Editing Tales of Leo Attiel:Volume4 Chapter5 (section)

===Part 1===


It was about two months after Darren's death that Leo received a letter from Oswell Taholin. The sender was surprising, but then so were the contents: he claimed that he been petitioned by the people of his fief to “create a space for the Cross Faith in my castle town.”

Works had begun to convert a house there into a church, and had been completed about a month later, so now: “I would be overjoyed, Lord Leo, if you could visit me,” to both discuss how to administer the parish, and to attend the inauguration ceremony.

Oswell had already looked around here and there, and had hired several priests from Dytiann. Through them, he had invited a minister of some reputation to come from Dytiann and officiate at the ceremony.

It was true that when Conscon Temple had been in danger of being invaded by Allion, Oswell Taholin had single-handily persuaded the sovereign-prince to send help to them. In fact, once the matter became public knowledge, Conscon had sent a letter of thanks in which they named both Magrid and Oswell. He had always been a man who showed sympathy towards the Cross Faith.

Naturally, this was also good for Leo. If the Cross Faith acquired more strongholds throughout the country, then the prince's influence would grow in proportion to them. Besides, if it had to be said, then the church in Savan's territory served as a connection between the faithful in Atall with Conscon and Allion, which were geographically close. Oswell, on the other hand, seemed to want to give the job of running his parish to priests from Dytiann. Maintaining relations with the Cross Faith in both the east and the west was also very convenient for Leo.

─ Or rather, it was too convenient.

“It's a trap,” Percy asserted without a second's hesitation when Leo showed the letter to the main members of the Personal Guards.

Once, during the events involving Lance Mazpotter, Leo and the others had guessed that there might be a connection between Oswell and Darren, and now, Oswell had very rapidly made approaches to Leo after Darren's death. It was clearly suspicious.

“But, this Oswell person, wasn't he originally strengthening his relationship with the ruling house?” Sarah, who had forced her way in behind her brother, interrupted. “Then couldn't he be the kind of man who wants to cozy up to both sides? So even though he helped Darren, once Lord Leo defeated him, Oswell decided to make good with you, Your Highness. He's a guy who knows how to get on in life as a noble.”

“Women should keep out of this,” Camus yelled as usual.

''Why is that Camus can't hold back from saying things that he knows will lead to a fight?'' Percy sometimes wondered.

Actually, this was a fault that he shared with his little sister, Sarah, and neither of them were ever satisfied unless they said exactly what they thought. And since Sarah had opened her mouth wide as though to argue back, Percy hurriedly stopped the siblings' brawl by pretending to offer her an explanation, while covertly watching for the prince's reaction:

“Still, if we're talking about Oswell, then His Highness already suspected that he was secretly tied to Allion – or, more accurately, to Hayden.”

Leo merely gave a slight nod, leaving Percy feeling disappointed. There was no way that the prince wasn't suspicious about Oswell's overtures. Percy had thought that if he brought up Hayden, then Leo would offer and explanation that coincided with his own opinion.

''Exactly. Oswell is the noble who, all by himself, convinced the sovereign-prince to send out soldiers to Conscon. And looking back on Hayden's actions at the time, it seems like he expected that to happen. Oswell was probably secretly connected to Allion, and he swayed the sovereign-prince in the direction that Hayden wanted. If you want proof, just look at how that man, who was so fixated on the temple, seemed so completely indifferent when Allion marched on Conscon that second time'' – or something like that.

Yet Leo's response was muted. Or rather than muted, he was enveloped in the atmosphere of someone who had already made up their mind, and who found it difficult to explain that to others...

“You can't possibly...” Percy suddenly spoke up, “... Prince, you can't possibly be thinking of going to see Oswell?”

“There's no hiding anything from you, Percy,” leaning against the window frame, Leo smiled a little bashfully.

''Why... when you know it's a trap...?'' but before Percy could ask that question, Leo continued:

“There's a good chance that he is on the alert,” he said while gazing out of the window. “But it's also a good opportunity for us.”

''It's dangerous, but it's also a good opportunity'' – that was almost a tenet of faith with Leo. He had often repeated those words to himself and to his companions before then. One easy example was how he had deliberately set off to the holiday villa with only a few bodyguards to draw Darren's attack upon learning that he was plotting to kill him.

“If we do what the enemy wants us to, then that also means that the enemy's intentions will become very easy to read,” he explained once more.

By that point in time, Leo already saw Oswell as an 'enemy', and he had been waiting impatiently for a chance to get rid of him. And that 'chance' had come thanks to the 'enemy's' actions.

Percy understood what Leo was trying to say... but the situation was different from when he had invited Darren's attack in the resort area. In fact, it was the exact opposite: instead of lying in ambush for the enemy, they would be the ones walking up to a foe who was sure to have made every possible preparation.

“It's too dangerous,” Percy objected to the end. “Please reconsider. Instead of accepting Oswell's invitation, it would be far better to provoke that bastard into leaving his castle and killing him, just as you did with Darren.”

“What are you...” Percy's words were so extreme that Camus' eyes widened in surprise, but Percy stubbornly continued to shake his head.

