to Darlene, who stood frozen like a wooden block, not knowing what to do.
"Hi, I'm Aria."
Aria was open-minded and took the initiative to greet warmly, causing Darlene to be overjoyed immediately.
She was not getting ostracized and treated coldly like some outsider. Her apprehension was dispelled instant under Aria's warm and gentle aura.
"Hello, Big Sister Aria! I am Darlene. Please take care of me from now on!"
After they shook hands enthusiastically, Elizabeth and Heinrich switched their attention to Darlene sometime later, after Leon was long gone.
Darlene immediately felt tensed under their stares.
"These two are…" Aria began introducing Leon's parents to her.
…
Western Frontier, Great Wall.
The battle continued to rage on between the rats and wolves.
Fleshes were torn, and blood was spilled; the two sides fought ferociously and desperately in a frenzied manner.
The rats were weak and numerous, while the wolves were fewer in numbers but stronger. Despite the differences, both sides were equally matched, one way or another.
While the two sides were busied fighting each other, General Marquis Hendrick directed the soldiers to reclaim the Great Wall's central region.
Barrels of oils were transported over from their warehouse. Despite the fact that their reserves were running low, General Marquis Hendrick did not hesitate to sacrifice all their fuel to start a great fire.
"Quickly, move it! The pungent stench of blood is strong, and the night blows west! We must be quick before more beasts are attracted to the Great Wall!"
"Move, move, move! Move it, men! Put your back into it!"
The barrels were huge, enough for two soldiers to roll them side by side atop the Great Wall.
As a high-ranking soldier directed, a group of soldiers could be seen rolling oil barrels.
At the same time, another team was in charge of gathering firewood, sticks, branches, and anything that can be used to further fuel the fire-to-be.
They were exhausted. Their limbs felt like leads while sweat soaked their bodies. Each step was a great struggle, but they pressed forward, nonetheless.
They had to do what must be done.