The black-haired girl held her forehead with a blank look on her face. "You surely won't kill us?"
Leon shook his head.
"But… all those people in white cloths clearly said to the two sirs from earlier that if they don't kill us, those white clothed people will personally come to kill us." The white-haired girl who hadn't spoken until now suddenly said in a low voice.
"A bunch of old bastards who don't even dare to step foot on the battlefield. If they really have the guts, let them come," Leon said with a sneer.
"Sir, are you stronger than them?" the black-haired girl asked cautiously.
Leon shook his head. "No. But I have strong figures even more formidable than those old fogeys backing me up. So you two can rest assured. Since I said I will protect you, I will."
"Why?" the white-haired girl suddenly asked in a clear tone. "Why are you protecting us?"
Leon paused for a moment and sighed. "I don't know what life both of you have lived until now, but I saw my younger self in you. Actually, I am from a rather ordinary family with no cultivation heritage. Just a mountain village at the 40th stronghold with ordinary neighbors and friends."
"Life until I was five was rather peaceful. But then one day, some bastard opened up a spatial portal and demon beasts flooded our village, destroying and killing everything and everyone they saw."
"Due to some twisted fate, a large boulder fell on my lower body and I was nearly buried in the rubble. In my blurry vision, I saw my father and my pregnant mother being killed by two evil cultivators. One of them even tore open my mother's belly, yanked out the kid, and smashed it onto the ground."
"That day I lost everything. My home, my family, everything. But by some soldier's grace, I was rescued. The next two years were hell for me. No food, no shelter, no relatives, nothing. Two years later when I first met my master, I was fighting with stray dogs for food in the waste dump. It might sound funny, but the reason why she decided to take me in as her disciple was because I managed to defeat eight fierce dogs back then with just a stick."
The two girls fell silent after hearing Leon's story. Seeing their reaction, Leon didn't say anything more. The only reason why he said this much was to make the girls feel at ease regarding the reason why he decided to take them in. After all, there is no better reason than an honest truth.
Leon casually selected some dishes on the digital tablet on the table and pushed it towards the two girls. "Just order whatever you want. From the age of seven, I never lacked money. Even if you order everything on the menu, it won't even affect a fraction of what is in my bank account."
The black-haired girl swallowed hard after seeing the dishes listed on the menu. After a moment of hesitation, she took the tablet and after discussing with her sister, selected more than a dozen dishes before giving back the tablet to Leon.
Glancing over the items the two had selected, Leon knew that they wouldn't be able to complete all these dishes, but he just smiled and confirmed the order.
In less than five minutes, the table was filled with multiple dishes and drinks. Without even looking at the two girls, Leon took his fried rice, wild chicken roast, and iron horned cow milk before starting to eat them with gusto.
Seeing this, the black-haired one was the first to start eating. After her, the white-haired one also followed. Seeing how Leon ate with no table manners unlike the young lords from the minister's house, the two also threw caution to the wind and began devouring the food like hungry ghosts.
When Leon finished eating, the two little girls were so full that he had to call a cab to bring the two little foodies back home.
Leon's home was a two storied building, with the first floor acting as his workshop and the second floor acting as his home. Since he had exactly three bedrooms, Leon gave them a bedroom each and helped them arrange the clothes and other necessities Jasmine had brought for them from the storage ring.
Clearly, she knew Leon would make such a decision. After all, they had been seeing him since he was little. Even toothbrushes, beauty products, new ID cards, phones, and some trivial things like teddy bears were included in the ring.
"The time is 3:00 pm. I still have work to do. Both of you can rest in your rooms. As for the evil curse on you, we can only start working on it after both of you recover your vitality. So for the time being, just focus on eating and recovering your lost life essence," Leon said to the two before intending to go down towards his workshop.
"Can we come?" the black-haired girl asked timidly when she saw Leon leave. For some reason, she felt safe around him and didn't want to lose this sensation.
Leon paused for a moment and seeing the light in their eyes, he couldn't bring himself to refuse, so he nodded.
Getting down stairs, Leon casually unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it to the side. He picked up the hammer hanging on the wall and flicked his fingers towards the forge. The next second, a blue flame shot from his fingertip towards the forge, lighting it up, though no heat was emitted outwards.
"Wow…" the black-haired girl involuntarily covered her mouth when she saw Leon's perfect muscles and the three asura tattoos on his back. Even though they were from the first stronghold, it was the first time they were seeing a man so perfect that it involuntarily made them blush.
This was not purely infatuation towards the opposite sex, but admiration for a fine art with no flaws to speak of.
With a stylish butterfly-like swing of the hammer in one hand, Leon picked up the handleless sword on top of the anvil and directly put it inside the mouth of the forge without using any tongs.
Strangely, although the metal was clearly heated up, the flames neither burned Leon's hand which was inside the mouth of the forge nor did they make the exposed weapon look hot.
"This blue flame is my bloodline flame, the hell fire. It is a mix between fire and water. Due to this, the flames have a very high boiling point and at the same time an equally high freezing point. If you can balance between the two, this flame is capable of burning everything in the world while at the same time not harming anything the caster doesn't want it to harm," Leon explained, seeing the astonishment in the two little girls' eyes.
After some time, he pulled out the blade and placed it on the anvil before he started hammering the silver blade.
Bang. Bang.
Each time he raised his hammer to strike, golden runes swirled around his hand and manifested at the head of the hammer. As the hammer head touched the blade, the runes entered the blade in a fluid motion.
With each strike, the weapon seemed to come to life, as a dangerous and sharp aura gradually appeared around the blade.
"My name is Leon Skywalker. What about you?" Leon asked as he continued his work.
The two girls exchanged a glance and the black-haired one spoke. "My name is Amelia Carter and my sister's name is Isabella Clarke."
"Both of you are not blood related sisters, right?"
"No. We were brought to the minister's mansion when we were little. From then on, we treated each other as sisters."
Leon nodded. "Fine then. Both of you can call me Brother Leo, and I will call you Ame and Isa from now on."
The two sisters looked at each other in a daze. Clearly, the care and gentleness emanating from Leon was quite foreign to them. Usually they were treated as dirt or livestock by others. It was for the first time that they felt that they were speaking to someone of their level. Someone who didn't despise them. Someone who still saw them as humans.
Involuntarily, their eyes became wet. But Leon didn't notice it as he focused his attention on the metal being hammered on top of the anvil.
"So, tell me, how much do you know about cultivation?" Leon asked.