It was with a pale face and mildly pained expression that Leon hurried back to Ariminium. So hurried was he that apart from letting his people know he was on his way back, he didn’t wait for anything on his return journey, leading him to return sans Anzu.
Because he used his magic to keep everyone apprised of his progress, he was greeted by a party almost as large as that which had greeted him upon his initial arrival to the city—the Bull King and his family; Leon’s family, save for Maia and Anzu; his retainers and their families; the Bull Kingdom’s Paladins; and the Tempest Knights, alongside their Bull Kingdom counterparts.
“Leon!” Julius called out, his eighth-tier voice easily rising above the din of the crowd, even as they clapped and cheered as Leon’s boots touched the stones of the citadel’s largest courtyard, right in front of the large statue of Trajan that stood in its center. “Welcome back!”
The Bull King rushed forward, moving ahead of even Leon’s wives to pull him into a brotherly embrace.
When Julius released Leon, he only pulled back a bit, allowing him to leave a hand on Leon’s shoulder while he escorted Leon back toward the citadel. “Was your journey good and fruitful? You look like something bad happened up in the mountains...”
Leon grimaced, having not spoken a word yet, or even given much more than a shallow smile so far.
“I’m fine,” he croaked. “Good and fruitful. Yes.”
The Bull King continued to smile, but he hurried Leon out of the public eye about as fast as dignity would allow, his and Leon’s family following close behind.
As they moved, Elise took one of Leon’s arms and gave him a deeply concerned look, her question otherwise left unstated. Leon gave her a reassuring smile back, relieving just a little of the tension, but it wasn’t until their group—consisting of King Julius, Prince August, Princess Cristina, Elise, Valeria, Cassandra, and Leon himself—found themselves in a private courtyard that he allowed his mask to drop and his real concern to come to the fore.
“Leon!” Elise cried out as Leon doubled over in the middle of the courtyard, a much more pronounced look of pain on his face as he wrapped his arms around his stomach. Elise, Cassandra, and Valeria all rushed to his side, while Julius and his children looked on with great concern.
Leon could only groan as he pried one of his hands away from his belly and waved it at the empty space next to him, and in a flash of light, Rakos appeared in all his glory. It was fairly early in the evening, causing the flecks of gold on his body to catch the reddening sun, while the countless rubies embedded within him glowed so fiercely that they illuminated the entire courtyard. Even then, its aura was the brightest thing about it, ‘glowing’ so brightly that August and Cristina had to avert their eyes for a moment.
But for all that, the stone giant itself seemed remarkably fine, with its body remaining intact without even the slightest sign of degradation.
“APOLOGIES, DIVINE ONE,” Rakos rumbled as it took a knee in contrition. Despite that, it still towered over everyone in the courtyard, even the three remarkably tall members of the Sacred Bull’s bloodline. “I HAD NO IDEA THAT I WOULD PROVE SO DISCOMFORTING...”
“It’s fine,” Leon responded, both to Rakos and to the others, as looks of confusion and alarm had spread following Rakos’ appearance and statement. Leon had to remind himself that aside from Aquillius and perhaps a few individuals in the Bull Kingdom, no other human being could understand the stone giants’ language.N0v3lTr0ve served as the original host for this chapter's release on N0v3l--B1n.
Cassandra lightly pinched Leon’s arm, and when he turned to face her, she stared at him without amusement. “What’s going on, Leon?” she asked, her question mirrored in the faces of the others.
Leon groaned in relief as he pushed himself to his feet, his ladies following suit. Color was rapidly returning to his features and the pain was gone from his face.
“Have any of you ever eaten something that you soon realized was a mistake?” he asked. “Like a piece of bad meat that your body decidedly to rapidly... expel?”
“No...” Elise replied with a look of slight confusion.
“Huh?” Leon murmured, expecting the exact opposite response. He looked around at the others, and between the fantastically wealthy Elise and the collection of palace-raised Royalty, only Valeria appeared to understand what he was talking about. “Damn, I was kind of counting on that. Well, if any of your chefs ever make this kind of mistake, think of this conversation and you’ll understand. Anyway, this is the kind of feeling I’ve had for the past couple of hours.”
“Is this why you didn’t wait for Anzu?” Valeria asked a little chidingly.
Leon nodded in confirmation. He then waved at Rakos and said, “Rakos has absorbed all of the other stone giants into... themself? The animating wisps of more than twelve thousand giants, all compressed into one stone giant’s body. Such a concentration of foreign magic power sitting in my soul realm had me feeling like I’d swallowed a stone.”
“A TERRIBLE MISTAKE ON MY PART. SUCH A MISTAKE I WILL NEVER MAKE AGAIN.” Rakos couldn’t bend much lower given its immense size and only rough resemblance to the human form, but it certainly tried, showing Leon the depths of its regret.
“That’s not necessary,” Leon quickly said. “Don’t worry, no permanent harm done. All that we need to do now is to find a better way to transport you south.”
“I can have some room made on my ark,” Cassandra said as she frowned in thought. “It might be tight... Our new friend looks very heavy...”
“Let’s take some time to figure that out,” Leon said with gratitude. “We can take as much time as we need. Besides, it’ll give us more time to wait for Naiad and Anzu to return.”
“Leon...” Julius said, taking a few steps forward and drawing Leon’s attention. “Perhaps some introductions are in order...?”
“Ah!” Leon cried out in dismay. He quickly rectified his mistake in propriety, introducing Rakos to everyone else. Julius had, of course, known about Rakos before, but they’d never formally met, and Leon had been so caught up in just getting this uncomfortable lump of foreign magic out of his soul realm that he’d let decorum slip.
