An Encounter

The woman went inside the house to bring the bucket, and Leus was waiting outside with the young girl

'She's too thin ...'

'I guess people don't eat much here ...'

After the girl was done drinking, she spoke with excitement

"Wow! This is the tastiest water! EVER!"

Leus furrowed his brows

'Hmm? Tastiest water?'

' ... Now that I think about it'

He realized ...

'I actually never drank the water I created with magic'

He only used it to shower or freshen up

' ... Maybe I should try it sometime'

He pushed these thoughts to the back of his mind and filled the bucket again, and by the time he was done, the mother came back outside with an empty bucket in her hand ...

"Here you go" Said Leus, after quickly filling the bucket

After that, he turned around to leave, but the woman stopped him

"Wait, Good Sir, what's your name?"

"Ah, I'm Leus, Leus Inferno"

Immediately after uttering these words, the atmosphere changed ...

The moment the woman heard Leus' name, her eyes opened wider than Leus thought it was humanly possible ...

Leus looked at her with concern

" ... Ma'am? Are you okay?"

" ... "

"Ma'am?"

Very quickly, the woman's face turned white; it was as if all the blood had drained from her face ...

"Ai - In - Aa .. Inf--erno?" She stuttered ...

At this point, even the little girl noticed that something was wrong

"Mom, are you okay?"

Her daughter's words brought her back to reality ...

She pushed the young girl behind her and deeply bowed her head so that it almost touched the floor

"What brings Your Highness to such a lowly place, I'm deeply sorry that I dared to trouble you"

Leus was so confused by the sudden change that he could only tilt his head ...

He turned around and looked at Blaze ...

Behind him, Blaze was struggling to hold back his laughter. That confused Leus even more ...

'What's going on here ...'

He looked back at the woman

"Ma'am, think nothing of it ... I have to go now."

The woman didn't raise her head back up and kept looking at the ground ...

'She doesn't seem like she is going to raise it any time soon'

Realizing that, he decided to leave quickly

'It's better to leave now before things gets even weirder'

So he moved away, and Blaze followed him ...

After they were a good distance away from that house, Leus took a sigh of relief

"Dad, what the heck was that?"

Blaze couldn't hold his laughter back any longer

"Ahahahaha, What was that? What else did you expect? Going around in the slums and taking Inferno's name! Phahahaha"

"What ... do you mean?"

Slowly the realization hit him

"Ahh ..." He murmured

"Saying you're Leus Inferno here is like saying that you're the heir to the throne"

Leus was silent

'How come I didn't think of something like that?'

Blaze spoke in a teasing tone

"You're so smart, yet, you are slow on the uptake sometimes ahahaha"

After laughing for a bit, Blaze patted Leus' head and spoke in a light tone

"It's okay, that's the point of this tour anyway, to gain experience. As long as you learned something then it's all good"

Leus sighed

'Next time I'll be careful huhh'

After walking for a few minutes, Leus saw an old man arguing with two children ...

"Come inside, it's late and dark!"

"It's even darker inside! I don't want to come"

"Yes! It's scary, I won't come"

His curiosity piqued, Leus decided to get closer to see what was going on

"Is everything okay?" He asked

The old man and the children looked at Leus suspiciously for a second, but then the old man fixed his expression and spoke normally

"The Illuminating Stone is out of Mana and there's no light, so they're afraid to come inside. Tell the cowards something"

Leus quickly understood what the man was trying to do

'He's using me to trick the kids into getting inside ...'

'That's why he fixed his expression so quickly... Clever old man'

Leus looked at the house and saw that it was better than most houses around

'I guess this is the upper class in this area'

"Perhaps I can help? Can you show me the stone?"

When Leus said that, the man looked at him as if he said the most ridiculous thing ever

"Of course not; how do I know that you won't take it and run?"

Leus didn't have anything to refute

'That's ..... a logical argument indeed'

Leus nodded

"You're right"

Then he walked away ...

He wasn't going to put extra effort into helping someone uninterested

'Besides, the man had a point'

'Anyway, I think that's it'

"I think I saw enough, let's go back"

Blaze nodded and asked

"Why didn't you offer your help again to that man?"

Leus replied evenly

"Well, it's not like it was a life or death situation ...

And regardless, I don't mind helping people but I don't think I have to go out of my way to help them, Right?"

"I understand"

Blaze chose a different way back but decided to remain behind Leus, telling him which way to go whenever they needed to change direction.

For a while, they kept going like that ...

Suddenly, Blaze's tone changed; it had a tinge of excitement in it ...

"Turn Left"

Leus turned left, and as soon as he did that, he saw 5 guys walking towards him ...

'Oh?'

They were approximately 20 meters away from him ...

He turned around to see Blaze ... However

'Uh?!'

'Where did he go?'

There was no one behind him ...

Leus stopped in his tracks and looked around him, but he couldn't find Blaze anywhere

'He vanished'

But he couldn't search for long; in less than 15 seconds, the five guys surrounded him ...

Leus felt slightly nervous, but he wasn't intimidated

'I can probably defend myself'

'First thing to do: inspect your surroundings'

He scanned the area and quickly realized ...

'No way out'

'Second thing: assess your opponent'

He started scrutinizing the guys:

The first thing that stood out was that the five of them looked in better shape than anyone else he had seen so far ...

'Four of them seem to be in their late adulthood and one is just a teenager'

'Hmm ... So four in their early twenties and a kid - 15 or 16 years old?'

Although Leus' body was young, he never considered himself a child or a kid, and so, to him, anyone who's younger than 20 or at least 18 is just a child ...

Two men stood on either side of Leus, slightly behind him, while the other three formed a loose semicircle in front of him.

Among the three ahead, the man in the center seemed to be the leader. He wore a strange necklace and appeared to be the strongest of the group, with the child standing by his right side.

The two men flanking Leus had red hair, while the leader had brown hair.

The child next to the leader had red hair as well, and the man on the leader’s left had striking blue hair.

After Leus was done evaluating his situation, he narrowed his eyes

'Dad for sure knew that they were coming and left me to act on my own ...'

'Well ... it was our deal anyway'

The guy with brown hair spoke in an authoritative tone, interrupting Leus' thoughts ...

He pointed at Leus' unsheathed sword

"That's a nice toy you got there kid, how about you hand it over"

Leus crossed his arms and didn't reply

"Oh yeah? Trying to play tough?" The man taunted

Leus remained unfazed and responded with cold indifference

" ... If you attack me, you will regret it"

The guy glared at Leus with disdain before turning to the teenager beside him

"Skinny, teach the child some respect"

Everyone else took a step back as Skinny stepped forward, positioning himself directly in front of Leus ...

With a smirk, Skinny extended his hand forward

"Last chance, kid, hand it over"

At this moment many scenarios played in Leus' mind

'Fireballs are out of the question.'

'Daggers or Spears might severely injure or kill him.'

'Icicle is no different.'

' ... A weak Hydraulic is probably the best option'

Before doing anything, Leus asked a final time

"You sure you want to do this? I don't want to hurt you"

Skinny’s response was a raised fist, ready to swing. ...

As Skinny's fist entered Leus' domain, Leus sensed its trajectory and sidestepped to evade it, and simultaneously, he readied his spell

'Hydraulic, only 50% of its speed, aiming at the head'

'Launch'

WHOOSH

Blaze, observing the situation from a distance, felt a surge of unease

'What is he doing? ..... No!'

He dashed forward to intervene—but it was too late.

The Hydraulic struck, piercing the boy’s skull.

THUD.

Skinny collapsed to his knees, a solitary drop of blood trickling down his face ...