Selena & Maria

The night went by and the morning came. Leo had woken up early compared to the time he normally woke up but when he tried to fall back asleep the excitement for the day prevented him from doing so. Seeing as he was not going to fall back asleep, Leo decided to go for a morning run with hopes of getting to know the city more.

After cleaning himself up in the bathroom, Leo walked down stairs and found one of the servants.

"Excuse me. Could you inform gramps that I am going for a run around the town and that I'll be back soon?"

Hearing the words coming from behind her, the maid turned her head and was met with Leo's white head of hair, signifying his Kingsmith blood. She spoke while slightly bowing her head.

"Inform the master? Yes, young master, I will notify him."

Most of the servants had been present during the day before when Leo and Celia were brought over. As for those who were busy during the time, they were informed last night of their arrival. All of the servants were aware of Celia's name and position but they were surprised when they heard that Leo was their young master. Other than some slight worries about how his personality was, the servants didn't really mind, after all it wouldn't change their job very much.

"Thank you."

Saying thanks, Leo turned away and walked out of the front exit.

5 minutes later the same maid heard another voice.

"Hey, have you seen my son?"

It was Celia.

"Yes, lady Celia, he had wanted me to inform the master that he went for a run around the town."

"Alright, thanks."

'A run around town, huh. Why not, he has to get used to the city eventually.' She thought.

Outside, Leo had just passed through the main gates of the Kingsmith's family grounds and stepped into the city.

The Kingsmith's estate was situated in the middle of a large town which they governed. Even though the estate was in the center of town, it still had a large amount of land surrounding it for personal use of the family.

Not knowing which way to go, Leo just began to run at random. His goal for the run was first to get some exercise and secondly to familiarize himself with his new home city.

While Leo ran he noticed many things. A local market setting up shop. Carpenters and construction workers preparing for their day. He could even see some little food shop owners getting food ready for the breakfast rush, while he passed by their windows.

"This city is beautiful." He said aloud.

The city gave off a very lively and welcoming feeling. From what Leo could see, there were no obvious poorer regions or anything that could be considered a slum in the city. While there were some places where buildings were of noticeably lesser quality they were still well kept up.

After running for a little over an hour, Leo decided to head back. He assumed breakfast would be ready soon. On his way back something caught Leo's attention.

Out of the corner of his eye, Leo could see a transparent object take his focus. Curiosity filled Leo as he went over to the object.

Taking a closer look at the object which was posted up in a case inside of a shop, being presented through the glass, Leo could get a better look at the object.

It looked like it was transparent and rock-like but didn't have any definite feature other than that it looked to be in the shape of a sword.

Looking at the store it was in, Leo realized it was some type of weapon shop.

Sitting there for a second, Leo realized that his mind had wondered and shook off his curiosity, then headed back to the manor.

**

Leo had made the right decision because just as he got home, a maid came and told him that breakfast was about to be ready.

Leo ran up to his room to quickly get ready to eat with everyone.

Arriving in the kitchen he was greeted by his family.

"Good Morning, Leo. Did you sleep well last night?" Asked Alanna, who already had a large plate of food in front of her.

"Yeah, the bed was super comfy." He responded while taking his seat next to his mother.

When he sat down Celia spoke.

"What did you think of the city?"

Leo could tell by the way Celia spoke that she was quite proud of her family's city. Well, she did grow up in this city so it should be expected.

"It was beautiful. There were a bunch of sights that I wouldn't be able to see on earth, mostly the architecture. Also the people seem to be generally happy. It has some charm that cities on earth don't have." He said, replying honestly.

Celia nodded her head in agreement, "I believe so as well but I won't lie, earth did make life pretty convenient."

"Yeah, you also won't see things like weapon shops very often. Speaking of weapon shops, I was pretty interested in one of the weapon shops. It was kind of weird." Leo spoke as he remembered his stop at that odd looking sword.

"I was especially interested in one sword, it looked like it was made of crystal."

Hearing his grandson's words Albert spoke, "You have Kingsmith blood running through your veins so it's natural to be overly interested in weapons, our bloodline just does that. As for the strange crystal weapon that was most likely a piece of Aura Gear."

