1 on 1 [Chapter 4]

Lear knocked on the door lightly. Without waiting for a reply, he strode confidently into the room. Glancing about, he found the room closely resembled a study. A desk was placed at the far end of the room, covered in piles of official-looking documents, adjacent to a large window. In the moonlight, the room had a dark blue glow, softly outlining the furniture. This was due to the fact that the moon here was a prominent blue. Bookshelves lined the walls to either side. Books and scrolls, clearly well used and old, filled a majority of the shelves. The books were not titled, but judging from their presence in a room directly under the head, they must've held great importance. The shelves that did not hold books, held a variety of valuables neatly arranged upon them. From mana hearts to stones and crystals. There was even a shelf housing golden ingots of some sort, though they didn't seem to be actual gold. What really caught his attention however was an orange shelf, only about 70 centimetres wide, detached from the others. The reason for his interest was simple, this shelf was completely blanketed in dust. Carefully placed upon it were a variety of stones, none bigger than his hand. While they were dusty, their colours could vividly be seen. He couldn't sense a thing from them. Not mana, or anything else, but if they were amongst this mountain of treasures, there must be something more to them. He highly doubted they were decoration or there for sentimental value. Especially as they wouldn't have been in such a sorry state if so. It looked as if they were left alone on purpose for whatever reason. And considering even the mana hearts and crystals in here sparkled as if they were polished without a moment of rest, it definitely seemed out of place.

A grand sofa sat behind the desk, turned to face away from him, looking out through the window. While Lear would've preferred to have kept a low profile, in order to get justice for Rachael, he would have to garner some level of respect. A simple tantrum wouldn't get him anywhere, and it certainly wouldn't lend any credibility to his testimony or what was to come after. A confident approach and sincerity would be the only way to bring up a favour and punish the wrongdoers. As he came to stand in front of the desk, he loudly said, "Greetings, father! I am here in response to your summons." Ten seconds passed, then twenty. Lear stood absolutely still, slightly bowing as he had the moment he reached the desk. A minute passed like that, a loud silence enveloping the room. Then a dense wave of mana crashed down upon him, pushing him down with all its might. Lear decided to oblige, falling to the floor without resisting.

Edgar leisurely stood up, picking up and turning the sofa towards Leon before sitting down again. Edgar finally spoke up. "Firstly, I am not your father at this moment, young man. Secondly, while I don't want you to prostrate yourself, kneeling with your head down is fundamental. There was other issues, but I'll leave it at that for now." Lear was on the verge of tears. Not only had he been so petty, Edgar had waited a full minute for Leon to correct himself and then turned his sofa by hand himself! The corrections were fine, it could pass as a display of fatherly love. But he was a clown through and through. Lear cringed at the thought of him doing that in front of others. His mouth wavered and it took Lear digging his nails into his palms to prevent a smirk forming.

Lear respectfully said, "I apologise for my discourteous behaviour, family head. I shall correct myself accordingly." As he finished speaking, a frown appeared on Edgar's face, and he told Leon to raise his head as he swiftly recalled his mana.

"Number twelve, bring her in!" Edgar boomed. A few seconds later, there was a knock at the door. Before the other party could speak, Edgar exclaimed for them to enter. The maid from the incident walked in, visibly shaking. As she prostrated herself across from Leon, she said, "Raya, reporting to the family head."

Edgar then told them both to stand up, and they both did so. He said, "Now, the trial, as it relates to Leon Starfallen, will now commence. We will begin with Leon's recollection of the event in question."

Lear begun to spin a story for the family head. He strictly kept anything related to mana quiet, but otherwise answered as truthfully as possible. The maid had only met them at the lodgings after all, the rest was irrelevant. The story roughly went that he had tripped, causing his maid to drop his food all over his clothes and her uniform. Therefore, he had brought her in his shirt to grab a new set of clothes for her. There, the maid had dropped to her knees upon seeing them and screamed. He succinctly offered his account, trying to remain as eloquently spoken as possible to match the speech patterns of this world.

