Chương 1276: 1306 - Few Familiar Faces

Leon's return from Ambrose's tower was quick and unremarkable save for its efficiency, and the Grave Warden was courteous enough to deposit him back in his palace in Stormhollow, where the rest of his people were waiting for him. They weren't expecting him, as evidenced by their nearly violent shock upon his sudden entrance.

"Not planning on using that on me, are you?" Leon jokingly asked as he felt the Adamant edge of Alix's sword press against his unprotected neck.

"I don't know, it's been a while since we last had a good spar," Alix replied, her tone just as light. For all their friendliness, however, Alix quickly pulled her blade away, while everyone else in the palace's main hall relaxed for a moment, and then began to properly celebrate his return.

He hadn't been paying much attention since he'd been with Ambrose for a few hours chatting, but the Thundermen, despite their general readiness to party at any given moment, had held off on properly beginning the celebrations until he returned. Now that he was back, it was time to begin. Showing Serana around would have to wait, Leon knew, as while he was back, the Tribes were going to all but demand his time—time that he was happy enough to give.

But they'd still soon have to get to the reason why they'd come all the way back…

A smile tugged at Serana's lips as she processed what she was seeing. These Ancestors-sent weeks with her son had been a blessing among blessings, and during that time, he'd been perhaps overly generous with his time. He was a King, after all, and while he had many loyal servants, he couldn't ignore his own duties. Still, there in the palace in Stormhollow, Serana marveled at just what she saw. Leon's throne room was grand, as befitted his status, though not nearly so grand as what a Nexus Lord ought to have.

She didn't mind it that much, as it wasn't the size of the throne room that mattered, only the strength of the man who sat in the throne. And her son was more than strong enough at his age to bring honor to his august bloodline. Surrounding him were his wives, sitting in ornate, though clearly of slightly lesser status, thrones of their own. Even Maia, the least social among them, was present. Before them was an enormous host of 'Thundermen', mostly consisting of those from the Ten Tribes who'd united under Leon.

They brought almost everything before her son: petitions, gifts, their good wishes, offers of personal service, their personal fealty, all that a King could ask for. There were even several ambassadors from elsewhere on this plane in attendance, paying their respects to the King who had returned from the stars, if only for a while. Her smile faltered slightly as one of those beside her started getting restless.

She'd left her servants, ladies-in-waiting, and guards behind when she left her Clan, but that didn't mean she was alone; the red wyvern remained close, having placed herself at Serana's beck and call almost from the moment she found herself on Storm Herald, while Nyra and her Gold Dragon escorts followed her as the senior-most member of the Great Dragon Clans present. And Nyra wasn't having a great time.

They were removed from where Leon was receiving those in the throne room, off to the side where they could watch without being disturbed or leered at, but even if that weren't the case, unless Nyra was the center of attention, Serana doubted that she would've appreciated much about what was happening.

"Relax, my aureate sister," she whispered, not wanting to disturb her son's business.

"It's so boring!" Nyra responded more loudly, though only just loudly enough to attract a few curious and mildly offended looks from several eighth-tier elders who were standing somewhat close by. Serana glared at them, her aura subtly flexing, until they paled and averted their gaze. Leon hadn't announced who they were, so she could forgive them for not knowing, especially since she only needed her aura on this plane to induce the proper response.

"Leon believes this is important," Serana said, her tone low and her gaze sharp, Nyra straightening up as she processed the unspoken demand.

"Seeing how his people bow to him is… entertaining, isn't it?"

"I guess…" Nyra responded. It was expected that all the world would bow before a dragon, but seeing it could be quite rare. A moment of silence passed as Nyra stopped fidgeting, broken only when she gave voice to what Serana herself had observed.

"He looks so different." With her smile returning, Serana remarked, "He does. My boy wears his humility well, but no dragon can hide his scales forever." Indeed, Leon had dressed for the occasion, wearing eye-catching blue and silver. While it wasn't quite the black and dark reds that the Great Black Dragon Clan favored, Serana thought it was a fine enough color scheme.

Rather, what she found most striking was that he wore far more luxurious clothing than he was wont to, clothing that she'd only seen him wear when meeting with other Lords on Belicenion. From her other side, Red asked, "Is this done differently where you're from?" Serana's grin grew proud, proud not just for her son but also for herself and for her Clan.

"All the world pays attention to what the Great Dragons do. But we don't bother with most of this. Our mothers and fathers speak, and the universe listens. That is how it is, and how it should be." Red was silent for a couple seconds before she asked, confused, "But if that's true, then why bother allowing the Elemental Kings to exist? Why allow the universe to exist outside of the dragons' rule at all?" The corners of Serana's lips twitched, her smile freezing in place.

