( Leo's POV )
Leo was in complete awe of his master's skills after the tunnel incident.
As they fled the scene, a deep respect began to bubble inside Leo's heart for Ben and his incredible strength.
For a while, Leo said nothing and only silently tried to recall Ben's fighting skills as he took down Hollard with incredible ease, as it took him almost a dozen mental replays in his head before he could even grasp the most basic fundamentals of Ben's assault.
'So strong… So Damn Strong' Leo mumbled in his head as he re-imagined Ben's fighting and felt shivers run down his spine.
'So that's the realm of a master' Leo realized as he gulped a mouthful of saliva in respect, wondering as to when he would reach that same realm of strength.
When Leo had first met Ben, the old man looked to be in a really bad shape.
He had a scruffy full grown beard, hair covering his eyes and his beer belly poking through his robes.
At that moment, Ben looked anything but a legendary assassin as he looked like a washed old man, however, since then, Ben had gradually lost the fat and the ugly look as he had slowly but surely transformed back into looking like a master assassin.
As Leo scanned him now, Ben did not look even slightly overweight.
His physique was toned, his beard handsome and his eyes sharp.
If he did not have some shades of gray and white hair mixed in his beard, he could pass for a young man in his twenties with his lustrous skin and Leo could not be any happier for his good health.
Just as Ben was happy to have Leo in his life, Leo felt equally grateful to have Ben in his as at this point, their bond was as strong as that of family.
"We averted a disaster there, boy. Your curiosity saved us from a big mess," Ben said eventually, only speaking after they had covered a lot of ground away from the tunnel, feeling reassured that nobody could hear them.
"Hahaha, our enemies are none the wiser," Leo replied, as Ben looked at him with a bright smile on his face and nodded.
However, soon that smile faded into a frown of worry as Ben said "Don't mistake the skills of that fool Hollard for those of Dem Paltrow, Leo…. While I can take on anyone from the Assassin Alliance with one of my arms tied behind my back, I can't take on Dem Paltrow the same way.
Of everyone I've met in my life, he's the only other master assassin I know, who is on the wrong side of the law"
Ben warned, as he reminded Leo to always be wary of Dem Paltrow.
"I'll remember your warning master" Leo said sincerely, as he resolved to never take Dem Paltrow lightly.
As the two continued their journey towards the Eastern Barony of CrestHill, they soon began to miss their mounts, as walking on foot felt way more tiresome than just riding peacefully within a carriage.
"Without our mounts, it will take us an extra twelve hours to reach our destination.
This means we might have to camp in the wild tonight" Ben said begrudgingly as he had grown quite used to the comfort that the carriage provided and felt slightly discontent about the idea of camping in the wild again.
"It's okay master, it's just one night…. Tomorrow onwards we will live like nobility anyways" Leo said, trying to cheer him up, as recalling how they were going to live the life of barons starting tomorrow, Ben brightened up once again.
"Hahahaha! Indeed! Let's treat this as a goodbye to the poor life of hermits.
A final reminiscing of our old days" Ben said, as he suddenly felt enthusiastic about this last night in the wild.
**********
( Real World, The Arc Ship )
After setting up camp with Ben, and retiring for the night, Leo logged out of the game and waited patiently for Luke to do the same.
Today, he had two important questions for Luke, with one of them being regarding his potential return to work now that the identity of Leo Skyshard was no longer as hot of a topic as before and the second being regarding his experience of being a Baron and how did the life of nobility feel?
*Creek*
Soon, Luke emerged from his room and walked towards Leo while yawning lazily, as he seemed to be extremely bored for some reason.
"Good morning brother–" Leo said cheerfully, to which Luke only replied with a dull nod.
"Brother, I was wondering if you can tell me about your experience in your Barony so far" Leo inquired, as listening to his query, Luke paused for a second.
"The Barony? Oh it's a beautiful place.
The people are very kind and good.
There is lush greenery everywhere and it feels like I'm living and working out of a pristine medical castle.
I have private servants, a great office to work from and a great environment with the new guild members joining, however, it's just too hectic.
The guild work makes me go over hundreds of application requests daily and it consumes a lot of time to review and sign them individually.
So while the Barony is great, my life as the vice guildmaster doesn't let me enjoy it much" Luke said, as listening to his reply Leo felt butterflies fly within his stomach.
'Lush green fields? Medieval castle? Kind people? Beautiful environment to work in?
Hahaha sounds like the dream of a noble life! And I'm not even a vice guildmaster so I won't have documents to go over!
Hahaha!
My good days are about to start–' Leo thought as he started to feel giddy and excited for his future.
"Kekekekeke" he grinned covering his face as Luke watched him laugh with his left eye twitching.
"Anyways, I'm off to get ready for work" Luke said, as he headed towards the bathroom, only for Leo to interrupt him yet again.
"Oh brother, can I go to work from today onwards too? I think the matter regarding my identity has cooled down a lot–" Leo asked, as Luke seemed to ponder about the question for a moment before shunning Leo down.
"No, we have a lot of MP left Leo and we can afford you not showing up to work.
There's no need to risk it" Luke said, as he rejected Leo's request and internally decided to not let Leo return to work until the next system evaluation was concluded and the two of them were promoted to sector C.
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/// A/N - This bonus chapter is sponsored by Patron Empathyreader.
Please thank her in the comments for the same ///