It was peaceful and calm when the morning came.
As usual, Leon carried Little Han out in the gazebo for some sun, while Eli, Rosea and Baobao prepared the breakfast.
The blades were already up as they still dutifully did their morning physical training. They didn't dare to slack off just because they were in Forgeworn territory.
They fully understood the dangers brought by their future Madame and Master's background. Thus, they must be vigilant at all times.
During the day, Neal along with Blanc and Genos will be in charge of guarding. At night, it will be Ron and Chad's turn to guard in half a night's interval. They decided to take turns with the assignment according to Neal's arrangement.
Seeing their Master awake, they dutifully greeted him in chorus, "Good morning, Your Highness! Greetings to the Little Prince!"
"At ease.. Thank you for your hard work!" Leon nodded and responded to the enthusiastic blades.
They looked curiously at Little Han's sleeping face.
"Uhm Master.. How are you and the future Madame???" Genos asked in a gossipy manner.
Raising his brows in interest, Leon still answered the question calmly, "We are doing fine."
"Aiyooo boss, that's not the way to do it! Do not get confident just because Madame treats you well ahhh.." Ron interjected also in a gossipy manner.
"Indeed, boss! You know, yesterday, Madame played the piano. She was so good! The music was very enchanting and relaxing! If some noble man discovered her, he would relentlessly pursue our Madame for sure!" Chad also didn't forget to contribute something to the gossiping session.
"Yes… Master has to step up his game." Blanc is a shy and quiet guy. He just let out a few words. However his eyes displayed great interest on the topic.
"Then what should I do? Should I give her flowers again?" Leon frowned, he was greatly shaken by his subordinates.
"Aiyaaa! Your Highness, man must have a few more tricks! One trick won't work!" Neal said in concern, "Whenever I went around town, I would see some fellow knights buy something to take home for their wives! Maybe you can do that too!"
"Hmm, I see… What should I buy then? Jewelries? Clothes? Accessory?" Leon mumbled in contemplation.
"Goo! Woo! Woo!" Little Han frowned as if displeased in his Father's words.
"See! Our Little Master also objects! Boss, you must not look at our Madame like the other noble ladies. She is intelligent, graceful and most of all, she is a remarkable person. She wouldn't feel your sincerity just by buying her common women things!"
Chad was the most outspoken among the five, he directly reprimanded Leon's mentality.
"Yes yes! You need to show sincerity!!! What about starting with buying Madame her favorite snack? Give it the moment you come home tonight!!!" Ron suggested.
Leon frowned, Eli actually came from another world and he didn't know what kind of snacks she liked.
"I-i don't know what she likes.." He said guiltily.
…
The five looked at him oddly. How could their master be so clumsy when it comes to wooing Madame??
He is a top talent when it comes to warfare yet his wife chasing abilities need some serious upgrade!!!
It's no wonder he still couldn't get her hand in marriage.
"Cake! Every girl likes it." Blanc calmly interjected.
"Woahh Blanc! Your ways are good! No wonder, you always receive a lot from girls everytime we come back to the capital!" Chad replied happily.
Among the five, Blanc actually had the most attention grabbing appearance with his platinum blond hair and tall stature. Even under the scary reputation of the Crimson Blades, he was the most sought after blade next to Olivier, who was from a noble background.
"Yeah! Master, buy some cakes from Lilibeth's Patisserie! It was very popular to women! They say their cakes will never fail you!" Ron seconded.
"Guuuu…" Little Han displayed a pleased expression as he adorably nudged his tiny head on Leon's arms.
"Alright cake it is." Finally convinced Leon responded affirmatively.
The blades beamed happily as they saw their Master agree to their suggestion. Their conversation stopped abruptly when they felt Eli's presence coming out from the cottage.
"Come, breakfast is ready!" She called the men out.
Leon quickly prepared after dinner, as he still had to attend another meeting for today. He didn't forget to remind Eli of the upcoming visitation of the Emperor, the Empress and Queens in the temple the next day.
He immediately activated the teleportation array. He didn't opt to use a carriage as it would attract a lot of people if he would be spotted frequently heading to the Forgeworn clan.
With Eli's insisting, he took a small batch of supreme mana stones to support his means of transportation.
Looking at the small pouch he couldn't help but feel at a loss, supreme mana stones were rare, yet here he was, squandering it to teleport secretly.
Eli didn't mind at all, the Guardians gave them a big bag of supreme mana stones and she still had many from the first batch that was given to her during her first descent.
She estimated that she could buy half of the Seirende Empire with all the remaining unused mana stones in their hands!
The little family who was living humbly in a small cottage was actually a secret tycoon!!!
He soon appeared in the secret chamber, where he again saw her mum and dad having the morning breakfast.
Greeting them ceremoniously, he immediately bid farewell as he still had to go to the Imperial Sky Knight's barracks for the planning meeting.
It was another intense planning session for everyone in the room. Only that now, everyone, including Antoine were giving their full focus in the planning session.
Everyone was exchanging information and opinions about the strategy of the clean up operation.
To make the operations successful, they need to divide the operations into two phases.
In the first phase, they must carry out the raid as quickly as possible so that the Spectres would have less chances to alert the other clusters.
Second Phase is to detect the undercover Spectres who blended with the citizens of the Empire and to impose a strict regulation in allowing entry and exit in the Empire.
But even after spending a full day, the men weren't able to come up with a plan where everyone is confident enough.
Leon particularly remained lowkey this time.
He only said a few words whenever the conversation was unknowingly going off the track. He and General Farauld discreetly navigated the discussions in order to condition everyone's mind for whatever plan they came up with.
This was the pre-agreed tactic of these two schemers.
The room was full of people supporting different factions. It is only natural that one wants to one up the other in terms of taking the credit and honors in coming up with an effective plan.
If General Farauld or Leon would carelessly let out their plan in mind, even if it was the best route to be taken by the group, it would be ruthlessly rejected just because this plan did not come from their own factions.
Thus they came up with this scheme - subtly navigate the team discussion until everyone felt that the plan they came up with was a product of everyone's wits and ideas.
Everyone will accept, everyone will be happy!
This of course would not take only a day to be fully effective. General Farauld adjourned the meeting and had everyone come back again a day after tomorrow.
He gave everyone a time for their minds to rest, as well as to give leeway for the people who would be involved in the Emperor's visitation to the temple tomorrow.
After that would be another one day meeting for everyone and then they would have to be deployed by the next week.
Leon again rushed to go home, but not before asking the coachman to go to the main street and buy something in Lilibeth's cafe.
True to its reputation, Lilibeth's cafe is definitely the most famous cafe for noble ladies.
It was conveniently located in the main street. The cafe building was decorated in pastel pink with accents of white and peach, looking so girly and sweet. The signboard was even decorated with a pastel themed floral sculpture and vines to make it more appealing to the eyes of the noble ladies.
Due to its reputation, the noble women didn't mind the queue in order to enter the cafe and buy their favorite dessert. They had their servants line up until it was time for them to enter.
Noble men tend to avoid entering the cafe, particularly the bachelors, as they felt that it would affect their dignity and manliness if they were spotted entering the frilly decorated cafe.
Little did they know that one particular customer is just about to change everyone's mindset about men entering Lilibeth's cafe.
In fact, that particular customer, with an extremely cold but alluring face, intense blood red hair and crystal blue eyes, was standing dignifiedly at the end of a queue full of women.
Everyone's eyes were wide open, the busy main street dramatically went silent and still, as if time paused for a while.
The vicious and ever cold Barbaric Blood Prince is actually lining up to enter Lilibeth's cafe!!!
