Chapter 3196 Anesse
Regardless of what the outcome might be, Leonel himself was unprecedentedly calm and unmoved by it all. So long as his wife was safe and healthy, he didn"t care about anything else.
He took Aina"s hand and began to walk. However, rather than making his way out of the city, he walked toward the city lord"s mansion.
City lord Anesse was a middle-aged man. But unlike Kammy, he didn"t seem to be tapering off from his prime. He had a robust build, a greying beard that exuded an air of strength and wisdom, and a pair of deep black eyes that seemed to carry an abyss of their own.
News of what happened was exceptionally slow to travel. There were no methods of instant information transfer. So the man didn"t know of anything that had happened, nor of the loss of his son.
Instead, he was going over reports, his stoicism growing more somber the more he read. These matters were truly getting complicated and just squeezing his citizens for more wasn"t going to work.
They needed more warriors, powerful ones. If not, no matter how many resources they handed over, what good would it do for them in the long run? If anything, it would just be giving their enemies more of a lane to take advantage of them. This was unacceptable.
A knock came from the door.
He looked up from his desk with a frown. "Come in."
"City lord, there"s someone here to see you."
"Who is it?"
"This man claims to be the fourth blacksmith of the city."
The city lord"s expression darkened even further.
If he had been told earlier about such a thing, he might not have let Leonel in at all. For a fourth blacksmith to appear at such a precarious time practically screamed enemy spy. Who knew, maybe they would find out in the middle of battle that their weapons were defective?
"Hey!"
The voice was abruptly cut off as they were dragged back. In the doorway appeared a couple, both covered in blood.
City lord Anesse stood up, his aura surging.
"Honestly, I think I overestimated you a bit too much," Leonel said almost as though he was talking to himself. "To think that I could just walk in here without much effort at all."
He had been worried about the number of militiamen and the difficulty he would face as a result, but he didn"t expect that he wouldn"t need to face off against them at all to make it to the city lord.
Of course, he still couldn"t just kill the city lord due to the reaction he had seen from the citizens. But being able to get here still made things far easier than he ever expected.
This was the weakness of these small cities. They hardly had proper sanitation, let alone advanced technology.
This was more like what most Third Dimensional worlds were like. Earth was a true anomaly.
The amount of advancement that Earth had made without Force was something that should truly be studied.
"Who are you?" City lord Anesse"s aura flared. He was truly a man used to wielding power. But maybe it was precisely because of this that he didn"t have any true bodyguards by his side.
Maybe he would have them when he went out. But in the confines of his own home, and given his personal power, he would never believe that he would need them here of all places.
Leonel walked in with Aina and closed the door behind him.
There was a pounding that came from the other side, but Leonel only casually took out the blade of the spear he had created. With a flicker of his wrist, a complex pattern was drawn into the door, and all of a sudden, the sound of the pounding vanished and the door no longer even vibrated.
"I can give you two options," Leonel said casually.
City lord Anesse"s expression became firm, and he seemed to be preparing for the fight of his life. He even gave a slight glance to Aina before focusing on Leonel. If it came to it, he didn"t believe that Leonel would be so casual with his wife"s life. She would definitely be his weak point.
Leonel read the city lord"s reaction and changed his mind.
"I guess there"s no need to give you an option, then."
PUCHI!
The city lord reacted quickly, his skin becoming covered in a dense grey stone. Leonel"s finger collided against it. He managed to make it through, but only in part.
"Interesting!
Leonel"s arm stretched over the desk that separated them, his finger thrust at the city lord"s chest, but he couldn"t make it any closer.
He thought the battle would end in a single strike, quite frankly. It probably would have had he used the blade, but he hadn"t thought it was necessary.
It seemed, though, that although the city lord wasn"t in the Fourth Dimension, he had awakened an Ability Index.
That made sense. Even if these humans hadn"t figured out how to create Dimensional Methods yet, Ability Indexes were innate. They would be born with them so long as a world had made it through the Metamorphosis.
Leonel thought about just using the blade and ending things, but he decided against it. There was something he wanted to see.
BANG!
The city lord took a step back to stabilize himself before exploding forth.
He kicked at his desk, sending it flying at Leonel as he rushed to the side, picking up a heavy ax.
Leonel was forced to stop the desk, but the echoes of danger bloomed in his mind. He knew even without his internal sight that the city lord was swinging his ax down at him from the other side, planning to go through both him and the desk.
Leonel"s palm touched the smoothness of the desk before he grunted, pus.h.i.+ng the heavy wood desk down and back.
The desk collided with the city lord"s lower body, stifling his forward momentum and causing the ax to swing wildly through the air.