CHAPTER 206: MOTHER AND THE KING

Slowly, Leon turned away. The faint crunch of frost beneath his boots echoed like brittle glass shattering in silence as he walked across the frost-covered stones, leaving behind only silence and the terrible artistry of vengeance fulfilled.

Arriving at the edge of the arena, he looked down below. The sound of metallic clashes was over now. The corpse was still smoldering, tendrils of smoke curling from charred flesh. The most important thing was that his head was not attached to his body and was lying far away.

He was dead, and a few meters beside him was Seraphine without even a scratch on her body. Her breathing was also stable, not even a bit of sweat on her skin. Her long hair fluttered in the breeze, untouched by battle.

She handled it well — clean and precise, just like I expected.

Leon could say with confidence that she could’ve finished him even more quickly. However, seeing the satisfied look on her face, it seemed she had enjoyed this battle, and he understood why. Despite Duke Arselin being weaker than her, he was still a strong opponent she had to take seriously.

Unlike when he had fought her, he had too much of an advantage in terms of mana and the use of his element.

He might have been physically weaker than her then, yet that didn’t mean much against affinities like space and life, while having an absurd amount of mana.

After absorbing the cores, he had surpassed her even in physical strength with his advantage of SSS-ranked class-level boost, and now he couldn’t even understand for himself how strong he really was physically.

His limbs buzzed with raw power—restless, waiting for a reason to explode.

Not once had he used mana during this whole time.

Not just that, he had only used a fraction of his full strength.

He realized he had grown too powerful. The gorgeous woman who once seemed like a threat—probably from the Middle Domain—was now insignificant.

I’ve already crossed that threshold. There’s no going back now.

Leon didn’t have to fight her to feel this way; he could feel it in his bones. She could never seriously harm him.

I feel like I’ve become too strong too quickly... I don’t think there’s much more for me to see in this place... after I’m done with this and loot the entire Lower Domain... I’ll quickly depart for the Forbidden Mist so I can enter the Middle Domain to see a wider world.

Nothing was challenging for him left here, and also the most important thing—he couldn’t upgrade his level while remaining in this place.

The dungeons were too scarce and low-level here. From what Leon had known from Seraphine, the most powerful monster he could find in there would be an Elite Level 10 boss, which would be just a bit stronger than the throne monster he had described to her before.

I need high-level cores... those cores are too low level for me to level up.

What I need no longer exists here. This place has nothing left to offer me.

He didn’t want to hunt thousands of monsters to increase a level, especially when finding the monsters themselves would be a challenge.

Suddenly, through his heightened spatial awareness, Leon detected the presence of new arrivals who seemed to be running to reach him—three people, two of whom appeared to be women and one man. The presence touched his awareness like soft vibrations against the back of his neck.

More movement. Let’s see if they’re enemies or just shadows following the storm.

It seemed he had to fight some more. It had been really quiet after he made the living ice statue of Alric. No one dared challenge him. It was getting quite dull. He had expected more retaliation, but seeing his strength, they seemed too scared to act.

What disgusted him the most was that just now, when he looked at the king, he was still seated in his chair with the same shocked expression, as if he were lost in his own world. The king’s knuckles were white on the armrest, unmoving, as if he had turned to stone.

If fear can paralyze even a king, then titles mean nothing.

For fuck’s sake, his own son died right in front of him, and that man was still in shock. I’ve never seen such a cowardly person like him before.

He was no saint—he had killed Alric. To some, he might seem like a villain. He wasn’t going to justify his actions or anything. That’s what Alric got for doing those things. If they wanted revenge, he’d welcome them with open arms.

But they had to be ready to face the consequences.

Leon turned around to see the three new guests who seemed to have stopped in their tracks after arriving on this floor. He wasn’t surprised in the slightest, but when he looked at one of their faces—

He remembered her. His mind worked.

What was her name? Oh yeah, Liora!

She was the same injured girl he had met inside the dungeon. She had told him she was from a small noble house, House Valewyn. The other two looked quite similar to her, and he could easily guess they were her parents.

It seems I made a wrong assumption... these weren’t coming here to fight me but to fight beside me...

His eyes matched the lady with platinum-blonde hair and eyes similar to Fiora’s—light gold in color. She was Fiora’s mother. She was giving him a strange smile, one he couldn’t understand the meaning of, so he just ignored her.

While he might not need their help even in the slightest, they had still come here to help him, knowing an entire kingdom was against him, trying to kill him. They most likely knew they could die helping him and could’ve just ignored everything until it was over—they didn’t even have to come here.

He knew Fiora was the reason they’d all come. She was weak, but she still came to lend a hand. Leon now knew that the girl had a very pure heart.

But there was one thing that startled him more than the weird smile Fiora’s mother was giving him—she looked pretty silly, but that didn’t change one thing for him.

Why the hell is she so strong!?

Wasn’t she supposed to be from a small noble house... how is her mother so strong?

Her strength—it was surprising to him.

It was around the same level as that other beauty he’d seen when robbing the royal palace, who was sitting a bit far from where he stood. That woman and the green-haired girl—who was also quite beautiful—had a charm of their own, different from the shiny blonde-haired woman.

But they were both beautiful.

Fiora’s mother’s strength—while he couldn’t accurately tell the exact level of it—she seemed to be almost around the same level as the blonde-haired beauty from before.

Her strength was more than his before his race transformation. She could easily destroy the whole Kingdom of Shampain alone at that level.

Fiora might be weak, but her mother—she would have definitely saved him if he were powerless.

Who is she??

That question remained unanswered for him.

"See, Fiora? We made it before the fun ended, your boyfriend is still in one piece!"

Leon’s brow twitched, but he said nothing. Still, her voice carried weight—far too much for someone from a small noble house.

However, his focus moved to something else. Suddenly, the King of Shampain finally stood up from his seat and started walking toward him. Leon couldn’t tell anything from his expression.

He’s moving... but is it resolved, or just the weight of guilt finally catching up?

Every eye turned toward the king, but he didn’t meet a single gaze.

His steps echoed with a strange finality. Leon watched—curious not about what the king would say, but whether he’d finally found his spine, or just lost his mind.