It hadn't been long since the affair with Darren Actica. It was now widely known among the people that Darren had planned to murder Leo and to wrest away Savan's stone quarry, but there was no denying that Leo Attiel's impetuous actions made the nobles – sovereign-prince included – very nervous. The trap that Oswell had set was surely a dangerous one, but what would be far more dangerous was if Leo caused yet another disturbance.

Percy Leegan was absolutely right. Anyone with any common sense would have supported him. Even Leo himself agreed with him.

''There's probably something wrong with me''. Yet every time the had that thought, there was one scene that came back to him – that time at the banquet when he had told Hayden: “I'll show you how I'll turn the tables on you.” The threat that he himself had spoken back then was one that Leo had never ceased to hold to heart. And he constantly drove himself forward with the thought that: ''If there wasn't something wrong with me, then I wouldn't be able to turn this situation around.''

Now that Darren was dead, Leo viewed Oswell Taholin as the greatest threat. If he really had been tied to Darren Actica, who had tried to destroy Leo, then there was a strong possibility that he would continue to pose a threat in the future. And if you added to that a connection to Allion, then he would be a far more difficult opponent than Darren had been.

''If I stop now, it will all have been for nothing''. Up until then, and also from then onwards, Leo drove himself forward with those words.

''Defeating Hayden, killing Darren, and also, allowing all those soldiers to die in the battles surrounding those events... it would all have been absolutely for nothing. And my life as Leo, the second prince of Principality of Atall, will also lose its meaning. In the future, those unknown historians will laugh, saying that: “He was a man who didn't accomplish anything, and it would have been better for him to simply live out his entire life as a hostage in Allion.”''

Leo was firmly set in his decision.

But Percy's attitude was also unwavering.

“For now, please turn him down. We have too little information, and we don't have enough time to remedy that. I agree with you that Oswell is an 'enemy', but please be patient for just a little while longer. That would also be best for your future. If you are too hasty, you will only end up losing everything for nothing at all.”

Leo was perfectly aware that it was a valid argument, and one which he could not refute. By the time they had talked it over again several times, the day had already passed.

Yet Leo could not afford all that much time when it came to his trip to Oswell’s territory and, before long, he arrived at the point where he needed to start preparing for it, even though he not been able to counter Percy’s objections.

At that point, he was forced into making another decision. It was probably the first one like it since he had travelled through Allion, fleeing from being a hostage; Leo decided to take action without taking Percy’s opinion into consideration. To prevent Percy from suspecting anything, he deliberately gave him something to do that would take him far away, and, during that time, he hurriedly finished his various preparations for the trip.

''Once I get results, I’m sure Percy will understand'', thought Leo.

Yet if he had been the same as he usually was, he would have taken as much time and used as many words as he needed to to win over approval from all of his close guards: Percy, Camus and Kuon, and when he intended to make his move, he would have first worked at persuading them as though his life depended on it.

That was how it went when he decided to fight Hayden. Even though Camus had vehemently opposed his plan, Leo had litteraly put his life on the line to convince him to take part in it.

However, the circumstances then and now were different.

Back then, Leo had not had a single soldier that he was free to move, but now, his Personal Guards had swelled to over two thousand. Percy was just one person, and even if he did not agree with what Leo did, Leo now had enough 'power' to force a change in the situation. So, in other words, he no longer needed to waste time in trying to persuade the one person that was Percy, or to put his own life on the line.



When Percy Leegan returned to Guinbar, he received a shock. It had been five days already since Leo and his group – which included Camus and Kuon – had left the castle.

On top of that, he had left a verbal message to pass on as an order: “I'm leaving five hundred men with you, Percy. Have them continue their training while they guard the territory.” Which translated to: ''Stay where you are and don't move without permission.''

“The fuck is this!”

Percy vented his emotions which such rare and open violence that the nearby pageboys and new recruits trembled.

''Don't move. Don't move, you say? Camus and Kuon both moved, completely ignoring your orders. But you didn't criticize them for it. So what if I move too? His Lordship won't be getting angry as long as the result works out, right? Well, isn't that right, Prince? Isn't that right, Leo!''

He was incandescent with rage. It looked like they had gotten cocky just because things had worked out well that one time.

''Camus and Kuon are both pathetic. Is risking their lives the only things they can do? Simply blindly obeying isn't loyalty. They're just acting like idiots who've given up on using their own brains!''

At the same, since he had suddenly been left behind like this, he also wondered if the problem didn't lie with his attitude towards Leo.

''I opposed the prince's decision. I wasn't wrong, but... maybe I was too stubborn afterwards, when I refused to listen to his arguments.''

He couldn't say for sure that he hadn't been influenced by his jealousy towards Camus and Kuon, and by the feeling he had because of it that the way the prince was treating him was unfair. If he hadn't directly opposed Leo, but had simply offered him a different opinion, if he had listened to what Leo intended to do after accepting Oswell's invitation, then there should have been both a way and the time to figure something out. Maybe not much, but there should at least have been something.

“Shit!”

Standing near the warehouse were stones for the church construction were kept, Percy  let out an angry howl that sounded like it could have come from a wolf.