How Satisfying
"This is…"
For the first time since the meeting began, Riman spoke. His eyes were fixed on the ampoule Leon had set on the table.
Unlike Aria and Celia, Riman had sat down without knowing the full details of the situation.
He had come because his younger brother had gotten tangled up in an incident, and as the older sibling who happened to be nearby, he couldn't simply look the other way. In a sense, he was here as a guardian.
In short, Riman had been packing his things when word reached him that his little brother had half-killed someone — and he had come running.
So he looked around the room and asked,
"What is this?"
Of course, he wasn't asking because he truly had no idea. Riman was experienced, sharp-minded, and widely regarded as wise — more than enough so.
From Leon's explanation of events and the appearance of the object before him, he was ninety-nine percent certain.
Drugs.
The sequence of the incident arranged itself in his mind at once.
In other words, Kendrick's gang had gotten high in broad daylight, gone berserk, and then been thoroughly beaten down by Leon.
"…"
A cold anger rose in Riman.
Anger at something that violated all sense of decency. Anger at those who sowed chaos in the world.
Have they no shame before the heavens?
Fine. Even granting them a hundred concessions, taking drugs themselves was one thing. That was merely ruining their own lives.
But the damage must never be allowed to reach others.
What if the person standing there at the time hadn't been Leon? What if it had been someone powerless?
That someone would have become a cold corpse under their blades.
It was the kind of thing Riman's path in life would never tolerate.
"If my suspicions prove correct, they will pay the price. Without fail."
If he could simply walk past something like this, there would be no reason to carry a sword.
Cheren's crossed arms tightened.
They dare take drugs on the main estate grounds and swing their swords however they please?
She, too, had finished piecing the situation together.
And what settled into her chest at the same time was a chilling fury.
The family's trainees had caused a genuine disaster. Worse still, they had done it inside the training grounds — inside the Asornia family itself.
This is absurd.
Honestly, while listening to Leon's explanation, she had been half-skeptical.
Taking drugs and drawing blades on someone else.
No matter how lawless they were, she hadn't easily believed they would do something so deranged.
But the moment physical evidence came from Leon, Cheren believed every word of his account without hesitation.
From the start, her trust and goodwill toward Leon ran very high. One only needed to think of everything he had done over the course of the semester.
So she neither verified nor doubted.
"…"
Cheren couldn't bring herself to meet Leon's eyes and turned her gaze away.
She was too ashamed in front of him. Humiliated. To put him through something like this on the very first day of his visit to the family.
She shifted her eyes to the nobles instead. Strong hostility burned in them.
What? That he'd beaten them too severely?
The claim only made her snort. If anything, Leon deserved praise for not beating them to death on the spot.
This matter will not be brushed aside halfheartedly.
It was tied to the family's dignity as well. There was gratitude and apology toward Leon, and her own anger besides.
"Somehow, Young Master Leon's words all feel like the truth."
"…"
Under the repeated pressure of Riman and Cheren's words, the nobles clamped their mouths shut. The force radiating from the two of them was formidable.
They felt cornered. No way out was visible.
Of course, they too had considered the possibility that their sons had made a truly grave mistake.
It wasn't as though they had no idea what their boys got up to outside. They had simply told themselves it was fine, or that it wouldn't be a problem so long as no one found out.
When they heard Leon's explanation, their hearts had dropped. They had immediately known what kind of drug their sons must have taken to act that way.
Even so, they still hadn't known for certain. If it had been nothing more than one individual's statement with no separate witnesses, they could have bluffed and denied their way through it.
They hadn't spent day after day grinding through the central political arena for nothing. They were confident they could cook a kid who wasn't even twenty yet.
…But they never expected him to dig through the belongings and find the drugs himself.
Physical evidence was more than enough. That changed everything.
"This is the Asornia family. They are the family's trainees. Young Master Leon is an honored guest of this house. And I have been granted full authority by the family head regarding this incident."
Cheren drove her words into the nobles like a blade.
A killing edge rolled off her, as if daring them to spout nonsense.
"I hope that decency will be upheld."
