Immortal Kingdoms

A week went by after the unfortunate incident that was partially Pandora's fault, or so she thought of it after calming down and rethini the situation over. If she hadn't stole the rifle in the first place, Andrew wouldn't lose his mind and resort to such radical tactics.

Thus, while Juvia rested bedridden for the entire week, Pandora knelt by the bedside with her head on the floor, refusing to budge an inch as long as Juvia hadn't fully recovered. She blamed herself for almost costing their leader his Godchild, and moreover blamed herself for Juvia's grave injury.

Unfortunately, this meant that Leonardo could no longer suitably train and firm his foundations for controlling energy. In fact, he realised that he had awakened a secondary martial intent which he assumed to be House Hestia's bloodthirsty.

This martial intent reminded him of those berserk buffs from generic fighting games. Except, this one had a serious stipulation that the more one killed, the stronger their intent.

Leonardo never considered himself to be a senseless killer, so he had no idea how to advance this martial intent of his down the line.

How should he evolve it into sainthood, divinity, and assimilate it into an Immortal Kingdom thereafter? He truly didn't know. In fact, he thought to simply shelf it away and focus on his desolate martial intent instead, as it was more versatile and practical in both means and technique.

Nonetheless, one can never have too many martial intents now, right? Or so the young businessman thought as he spent his week shooing away representatives from various factions throughout Valdmor to allow the people under his leadership some much desired serenity.

Apparently, Leonardo was under the false impression that the three kingdoms vying for the Sovereignty of the human domain were the sole ruling powers. As it seems, there are many other factions and diverse kingdoms throughout the human domain, it just happened that the three ancient lineages hold a stren monopoly over the ticket to Sovereignty.

Other than that, they and the other kingdoms are like, except that some minor alliances of convenience are frequent here and there. After last week's display of strength, many of the representatives of these kingdoms festered an interest in diplomatic relations with the mysterious young man protected by a saint cultivator, and an elf on top of that.

Furthermore, these factions had become aware of the existence of the energy ore mines, and Leonardo could think with his knees about the consequences. The three royal representatives will have to share their split with interested parties if they want a smooth operation from here on out.

Thus, while Leonardo and company kept to themselves in the room, Valdmor was like an explosive shell of activities outside.

Knock! Knock!

"I told you I'm not interested…" Leonardo sighed ruefully as he opened the door to his room, revealing an exotic beauty with a pair of heterochromia eyes, one blue and the other green, staring at him with a faint smile.

"Sir Leonardo…" The woman began her speech, but was interrupted by the cute little Leona who clung to Leonardo's left leg with begging eyes.

"Godfather, I'm hungry!" Leona said, forcing a flat smile from Leonardo as he picked up the little girl in her sky blue dress and motioned for the woman to lead the way.

"Might as well talk on our way to a restaurant downtown, if you don't mind?"

The woman was first stunned as her only job was to notify Leonardo about the upcoming gathering between representatives of various factions to discuss on how to proceed with the mining for resources. However, she didn't expect to be invited out for a meal and struggled to refuse.

During this time, Leonardo was already walking ahead and nearing the staircase without the intention of stopping. Helpless, the woman could only bite the bullet and follow through with this arrangement.

At least, now he would have less of a reason to refuse showing up for the meeting, the woman thought to herself while following to the base floor and outside the inn.

…

Tesla's Dine & Shine, a restaurant managed by old grandma Tesla and her progeny, a business passed down through ancestry, served as one of the signboard shop fronts that testified to the arduous years Valdmor went through.

This propelled it into becoming one of the few protected establishments that are enjoyed by members recognised as the noble class of Valdmor. Even if the entire town descended into turmoil, these ancient establishments are at least afforded the courtesy of maintaining neutrality and safe grounds in the chaos.

The luxury introduced in the architecture of eight storeys stunned Leona who almost forgot to get moving after her Godfather and the strange woman in formal clothing. Leonardo had no choice but to pick up the stunned doll and enter the ground floor of the restaurant, which felt as though they've entered a separate dimension.

Two receptionists who were curiously two elven beauties dressed in white clothing lined in golden strips and embroidered black rims greeted the party of three.

"Welcome to Tesla's, young master Leonardo, young lady Azalea, how can we help you?" One of the two receptionists spoke up in a pleasant tone of voice that managed to attract Leona's attention, snapping her out of her daze as she spoke the first thing on her mind.

"Pretty big!"

Leonardo was about to voice his fake surprise about how these two knew of his identity when Leona spoke out of turn, drawing a smile from the young businessman before he poked her small nose.

"Yeah, isn't it amazing?" Leonardo decided to simply act away as though he wasn't surprised that his identity was compromised, which was the truth of the matter. Instead, he changed the subject smoothly by gracing the woman with an answer, "I am here to dine, anything would be fine."

Leonardo wasn't curious about how they gathered information but about how they would play host with such little information they had about him. Thus, he gave the two spaces to manoeuvre through the options. This way, he wouldn't embarrass himself by asking for more than what his current status in Valdmor afforded him, and at the same time figure out how much weight his presence would hold in the upcoming meeting between the various factions, even if through proxy.

Eventually, Leonardo and company were escorted to the sixth floor and into a private room. The decorations were pleasing to the eye, multiple inscriptions overlapped to create magic formations that kept the weather cool and refreshing with a few spirited birds in the background.

Looking that there were two additional floors for him to explore, Leonardo thought that this wasn't as bad of a result as he expected. While Leonardo was busy doing his own thing, Leona was running around the opulent establishment.

Very quickly, Leonardo found himself seated face to face on a furnished table with the Azalea, and the two of them were curiously observing Leona trying to communicate with the blue birds.

Leonardo didn't know what ran through Azalea's head, but he was sure that they'd investigated Leona as much as they'd done to him. However, what he desired to know was precisely what their investigations led to, because he highly doubted they'd find anything of significance.

As Leonardo expected even though he had no way to prove or perceive it, Azalea and the power behind her, along with the other powers, were stumped that they couldn't trace Leona's origins past the town of convicts. No parents, no relatives, no nothing.

The same went for her elder brother Kieran.

The only semblance of contact was a local who goes by the name Henry, but even he seemed clueless as to when they appeared in the town, he just felt like taking care of the brats inconspicuously.

Snapping back to her senses, the beauty with heterochromia eyes glanced over at Leonardo as she said, "I heard you're a clever young man."