So caught off-guard was she that it was Nyra who replied instead.

"We allow the masses their delusions. The dragons are masters of the universe, and should we wish to, the universe would be ours." Not missing a beat, Red pressed.

"Why not do it, then? Why do you not wish to rule the universe?" Nyra went quiet, a frown advancing over her golden face. Serana knew that the fifteen-year-old didn't know how to answer. How could she, when she was so young and inexperienced in life? Serana looked at the wyvern-in-human-form and asked, "Do you want to rule over humans?"

"No," she said definitively.

"They're unruly, cruel, and ambitious. I enjoy what they make and what they can give me, and I even like certain individuals, but I would sooner eat my own tail than bother trying to rule those who cannot be ruled."

"Cannot be ruled? My son is doing a fine job of it, don't you think?"

"He is human. And it takes great effort on his part to ensure that the humans he rules don't rebel. Better not to bother; better to sleep all day buried in gold, or to share pleasure with a mate. I don't want to rule, but you claimed that dragons rule the universe when that is obviously not the case. Why? And if you can rule, then why don't you?" This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"If the Lords of the Nexus don't believe themselves to be ruled, then they will not be unruly," she said.

"But if they find a dragon at their door, they open it with all haste. We get what we want, and the Lords get to continue believing themselves their own masters." Red cocked her head slightly.

"And if your position is challenged?"

"Those who challenge us are destroyed!" Nyra insisted, her voice growing enough that she once again attracted attention. Serana laid a hand on the excitable girl's shoulder, which was all the chastisement that she needed. She remained calm, even as heat bloomed within Serana, and it took no small amount of willpower on her part not to think of the enemy that they hadn't destroyed.

"Your words don't make much sense," Red bluntly said, clearly not caring that Serana was rapidly losing the desire to engage with the conversation.

"But… hm… no, sleeping away the days in the lair is still the best way to live. I receive all I want, and I only have to exert my power against any who threatens my…

'friends', I think is the right word? Hm, close enough. Perhaps you have the right of it, staying on your continent and only exacting tribute." The wyvern turned her attention back to court, but detached again in mere seconds. Thankfully, she didn't then bother Serana and Nyra with more questions. For her part, Nyra was satisfied that Red had said they were right and put in no more thought. Serana, though… couldn't help but frown as she regarded Red closely.

'There might be more dragon in you than I've given you credit for…'

The return to Aeterna had mostly been pitched to his family as a vacation of sorts, a return to the plane of their birth to spend some time sightseeing and visiting their old homes. They had, of course, come back many times in the past century and a half, but every time, more time passed until the next. There were still friends and family around, but they were growing fewer with every visit. The Brown Bear Tribe in the Northern Vales was completely different compared to what it had been in Leon's childhood.

Everyone that Leon had known during his youth in the Northern Vales was dead and gone. In the Bull Kingdom, the situation wasn't much different. He imagined most of the Royal Family he knew from his time as a knight would still be around, but few others. Minerva and Constantine were gone; just about everyone he knew in the Knight Academy was also gone. Trajan's knights were gone, as was everyone in the Diplomatic Corps.

Things were better in the Empires where the standard for power was higher, but it still wasn't great. Narses was still the Director of Heaven's Eye, while the monarchs of the Ilian and Sacred Golden Empires were unchanged. The Keeper was gone, however, as was Arcaion, the man Leon had installed as the new Sunlit Emperor. In Keeper's case, he simply succumbed to age. Arcaion, however, died under mysterious circumstances as far as Leon understood it, having fallen ill and died soon after.

Illness was rare among high-tier mages, but not unprecedented, so there remained some measure of plausible deniability; it seemed that most people unofficially knew him to have been assassinated. At the very least, his young son soon took over and managed to stabilize the new dynasty. He yet ruled as a ninth-tier mage, marking his Empire as the weakest of the four. That hardly mattered when the Sunlit Empire essentially had no threats, though.

There were the most familiar faces left on Kataigida, but that was to be expected given the level of power that Leon had brought to the Ten Tribes. Many of their strongest mages had reached the tenth-tier and beyond thanks to the ambrosia that he'd given them.

As a result, he saw many faces of old acquaintances as he made his way through the lands of the Ten Tribes—after all, no matter how much he and his family thought of the trip back as a vacation, he still had duties to fulfill as a King, and part of that was visiting his people to ensure that they remembered who was King. Serana accompanied him during that time, with Nyra not far behind.