“I’m not sure I want to hear any of these stories,” he said as he fought hard to keep his smile from turning into a scowl.
“We heard some this morning,” Elise informed him with a radiant smile. “We went to a play. It was incredible.”
“Highly inaccurate,” Valeria added. “Your importance was exaggerated and credit was given to you for decisions you never made.” She paused, then gave Leon a shallow and teasing grin. “You’d have hated it.”
Leon rubbed his chin in discomfort. “Well. Fine. Let them... say... I don’t care. Whatever.” The ladies burst out laughing at Leon’s response, but he ignored them and forced the conversation to move on. “So, anyway, Your Royal Highness. I’d be perfectly willing to take Roland’s son into my service. I’ll need an introduction at some point, though. Which I think I also promised Roland himself yesterday...”
“Thank you, Your Majesty,” August said with a smile packed full of gratitude. “I know Roland will be overjoyed to hear you accept his son’s request.”
Leon nodded, and silence descended upon the group for a short moment, to be broken by King Julius.
“Leon...” he said. “I feel ashamed to ask so much of you, and have you be so gracious in return. Please, if there is anything you wish for us to provide, tell us, and we’ll do what we can.”
Leon went quiet for a long moment as he thought about the offer. There truly wasn’t much that the Bull Kingdom could offer him that he couldn’t already get. At most, he supposed unfettered access to places like Argent Palace would be nice, but he didn’t think he had to ask for that for it to be granted.
But...
“There is... one thing,” he slowly said. “I was going to go there anyway, but I suppose asking for an escort is only polite...”
“Anything at all,” Julius stated.
Leon gave the King a sad smile and made his request.
Julius’ good cheer was instantly dampened. He nodded in understanding, and after taking a moment to control his reaction, he said, “Of course. I would never even think of denying you this.”
---
The capital of the Bull Kingdom was much as Leon remembered it. Even though he’d only lived in it for a few years, it still felt comforting to return to its streets, even if thousands of people turned out to welcome him and their Royal Family back to the city.
But for as much as Leon would’ve otherwise wanted to take his time and take in the sights, he had a specific reason for visiting, and it wasn’t for standard tourism.
It had taken the King only a day to escort Leon’s people to the capital. They left Rakos and the arks behind with most of the Tempest Knights, allowing them to move quickly, and Leon had gotten in touch with Anzu and Maia along the way. Anzu was already on his way to the capital while Maia hadn’t said much, only telling him that she was going to be just a little bit late. Leon was understanding and told her to take as much time as she needed; he had some personal business to take care of.
King Julius wasted little time getting them through the throngs of people lining the streets to wave and cheer as they passed in large, ornate, topless carriages and chariots. Leon knew Elise was quite interested in visiting their old home and the Tower Lord’s estate where she’d grown up, but it was to the palace complex that Julius led them to first. They sped through the streets and across the fortified bridge connecting the palace on the island in the lake at the center of the city to the noble district. Once across, instead of making for the main palace building, however, Julius veered off onto a smaller path, followed by Leon and his family. Leon’s retainers and Tempest Knights were instead escorted by August to the main palace, with Julius, Bronze, and Penitent acting as Leon and his family’s only escorts.
Past the main palace buildings they went, moving northward until they were mingling among the older, more decrepit, and uninhabited palace buildings on the north side of the island. This older part of the complex used to be the main palace, Leon knew, but it hadn’t been permanently occupied in more than a thousand years, with most business taking place in the more recently-built buildings on the island’s southern half.
‘Or, I suppose, not occupied until Lapis,’ Leon thought, remembering the stone giant taking up residence in an old amphitheater on this side of the island. A pang of regret resounded through his chest at the thought of the giant, and not for the first time, he dearly wished he’d made different choices in the past.
But it wasn’t even to most of the buildings that Julius and his two oldest and most powerful Paladins led Leon and his family. Instead, it was to a clearing in the dense forest that blanketed most of the northern half of the island. That clearing was filled with various monuments and mausoleums for past members of the Royal Family. Some statues on these monuments even depicted members of the Royal Family as having bull-like horns sprouting from their foreheads.
The one he was there to visit did not feature bull horns in that way, however. Instead, it showed a tall, handsome, and powerfully built man standing in front of two fortresses linked by a triple-layered set of walls, defending the Kingdom from external threats. Behind this man were many Royal Legion soldiers in battle formation—and, to Leon’s surprise, one knight in particular riding a griffin.
His eyes began to sting as they stopped in front of this mausoleum. Julius said something, but Leon didn’t hear him. Elise laid a supportive hand on his shoulder while Valeria took his other hand and squeezed.
With them by his side, Leon stared up at the carved face of Prince Trajan, his statue watching over the Kingdom from atop his large marble mausoleum, intricately carved with various events from his life. Leon soon realized that several other reliefs close to the one of the Prince standing in front of the Bull’s Horns also featured a helmeted knight riding a griffin, and he very nearly broke down at the sight.
He became vaguely aware that Julius, Bronze, and Penitent left at some point, so with only Valeria, Elise, and Cassandra there with him, he allowed himself to more openly mourn the Prince who had taken him in and tried to teach him to be the best person he could be.
Leon knew that he hadn’t lived up to that ideal nearly as well as he might’ve, but just as with Artorias, he dearly hoped that Trajan would’ve been proud of the man he’d grown into and could see what he had built.
Leon remained largely silent in his mourning, but after a while, he finally whispered to the mausoleum, “Your loss will always be keenly felt, no matter how long it’s been. May you feast with your Ancestors and be free of all pain.”