Chapter 13: Training the Dogs
The neon pink text of the system hovered mockingly in the air while the suffocating crimson aura of Lady Seraphina Sterling threatened to crush Leon into a fine paste.
The countdown timer began to tick away mercilessly in the corner of his vision and reminded him that internal explosive fertilization was only twenty seconds away.
He desperately wished the system would give him a simple quest like washing a mountain of dishes or scrubbing the latrines but his perverted digital companion clearly thrived on absolute chaos.
Leon forced his violently trembling knees to lock into place and drew upon every single drop of courage his twenty Charisma points could provide.
He stood up completely straight and refused to look away from the terrifyingly beautiful woman standing less than two feet away from him.
Seraphina tilted her head slightly and her silver hair cascaded over her shoulder like a river of moonlight. Her piercing violet eyes scrutinized him with the cold calculating intensity of a master swordsman evaluating a surprisingly sharp wooden stick.
The silence in the kitchen was so absolute that the sound of a single water droplet hitting the stone floor echoed like a war drum.
"I asked you a question servant," Seraphina whispered softly in a tone that made the temperature in the room plummet. "Why is my guard bleeding on the floor?"
Leon mentally prepared his soul for the afterlife and delivered the line exactly as the unhinged system had demanded.
"Because House Sterling refuses to properly train their dogs Lady Seraphina," Leon stated in a remarkably steady and deep voice that resonated perfectly across the quiet room. "So I simply took the liberty of doing it for you."
The entire kitchen staff simultaneously stopped breathing.
Elara covered her mouth with both hands in pure unadulterated horror because directly insulting the noble family’s military discipline was an offense punishable by immediate flaying. Kaelen weakly groaned from the floor and tried to smile through his shattered teeth because he firmly believed the arrogant floor sweeper had just signed his own death warrant.
Seraphina did not instantly summon her broadsword and she did not immediately sever his head from his shoulders.
Instead her perfect violet eyes widened by a fraction of a millimeter and the terrifying crimson aura completely vanished from the room.
She stared into Leon’s dark magnetic eyes and her passive Lie Detector aura flared violently in his vision.
He fully expected to see the blinding red color of murderous intent but the energy radiating from the silver haired goddess was actually swirling with a deep fascinating mixture of absolute shock and genuine amusement.
In a world where every single commoner bowed and scraped their foreheads against the dirt the absolute sheer audacity of a scrawny boy looking her in the eyes and insulting her guards was a completely unprecedented novelty.
A sudden sharp sound broke the tension as Seraphina actually let out a short highly melodic laugh.
"You have an incredibly sharp tongue for a boy holding a wooden broom," Seraphina noted with a dangerous smirk playing on her perfect lips.
She slowly shifted her gaze down to Kaelen who was still pathetically rolling on the cracked floorboards. The amusement instantly vanished from her face and was replaced by a look of profound disgust.
"A soldier of House Sterling who gets publicly dismantled by a common servant is completely useless to me," Seraphina declared coldly before turning her head toward the hallway. "Guards! Get this pathetic trash out of my kitchen and throw him in the disciplinary cells for a month. Strip him of his armor."
Two heavily armored knights immediately rushed into the room and violently hauled the protesting Kaelen away by his armpits.
Leon let out a massive internal sigh of relief as the familiar crystal bell chimed beautifully in his skull.
[Quest Completed Successfully!]
[Your internal organs remain happily intact and completely unfertilized.]
[Distributing Rewards: System Shop Item ’Aura Concealment Ring’, +20 Charisma, 100 Shameless Points.]
A sudden wave of intoxicating heat violently washed over Leon’s entire body as his Charisma stat essentially doubled in a single instant.
He physically felt his facial features slightly refine themselves and his posture completely relaxed into a stance of effortless magnetic confidence. The awkward malnourished servant boy was rapidly being replaced by a young man who looked like he belonged on a throne rather than sweeping a kitchen floor.
A small silver ring completely unadorned and incredibly plain magically materialized right inside his pocket, saving him from awkwardly reaching into his inventory.
He smoothly slipped his left hand into his tunic and slid the ring onto his finger allowing its powerful cloaking magic to completely mask his mana.
Seraphina turned her attention back to Leon and her violet eyes lingered on his face just a fraction of a second longer than necessary.
She could sense that something about him was vastly different from the other miserable peasants but her magical senses detected absolutely zero mana or aura coming from his body.
"What is your name servant?" she asked in a commanding tone.
"Leon my lady," he replied while offering her a perfectly executed and incredibly smooth bow that his new stats made entirely natural.
"Well Leon you have successfully ruined my appetite for breakfast," Seraphina stated while turning on her heel to leave.
The scandalously tight leather combat suit stretched beautifully across her wide hips and perfectly sculpted thighs as she walked away.
She paused at the heavy oak doors and glanced over her shoulder with a completely unreadable expression.
"Do not think your little display of bravado makes you special. If you ever disrespect my house again I will personally cut out your sharp tongue."
She walked out of the kitchen and left an incredibly heavy silence in her wake.
Leon stood perfectly still for a moment before turning back to his wooden broom.
He casually leaned it against the preparation table and looked around at the dozen maids who were all staring at him with flushed cheeks and wide eyes. His forty five Charisma points were clearly turning him into a highly dangerous walking hazard for the female staff.
Elara was the first to break the spell.
She aggressively slammed her heavy meat cleaver down onto the wooden cutting board to snap everyone out of their dazed stupor.
"Get back to work all of you!" the Head Cook roared with her face completely flushed. "Breakfast still needs to be prepared for the rest of the household and I will personally dock the pay of anyone caught standing around!"
The kitchen immediately exploded back into a chaotic frenzy of activity but the entire dynamic of the room had fundamentally shifted.
The maids were actively going out of their way to avoid bumping into Leon and several of them cast incredibly shy glances in his direction. The massive bully Garret who had previously terrorized him was currently hiding in the far corner of the larder completely terrified that Leon might decide to sweep his legs next.
Leon casually mentally opened his system interface and looked at his newly updated balance of two hundred and sixty Shameless Points.
He was slowly building a genuine arsenal of skills and stats but he knew the dangerous game he was playing was only going to get exponentially harder. He needed a reliable way to defend himself against real Aura Knights because a wooden broom would not save him a second time.
Before he could browse the combat manuals in the system shop a firm hand aggressively grabbed his arm and violently yanked him toward the darkened storage pantry at the back of the kitchen.
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