[Lion's Heart Palace]
The Lion's Heart Palace was of course the most eye-catching structure within the capital city of the Lionheart kingdom, located squarely at the center of the capital, each of the districts that made up most of the city, east, south, north, and west led directly to the castle.
Of course with the exception of the South, all the districts had gates that were in a direct straight line to the palace.
The Palace itself was a wonder to behold, built with white marble and stone, and painted with complementary colours of the sun, white and gold. It stood as a beautiful monument to the royal family, a display of its wealth and power.
It was where the commoners looked when they dreamed and envied, great status. A symbol of the differences between the Nobles and the commoners.
Naturally, despite it being the home of the Royal family, the palace also had the means and the necessary space to host several nobles and their families.
Each noble has a designated room where they're expected to stay should they have business with his majesty or in the case there is urgent business that concerns the kingdom.
Among these nobles, was one Duke Lionel Claus Lionmane, one of the only two Dukes in the Kingdom and a man well-regarded by his colleagues. He sat behind a beautiful varnished wooden desk, hands holding white papers as he read through them.
His sky blue eyes, scanning the contents with slow and meticulous effort, carefully picking apart each line, it was as if he wished to understand every single meaning of each word written.
The papers were a sort of report, sent by his servants from his estate. It was regarding the physical well-being and mental condition of his most precious boy, Leone Leo Lionmane, his youngest son, barely 6 years of age.
Under normal circumstances, the physical and mental well-being of one's child is something that is apparent to them just by looking, and the Duke wasn't the type to only ever see his son once every blue moon thus he should not need a report for such a thing, however, he insisted.
The reason this report was necessary, went beyond his parental need to look out for his children, the Lionmane house was burdened with the blessing of the youngest son having such thick elven blood in him to the point of being able to wield mana.
When Duke Lionel himself, was born the previous head of his house had noted the elvish features on him and was quick to proclaim the return of the elves and their magic.
Of course that was just an error in judgment, young Lionel was simply a boy who looked quite like an elf, in fact, his ears weren't even long enough to be considered elf ears, they were just pointy.
It was an unfortunate truth, he only resembled an elf and carried no magic within him at all, something that disappointed his father.
Still, even with his birth not being what it was thought to be, it forced the royal family to pull the Lionmane house closer and closer.
Simply being born with such striking elven features, in a house already believed to carry elven blood, was not something to be taken lightly and the Royal family made no such mistake.
When Lionel became the head and got his own sons, he didn't expect any elven traits to manifest, and his expectations were correct, both his oldest sons were as human as they come, only inheriting his blue eyes and blonde hair, everything about them was very human.
However, when his third son was born, it was obvious the moment he left the womb, long and pointed ears that jutted out the sides of his head, golden wisps of hair, along with bright sky blue eyes and worse of all the child had a golden glow that traced his body.
One would call it a miracle, his youngest son was physical proof that magic hadn't completely left the world just yet.
The Duke would have been ecstatic about this, if he had been a fool who trusted the Royal family with every fiber of his being however he was a much smarter man.
A child with magic, while it could possibly be a great boon to the family and kingdom,
Duke Lionmane also knew that the Royal family had been researching ways to artificially create Explorers.
It wasn't something public or even known to most nobles except the highest ranking and the most trusted.
The royal family made several attempts at bribing an Explorer to, either donate their blood, or commit to assassination attempts to take said blood by force.
Of course, such attempts failed however the Royal family remained undaunted and continued their research, to the day they're still at it.
Several years ago before Leone was born, they had even petitioned him to donate some blood to be studied by the royal alchemists. Unfortunately, he couldn't refuse but luckily both he and his two sons at the time, had no magic in their blood.
Now that there was a third son, Duke Lionmane knew it was inevitable that they would ask his youngest son to donate his blood as well, at this moment the excuse of the boy being too young would work but the older he gets the harder it will be to hide.
With a sigh that gave him no relief, he placed the document on the desk and let his back rest on the chair.
"That Explorer arrived at the best time"
The Duke whispered to himself, the official reason given to the nobles was that the king wanted to tie the Explorer to the kingdom by marrying Princess Esme to him and thus bolstering its military might.
However, Lionel knew better.
Princess Marrianne, the king's youngest daughter was of marrying age, why would his majesty allow a "useless and unwanted" princess to be the one to marry the Explorer?
It simply did not make any sense if you thought about it. Of course, most of the nobles probably wouldn't think of that.
Lionel had made a show of acting as if he was against the princess marrying the Explorer, if he was too eager and supportive, that might have been suspicious. Hopefully, he sold it well and King's attention was diverted.
