Prime Originator

On the workshop's second floor, Amelia Lancaster was seated by her design desk, drawing up new airship blueprints with great focus that she did not notice Leon arriving beside her.

Leon quietly observed the new blueprint before shifting his gaze to study the second floor, thinking it had been a while since he last came here.

'This floor used to be filled study materials on the levitation device. But now, there is not a single trace of it. Instead, there were trains, airships, railways, and many other designs,' Leon silently mused.

"Oh? When did you get back, Leon?" Amelia Lancaster exclaimed with pleasant surprise after resting her eyes for a moment.

She immediately stood up before speaking while inspecting Leon, "Come, let Mother-in-law have a good look at you. You have not been around much—Woah, you seem to have become much more burly."

"I have made some minor breakthroughs in Body Cultivation," Leon smiled wryly before changing the topic, "The workshop does not seem all that busy as I would expect it to be."

"With the discovery of Transcendent Crystals and your parents being more generous with their rewards, the number of Fire Awakeners has been growing along with a few selected Metal Awakeners around to help out…"

"The additional hands have pushed productions to new heights, reducing the need for raw manpower from the commoners. With the railway to the Grassland Region nearing completion, most of the workforce has been directed over for the New Capital's construction."

"Makes sense." Leon nodded after listening to Amelia Lancaster's explanation before saying, "I've heard about the plans, but I have yet to see the progress over there for myself."

"But that will have to wait for another time. I'm a bit tight on time and will not be staying in the Capital for long before I need to return to the Wildlands."

"I see. Well, alright then. What did you come over to see me for this time?" Amelia Lancaster interrogated before adding, "You wouldn't be visiting unless you have a reason to."

"Why would say that, Mother-in-law? You're making me seem like such a bad person…" Leon scratched his cheeks wryly before speaking in his defense, "I did drop by to use the forge, but am I not seeing you first before that?"

"…"

Amelia Lancaster was a bit speechless before saying with a shake of her head, "If you were truly sincere in visiting this mother-in-law of yours, you would have brought gifts."

"You know what I mean, right?" Amelia Lancaster gave Leon a sidelong glance while trying to remain dignified and upright.

Leon gawked for a moment.

Shortly after, he smiled ruefully with a nod before taking out a few stalks of tier-3 herbal tea spirit herbs from his Worldspace and passing it over.

"Please accept this small gift of mine, Mother-in-law."

"Hehe, thank you."

Amelia Lancaster happily accepted the few stalks of spirit herbs with a hum before storing them in her interspatial ring.

"Right, how is Rachel?" Leon suddenly asked.

"Rachel? She has been doing quite well in recent days, surprisingly. She is quite motivated to overcome her trauma. Still, you should pay her a visit sometime."

"Although a date was never set, you two have been engaged the moment you two were born. You should spend more time together," Amelia Lancaster said with a slightly helpless expression.

The amount of time her future son-in-law spent with other women was much longer than the time spent with her daughter. She was quite concerned about their relationship.

"About that…" Leon's expression turned awkward before he admitted, "To be honest, I am not sure how to advance our relationship… I feel that our feelings are mutual, but there are things holding us back…"

"Un, Mother-in-law is also aware of the problem." Amelia Lancaster nodded before saying, "If you need help, just tell me, and I will help you solve the problem."

"How will you help me?" Leon could not help but ask with a weird look.

However, his future mother-in-law did not answer. Instead, she simply said, "Just answer my question. Do you want my help or not?"

"Then… can Mother-in-law help me?" Leon requested politely.

"Kukuku…" Amelia Lancaster chuckled wickedly before saying, "Of course! It's settled then. You don't have to worry about this matter and just leave it to me. Go do what you need to do for now. We will talk about this another time."

"But…"

"Shoo!"

Amelia Lancaster waved Leon away without much explanation regarding the matter, causing him to be dumbfounded as he unwittingly left in a compliant manner.

"What was that about?" Leon rubbed the back of his head questioningly. He could not help but have a bad feeling about it, but there was no point mulling over it for now.

Shortly after returning to the first workshop floor, he shook his head, "Never mind. I will just have to see what Mother-in-law plans to do the next time I return to the Capital. For now, I should do what I came to do."

After selecting an empty workbench and forge, Leon took out his ancient bones and pocketed a few spare alloys lying around before commencing his work.

Four strange-looking bone disks were completed within a short while before Leon took out his Ravenous Black scribing pen and began engraving runes on them.

"It's done. Four Demon Gathering Arrays," Leon softly exclaimed shortly after completing the last engraving.

"Although this is the first time I have crafted Demon Gathering Arrays based on the basic concept of the Spirit Gathering Formations, I'm quite confident in my runic knowledge."

"Now, all that is left to do is to deploy them and see whether they work according to my expectations," Leon muttered while wearing a confident smile.

He did not have time to cleanse the Wrathful Demonic Energy within a short time.

But the Demon Gathering Arrays could continuously gather the surrounding Wrathful Demonic Energies, clearing the air in the area by concentrating and condensing them inside the Demon Gathering Arrays until he return to refine them.

It was a good alternative, considering the time constraints.

"Are you leaving now, Your Highness?"

"Yes, I have some things to do. Continue working hard for the empire," Leon patted the sweaty blacksmiths with an encouraging look before bidding his leave from the workshop.