Chapter 241: Cupid on Valentine's Day
The night air was cold.
Leonardo walked through the Beauxbatons grounds, reading over the newly triggered loan as he went.
[Loan: Advanced Fire Elemental Inscription]
[Repayment Deadline: 30 days]
[Loan Content: Grants the Advanced Fire Elemental Inscription. Increases the host's affinity for the fire element. Increases the speed of learning fire magic. Increases the power of fire magic by 50%.]
The recent loans had all been tied to elemental inscriptions — that had been Leonardo's own suggestion to the system. What he actually cared about, as always, was the task.
[Loan Task: Valentine's Day Offensive. Use Alchemy, Potions, Transfiguration, and other magical means to enrich the festive atmosphere, and help those who dream of love or have already found it celebrate the day in full.]
Leonardo's brow furrowed.
He did want the Fire Elemental Inscription — it would leave only the wind inscription still missing. But the task itself…
Vague, very vague. Make the Valentine's Day atmosphere more festive?
His first thought went to the original story. Lockhart made Valentine's Day his personal stage. Hiring little people dressed as winged cherubs, having them wander the corridors strumming harps and delivering love letters, turning Hogwarts into something between a circus and a florist — all while driving the other professors, Snape especially, to the edge of homicidal intent.
Leonardo reached out to the system.
"Same as the Fountain of Beauty — you'll be the one judging whether the task is complete?"
[That's right~ Looking forward to seeing what the host comes up with.]
Right. More client work, then.
And somehow, he had ended up moonlighting as a matchmaker. Or—given the setting—more of a Cupid, really.
He could craft some alchemical figurines modelled after the classic golden-haired cherub. Having them deliver love letters was actually worth trying, with a few refinements.
He was already planning to develop beauty and skincare potions and other alchemical products. Those would fit the Valentine's theme well enough.
Valentine's Day. The fourteenth of February. By then, he would be back at Hogwarts.
At least it was home ground.
If the task had required him to carry it out at Beauxbatons, that would have been both inconvenient and considerably more mortifying.
[Ding! Loan application approved!]
[Evaluation: Love — a blazing fire. And yet, does Cupid, who looses the arrows of love, have a love story of his own~]
...
The following morning.
Walking through the snow-covered Pyrenees, Leonardo stifled a yawn, his breath dissolving into white mist.
Even the cold couldn't clear the drowsiness. The night before, Professor Shafiq had given him and Reiman a supplementary lesson — but once she had finished a full run-through, Reiman was still only half-following. So Shafiq had done exactly what she had done at the qualifying round: announced she was done, and handed the lesson over to Leonardo.
Teaching others was nothing new to him at this point. He just felt, once again, like he had been press-ganged into service.
He pulled a bottle of Vigor Draught from his pocket and unscrewed the cap.
Glug, glug, glug.
Between the potion and the cold, he was fully awake within moments. He circulated a faint thread of magic, and the falling snowflakes drifted aside to avoid him.
After a brief exploration of the mountain terrain, Leonardo found what he was looking for.
In a clearing ahead, several horses the size of elephants stood gathered together. They had golden coats, silver manes, and vivid eyes the colour of flame. Faint tongues of fire ran along their backs and tails, the heat radiating from them enough to melt the surrounding snow entirely.
Leonardo observed these locally distinctive magical creatures with interest.
Abraxans.
He took out two barrels and walked toward the herd.