At the Rothschild family house, a white haired man with a regal aura surrounding his person sat in a well furnished office with a purple carpet covering every inch of the marble floor, the historic paintings that hung on the wall told the story of the Rothschild family with ease.
"Patriarch, the head of the vandemire house has requested to see you". A maid reported with her head lowered.
"Let him in". Luke Rothschild replied, without lifting his head from the documents he was studying.
With a bow, the maid left the office and soon after, a red–haired man with a carefree smile walked in with his hands behind his head.
"Luke, my old friend, I missed you~".
Luke watched Leon walk in and sit on the empty chair infront of him without any courtesy, not that he had any in the first place.
"Leon, what are you doing here". Luke asked as he pushed up his glasses.
"Can't a friend come to see his bestest friend in the whole wide world anymore". Leon responded with a pout as he twirled a pen.
"Make it quick, I have things to do". Luke, obviously not buying his excuse said with a neutral expression.
Seeing that Luke didn't buy his excuse, Leon sighed and eventually gave in.
"It's about the tournament".
Luke's eyebrows raised a little as he noticed the rare serious expression on Leon's face.
"What about the tournament?". He asked as he interlocked his hands under his chin.
"Those crimson bastards have been moving strangely". Leon said with a grim expression.
Luke's expression also changed for the worse as he listened to Leon.
"The crimson blade? Why now?". He asked as he removed his glasses and his beautiful obsidian eyes were exposed.
"How would I know? It's not like I'm part of thier secret organization or anything". Leon responded with a nonchalant expression.
With a sigh Luke asked, "Then how did you know and please don't give me that excuse of it being your intuition". Luke added with a calm expression before Leon could respond.
"Hey!, I'll have you know my intuition saved the Ashcroft house multiple times!". Leon retorted with a wronged expression.
"Although I am grateful to you for saving my wife's family, I'm not dumb enough to believe it was some gut feeling". Luke responded calmly as he placed some documents on the stack next to him.
"I hope you fall down the stairs and twist your ankle". Leon responded with a pout.
"An SS rank cultivator can be hurt by falling down the stairs Leon" Luke responded with a neutral expression.
"Tsk, just you wait, I'll break through and I'll beat your ass".
"Now tell me about the crimson situation". Luke asked with a serious expression.
Seeing that he was serious, Leon sat up straight as the air became heavy.
"As I'm sure you know, those bald freaks appeared hundred years ago and messed up everything in the kingdom."
"Yes, I don't need to remember how many soldiers I lost in a bid to destroy a small portion of their army". Luke responded with a tired expression as he recalled the losses he incurred that year.
"Well, they didn't only terrorize people– some infiltrated the ranks of high ranking officials and nearly crippling the economic status of the kingdom".
"We needed the help of the last child of the king to salvage the situation". Luke muttered with a low voice.
"That kid's a monster". Leon shuddered as he recalled how the innocent looking boy pierced the eyes of one the crimson blade spies with his two fingers without a change in expression.
"Back to the point – I noticed a pattern after their first and second major attacks"
Luke nodded, urging Leon to continue.
"Initially, vast quantities of enchanted, soul-forged, rune-scribed, and even blood-bound armor and weapons are ordered anonymously and paid for in full before delivery."
Luke's eyes widened slightly in surprise as he belatedly realized the pattern.
'His observational abilities are top notch as always'. Luke thought, as he stared at the red haired man who was mumbling away with an excited expression.
'He's the patriarch of the vandemire family for a reason'.
Normally, patriarchs in every major family are elected once they reach SS rank and in the rare event that two heirs reach SS rank, they are teleported to Maelvrax – a dimension the royal dwarven family created with their own hands, it's rumored to be able to withstand the after– effects of the battle between 5 SS ranks at the same time.
But the case of the Vandemire family was a peculiar one.
The matriarch had only one child and he was expected to succeed the Vandemire house as the next patriarch. Unfortunately the patriarch died mysteriousky when Leon was only at B+ rank.
What happened next?
What any highly ranking family would do.
Fight for the succession of the throne.
Obviously, the internal fighting was never made known to the public or it could lead to an even worse outcome.
To avoid unnecessary loss of lives, it was decided that duels would be held between the numerous individuals eyeing the throne, the winner would become the patriarch of the Vandemire family.
Simple right?
Well, not so much.
Days before the duels began, some of the contestants would encounter 'accidents' during training or hunting and would be deemed unfit for the battle, ultimately giving the fit contestant a free pass to the next round.
When complaints were filed to the elders, they only responded with, "If you're dumb enough to fall for obvious to fall for such obvious traps, then you're not fit to become a ruler".
The duels continued, regardless of the obvious sabotage and foul play involved.
The Vandemire family's future was looking bleak....
Until Leon advanced to A rank due to a lucky encounter during one of his expeditions.
He returned back to the family filled excitement and was met with a scene that made him burn in anger.
Maids laughing and talking without a care in the world.
The guards drinking in the middle of the day while they were still on duty
The training grounds was in dissaray and the mages were nowhere to be found.
And when he learned of the whole situation, he entered the battle.
He was met with scorn, disdain and insults, but none dared to physically harm him.
But he wasn't one to play fair.
He attacked and killed all the A ranks and B ranks that enrolled in the duel in their sleep.
Heavily injured the S ranks during their cultivation under the pretense of a poorly aimed shot.
An obvious lie, but there was nothing they could do about it.
The day for the first duel closed in and the warrior that was supposed to fight against Leon was nowhere to be found.
The second day.
The third day.
The date for the finals was near and Leon won evey battle by default. He was eventually scheduled to fight an S+ rank warrior who was also the chief of military of the Vandemire family.
It was an obvious ploy to kill Leon, there was no way a mere A rank warrior could go against an S+ rank.
It was suicide.
Or so they thought.
The D-Day approached and the chief of military withdrew with tears and snot running down his face. When he was asked why he resigned and what happened, he responded with a forced smile that looked horrible with the tears and snot and said, "I'm not feeling well is all."
Leon won by default again and his carefree smile never left his face during this time.
He became the patriarch without lifting a finger.....in the open that is .
Fast forward thirty years later, Leon advanced to A+ rank and the Vandemire family was more successful than it had ever been, earning him the respect of the patriarchs and citizens.
"Lu..."
"Luke"
"LUKE!!". Leon shouted, bringing luke out of his thoughts.
"You spaced out again". Leon muttered with an annoyed expression as it looked like it wasn't the first time.
"I apologize, the crimson patterns, could you repeat what you said?"
"..."
"You're shameless you know that?". Leon responded with a deadpan expression as he looked at Luke.
Seeing that Luke didn't respond, Leon summarized his findings with an annoyed expression.
"Basically, they buy high ranked armory first, people from different states settle in our kingdom subtly, a steady increase in crime rates and boom third incident".
"Mm...and let me guess–"
"Yeah, it's happening". Leon completed Luke's sentence.
After a brief moment of silence, Luke sighed and opened his closed eyes.
"I'll send my men to handle it and you can organize them however you want".
"That'll be for the best". Leon nodded
"Is there anything else?". Seeing that Leon wasn't taking his leave, Luke asked with a confused expression.
'Does he want me to assign the warriors to him now?'. Luke thought as he stared at Leon who has wise smile on his face.
'No, it's pro–'
"My main reason for coming is for you to ask Miriam to marry my son". Leon interrupted his thoughts with a wide smile on his face.
"What?!"