At Edgar's order, the maid begun. "I had been on my way to report to the Young Lady, Elaine as her next maid on duty. As I had walked past one corridor, I had heard some unusual sounds. I went to check if everything was ok and was greeted by the sight... of Young Master and his personal maid, practically rolling about together. As Young Master Leon had spotted me, he had jumped up to run towards me and out of fear of his rage and for his maid's safety, I had dropped to my knees and screamed. After this, Priscilla arrived and was able to prevent Young Master from jumping out of the window in an attempt to flee the scene. Practically half of the maids would have seen the ending unfold. I can swear it." she said respectfully. While there was a slight sneer on her face when she attached Young Master to his name, her acting was pretty much perfect. Lear made sure to give his opponent a round of applause mentally for a well-written scenario.

The family head spoke angrily, "Will you refute her words, Leon? Do you remember the punishment you were given only this morning? You should've been in your room, yet you were gallivanting about the maids' lodging and causing problems? Regardless, this is your last chance to speak. I will make my decision momentarily, with or without further input!"

Lear hastily spoke up. "Our recollections of the events are practically the same. I had brought my maid to change clothes after an incident I HAD CAUSED and I wasn't within three feet of my maid, nor were we on the floor when this young lady walked in. This is an act of defamation and I would like for further investigation to take place before a verdict is reached, Patriarch." Edgar coldly retorted, "In that case, why did you feel the need to run?"

Leon almost cracked a smile, saying "Wasn't it you who had said I was to be in my room until further notice. Sure, I didn't completely adhere to that, but this is too much. Am I wrong, family head?" While Lear was certain that he would be favoured over a maid, he certainly felt the disdain in Edgar's voice as he made his verdict. Edgar said, "I hereby decree Leon's innocence in the matter. Raya, you may leave first."

When she had fully exited the room, Edgar sighed deeply. He continued to say, "Today only, I am giving you the benefit of the doubt in this matter. Your confidence and her demeanour roughly told me what was going on. HOWEVER, this doesn't excuse you from disobeying my order to stay bound to your room! I will decide your punishment by morning, so leave now and wait patiently this time."

As he finished speaking, he made a gesture to shoo Leon away, like one does to a stray animal. There was no doubt Lear was being severely looked down upon, by practically everyone, aside from maybe Priscilla who hadn't held back any more than needed in her bet. In reality, he probably had every right to look down on him, considering the life of debauchery Leon had led. But Lear found himself irked at the notion. This bald pipsqueak dared look down on him when he hadn't lived even a fraction of his time?! In that sense, he felt some comradeship with the Gods, who looked down on practically everyone, and vowed silently to cultivate mana properly once he was out of this spotlight. He wouldn't be looked down upon any further, unwillingly at least!

Instead of walking away, he walked up to the desk and slammed his fist down as hard as he could, naturally. "We aren't done just yet, family head. I have a request I'd like to make of you, sir!" Lear pridefully exclaimed. "I would like for maids Winley, Veronica and Betty to either undergo a full public humiliation or be given to me privately for torture after they have apologised for their wrongdoings against my maid, Patriarch", Leon continued. With each word, the room grew colder.

Edgar stood up and slapped Leon hard across the face. "You dare be so insolent in my presence! You spoke to me as the Patriarch for such a favour... how dare you? I will respond as I should then. Yes, that'd only be right. Despite ignoring my orders, without even a word of apology, you dare to ask so aggressively to torture maids and humiliate them publicly. You must've lost your damn mind, Leon Starfallen! You'll be lucky if you're not on the receiving end at this rate. Did you know, all three of them are nobility partaking in hands-on training in my household. Yet you want to ruin them for life! Great joke, Leon Starfallen!" Edgar practically spat these words out in disgust. Leon then began to reply. "Patriarch, I will not address you as father at the moment as I started by asking in this way. These maids have committed a sin worthy of death upon my maid. They conducted atrocities that can only be imagined within this noble house and had even messed with her living quarters. If they are not made to understand, it's the same as me being looked down upon. I will only be willing to let this go after an apt punishment has been delivered by my standards, head!"

