Leon strolled through the streets of Zeusea with a smoothie in hand, sipping on it as he took in the sights of the city.
Elidyr and Beriel followed behind him, keeping to the shadows, but still close enough to reach him quickly in case of an emergency.
Leon was dressed casually, wearing a simple pair of black jeans under a white t-shirt, paired with white sneakers.
A black baseball cap rested on his head, and his half-framed glasses, etched with recognition inhibition runes, sat on his face.
These glasses were Artifacts, items with unique abilities, often powered by magic.
When he wore the glasses, people could see him and register his facial features, but the moment they looked away, they wouldn't remember what he looked like. Even while looking directly at him, their minds wouldn't connect his face to the identity of 'Leon Raviaz'.
Being a member of the Raviaz Family came with fame, so if Leon wanted to move around on the streets without drawing attention, using artifacts like this was necessary.
In his free hand, he held his phone, which currently displayed the bank balance he had left after buying the 5 Credits smoothie in his other hand.
'That's quite a lot of zeroes.'
Leon closed the app and slid his phone back into his pocket, raising his gaze to look for anything else that could catch his attention.
It didn't take him long to spot something that fit that description, a cake shop with several mouth-watering pictures displayed on its windows.
He finished his smoothie and tossed the cup into a trash can by a street corner, but just as he was about to cross the street, the loud sound of something metallic hitting the ground reached his ears.
Leon turned a curious glance toward the source of the noise and saw a woman who had likely tripped and fallen, her shopping bag's contents scattered across the pavement.
Helping someone who had fallen and might be injured, judging from the faint red patch on her knee, wouldn't take much effort, so he set aside his plan to visit the cake shop and walked over to her.
"Hello there, let me help you up," he said as he assisted her to her feet, then bent down quickly to gather the scattered items from her bag.
Among them, he noticed a familiar and popular hair dye brand, the brown shade briefly reminding him of his mother's hair.
It was just a fleeting thought, so he tossed the dye back into the bag and handed it to the woman.
She began thanking him, but as she took a step forward, she suddenly staggered again, almost falling a second time. Luckily, Leon reacted immediately and caught her before she hit the ground.
"Did you hurt your ankle or something?" he asked, glancing down as he supported her.
There was no visible swelling or any indication that something was out of place.
Still holding onto him lightly, the woman thanked him again for catching her and said, "I don't think I broke anything. I'm just… not in the best state of health, and falling certainly didn't help."
"I see," Leon replied. "Well, I think you should sit down for a while. There's a shop right next to us, so you can rest there a bit before continuing on your way."
It was a reasonable suggestion, but the woman gently countered, "I'm afraid I may not be able to do that. I have the house keys with me, and my kids might be home any moment now. I can't leave them locked out. If it's not too much trouble, could you escort me to my house? It's just a few blocks from here."
Leon briefly considered asking why she didn't simply call her children to let them know where she was, but just then, his eyes caught a glimpse of a cafe down the street with a flashy, overly stylised sign.
It was rather catchy and had an attention-grabbing charm. Figuring he could check it out anyway, and since it happened to be along the direction she'd pointed, he decided he might as well walk her there.
"Sure, no problem," he said. "Something down this way caught my eye anyway."
Leon didn't have any particular destination in mind at that moment. His real objective, the ruins in Zeusea's outskirts, wasn't something he planned to tackle until tomorrow, so for now, he had all the time in the world.
"Thank you once again," the woman said with a small smile, only to wince immediately after as a flash of pain ran through her knee.
Her facial features contorted briefly from the discomfort, and just then, a strand of hair that had been hanging by her ear slipped loose and fell in front of her face.
She had light brown hair streaked with faint red patches, brown eyes that matched her hair's hue, and facial features that showed signs of age, though none of it diminished her beauty.
She stood just a little taller than Leon, which made it easy for him to escort her by wrapping her arm over his shoulder in a side-arm support hold.
"You should probably take care of the wound on your knee first before we start going anywhere," Leon suggested.
