Chương 1148: 1178 - Court Titles

Leon never considered himself much of a dancer. He was skilled enough at it—Elise, Emilie, and Cassandra had made sure of that—and his experience in combat lent itself well to learning to dance, but he lacked the passion and drive to become truly good at it. However, as the music of clashing steel reached his ears, his body moved with grace and strength. His opponent's blade slid over his shoulder, not quite touching him, and he body-checked her, throwing her back.

To her credit, she regained her balance with lightning-fast reflexes, and just as she'd been taught, launched herself back into the attack, meeting his follow-up head-on. Again, steel met steel, and Leon's blood sang. Nothing besides him and his opponent existed in his universe, there was only magic and motion.

Such a state could hardly last forever, however, especially with his power advantage against his opponent—they weren't using elemental magic outside of their body, but the advantages of his higher tier couldn't be ignored. The duel came to an end with his training blade at Alix's neck, and she lowered her own training sword.

"You'd think at some point I'd actually win once or twice." Her complaint came through a wide smile, so Leon didn't think she was seriously offended at her loss.

"Your skill has progressed by almost infinite leaps and bounds since you were my squire," Leon stated with a grin of his own, "but I trained you. And this is my family's fighting style. You'll always be at a disadvantage when fighting me." Alix scoffed.

"Two centuries should've seen me getting better at reading you, though. Whatever, I don't mind the loss." Leon clapped her on the shoulder as she took his weapon. She was still the second-in-command of the Tempest Knights, but he'd also given her a new position as his Swordmaster. In effect, she would help him to preserve his family's fighting style, and if— when, he stubbornly told himself, when —he had kids, it would be Alix who would help to teach them.

He would instruct them personally, too, but having a dedicated Swordmaster would give him more free time when the time came. Plus, it allowed her to spread his family's style among the twenty-thousand Tempest Knights. His knights weren't all lightning mages, and the primary weapon for his knights was the halberd, not the longsword, but given it was his own fighting style, learning it was a mark of great prestige—and teaching was a mark of even greater prestige.

Most of Leon's longtime friends had been given similar positions or titles of high honor. Anna continued in her role as the Royal Beastmaster, but given his relative lack of reliance on war beasts, he'd also made her the Kingdom's Master of the Hunt. Her sister Helen was his Royal Brewmaster, which mostly just formalized her control over the production of ambrosia. Gaius was no longer his secretary, as he'd been promoted to his First Praetor, the head of his judiciary.

He'd accepted the position willingly, especially since Clear indicated that he wasn't looking to take it back. Now, it was Lucianus, Roland's son and Marcus' protégé who was Leon's Grand Secretary. Alcander remained as the commander of the Tempest Knights, but Leon had also named him as the General of the Guards, giving him command of Artorion's police forces.

He didn't have authority over either of the Talons, but within Artorion itself, all law enforcement answered to their own regional captains, who then answered to Alcander. Anzu was made the General of Scouts and given a key position in Leon's fleet commanding a large number of new corvettes—a new class of ark smaller even than frigates that were specialized for reconnaissance. He wasn't in Artorion right now, nor even in the Nexus, having been dispatched on a critical mission outside of the universe's center.

Few given titles could compare to what Marcus had been given, though—Leon had dictated a term limit on Exarchs, that being two terms of a decade each. After serving both of his terms as the Exarch of Shatufan, aiding in the city's reconstruction and the expansion of Aurichalcum production, Leon assigned Marcus the title of Chief Inspector.

While Leon hadn't given anyone an Exarchate unless he trusted them, he also knew that corruption and sedition spread quickly in the dark, and so created the position that Marcus now filled—the Chief Inspector monitored the Exarchs as they saw to their duties, and had a fairly large cadre of law enforcement officers dedicated to watching out for corruption within Leon's governors.

So far, Leon had only had to remove a single Exarch from their position for corruption, a streak that he thought was pretty good given the integration of locals into his government, many of whom had long-standing grudges against those from other cities. Red and Anshu, meanwhile, in a touch of irony, were given positions that were almost complete opposites of one another. Normally, a couple like them might've been assigned similar positions, but Leon knew that wasn't their style.