Edgar looked at Leon, and then the ceiling, and sighed deeply. "Are you truly my son Leon? I couldn't have imagined your arrogance inflating so far with time after the accident then." Lear thought it best to pre-emptively cut this short and said. "Of course it's me, father. I have only decided to answer my maid's loyalty after watching her suffering." In response, Edgar asked, "Why is your speech and tone so foreign then? It doesn't feel like you are the same person, nor did you openly care for anybody but your mother. We were close, weren't we, Leon? I was under the impression that regardless of the way we expressed love for you, you felt it. I always felt your thoughtfulness and sincerity before you woke up in the physician's room." For the first time since arriving here, Lear heard genuine sadness and compassion in the voices of this family of savages. Leon spoke quickly, "We are, father... We are close. However, I will be changing rapidly from now onwards, and we will need to build trust anew. Let's start out fresh, and rebuild something real if we can come to an understanding. For that to happen, you need to begin by humiliating the maids publicly however. This will be our first show of trust I hope. I will repay you with information of interest to you, though I have no proof, I hope this exchange will go smoothly, for both our futures..." Leon didn't actually feel anything but out of consideration, he decided on this approach.

Minutes passed with Edgar seemingly lost in thought. Lear felt mana brewing in his body, as if he was preparing something. While he probably wouldn't escape unscathed, Lear decided to put some faith in him. He seemed to have accepted Lear as Leon, his son to some extent and considering his emotional transparency now, it was unlikely he would harm him just yet without consulting anybody for a second opinion. After an exasperated huff, he said, "Humiliation is too much with their standing. Instead, I can have them apologise to both you and that maid of yours. Now what's that information you have?" Lear began to laugh. While it wasn't a real laugh, he couldn't think of anything to do but laugh. Did he think that Lear was so bored he would instigate an altercation for something as small as an apology. He could've easily have taken an apology, a heartfelt one at that, in a mere week's time. Unfortunately it would leave too many traces at this time. Getting permission would be the right call, and as long as the physician was by him, he could easily make them speak.

"Do you think I'm a joke. Ha! All that thinking and you still tried dodging me?! Is this really how you want to act when I've just tried to reinstate trust into our relationship. I see!" Lear spat in disgust. Edgar was taken aback. For the boy who was once so meek to spit in his study. He grew pale, as if reeling in shock. His mouth formed a large, letter O and his mouth hung agape. "What a waste of time! I'm leaving then!" Leon shouted. No sooner had he turned his back, Edgar exclaimed. "Wait Leon! I'll have them apologise and give you one evening to torture them as long as you take the physician with you! You will be supervised by some of my guards and I forbid you from any inappropriate acts outside of torture! I can't bend any further on this matter. Will you take it?"

A glint appeared in Leon's eyes. "I will accept as long as you will not hinder me in any way as long as I don't violate said rules."

"In that case, we have a deal. Give me the intel and you can find the maids in the underground prison tomorrow evening at seven pm, willing to apologise. Your punishment for violating my rules will be delivered the day after. Let me hear it now, this intelligence of yours." Edgar said aggressively. Leon calmly proceeded to inform him about how the family would be eliminated, and at the very least those of this family would be taken out. In order to deal with two things at once, he mentioned he had overheard the drug dealers speaking to a third party. By doing this, he hoped for the drug ring to be taken out and any other enemies would be identified and eliminated. Of course, it depended on their own abilities to deal with this. Lear made sure to emphasise that they weren't to be underestimated. If they had taken Leon's family out, there was no reason they couldn't hold up in a battle unless it was an assasination unit of some sort.

Edgar sent Leon to his room. It seemed he had acknowledged the information and was going to begin investigations, so Lear left him to it and walked out of the room quietly.

"Ah, where should I go... I still have no idea where I am..." Lear thought to himself. Leon absently walked around the house, looking for somebody to guide him to his room or find Rachael and Priscilla. Instead, he found a staircase, and decided to walk up it.