"Aura Gear? Sounds interesting…tell me more." Leo spoke bluntly.

Seeing Leo's reaction Albert laughs at Leo's thirst for knowledge before waving off Leo's request for the time being.

"I will tell you more when you begin your training."

His grandfather's words caused Leo to distort in disappointment. Aura Gear, even the name sounded strong and wanted to know more!

But Albert was not finished talking, "Don't look like that. We will begin training after we finish breakfast, so don't worry."

With that, Leo began scarfing down his food without any consideration for the people at the table. He wanted to train! Not waste time eating! So if he ate quicker, he could get to training quicker, right?

Soon Leo finished eating but looked up and saw that everyone else was continuing their meal so he just sat and waited for them to finish while having some small talk with everyone.

Leo enjoyed the atmosphere around the table. Everyone was sharing about their plans for the day, what to look forward to, what they don't look forward to, it was a very 'family-like' environment. One that Leo didn't have the luxury of being a part of back on earth.

But what made Leo the most happy was the smile on his mothers face. Celia and Leo always enjoyed one another's company and still do but this environment was just special to her. And something special to Celia was special to Leo. Besides, he was enjoying himself as well.

While the family was conversing, a knock on the door resounded and Bertrams voice came through.

"Master, may I enter?" He asked.

"Yes."

When Bertram entered he was followed by one woman and one girl.

The woman looked to be around her mid 20's about Leo's age. She had long beautiful platinum blonde hair and light brown eyes just like Bertrams. Her face held a cold tone as she walked in behind her father, wearing a maids uniform.

The little girl looked extremely young. Long black hair descended down her tiny back and her eyes looked like adorable little emeralds. Her personality was completely different compared to the blonde woman, the little girl had a silly and carefree smile on her face as she walked in with a maids uniform on as well.

When the little girl looked around the room she saw Edith standing in the corner and ran at her.

"Mother!" She said as she embraced her mothers legs.

"Maria. Now is not the time or place for this." Seeing her daughter's actions caused Edith to lightly scold her. This caused the little girl to show a slight pout.

"Haha! Leo, could you listen to Bertram for a moment please." Albert asked Leo who was still checking out the newcomers.

"Yeah. What's up?" Leo asked while turning towards Bertram.

"Young Master, these two will be your personal maids for the time being. My youngest daughter over there, her name is Maria, she is still young and has yet to be trained, but I do hope you will still accept her." Bertram explained while pointing at the black haired little girl with his hand.

Leo followed Bertrams hand and saw the little girl hiding behind her mother while gripping her skirt. It was obvious to him that she was fearful of being rejected.

Getting up, Leo proceeded towards Edith and Maria. When he arrived in front of him Leo bent down to eye level with Maria then began patting her head.

"Of course, I don't mind." He said with a gentle smile.

While he said this, Leo caught Selena's hand loosening their grip.

'She must have thought I might do something to her…Well, she just met me and is trying to protect her sister.' He thought he would do the same in her scenario.

Then Maria's loud voice broke Leo out of his thoughts.

"Mother! The handsome big brother didn't mind! He seems nice!" She said, giving her mother a toothy smile while continuing to enjoy Leo's headpats.

This led to her getting scolded once more, while Leo got up and approached the blonde haired girl.

"This is my eldest daughter, Selena, she has been trained and has experience." Bertram explained.

"It's a pleasure." Selena spoke while giving Leo a curtsy.

Leo's first impression of her was that she is a cold woman to strangers but warm to the people she cares for. And Leo respected that personality, it allowed her to be ruthless with her enemies and loving with her loved ones.

"I see. Well, I look forward to working with the both of you." He said, giving the two sisters a wide smile.

The way Leo worded his sentence caused a slight almost unnoticeable smile to appear onto Selena's face, while she and Maria curtsied once again.

"Us as well, Young Master."

"Me too, big bro-*Smack*...ugh…Master!" Edith smacked her daughter in the back of her head during the middle of her sentence, causing Leo to laugh.

But Leo did not miss the way the two had addressed him.

'Selena called me 'Young Master' while Maria called me 'Master'. Selena's job must be to watch over Maria's training. That's fine, having the energetic Maria around me might be fun.' he thought.