Taking a life...

"Young Master, Lady Celia would like to see you."

Leo got home then he and Selena separated so she could get ready for work. This was about the time that Leo would begin training so he just started without Albert.

As he was training, he heard a maid's voice.

"Alright, I'm coming." He responded, taking a towel from the maid and drying himself with it.

He quickly reached the dining room where Celia was located and opened the door.

"Hey, I saw that you went out with Selena this morning." Celia said with a slightly unsatisfied look.

She had been looking for Leo to see if he wanted to go on a run with her, when one of the maids told her that Leo and Selena had taken Maria to school. But when they came back Celia happened to catch a glimpse of Selena's new hairpin, and it caused an unknown uncomfort inside of Celia's stomach.

"Yeah, after dropping off Maria, we ate some breakfast. Is that what you called me for?" Leo replied.

Leo's words did not help Celia's discomfort but she had bigger things to talk about at the moment, which was the reason she called him.

"No, it's not. Albert isn't going to train you today. You are already close to reaching the Peak Squire stage. You also have memorized a lot of aura techniques and weapon styles, you only need to practice them. So your gramps probably won't be training you anymore."

"Anyway, back to why I called you. Ahem…Today I have prepared…hmm…I guess you could call it training. So follow me." She spoke as she stood up and walked past Leo.

Leo did not hesitate to follow his mother. He was even excited about it. Every time Celia mentioned training, it was always a good day for Leo. Unfortunately, this "training" was something that Leo would not enjoy.

Leo followed Celia out of the mansion and into what looked to be a shed. Inside of the shed was nothing but a trap door leading to what he could only assume was a basement of some sort.

"Where are we going, mom?" He asked.

"It's right down here."

"Hey…umm… Mom, if you're that mad about me going out with Selena this morning, then you know you can talk to me about it right. You don't have to torture me for it." He asked jokingly, or maybe not so jokingly.

"Brat. If I wanted to torture you I wouldnt have cared about the place. Plus, why would I be mad? My son only decided to have his first date in this world with a maid and not his mother…I don't have reason to be mad, right?" Celia answered with a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes.

"Uhh…"

"Just shut up and follow me…"

"Okay…"

After the brief moment of her jealousy, Celia leaned down and opened the trap door and proceeded down the stairs.

Following her, Leo walked down as well and was looking around the place.

'Is this some sort of prison?' He asked himself as he passed by multiple jail cells.

'What are we doing here?'

As Leo was asking himself questions, they had walked to the end of the hall and approached a large reinforced looking door. It had no windows and seemed extremely thick.

Celia pulled out some dangling keys from her pocket and unlocked the door then opened it, what Leo saw inside shocked him.

Inside of the room were 5 people. These 5 people were all chained to chairs and wore a cloth over their mouth to prevent them from speaking.

Confused and a little uncomfortable with the situation, Leo looked at his mother, seeking answers.

Celia noted Leo's discomfort and reaffirmed her thoughts, 'Yes, this needs to be done. He can't stay soft… This world is different from Earth.'

"Leo, this is your training for today. I have mentioned it before but this world is much more deadly than Earth. Schemes and Murders are a lot more common and hesitation will get you killed. Coming from an environment such as Earths you are hesitant about killing, we need to get rid of that hesitation. It could get you killed." She spoke in a serious tone.

Leo listened to Celia's words and guessed what the training was. To get rid of his hesitation of killing, he had to take these 5 people's lives. He understood his mothers intention behind this training and knew she was right about what she had said, but…

"It's still uncomfortable…I have morals from Earth. I understand that I need to adapt my morals to fit this world more but that will take some time. I won't kill anybody who I don't believe deserves it, is that acceptable?" He spoke to his mother with a stern voice.

His stern voice projecting his will made Celia proud. She didn't want Leo to become someone who would kill if told to, or some monster who would kill for no reason. No, she wanted Leo to understand that he had to do what needed to be done in this world. If not, there could be major consequences.

'Good, my son can talk to me in such a way. I was worried that when he came to this world he would attempt to change this world, not himself. I'm glad he understood…What am I saying of course he would understand! I raised him! Hahaha! My boy is finally becoming a man! My…man?' Her thoughts became crazed then slightly confused.

