Solflare: The Painter's Secret

Chapter 224: Leon’s Forbidden Evolution

Thick air lanced through the hall on the third floor of Blackscale Citadel with the scent of old paper and the sharp tang of high-grade tech.

Eyes drifted across seats and tables, but Leon sat quietly.

His hands remained on his lap, fingers twitching whenever Lord Luo Fang’s gaze fell on him, as if he was still expected to feel the hilt of the Tartarus or the rough texture of sacks that carried the Opal stones.

Hei Yung lifted his gaze at Lord Luo Fang, then placed a smart device on the table. "The count came in at nine hundred."

His voice resonated against the rainbow-tinted glasses as he glanced at Leon. "One hundred stones couldn’t be accrued as we were mandated."

Lord Luo Fang leaned forward, while the light from the window turned his white hair into a halo of spun silver.

"Hm." He looked at Hei Yung’s face, then shook his head. "The Council of Seol-Mujin does not usually reward math that doesn’t add up."

Lieutenant Hayes also stood up, then folded his hands on his chest. "On my side, I would have accepted. But," he said, then moved from his seat to Leon’s, then placed a hand on Leon’s shoulder. "But I will take something to add up."

Heat rose up in Leon’s chest as Lieutenant Hayes placed more pressure on his shoulder, almost cracking the bones lining up to his neck.

Hei Yung squinted at Hayes, then slammed his left palm on the table, which caused the metal to groan as a spark of lightning snaked through the table, like a silent warning.

Lord Luo Fang tilted his head slightly, then shook his head. "Wanna play with lightning while the inventor of lightning is here?"

He laughed, while lightning bolts lingered on his fingertips as he raised his left arm and began fingering through the air.

Hei Luo stood up, then placed his chilled arms on the table, conducting the power waving through it into his body.

"The stones are there. The lives of the three who didn’t come back are the price for the hundred we missed. If the Council wants more, they can go down there and dig them out of the giant’s palms."

A heavy silence flew across the hall as Hayes threw a shocked glance at Lord Luo Fang, while Lu Wang placed a hand on his mouth, suppressing a cough.

Hayes’s eyes burned with rage while his breathing hitched as he stared at Hei Luo’s face.

Lord Luo Fang signaled at Hayes to stop when he saw the dark matter slowly forming around his finger, then moved a step forward.

"I didn’t actually hear what you said; can you repeat yourself, Hei Luo?" He said as he stopped a few meters away from the chair opposite Hei Luo’s, then folded his arms on his chest.

"The stones are there—"

"The stones are there," Hei Yung said, cutting Hei Luo off before the word could leave his tongue. "It’s a matter of days, just days, we will get the remaining one hundred."

He tapped on Hei Luo’s shoulder, then secretly signaled him to remain calm.

"Okay," Lord Luo Fang said, then nodded once. "And perhaps you’ve justified it earlier."

He shifted his gaze to Lieutenant Hayes, then smiled, before shifting it back to Hei Luo. "Survival is its own currency in Agatha, right?"

"It’s more than survival," Hei Yung said and stood up from his seat. He looked at Leon’s disturbed stature, then walked toward the window.

Hei Yung picked up the smart device again, scrolling through a jagged line of data that flickered in a violent shade of violet. He held the screen toward Lord Luo Fang, showing a graph that refused to stabilize.

"The debt of the hundred stones is a distraction," Hei Yung said, his voice dropping to a low hum. "The scans we received before they arrived showed the reason for the deficit. Something is changing in Leon. His energy signature is evolving, and it was feeding on the ambient radiation of the stones themselves."

Lord Luo Fang’s eyes narrowed as he leaned in to inspect the violet peaks on the screen.

Leon’s eyebrow raised with shock while his mouth opened without his will.

"Well, then that’s good. Because that makes the legit Seol-Mujin citizens live longer and flourish more than the mere humans in gutters like this place," Hayes said as he moved slow steps toward Hei Yung.

Lu Wang’s face wrinkled as he slammed his fist on the table while standing up from his seat.

"Whoa," Hayes’s head snapped back when he turned and saw the look on Lu Wang’s face. "Careful with your reaction. There is a new person to be crowned a Lord, so think twice before you act."

He shifted his gaze to Leon, to Lu Wang’s burning face, then back to Hei Yung.

Leon looked at his palms as Hei Yung’s statement looped in his head. Within him, the grief for Liu Yan, Wu Ze, and An Lang felt like a heavy stone in his stomach, but beneath it, he felt something cold and unbreakable slowly taking form.

"We are moving him," Hei Yung said as he turned from the window and walked past Hayes, as if he was a ghost trying to proclaim a human face.

Hayes cleared his throat when Hei Yung stopped by the table. "Well, that’s right for you to say. Moving him to—"

"We are moving him out of the standard barracks," Hei Yung said as he placed a hand on Leon’s shoulder, then squeezed him slightly. "He’s no longer just a recruit or a squad member."

"What?" Hayes screamed but stopped when he saw the look in Lord Luo Fang’s eyes.

Lord Luo Fang released his arms from his chest, then placed them at the top of the chair he stood behind. "Then, what about the impending Lieutenants that are destined to replace all three of you?"

Hei Yung didn’t answer; he simply turned to Leon and smiled.

Hei Luo stood up, then stretched his neck. "Don’t worry, we are even tired."

He looked at the shocked expression Hayes carried, then giggled. "The Ghost Squad will receive their commission as Lieutenants, but Leon’s path is being redrawn."

Leon shifted his gaze to Hei Luo, then back to Hei Yung.

Hei Yung crouched down to the side of Leon’s chair, then placed a hand on Leon’s lap while locking eyes with him.

"You are the only one who has looked into the eyes of what lies beneath Tartarus and walked away without a limb torn or a scratch."

Hei Yung lifted his gaze to Lord Luo Fang, then grinned. "This makes you a target for some, and a godsend for others."

A welcoming smile tore on Hei Luo’s face when he looked at the blades of the three weapons.