Anshu was formally made his High Admiral, in command of the Fleet as a whole, rather than an individual fleet of indeterminate size. In the hierarchy of positions in his Kingdom, only the Jaguar, who remained his Marshal, and himself as the Commander-in-Chief by virtue of being the King, were more highly ranked. It was a serious position with a mountain of authority and responsibility. Red, on the other hand, was given a purely ceremonial role as the Flame of Westmount.

As a rule, Leon's family were the only permanent residents of Westmount, with all others who had quarters within the palace residing by the grace of Leon or his wives. Red was the one exception, having been given a lair within the westernmost peak. She mostly stayed there, lounging around as was her wont, but she also frequently flew around the floating mountain or hunted in the mountains to the west.

She had little responsibility save for following Leon when he asked her to, an arrangement she was quite happy with. Mari'Kha was, perhaps, the only exception to him handing out titles. She was content as a researcher and engineer and disliked responsibility almost as much as Red did. She still worked with Nestor quite frequently, but she didn't lead a team or command legions of researchers.

She did fine work, though, the integration of her cloud glass with newer generation arks making for a marked increase in capabilities and performance. His friends weren't the only ones given titles, however—his wives were, too, though their statuses as his Queens superseded any other title he could grant them.

Elise was his Master Gardener, a title which didn't just give her authority over the gardens of Westmount or Artorion, but all public parks in the Artor Valley, as well as the Hesperidic Apple and thunder wood groves. All worked land that Leon personally owned fell under her auspices, too, such as the thousands of acres upon which his silkgrass was grown. Tikos and its tree sprites did much of the groundwork, but it was Elise who coordinated the harvest and distribution of all resulting products.

Cassandra was given the title of Grand Architect, as she took a particular interest in ensuring that his capital city was as full of splendor as it should be. Leon had made sure that the city had no single mayor, not wanting to give anyone undue authority over his capital, but if any one position could be thought of as having such authority, it would've been the Grand Architect—only Alcander approached her level of authority over the city, but even he had to defer to her as the General of the Guards.

Cassandra dictated the city's zoning, ensured that all of the Ten Tribes were given the land they needed to maintain a strong presence in the valley, and personally commissioned all public works and buildings. She executed the laws of the city and directed all official business within its limits. Maia's title was more of a formalization of what she already was: Queen of River Nymphs.

The population of river nymphs under her had exploded—an expected consequence of Leon prohibiting them from devouring their chosen mates and allowing them to live in close proximity to humans. Their beauty made attracting human men easy, and after a century and a half, Maia's small pod of nymphs had turned into just over ten thousand, all plying the Blue Feather River system from Seabreak in the south to the Finger Lakes in the north, as well as all of the river's tributaries. Valeria was a more unique case.

She was comfortable with less authority, though she still wanted something to do. After some debate, Leon eventually made her his Grand Archivist. It was her job to sift through all of his Clan's records and make sure they were kept neat and organized, as well as maintain all of the official records of his Kingdom as they came in. She had the librarian golems from the archives below Teira to help her in this, and a host of human scribes, along with a dozen giants who turned out to have a more scholarly bent.

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Those of his former retainers who had had children also saw those kids entering into his bureaucracy. It was hard to imagine, but some of his friends had even become grandparents—Cosmo was a father, having married one of Gaius and Alix's daughters.

So far, they were the only ones of his old retinue's second generation to start having kids, but those kids were now old enough to enter Leon's bureaucracy—Cosmo's eldest son was now serving Gaius, his grandfather, as a secretary, while Cosmo's younger son was a junior member of the Tempest Knights. Having two grandparents as the order's commanders was certainly an advantage, but Leon knew that no one would be as hard on that boy as Alcander would be, so he allowed it.

It had been both a frighteningly long and dreadfully short century and a half. During that time, especially now that Cosmo had started having kids, it had become clear to Leon and his family that having kids of their own was simply not going to happen without some kind of assistance. It had been one of the hardest things for Leon to admit, but given his position, his entire Kingdom was invested in seeing him have a successor.

