Chapter 20: Leon checks the river!
Upon seeing those crimson chains, Louise shrank and ran to the other side of the bed, staying away from Leon, trembling as though the black spirit's coldness had reached her. Terror was written in her eyes, and she seemed to remember the Human Emperor's voice and condescending eyes.
Leon expected this much.
He knew he should have talked with her and slowly made her accept his choice. But Leon knew how strong Louise was. He even felt like she did better under high pressure.
"I know these chains were made for him…." Leon whispered while wrapping his right arm in those chains. When he finished doing that, Leon raised his arm and clenched his hand, summoning the nine empty flame spirits. Those seamlessly sank into the crimson chains. "But I control them. Those will never hurt you."
All light in the room dimmed.
In Louise's eyes, it seemed like The Human Emperor had arrived in her room because, in Louise's memories, his silhouette was always shrouded in a black aura. However, when the crimson chains rattled and trembled under Leon's skill, his body lit up in beautiful scarlet orange light, many sparks danced around his right arm, and he looked pleasant and cool.
The warmth of his aura stretched to Louise, her body warming up in lovely hotness, melting her fears and bad memories of those chains.
Leon stood with a faint smile, extending his hand forward as though inviting Louise for a dance, convinced she'd soon take his hand.
"Never? Will Master never use those chains to enslave me and my kind?" Louise asked while slowly crawling her way through the bed.
Leon decisively nodded. "Never."
Louise grasped his hand tightly, looking deeply into his eyes.
The light returned to the room at that moment, the flames calmed down, and Leon's aura disappeared. Both could only look at each other, not caring about anything else.
However, deep inside, Leon knew he'd received the legendary weapon he'd pave his path with. Would those chains also protect his 'happiness' and passion he was still looking for? Leon didn't think that far.
"Master, what else do you want to talk about?" Louise asked, still clenching Leon's hand, not wanting to let him go, and her tails waddled quickly, with too much content.
Leon chuckled and patted her head. "Blue Crocodiles. I was requested to kill a few of them… It's a big problem for fishermen, you know? I'll take a look at the river tomorrow."
"Oh, so we will fight some monsters!" Louise brightly replied, her blood burning with a desire to fight and stretch her limbs against blue crocodiles!
Fighting seemed to be in Louise's blood, but she surely would have reacted differently to the river and blue crocodiles quest if she were after a different talk.
Louise couldn't really deal with water. It was one of her fears.
But the worst, The Human Emperor, could turn every other fear meaningless.
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Leon and Louise made an exception to their schedule and went to the village's river together.
In his life, Leon had never seen a thicker and deeper river. It was so clean and transparent, too, letting him peek far to the bottom. His partner couldn't do the same, for her eyesight was worse, and fears took over her.
Louise weakly muttered, "I can do this… I can do this!"
While Leon was close to the shore, Louise was a few meters behind him, taking slow and trembling steps toward him. Her tails seemed to disagree with her choice, stretching behind. She appeared as though someone was hauling her by her tails, and she was doing her best to go forward.
Leon didn't comment on that.
Interacting with others was expected and not something one should be afraid of, but fear of water seemed ingrained within Louise, possibly because of her scarlet fox race. Even though she lacked good mana control and couldn't summon fire outside her body, her tails could light up in flames — that was her race's identity.
"I'm about to set off." With comically narrowed eyes, Leon turned around and gazed at Louise. He had already told her she could take a day off or practice cooking skills in the kitchen. Yet, Louise insisted on going with her master to support him like he'd been doing for her.
Because Louise hadn't found out about Leon's flaws yet, she believed her task was to keep Leon from turning into another human emperor.
How could she do that if she were to stay in a safe place?
"I'll be there soon… Soon, Master!" Louise replied faintly, struggling with her steps. Then as Leon turned around, she yelped and took a few steady steps forward, soon boarding his small boat.
As the boat swayed, Louise's head became pale, and she seemed on the verge of puking.
Leon didn't do anything, for he was never in a boat with someone with sea sickness. "I told you not to come… Do you think I'll die?"
"N-No…" Louise's words barely left her mouth as she kept pressing her hand on her lips.
Letting her deal with her problems, Leon set off to start his research. First, he confirmed that the river lacked fish as he could easily see through it with his eyes. Then, Leon paddled away from the village to find the dwellings of the blue crocodiles. He'd keep an eye on them from afar and see whether their abilities were as the fisherman had told him.
A few minutes later, with Louise's vomiting reactions and sounds ringing behind him, Leon distanced himself from the village and was soon in the blue crocodile territory.
"Water is no longer clear and transparent…." Leon glanced at the blue river, dense and impossible to see through, a real contrast between the waters from the village.
Knowing that those monsters were the cause of such contrast and used those waters to hide their presence, Leon fished a fish from his inventory. He threw it quite far away from his boat.
Before the fish hit the surface, a blue crocodile emerged from the water, opening his jaw widely and snatching away Leon's fish.
[Blue Crocodile(Common) Lv. 35 HP: 3400/3400 MP: 760/760]
"It's much bigger than my world's crocodiles. Fishermen said their scales are too thick, so I should expect their defenses to be much tougher… The problem is our boat, isn't it? It can't survive too long if all of them come at us. What about those legendary chains, then? Let's see…." Leon thought aloud, his words eluding Louise as she couldn't properly focus, and he threw his crimson chains to the dense water, intensely looking at the reaction.
Then he turned the boat around before blue crocodiles aimed their ravenous eyes at them.
"Master… Where will you get a better boat from?" Louise asked slowly and weakly, still dealing with her sea sickness. But her master just looked at her and faintly smiled, not replying to her question.
Leon paddled to the shore.
"How did it go?" the familiar old face asked after Leon dropped onto the ground with Louise in his arms.
Leon smiled and replied, "Prepare a better and tougher boat. Then I'll be able to deal with them."
"Are you sure?" the old man probed further, trembling nervously while a seed of hope sprouted in his heart.
Not thinking about his hopes or anything else, Leon simply nodded, insinuating that he wasn't interested in tending to the old man's heart. In the first place, the old man hadn't given any quest to Leon, so it wasn't like Leon would receive something significant from them.
If he had a different class, Leon would only work for free. Who would work for free in this dangerous world?
"How do we even prepare a better boat?" the old man asked with his spirits low.
Leon sighed. "Blacksmiths can armor it, can't they? You surely lack money, so how about you ask for donations from those who like eating fish? You can also start a campaign about omega 3, for instance."
"That's actually doable…" the old fisherman felt it would work!
And when he turned to his friends, they all nodded gravely and were ready to start the campaign!
"My daughter will draw a good banner for us!"
"My wife knows everyone in the village. She'll spread the word!"
"Let's do it, everyone!"
Hearing them, Leon chuckled and glanced at Louise, "See? That's where you get a better boat from."
Louise couldn't reply as she felt too nauseous and would rather lie in her master's arms.
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