Chapter 1099: Drinking Companions
It was a terrible thing to be alone as a monarch. Anastasios knew this well, and after spending a fairly considerable amount of time within Leon’s Kingdom, he wondered if Leon knew it, himself. The boy had his wives, of course, and a small core friend group, but he was hardly ever seen socializing with other members of his court. Anastasios had never even seen him exchange more than pleasantries with many of his high officials.
‘This shouldn’t be allowed to continue,’ Anastasios vowed to himself. ‘For the sake of his Kingdom, that boy needs to learn how to have fun!’
To that end, on as mundane a night as it could possibly be, Anastasios went to Leon’s villa upon the nine-peaked mountain, looking for the young man. The villa was a rather small thing, not meant for long-term habitation but more than comfortable.
‘Hardly befitting a man of his station, though…’
Outside the villa, the Tempest Knights stood guard or patrolled. Several dozen Tempest Knights had been killed over the course of the expedition so far, but the remaining four-hundred-some always made sure that at least a hundred of their number were on guard around the villa at any one time.
Given the size of the nine-peaked mountain, this was not easy, but they at least intercepted him in a time he found acceptable when he arrived at the base of the mountain.
‘They need more checkpoints, though,’ he mused as they escorted him up the mountain toward the villa. ‘At least they’re being strict about not being allowed to fly around the mountain…’
When Anastasios arrived at his destination, he was ordered to wait in a hastily, but still fairly ornately-constructed pavilion just outside the villa. It was small, Leon having ordered that his builders focus on other matters instead of his living conditions, but it at least ensured that his visitors weren’t completely exposed to the elements as they awaited entrance to the small modular villa Leon had designed.
The villa itself rested on a flat section of the mountain about two-thirds of the way up the second or third-highest peak. The soil was rich and thick, nourished by the enormous red-barked and blue-leafed trees that covered the mountain range. A small stream ran down the mountain nearby, nicely adding to the ambiance—the villa felt more like a small vacation palace than the permanent resident of quite possibly the most powerful and important figure on Aeterna at the moment of his departure.