Capítulo 196: chapter 49

Right now, Leonard was sitting inside of his mansion, meditating quietly without having anyone to disturb him after he went back from the royal family vote and picked out a "treasure.".

Needless to say, he indeed had encountered quite a surprise while he was in there, the item that he picked was a small metal box hidden in a dark corner of the chamber, the content itself was revealed to him- however, it was left undisclosed for the generals' eyes.

Leonard then pulled out that same box from the inside of his inventory and lay it in front of him.

"Alright… let see what secret are you really hiding…" Leonard narrowed his eyes as he pulled out the item that first shocked him to the very core.

It was a plastic figurine of a feminine humanoid figure with pink braided hair wearing cute cloth.

"...let just put this one to the side…" he stealthily pushed the figurine to one corner and continued to shove his hand into the metal and rummaging around until he found something- he immediately pulled out in an excited manner.

The item was a pristine piece of paper- but all crumbled up, he took his time to unscrambled the piece of paper and revealed a written message from within.

The message read.

[Those who discovered the secret of the trap, shall gain knowledge about the world of the gods!] the written message was short and simple if anyone else who read this message- they might think that the author of the message might have a few screws loose within their head.

But to Leonard, it was different... he knew that there's no way in hell another world traveler would leave something behind as a joke.

Once again he tried to see if he could find anything else hidden within the lockbox, however to his disappointment he found nothing at all but another piece of paper with colorful scribbled and a red X mark, imagining a priceless spacial artifact, holding just two pieces of notes and the figurine of a trap character, extravagant much? Consider such an item coming from the royal armory of one of the most powerful countries on this side of the world, either that or the one who left this "treasure" within the armory is a great troll.

It was only then that he shifted his attention onto the traumatizing piece of "art" that he had conveniently placed onto the side all these time.

"Much to the saying… "Only the best "girl" get to be in this box"?..." he examined the figurine.

Leonard then closely inspect the figurine closely with his eyes, trying to look for the minor details that might be etched onto the figurine- however, he discovered nothing using his normal vision which was boosted after his breakthrough into the realm of "food" *cough *cough into the star realm of the multiverse.

Leonard then tried to push his magic into the figurine to try and discover the secret that was hidden within the idol of "Astolfo", the moment he used his magic- he felt that the magical energy within himself had a slight change to them, it had changed so much that he doubted for a moment that this is still magical energy from this world, it was dense and heavy and malleable unlike previously where he had to channel the power into different patterns of circuit in order to get certain spells to function properly- else it will be going to blow up in his face.

But back to business now, Leonard focused the magical energy around the figurine, wrapping the idol up with his power- trying to see if he could discover something that his eyes might have missed when it was inspecting the figurine.

On the surface, he still discovered nothing- however, the moment he forced his power inward- the things that he saw within shocked him, there was a blue round smooth spherical gem within the plastic figurine of Astolfo with intricate carving and marking all over its surface and within the crystal structure, the design was a breathtaking wonder.

"A red magic crystal with magical circuit imprinted? Judging by the design- it seems to be the missing pieces of a bigger puzzle…" Leonard then pushed his mana into the inactive circuit and powered it up before pulling the crystal out from the inside of the Astolfo figurine, he was being careful as to not damage the "rare" figurine.

What came out, in the end, was a small bead red in color, round and smooth on all sides and about the size of a small marble, with normal eyes he could not distinguish any marking on the round crystal bead- however through his magical observation, he knows that it is there.

"I found the key… but where could the lock be?" he scratched his chin slowly in deep thought.

He then turned his eyes toward the elementary school level kid scribble that he had also pulled out previously and pick up the scribble to have a good look at it again.

"The fuck is this suppose to mean? A large round object with a large crack down the middle, oozing some yellowish goo and marked with a red X… wait...this…" Leonard stared at the drawing with eyes wide opened and stare intensely at the round red marble key in his hand.

"That is! Time for another trip doing into the underground sanctuary...maybe tonight will do…" Leonard grinned as he played with the red marble in his hand.

*****

Inside another wing of the royal palace.

A man was angrily kicking at the stone wall of the palace in extreme rage, each of his kick would leave a deep imprint onto the stone wall, creating spider web-like crack onto the infrastructure and breaking off pieces of large stone block.

"Damn it! Why does grandfather favor that peasant brat so much! How am I any worse than that little shit? I am of pure noble blood!" he cursed in a muffled voice as he leaves kick after kick.

This man was none other than one of the princes that was there within the secret sanctuary, witnessing Leonard in his recognition ceremony and secretly scowled at him from the shadow.

His name was Francis, the son of one of the children of the emperor, he was known for being selfish and jealous of all his other cousins- whom he also looks down on due to their birth and the fact that they are not related on the same branch of the family.

This goes especially further for someone such as Leonard and Augustus, whom he viewed as mere dirt who stained the royal family.

"Cousin, what are you getting so worked up about?" a voice called out from behind Francis in a somewhat mocking tone which gotten Francis to kick the stone wall with increased brute force.

*Boooom! The foot imprint took down a large section of the wall.

the voice belong to a young man with a feminine face, long hair with a shade of pink, braided and wearing cute cloth, smiling at Francis.

"Shut it! Neal…" Francis glared at his cousin with chilly eyes.

"Or I will beat the living shit out of you! Your father isn't here to protect you- so you've been warned…" he then scowled.

Neal however only took Francis threat with a smile on his face.

"Be mindful of your tone, Francis...I am not as weak as you think I am… I'm here to warn you that, if you dare to make a move on my cousins… it won't end well for you...the chance of you...dying, is very...high." Neal replied calmly before heading out, leaving Francis glaring at him behind his back.