When morning came, Rodius and Elena were woken up by the rays of light that slipped into their rooms through the windows. At first, Elena was confused as she could not recognize her surroundings, but she soon remembered where she was, and she sprung out of bed.
“Dad, wake up!” She rushed out of her room to find that Rodius was already up and about.
“Seems like the little kitty cat overslept.” Rodius laughed. Elena pouted, and her fuzzy tail swished behind her. She didn’t like being called a cat, especially because she was quite far from it, but she knew that complaining about it was hopeless.
“Freshen up, I suspect someone will come to look for us very soon.” Rodius laughed and returned to his room.
The father and daughter quickly freshened up, and just in time, because they soon heard a knock on the front door. Elena was the first to reach the door, and as she pulled it open, she soon found herself frozen in surprise.
“Oh, hello.” Leon smiled widely at the flustered girl.
“L-Leon!” Elena stuttered and turned her face away.
“Good to see you too. I wasn’t expecting you and your father so late at night.” Leon laughed as Rodius came up behind Elena and placed his hands on her shoulders.
“Leon.” The man nodded with a serious look on his face.
“Hello again, Rodius. Please, drop the serious look. Whatever problems we might have had in the past should remain in the past. I do not want to bring them into the present and carry them on in the future.” Leon smiled at Rodius too. “Shall we take a walk?” He gestured behind him to the father and daughter.
A minute later, they were walking down the main street of Fort White and Leon was telling them different things about the town.
“Don’t you think the name Fort White sounds too… bland?” Elena suddenly asked with a bit of hesitance in her voice.
“Haha, you’re right. But I was lacking inspiration when I named it that time. I still haven’t thought of a more suitable name to give this place before Fort White sticks.” Leon laughed and rubbed the back of his head. He was in his human form to make them more comfortable at the moment.
“Well, I can help if you don’t mind.” Elena shyly said. Leon briefly paused and took a look at her before Rodius suddenly cleared his throat and butted into the conversation.
“Ahem! Can we move on to other topics?!” For some reason, the interaction between Leon and his daughter rubbed the man the wrong way. He felt his fatherly instincts begin to rear their heads and he suddenly had the urge to end their conversation.
“Ahem. You are right.” Leon coughed too, and felt his face heat up for some obvious reasons. Luckily, his dark skin was able to flawlessly hide his blush. But he could not help the fleeting thought that ran through his mind.
,m ‘She’s cute…’
Leon was well aware that Elena was a feisty lady that was more than capable of taking care of herself in the right circumstances, but that just seemed to attract him even more. He did not even know where this attraction had stemmed from.
They soon moved on to more important topics as Leon brought them back to his home. The large mansion had received a bit of a makeover in the past days. Leon was not too fond of the plain white colors, and had made his subordinates paint the building in black, while leaving a few places white to maintain a tasteful exterior.
“Wow…” Elena’s eyes turned round with awe as she beheld the large compound. There were a few other auxiliary buildings in the large compound, but her eyes were already pinned on the largest building which was the main house.
“Ah, I just remembered. There are some other guests. You might recall them, even.” Leon told Elena as he led them into the house. Immediately, she spotted the three familiar boys that she had spent the most of Divinity’s Bout with.
“Huh? Is that…?” The first person to notice Elena was Barak, and he was shocked. His sudden paused drew his twin’s and Lance’s attention, and the two boys also paused for a moment.
“That asshole!” All of a sudden, Lance exploded. “Did he kidnap you too, Elena?!” The boy sprung to his feet and began prowling forward when his body suddenly felt much heavier, forcing him to stop in the middle of the large living area.
“I didn’t kidnap anyone.” Leon sighed with an exasperated tone. He had already been dealing with Lance’s rather explosive attitude for a few days now. With each passing day, the blond boy became more tolerable to be around, but he had suddenly exploded once again at full force.
“Like hell you did! You kidnapped us. Let me go!” Lance tried to struggle against Leon’s control, but Leon simply summoned one of his spiders and let it wrap Lance up in some web. It also voluntarily covered his mouth with some webbing to shut the boy up.
“Mhhh! Mhhmph! MMMMM!!!” Lance struggled and struggled, but was not able to do anything against the B rank summon’s bindings.
“Ah, much better.” Leon smiled and turned to the twin boys. “I suppose you two recognize Elena?” He asked them.
“Yeah, we do.” Barak nodded meekly, not wanted to get on Leon’s bad side and end up like Lance. Balak just grinned at Elena and rubbed the back of his head like a fool.
“Hey.” Elena waved at the boys hesitantly while looking at Rodius in the corner of her eye. Of course, she was a bit hesitant because the boys were not making use of their Iridescent Crystals at the moment.
Rodius himself had wide eyes, and his composure was broken. He had not expected to see Demons, and he had certainly not expected his daughter to be familiar with them.
“Elena… What is this?” The man turned to his daughter for an explanation.