Duke Lionmane was among the few who were privy to the king's true reasons for this.
"Still I'll have to thank him for distracting the royal family for the time being"
With the Explorer in the picture, the royal family will focus on him. Lionel suspected that after years of failure, Arthur's sudden appearance must have ignited the royal family's plans of making their very own Explorer.
Whether that was possible or not, the Duke had no idea, but the trail of corpses made through rigorous human experimentation should bear some fruit in the future, at least he hoped.
With the report having been read through and its content understood, he couldn't help but feel a sense of relief.
The mana in his son's body has remained stagnant and unusable, which meant as long as nothing unusual happened, his son should be nothing more than an elf-like human, just like his father.
Of course, the report also held information regarding any suspicious movement or people.
Although he had faith that the Royal family had no clue about Leone's magical inclination, he couldn't be certain they were not spying on him, so far there's been nothing unusual to report and that was good.
Opening the drawer and retrieving some documents, the Duke began to do his actual work, the reason that he was even in the palace to begin with was because of taxes.
His majesty had proposed a plan to lower them for the coming winter and all the nobles needed to calculate and work out what percentage would be feasible for their own territories and submit that to King Harold.
Lionel found it to be a brilliant plan, some territories, aren't as successful as most, and lowering taxes unilaterally might do more harm than good.
As he prepared to do his work there was a knock on his door, and he eagerly allowed the guest to enter.
"Lord!"
The Lionmane family butler, stepped through the door, dropped to one knee. His form tall, black hair, and neatly trimmed beard.
"Sebastian, what brings you to my office?"
At a mere glance, Lionel could tell the old man lacked any obvious signs of stress, his face showed a heavy expression but it didn't appear that there was something that needed to be dealt with immediately.
Lionel took that as a good sign, the day was already going smoothly, and he'd rather it not be ruined with terrible news.
Before informing his lord, Sebastian took out a small item, shaped like an ear, he tapped it twice and the room became deathly silent a moment later.
The item [Dead ears] was a high-tier item that confined all sound within the area of the room it was placed in, and made sure any eavesdropping would be useless, unless a spy was already in the room, no one would know what they talked about.
"We've made contact with the Explorer and managed a favor out of him."
The Duke's brows went up in a bit of surprise, that was certainly interesting.
"You acted on your own? I don't recall giving you the order to make contact with him"
His shock vanished being replaced by a stern expression that displayed a twinge of disapproval.
"Yes lord however I must beg for your mercy, the circumstances required us to act, otherwise the princess would have been harmed"
Lionel mulled over those words, his mind working to think of who would be so foolish as to provoke an Explorer? He figured it couldn't be one of the nobles otherwise they would be going against the royal family.
Princess Esme Elizabeth Martha Lionheart is largely considered an unwanted princess, born of a commoner, she was half a noble however she was still a princess.
The king's blood flows in her veins, no matter how it seemed like his majesty didn't care for her, it would be too presumptuous to assume he would allow her to be harmed.
Besides all of that, she still lived in the palace and wasn't exiled or disowned, if she was really unwanted, it would have been much easier to just send her far away, yet she wasn't.
The Duke didn't want to believe any noble worth his salt wouldn't understand that.
"Before you explain everything, how powerful is the Explorer? As a former Mercenary, you should have been able to measure his strength"
Duke Lionmane had seen the Griffin Arthur had brought with him, which should have been enough to convey the level of power held within, however monsters can be taken down with just items alone, the Monster Hunter was proof of that.
Essentially what the Duke was asking, was how powerful Arthur was without any items to aid him.
"I'm afraid I cannot answer that question my Lord, his opponents weren't nearly enough to force him to use his full strength"
"Hm…a shame. Well, carry on. Explain what happened"
The Duke supposed that spoke enough about the Explorer's power, if his opponents weren't enough to force him to use his true strength then that meant he was decently powerful.
Sebastian then began to explain the events of the attack on Arthur and his wife, even mentioning the fact that Arthur had contacted them again with a request to have the Duke's backing to resolve the matter regarding Bulat.
When Sebastian was done recounting everything, the Duke had a face-splitting grin that displayed his pearly white teeth.
Barely a week and he's managed to get favor out of the Explorer. This wasn't something he planned for but he's more than happy to accept it.
The best part of this, not only was he owed a favor but the Explorer was also asking to use his name to solve a problem he can't solve with violence.
"I can practically ask him to do anything"
This day couldn't get any better. The Explorer was already within his palms and he didn't even have to do anything.
'Sol has blessed me today'