None were more invested than his highest ministers, Iron-Striker, the Jaguar, Ipatameni, and now Gaius and Clear Day. Resources were being devoted to finding some kind of solution, especially since all of the methods that Leon's family had tried thus far, including just about exhausting the techniques that the Thunderbird Clan had used to overcome their own Inherited Bloodline-induced fertility issues, had failed. As Leon and Alix finished sparring, Iron-Striker entered the training room along with Mari.

Leon's Chancellor bowed, his features more youthful than they had ever been as the man had achieved Apotheosis some decades ago. He maintained his professional demeanor, but after so long, Leon was able to see some satisfaction in his expression. Mari'Kha's greater-than-usual exuberance certainly added to the effect.

"Your Majesty," Iron-Striker began, but Mari impatiently cut him off.

"It's done! Lele, it's done!" Leon cocked an eyebrow.

"You mean…?" Mari furiously nodded her head, her eyes practically glittering. A quick glance at Alix later, Leon said, "Show me."

"… though it pained us, we did end up cannibalizing most of the remaining arks, but we managed to get it back up and running." Leon nodded along, barely processing what the arksmith was telling him, so captivated was he by the sight that lay before him. Storm Herald, the ark of his Ancestor, Jason Keraunos, the previous Storm King, sat before him on an arkpad, quietly idling.

Leon could barely sense the flow of magic around it changing despite the power within the two-thousand-foot-long machine, which spoke volumes about the enchantments layered into the hull. The great ark had been almost completely taken apart and rebuilt from the ground up but retained its original design. It was shaped like a broad arrowhead, with the wings somewhat shaped like those of an eagle, while the nose of the ark curved down like a raptor's beak.

Though the hull was smooth and unblemished, Leon knew that beneath it lay more advanced Thunderbird Clan Lances than on Bolt in Shadow, and it wasn't even close. It had taken quite a lot of materials to completely refurbish it—an ocean of Lumenite and a mountain of Aurichalcum and Titanstone, for starters—but it had been worth it.

Parts that Leon couldn't manufacture yet had to be scavenged from the other Thunderbird Clan arks that Icarius had returned to Leon, leaving Storm Herald as the fourth and last Thunderbird Clan ark that Leon could add to his fleet.

"How have the upgrades been performing?" Leon asked, a light grin playing at his lips. This time, it was Nestor who spoke, no small amount of pride entering his voice as the dead man stared at the massive ark on the pad.

"Much of the internal infrastructure has been replaced with hardened thunder wood, and the internal magic stores have been replaced with storm crystal. All of the wisps have been replaced by giants, while cloud glass has replaced the primary enchantment control systems. Backups remain just in case the cloud glass fails, but we have so many redundancies that that's unlikely.

"To put it simply, Leon, this is some of my finest work. No other project have I worked on has made me prouder." Leon gave him a brief look of extreme skepticism. He'd have thought the giants would've taken such a coveted place, but he supposed that would never be the case so long as Nestor remained in denial about the sapience of the giants. In that respect, Nestor hadn't changed much in the past century and a half. He was so old that such a span of time, great though it was for Leon, wasn't worth much to him.

However, what he lacked in changed attitudes he more than made up for in his physical appearance. He now 'wore' a more man-sized golem frame, standing only seven feet tall. The external plating also sported a more human appearance, with muscles forged into the plating. So realistic was he now carved that he even wore a sash over his waist to cover himself, even though he had no genitalia to cover. His faceplate, however, remained completely featureless.

"You're not exaggerating?" Leon asked.

"I imagine you're the type to brag about the shits he's taken."

"Hardly," Nestor replied.

"I have not had to shit in a long time, boy. But if I did, I can assure you that they would be the most legendary shits that have ever been excreted."

"Gross," Alix murmured. Nestor scoffed and didn't acknowledge her, instead asking Leon, "Are you going to stand here and insult me, or will you want a tour?"

"Take the tour! Take the tour!" Mari encouraged. With a widening grin, Leon said, "Fine. Let's go on the tour."