Her son, her boy, was finally becoming a man. So he would be her man now not her boy…right? But those two words meant completely different things!

After shaking away her thoughts, Celia spoke to Leo.

"Yes, that's what I wanted you to do. Anyway, these people are criminals. Here is the information on the crimes they committed." She then handed out some papers to Leo before adding, "I'll leave you alone, now."

Following her words she walked back out of the prison like dungeon.

Leo stood there with papers and hands while looking at the prisoners.

'I should make it harder on myself, mom is right. I can't be soft in this world.' He said as he approached the prisoner on the far right and removed the prisoner's gag.

This was his plan to make it harder on himself. Hearing the prisoners scream and beg would cause even more discomfort in Leo but would also allow him to not hesitate in the future when he heard it.

The first prisoner was an old bald man.

"Young man, please release me. I will be better. I'm so sorry." The old man then began to cry.

Leo then looked at the old man's files. Reaching about half way down the paper, Leo's eyes turned in rage and disgust.

'A…child predator…'

Earth may have been soft, but any person would jump at the chance to beat the hell out of a predator of any kind, much less a child one.

Seeing the rage and disgust in Leo's eyes caused the old man to become more desperate.

"Please! It was a mistake! I won't do it again! Just give me a chance!" He screamed as tears and snot ran down his face.

The old man then heard Leo's bone chilling voice say, "A mistake?…that was no mistake… That was a series of multiple disgusting choices which led to the suffering of an innocent little child…And you call that a mistake?"

Leo began walking towards the man while unsheathing his sword which he still had from training. After fully unsheathing the sword, Leo lunged at the old man.

"That was no mistake."

The old man closed his eyes expecting his life to be over in the next moment and was surprised when his end didn't come. But all of a sudden he felt an extremely painful burning sensation coming from his lower half. Looking down, he found the source of his pain.

Leo's sword had not cut off his life, no, it cut off his 'male parts'.

"Ahh…A-AH!! YOU BASTE-"

Before the old man could talk anymore, Leo released another sword slash at the man and served the muscles to his mouth. Leaving the old man only capable of screaming as he began to bleed out from his crotch.

"You're no better than a pig…If you're still alive by the time I finish with the others I will "entertain" you some more." Leo spoke in a cold voice before cleaning the blood off his blade with the old man's clothes.

Pulling back out the files on the criminals, Leo moved to the next prisoner and undid her gag. This woman was fairly good looking and she knew that so she immediately tried to use it to her advantage.

"If you would forgive my crime I could show you a good time, handsome~. I'll be your loyal slave~." She spoke as she fluttered her eyes at Leo in an attempt to seduce him.

But any hope she had was quickly thrown away when she heard his cold tone, "Gertrude Smith. Murdered a stall worker by a stab through the throat."

'Breathe in Huuu, breathe out Haaa' Leo told himself.

Back on Earth, Leo had always thought that the way a murderer should die, should be the same way they killed their victim. And he still had that mindset but with the sword now in his hands, he was hesitating.

Leo looked down at his hands holding the sword and saw them shaking.

'The old man was different because of my emotion…Huu,Haa. Okay, I think I'm ready.' He thought to himself as he walked over towards the woman.

"WAIT! PLEASE, FORGIVE ME!" The woman screamed.

Leo heard her scream but it had no effect on him. He then realized that even if they screamed or begged, he didn't care. They obviously didn't stop when their victims begged so why should he?

Taking his sword, Leo slowly inserted it into the woman's neck, killing her. He kept the sword inside of the woman's neck to etch the memory of cutting through flesh, inside of his head. With the old man he had no chance to do this because of his rage at his actions.

Soon the shaking in his hand stopped, his fear of taking a life was overcome in one attempt.

'Good, it needed to be done…Let's judge the rest of them and head home.'

Leo then looked through the other 3's papers and judged that they also deserved death. All three of them were murderers so Leo showed no mercy and killed them the exact way they killed their victims.

Finishing the last murderer, Leo looked back over to the old man and found him leaning over lifeless in a pool of blood formed by his crotch with his mouth wide open.

"Tsk…" Leo snorted in discontent.

"I'm finished here, I should head back."