Neither had much to say about most of the Tribes, but Nyra at least got some entertainment sparring with most of the higher-tiered mages that they came across. Leon was, in turn, entertained by the fact that she lost every fight she started, due in no small part to her attitude keeping her restless and unwilling to settle for mages closer to her tier. The tour was short, with him spending no more than three days in the territory of each of the Ten Tribes.

Once that was over, it was time to start on what he'd silently started calling the 'flight of depression'. The Empires were their first stop. They didn't stop in either the Sunlit Empire or the land of the Sentinels. Neither had anything for them anymore, and they certainly weren't friends. Ilion was close to the same, with only Heaven's Eye in Occulara holding any particular attraction to Leon and his people.

Even then, they stayed long enough to attend one party with Narses, which was far more about letting Alcander and Sophie spend time with Sophie's family than anything else. For as long as Leon and his family lived in Occulara, there truly wasn't much tying them to the place. Evergold held more personal significance to Leon and his family than Occulara ever could, being the home and seat of Cassandra's family.

Cassandra had stayed in fairly close contact with her family—at least, as close as was practical given the distance between Aeterna and the Nexus—so it wasn't a surprise to find her mother had reached the tenth-tier and was preparing to retire in favor of her eldest daughter, Andromache. Though she and Cassandra hadn't gotten along much prior to the latter joining Leon's family, it seemed that they had made enough of an effort to stay familial that Andromache was cordial, even warm, during their visit.

In the end, they left with Cassandra happier than she was before they arrived, and that was all that Leon wanted. Before the visit was over, Leon found himself curious about the Thunderbird Clan supercarrier that he'd helped them to somewhat recover. He'd even considered buying it off of them for a generous price, including thunder wood and storm crystal, perhaps even some of the newer and stronger arks that his arkyards were churning out.

Unfortunately, the supercarrier was unlikely to ever fly again, being far too heavily damaged. The Empress had eventually decided to scrap it entirely, leaving nothing for Leon to salvage. That still wasn't the end of their business in the Sacred Golden Empire, however, as Helen and Anna had joined the journey back to Aeterna. They had no family left on the plane, but they asked Leon if they could pay their respects to their parents' graves while they were there.

Given what Leon had come back to do, there wasn't a second's hesitation; he immediately accepted. So, a two-day detour was taken so that Helen and Anna could return to their childhood home and reminisce. They kept to themselves, only allowing Nidar, Astar, and Eirene to join them for longer than a few minutes. Once that was over, they pushed northward.

While the transport ark they were using in place of Storm Herald was no match for the ancient ark, it was still swift and safe, so there was no need for them to take it slow or to follow the usual routes for reaching the isolated northern Kingdoms. They made quick progress, reaching the Bull's Horns in less than a day. What greeted them didn't surprise Leon in the slightest. Thousands of men and women had turned out to welcome him back to the Kingdom.

However, he found himself taking little comfort in it as he recognized so few faces. Roland was still alive, which certainly brought a smile to Leon's face. Lucianus would be pleased, too, he was sure. More eye-catching was the King himself, who sat rather than stood as he waited for them to land.

It was difficult to see him as a bearer of the Sacred Bull's bloodline, as the strength and prodigious size that was typical of awakening that bloodline was nowhere to be seen in King Julius; he was thin, pale, and weak, hardly able to even stand up.

'Time never stops, no matter how much we might wish it,' Leon thought.

'Going to have to prepare for him to go to his Ancestors; it doesn't look like it will be much longer…' More comforting was seeing August. Though he was much older now, close to Trajan's age when Leon had known him, he was still strong. His daughter was with him, now fully grown, and a boy, appearing about mid-twenties by mortal standards, though with a sixth-tier aura, he could've been older. There wasn't a sign of the former Duchess of Vesontio, however—Leon wondered if August's wife had died recently.

There were other members of the Royal Family present, too, as it seemed that August's kids had wasted no time in giving him grandchildren. But it was Cristina and Asiya who were the most important to Leon's family. They were close friends with Elise, Valeria, and Cassandra, so much so that they frequented the Nexus, and Leon even gave them bottles of ambrosia that saw them reach the eighth-tier.

Leon wondered if they shared those bottles since he doubted the Bull King would've aged so much in a century and a half if he'd had even a few cups of ambrosia over the years. Regardless, he was back, he was welcomed, and the Royal Family, at least, hadn't yet died. He'd have to relish this time as it seemed like it could change at any moment…