Chapter 239: No Mans Land (1/2)

Leonel touched his sore bottom again. He had already lost count of the number of times he had done so, but the discomfort hadn't disappeared.

Seeing Leonel do this again, Lionus couldn't help but snicker. Though he quickly tried to hide it, Leonel wouldn't miss such a thing with how sharp his senses were. He could only send a glare toward the Crown Prince.

Unfortunately, this glare only made Lionus' withheld laughter burst forth like a torrential tide.

”If others knew the great Earthen Childe Leonel couldn't handle riding a horse for a few hours, just how would they react?”

Lionus' laughter continued as though he couldn't sense Leonel's piercing glare.

It had already been a few days since Leonel, Lionus and the rest of the expedition squad had set out to the Border Region.

Leonel still remembered his shock when he saw the teleportation arrays Camelot had built. But, after a moment, it was relatively easy to accept. After all, if a Tier 9 Black treasure could provide a talisman capable of taking Aina to a new world, it wasn't too shocking that a world with several Magi could find methods to teleport within a world.

After his initial shock settled down, Leonel laughed at himself. He had seen all of the Mage Arts within the Magic Art Tower. Some of them had abilities he couldn't have even fathomed back when he was a normal human. Something like teleportation shouldn't have been so surprising.

Unfortunately, despite the existence of teleportation channels, Leonel had still had to ride a horse in the last few days.

For safety, the teleportation channels to Camelot and from Camelot stopped appearing frequently after the Red Mission Ring and there were sparingly few within the Black Mission Ring. As for the Border Region, there were none. So, after reaching the last channel, Leonel, Lionus and the rest of the group had to travel by horse.

But… Leonel hadn't even touched a horse in his lifetime before. In fact, he couldn't remember ever being close to one, let alone having to ride it uncomfortably for hours.

In truth, Leonel could just use a simple healing spell to stop the soreness, but after his conversation with the Pope, he didn't dare to use Light Elemental magic in public anymore. And, it seemed Lionus was too busy laughing at him to help out.

The rest of the squad seemed to be taking this quite well as well. It was rare to get some laughs during a Border Region Mission, so they felt a bit relaxed after making Leonel the butt of the joke.

Lionus smiled inwardly. 'What an interesting guy… I know he's not a person who gets embarrassed so easily. The only explanation is that he's becoming the butt of the joke on purpose to ease the tension…'

Lionus found Leonel to be an interesting character to analyze. Whenever he thought he understood him, things would turn out to be much different from what he had expected. Leonel had layers to him that were exceptionally difficult to peel back.

The team this time was formed by five members including Lionus and Leonel. Aside from them, there were three Leonel recognized — Mary, Theybul, and finally, Elys.

It was only after seeing them all that Leonel understood the true reason behind their robes lacking embroidery. Mages and Magi who frequented battlefields wouldn't give more information about themselves to the enemy than was necessary. In fact, Leonel realized that their robes might not even necessarily reflect their true levels.

Due to this reason, Leonel also wore plain blue robes without any embroidery and he understood just a bit more about the world he was in.

Suddenly, the laughing atmosphere grew serious. Lionus, the leader of this squad, didn't need to say anything. They could see by the land that stretched out before them that they were here.

The line of separation was so stark that it almost seemed surreal. On one side, there were blades of green grass. Though these blades lacked in health and were even browning in several spots, they were ultimately still blades of grass.