"Master, I..."
"Shut it!"
Aleph-One interrupted Doncic again. With an expression of disappointment, he lowered his head toward Leon and said:
"Master Leon, my student's skills are lacking. Please, don't let it bother you."
"It's no matter," Leon replied, shaking his head.
Aaron, standing to the side, chuckled and chimed in:
"Aleph, you can't blame your student at all; it's just that Leon is too formidable! I'm telling you, back during the priest examination, Leon already displayed his talent as a peerless genius."
"The fact that he noticed someone following him was a foregone conclusion! You can't blame Mr. Doncic."
Beside Aaron, Sylvia's originally calm expression suddenly darkened as she listened to their conversation.
This emotion wasn't directed at Leon, but at herself.
She had originally thought that since their parting after the priest examination, her day-and-night diligent study of Divine Arts would allow her to close the gap between her and Leon.
She hadn't expected the gap to not only fail to shrink, but to actually widen further.
During the priest examination, she could at least exchange several rounds with Leon, but now...
The aura Leon had emitted when he struck at Doncic just now had already caused her to feel waves of pressure.
Not to mention his various exploits in Eldenborg: participating in the subjugation of the peak Gold rank mage, the Mad Shark King; investigating and executing all the nobles who had colluded with the enemy; and even detecting the trail of an Imperial Shadow Agent...
All of this made Sylvia feel that the distance between her and Leon was growing further and further apart.
Clearly... before Leon appeared, she had also been called a genius of the Imperial Capital!
Why could there be such a massive gap between geniuses?
Sylvia didn't understand.
If it were the Leon from the priest examination, she could still harbor thoughts of catching up through hard work.
But at this moment... although Sylvia was unwilling to admit it, it was just as Aaron had said during that examination:
"The gap between you and him is even larger than the gap between a common priest and you. Talking tough now is nothing more than asking for humiliation."
At the time, Sylvia had felt very wronged. She and Aaron were childhood friends, yet Aaron was speaking up for Leon...
However, as she thought about it now... Aaron's words had indeed not been wrong...
Thump!
"Ow!"
While Aaron was talking to Leon, a small fist suddenly slammed into his back, causing him to let out a cry of pain.
Turning his head, he saw Sylvia withdrawing her fist with a look of indignation.
As her childhood friend, Aaron instantly guessed her thoughts from her expression. He grinned:
"Oh, oh, oh! Turning your embarrassment into anger? Have you finally realized that there is no comparison between a genius and a peerless genius?"
"You're still talking!" Hearing this, Sylvia raised her fist again.
There were no outsiders here anyway. If she punched Aaron, she punched Aaron; no one was going to jump out and say anything!
"Fine, fine, fine, I'll stop."
Aaron stopped bantering with Sylvia and turned back to Leon:
"Leon, I've just arrived in Eldenborg. What fun things do you have here? Give me some recommendations!"
Hearing this, Leon smiled and said, "Your Highness Aaron, Eldenborg is just an ordinary small city. There aren't many interesting activities."
"If you want fun, you'll have to head to the Dusk Sea."
"I've subjugated the Mad Shark King, one of the Four Kings of the Dusk Sea. Now, many pirates and adventurers are fighting over the territory he left behind. It's quite lively over there."
"Moreover, besides the Mad Shark King, the other three kings have yet to be subjugated. If Your Highness is interested, you could join me, and we could take our forces to directly wipe out the remaining three kings of the Dusk Sea."
In passing, he could also benefit from the presence of an Epic rank expert like Aleph-One to gain some experience points.
Aaron's eyes instantly lit up, and his lips parted as he prepared to speak.
In the next second, Aleph-One cut him off directly:
"Your Highness Aaron, we have important business to attend to in the southern part of the empire. It is not suitable for us to interfere in the situation of the southern border."
The light in Aaron's eyes instantly dimmed.
"Besides," Aleph-One glanced at Leon, "as an Epic rank, it is also not suitable for me to intervene in the southern border's affairs."
Receiving Aleph-One's gaze, Leon also came to his senses.
Indeed, Aaron's arrival in Eldenborg was surely investigated thoroughly by the people of the Nightmare Empire.
And the fact that Aleph-One was following him would also be known to the Nightmare Empire.
Perhaps, at this moment, the Nightmare Empire had already deployed corresponding Epic rank experts to wait in the Dusk Sea, guarding against Aleph-One.
After all, in this world, the power of an Epic rank was equivalent to a tactical nuclear weapon.
Aleph-One's movements were like the potential strike coordinates of a tactical nuclear weapon. The Nightmare Empire, currently at war with Heron, would certainly be extremely cautious.
If Aleph-One left Heron's territory and acted recklessly, he might be surrounded and suppressed by other Epic rank experts from the Nightmare Empire...
And if the Epic rank experts of the Nightmare Empire made a move, Heron's experts would surely have to follow.
Then if Heron's experts moved, the Nightmare experts would move as well...
Ultimately, it might directly open a second battlefield in the Dusk Sea, destroying an entire region.
It would be just like the Sarajevo incident that triggered the First World War in his previous life.
Although Leon wanted to stabilize the southern situation once and for all for peaceful development, considering the potential consequences of Aleph-One's involvement...
"Then forget it. I'll stabilize the situation myself..."
Leon looked at Aaron and asked, "Your Highness Aaron, did you come here on a mission from His Majesty?"
Aaron nodded. "I need to go from the southern coast of the empire, bypass the Arasaka Strait, and head to the land of the Dwarves—the Kingdom of Mountains. I'm going there to retrieve a certain transcendent object."
A transcendent object?
Leon felt curious, but since Aaron didn't state it explicitly, it wasn't convenient for him to ask.
He simply asked, "Since you're going to the Kingdom of Mountains, why not go through the Dartmouth Mountains in the northwest?"
The northwest of Heron bordered the Dwarf nation, the Kingdom of Mountains.
The bordering area was Heron's northwestern Dartmouth Mountains.
Crossing Dartmouth and heading west would lead directly to the Kalaka Mountains within the Kingdom of Mountains.
So, going to the Kingdom of Mountains from the northwest was undoubtedly the more convenient and faster route.
But Aaron had chosen to travel from the Imperial Capital to Eldenborg, then cross the Arasaka Strait from Eldenborg before boarding a ship for the Kingdom of Mountains.
Not only was it a massive detour, but the speed was also much slower.
"The Dartmouth Mountains in the northwest have been sealed off by the Gray Fog," Aaron simply replied to Leon's inquiry.
Gray Fog?!
The Gray Fog had appeared in the northwest of the empire again?
Leon's eyes narrowed. He suddenly remembered what Old Hunter had said—in recent years, the Gray Fog had been appearing more and more frequently, and its range of expansion was growing larger.
Leon was about to think more deeply on it when Aaron suddenly stood up.
"Let's not talk about these boring missions anymore. Anyway, the deadline my father gave me is still quite generous."
As he spoke, Aaron fished a deck of cards from his pocket and looked up at Leon:
"Let's have a tense and exciting game of Hearthstone Spire Slay first!"
Hearing this, Leon's mind turned, and he said, "Speaking of which, I haven't had enough games of Hearthstone Spire Slay with Your Highness."
He then turned to Aleph-One and said:
"Hearthstone Spire Slay can be played by multiple people. Would Excellency Aleph-One like to participate as well? With your wisdom, you will surely become familiar with it quickly."
As he spoke, Leon raised his priest's scepter and manifested a Light Prayer Orb above his head.
The Light Prayer Orb shed its light, illuminating the cards below and also illuminating Aleph-One.
Rate on N.U.