"Good," Nestor replied.

"Let's start with the engines and the Leonine Drive. We've made the same upgrades to it as we did for our other inherited arks, but it would still benefit your education greatly to examine this…"

Leon sighed as he opened his eyes in his soul realm. It was warm there, but it was a heat that he'd come to expect. The powerful source was nearby, seemingly glaring at him as he stood up from his throne.

"Leon," Xaphan crackled.

"Xaphan," Leon responded. The demon's appearance was markedly different than it had been in the past. Now, the fires of his body burned white-hot, while tinges of blue burned at the edges of his eyes.

Those tinges were the only way Leon's physical eyes could discern Xaphan's eyes from the rest of the fires burning on his body, though in most other respects, the demon's body was now more recognizably human—the fire of his body, despite being hotter and stronger, burned less fiercely, more closely forming something like a 'skin' over his obsidian frame. The effect gave him a more human shape, rather than appearing to be little more than a shadow within fire.

This change came when Xaphan finally achieved Apotheosis—or the demon equivalent of it, anyway. Though he'd refrained from celebrating too much, he was so thrilled with his achievement that even the Thunderbird took notice of his more positive mood. Leon could understand it, though—the demon hadn't achieved much of his power on his own the first time; his power as a Lord of Flame had come from the title given to him by the Prince of Flame.

Without the title, he'd lost that power—and the injuries he'd sustained acting as a power generator for his own prison drained his power further. This power he'd achieved with his own efforts, however, couldn't be so easily taken. He'd been training less in the decade or so since his ascension, but Leon had never seen him looking so serious before, like he was just waiting for Leon to head into his soul realm to talk despite their contract ensuring they could speak whenever they wanted.

"Is something the matter, my friend?" Leon asked.

"Friends with a human… how embarrassing that would be," the demon growled.

"I… You are planning on venturing beyond the Nexus soon, are you not?"

"Haven't you been paying attention, Xaphan? I've had Anzu leading my fastest arks on scouting missions to the closest planar clusters for a decade now, building up a list of potential targets and shoring up our Void charts. That navigation wisp we retrieved from the crashed supercarrier back on Aeterna needed some updating…"

"Yes. That. I… have a favor to ask." Leon's grin turned sly.

"A favor? From a demon? My my, I wonder what I could get for this…"

"Ask for something in return and I'll consider it. Or don't and earn the gratitude of a noble and illustrious Lord of Flame."

"Pompous matchstick."

"Man-shaped dickweasel."

"What's your favor, then?" For a moment, all that responded to Leon was the sound of Xaphan's crackling fire. Then, sounding almost as if he were pulling teeth, Xaphan stated, "I need to contact some… old friends. Within the Elemental Plane of Fire." Leon crossed his arms and frowned.

"To get some intel on Amon."

"He's long known that I have returned. And yet… he hasn't made overt moves against me—against us —in two centuries. Some decades would be understandable, but two centuries is too long. He should've easily been able to find us by now and organize some kind of strike. If he doesn't see us as threats, then that might explain it, but it wouldn't explain why he wouldn't see me, at least, as a threat…"

"You want to know what he's up to. Say no more, demon, other than what you need." Though the demon's face was obscured by the white fire burning over the surface of his body, he still looked rather taken aback.

"I… did not expect you to agree so readily, human." Leon's frown deepened.

"Really, demon? After all we've been through? And you didn't think I would agree? I'm considering the possibility of maybe, perhaps, being insulted." The demon snorted.

"Fine. Savor this moment, boy; it'll likely never happen again." The demon bowed his head slightly and spoke two words that Leon had rarely heard from him before.

"Thank you."

"Don't worry about it, Xaphan. Like I said: just tell me what you need." Xaphan then gave him a list of what he needed to connect with demons in the Elemental Plane of Fire. Leon was particularly interested in the enchantments, but the rest of the materials were of some interest, too. All of it was easily sourced—almost too easy, according to the King-side of his brain. Contacting a fire demon was apparently quite easy, relatively speaking. And he was now bound by honor to do just that.