Riman pressed them with an attitude that forbade any thought of wriggling free. His quiet, steady words poured over them like a prayer that would drown them.
His calm yet heavy presence left even those who lived by excuses and lies with nothing but twitching lips.
"…"
"…"
Celia watched them with haughty composure; Aria, with cold indifference.
Tak. Tak. Tak. Tak.
Leon set four more ampoules on the table. His gaze was locked on Count Wendel.
"My lord Count."
He drew a faint smile. To the nobles, it felt like a sneer.
"Shall we take this all the way? Investigate what this drug is, confirm whether the evidence is genuine, cross-check your son's testimony once he wakes, and even go to the temple for an Oath of Truth?"
"…"
Count Wendel met Leon's eyes with a rigidly set face.
"…"
"…"
A wordless stare passed between them.
After several seconds of silence, the count spoke.
"Young master. We are truly sorry about this matter. Is there… anything you desire?"
Very politely.
"Heh heh heh."
Leon laughed.
"Puhaha!"
He danced about, leaping this way and that, spinning through the air several times as he laughed.
"…Are you that happy?"
"Hahahahaha!"
Celia's voice was instantly buried under Leon's laughter.
The reason for all this was the three checks in his hand.
Money made people happy. Especially when it was a very large sum of money. And what was written on those checks was a very large sum of money.
The amount was so great it had to be split across three separate checks.
The source of the checks was Count Wendel and the other nobles.
Leon had presented them with an enormous settlement demand.
With Cheren and Riman standing on either side, eyes wide open and blazing, negotiating the amount had gone smoothly. He had simply cleaned them out. The nobles' hands shook as they wrote the checks.
At a figure that far exceeded his expectations, Leon felt as though he might float away. Even the murderous intent he'd held toward Kendrick's gang drained right out of him.
Yeah. After a beating like that, they should've learned their lesson. I'll let them live this once.
In his improved mood, Leon granted them a merciful disposition.
In truth, they hadn't actually charged him while high on drugs, had they?
The order of events was different. The real story was that they had been beaten senseless, left sprawled on the ground, and then force-fed the drugs.
Leon had arranged it that way so the testimony that followed would work in his favor.
Just earlier, he had fed Kendrick's gang Black Sand, knocked them out, and brought them to the waiting room.
Plenty of people in the waiting room at the time had been witnesses.
Abnormally swollen muscles, bulging veins, strange-looking eyes. They had clearly seen that the unconscious men's physical condition was abnormal.
With that, the situation Leon wanted was easily created. And with that situation, he had been able to press the arriving nobles hard.
Leon didn't particularly think of it as fabrication. As far as he was concerned, picking a fight first and drawing a sword was the same kind of garbage behavior.
What if they woke up later and claimed they were wronged?
Didn't matter. The settlement money was already in hand, and the case was closed.
How satisfying. Goddesses, are you watching?
Leon looked up at the sky with a contented face.
Kendrick's gang. All of them sons of notable noble houses, and plenty of them. They must have run around the capital in packs, pulling every kind of thug stunt imaginable.
For example, slipping drugs to women in secret and assaulting them.
They had always been the type who deserved to be beaten half to death. Now that their legs were ruined, they wouldn't be able to use the lower half of their bodies properly either.
A heartwarming, righteous story of trash meeting their proper match in Leon and getting thoroughly flipped.
Leon felt the gods blessing his future. Of course, that was a subjective impression.
"Everyone hungry? Let's go eat. My treat — all of it."
In high spirits, Leon spoke to Aria and Celia, who had stuck with him through the day.
"I'd love that, Master."
"Oh, really?"
Both answered with pleasant smiles.
They left the Asornia estate and headed into the city.
The brilliant nightscape of the capital's Second District unfurled before them.
Lights of romantic color. As though the stars of the night sky had settled down to earth.
Soft music drifted between pure white buildings, and the warm air of a summer night carried the voices of passersby.
Over it all, the cheerful laughter of Leon, Aria, and Celia spilled out.
The start of summer break. Their first night in the capital.
