As everyone knows, the city of Orario was originally built outward from Babel at its center, which is why, seen from the sky, its overall outline comes closer to one enormous circle.
The circular city was divided like a cake into eight equal slices, and the section wedged between North Street and Northeast Street is the so-called First District.
In the First District, out along the "outer ring" near the city wall, sits a sizable stretch of abandoned wasteland.
It begins in the west at the little street beside the forest on the east side of North Street, then runs east, spanning the width of two whole neighborhoods, all the way to the riverbank.
That stretch of land is exactly what the contract marks as Plot No. 666.
Its total area doesn't match the Freya Familia's Folkvangr, which takes up nearly half a district, but compared to the Loki Familia's Twilight Manor, or even the Apollo Familia's Palace of the Sun (the future site of the Hearth Mansion), even counting attached courtyards and surrounding holdings, the scale of Leon's plot was clearly larger by more than a notch.
Everyone stood atop Orario's white outer wall, leaning on the battlements to look down. Spread before them was an open expanse of wasteland, scattered ruins and broken walls buried under thick snow.
The whole scene, under the howling winter wind and snow, looked vast and dead.
Irisviel raised a leather-gloved hand to her brow, squinting slightly at the land that was theirs, and sighed softly:
"It's so big...!"
Margaret nodded in agreement:
"With this much space, we'll have plenty of room to plan out all sorts of facilities."
Then something occurred to her, and she turned to Iri:
"Oh, right, Iri... how does this place compare to your family's castle, the Einzberns'?"
At that, everyone looked over at her, curious.
"Compared to the castle back home?"
Iri breathed into her cupped palms, knit her brow in an adorable little frown of thought, and finally shook her head:
"If you only count the building's footprint, this place is bigger. But if you count the manor grounds of the family estate... hmm... I think the Einzbern home is still larger. I remember Grandfather, the head of the family, saying we have a forest that belongs entirely to us."
"Sometimes I'd gaze out the window, and that forest was so big you couldn't see the end of it."
Everyone: "..."
Sure enough, on top of Lydia, the genuine princess, Iri of the Einzbern family was no slouch either. With a "von" in her name, she was clearly from an old, storied noble house.
For nobility, owning a bit of land like that was perfectly normal, wasn't it?
Especially since hers was also a famous house of magecraft.
After Iri's little aside, everyone figured they'd seen about enough.
It was wasteland to begin with, so there really wasn't much to look at. They'd just come to check the location and the surrounding environment.
"Leon, we think this place is great. What do you think?"
"If there's no problem, let's break ground as soon as we can!"
"..."
But after a good while, Rose hadn't heard a single word back from Leon.
She turned around, puzzled.
"?"
"...Leon?"
"Where'd he go?"
At that, everyone turned, and went blank for a moment.
Up on the wall, there was no sign of Leon anywhere.
"He's down there."
Jeanne rolled her eyes in exasperation and jerked her chin toward the far side of the wall.
Everyone hurried to the battlements and looked down.
There was a single figure, dancing all by himself out on that patch of wasteland.
The posture had the loose, drifting quality of someone who'd had one whiskey too many.
"This time I take my leave of home and set out on my wandering,"
"With ignorance and long-lost dreams like a guitar out ahead of me."
"Mother's words fill up my dreams, I won't lose my way again,"
"And now I carry my faith with me as home slips further behind."
"The dreams I had as a child, laughable, hidden away like storm clouds."
"The world outside is pitch dark,"
"And I am still a keeper of the bonfire..."
Leon danced with his eyes shut, arms cocked up, feet carrying him through loose, improvised steps, his body swaying lightly left and right to the rhythm of his humming, head bobbing along.
It was the butterfly step, and the tipsy, slackened version of it at that.
Kureha & Iri & Margaret & Lydia: "..."
The gentle smile Rose usually wore slowly faded, and her fingers tightened a little around the parchment.
Laurier and Aura stared blankly, little mouths drifting open without meaning to, plainly still not fully processing the sight in front of them.
Jeanne let out a soft snort:
"How much does a person have to drink to dance out that kind of 'looseness'?"
"So undignified."
Even as she said it, she knew better than anyone, that not when he ranked up, not when he learned a new spell, not even when he earned the gold coins he loved most, had Leon ever shown joy this pure.
Over land and a house... he's actually this obsessed?
"Let's go."
She turned and headed for the stairs.
"We'll go down too."
...
"Riveria, those people... aren't they Demeter Familia?"
Jeanne, Rose, and the others had all been drawn to Leon dancing alone below the wall, and none of them noticed that at the far end of the curved wall's sightline, one tall figure and one small were going through their daily training.
It was no one else but the Loki Familia's Nine Hell, the elf royal Riveria, and beside her that silent, focused Sword Princess, Ais Wallenstein.
Following Ais's gaze, Riveria took a look, then narrowed her eyes slightly and gave a small nod:
"It's Miss d'Arc and Miss Marbleheart and the others."
Then her gaze settled on that stretch of wasteland, and a thought turned over in her mind as she murmured:
"I remember... that plot numbered 666, abandoned for years, should be right around here, shouldn't it? Which means... they came to look at the land? If so, then it's no surprise they'd come all the way to the First District."
"Only... Mr. Hart, what is he doing?"
"Some kind of celebratory ritual?"
"..."
Ais's expression stayed calm. She only asked quietly:
"Riveria, what wasteland?"
"It's nothing," Riveria said, drawing her gaze back, her tone gentle. "All you need to know is, before long, we may have a new neighbor."
"A neighbor?"
The moment she heard the word, Kureha's astonishing swordsmanship flashed into Ais's mind, along with that miraculous Monster Hunter Special the Demeter Familia made. Her eyes brightened a little.
The Monster Hunter Special did have a teensy bit of an unfriendly side effect for an Adventurer her age, but in the face of a 5% boost to all stats, none of that mattered.
Save up in secret!
The young Sword Princess quietly clenched her fist in her heart.
I'm going to buy the Monster Hunter Special!
...
Meanwhile, Leon was fully immersed in his "perfect" dance steps when a hand suddenly tapped him lightly on the shoulder.
"Hm?"
His rhythm broken, he opened his eyes, a little puzzled.
And found himself facing a row of faces wearing all sorts of expressions: some struggling to hold back laughter, some plainly awkward, some completely blank... all of them watching him in silence.
"Ahem..."
Leon's face froze for an instant, but he immediately switched to a nothing-happened look and seized the initiative, asking:
"What are you all doing down here?"
As long as I'm not embarrassed, the embarrassed ones are everybody else.
Jeanne drew a deep breath, doing her best to ignore the lingering weakness in her legs, and kept her tone as level as she could:
"Stop dancing."
"Take out the contract and let's get started."
Leon said nothing, just quietly unrolled the parchment scroll and poured Magic into it.
"Tool guy, you're the one!"
"Get out here!"
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