At his words, the woman reached into one of the shopping bags and pulled out a newly bought pack of tissues. With Leon holding the rest of her bags for her, she quickly wiped the blood from her knee, planning to properly treat it once she got home.
Once she finished, she received her bags back, and the two began their slow walk down the street.
As they walked, she pulled out her phone and opened the Maps app, pinning her home address and tilting the screen toward Leon so he could follow the directions without needing her to guide him at every turn.
Just as the screen faced Leon, the phone beeped, and a low battery notification appeared, causing her eyes to widen slightly.
"Oh my, I should have charged it before I left home," she muttered.
Leon recognised the phone model. He had used a different version from the same brand, and he knew all models in that series could be recharged using the user's magic power.
All it required was placing a thumb or finger at the charging port and activating the magic-charging function in the settings. Once done, the phone would begin absorbing magic energy from the user.
"You can charge this type with your magic power, right?" Leon asked.
The woman gently shook her head. "Unfortunately, I'm incapable of doing so. It's not the phone's fault, but more of a me problem."
"I mentioned earlier that I'm not in the best of health," she continued. "It's a magic-related issue."
"Ah, sorry about that. Let me help you out," Leon offered, taking the phone from her and infusing a bit of magic power.
As the charging icon lit up, the woman said, "Thank you. I was a bit too wild with my magic in my younger days, and now that I'm older, it's come back to bite me."
"Wild?" Leon asked. "How so?"
"Well, my popularity has long faded, but decades ago, I was a fairly well-known mage. Unfortunately, my great magic power wasn't natural. It was artificially acquired through alchemy, and as you probably know, the most basic principle of alchemy is the principle of equivalent exchange."
She sighed wistfully as they walked and added, "That principle applied to my magic as well. So now, I'm paying the price for everything I gained through those means."
'Artificially acquired magic power through alchemy?'
Leon remembered an incident involving something similar. It had been mentioned in one of the later chapters of Deity Rising, and not only was it a major arc in the story, but it also revolved around a key character, one of the game's playable characters, in fact.
However, that incident had taken place in a completely different country, far from Asteau.
As the thought crossed his mind, he pulled out his phone and asked a question while opening his notes app.
"What's your name? Even if it's been decades, there should still be some records. We have information on people from thousands of years ago online, after all."
The woman chuckled softly before replying, "That we do."
"My name is Genevieve," she said. "You can try searching 'Stormweaver Genevieve'."
Leon nodded, typing the name down for later as he introduced himself, "I'm Leon, by the way."
It had barely been a moment after he introduced himself when a loud voice rang out in his ears.
"Mum?! Why did you go out?!"
"The doctor said you shouldn't stress yourself!"
Leon froze at the sound of those unmistakably worried voices, those of a son and daughter.
Footsteps echoed as two figures quickly approached, and Genevieve, whom he was supporting, responded to the voices, "I just went to get a few things. I didn't go too far."
Her response confirmed what Leon had already suspected, that the two approaching were the children she had mentioned earlier.
The problem was that Leon recognised those voices.
Slowly, he looked up, and the sight that greeted him made his eyes widen in shock.
Running toward them was a young man with symmetrical features, his thin lips pressed into a frown. His almond-shaped dark eyes were locked on Genevieve, and his tousled black hair bobbed lightly as he closed the distance in a short sprint.
Beside him was a soft-featured girl who looked to be around the same age and stood at a similar height, her dark eyes matching her brother's, though they were centred by striking red diamond-shaped pupils.
Her hands, which had been tying up her black-highlighted red hair, let go of the strands and moved straight to take the bags Genevieve was holding, her expression filled with worry as though the slight extra weight might make the woman fall over.
The sight of both of them left Leon stunned, so stunned that he almost dropped his phone in shock.
Then again, how could he not be?
After all, the two that had just rushed up to him and Genevieve were none other than the gender-selectable 'protagonist' of Deity Rising.
Cameron and Camellya Seradain.