Before the black tray could clatter onto the ground, inevitably spilling the contents of delicate foods and tea on it's surface, Leo felt as though his balance was suddenly stable once more.

  Leo hadn't even noticed that the accident had been prevented, so his mind was still spinning with negative thoughts.

  'I’m dead. That fatso Har is going to kill me. I can already hear the plates breaking…'

  Whilst in the midst of imagining how he would be executed, Leo was brought back to reality by a mature male voice, hiding a hint of humour behind it:

  "Excuse me? Young man, are you alright?"

  Leo shook his head quickly before focusing once more. He realised he was staring into space without putting the food down, then placed the two trays down on the table as carefully as he could. Especially after the incident that had almost transpired.

  'Was I imagining that? Or did one of these guys prevent it?'

  When Leo moved away from the table, he noticed that two of the three men were looking at him with different expressions.

  The man on the left side of the table, closest to the window, had long light brown hair, which was tied up neatly with some string.

  His green eyes glistened a little under the light of the restaurant, and he was staring towards Leo with an amused expression across his chiselled face. Most likely due to Leo almost dropping their extremely late dinner all over the table and floor. He was also the man who had addressed Leo, enquiring about his wellbeing.

  On the right side of the table, closest to Leo, was a much more burly man compared to the green-eyed pretty boy.

  He had wide shoulders and black silky hair that fell just above the nape of his neck. He wasn't staring towards Leo at all though.

  Instead, he had his eyes closed and his arms crossed tightly across his chest, almost as though he was meditating or thinking hard about something.

  The final man sitting at the top of the table looked older than both men sitting to his left and right.

  His short straight hair was well kept, and was coloured dark grey. There were strands of lighter grey hair on the sides of his head, however these strands were more prominent around that area compared to the hair closer to the crown of his head, ultimately showcasing that he was mature, but not old just yet.

  The older gentleman also had a rather full beard and moustache, riddled with a mixture of dark and light grey strands.

  Leo had to suppress the urge to gulp when he met the older gentleman’s gaze though.

  His eyes were pitch black and lifeless, like a bottomless pit.

  Whenever Leo thought he saw a spark of life in them, it would quickly disappear and the darkness would take over once more.

  Needless to say, one thing was similar amongst each of these men. They all had the aura of a battle-hardened combatant.

  This was the kind of domain Leo had no business being apart of.

  Taking a few steps backwards, Leo bowed deeply:

  “Please do enjoy your orders esteemed guests. It truly is an honour to host members of the great Draconis Clan.”

  He peered up after bowing and locked eyes with the older gentleman at the top of the table, who nodded curtly without paying too much attention to Leo's words, allowing him to scurry off back to the kitchen.

  Once he was past the red doors and was inside, Leo couldn’t even let out a sigh of relief before he felt a wide hand grip his shoulder tightly.

  Har was staring down at Leo with a horrified and ghastly expression.

  "Good work Brat! Good work! We all imagined you were on the verge of dropping all the food the cook's made. You almost gave us all a heart attack! Just look at them!"

  Leo followed Har’s chubby finger as he pointed towards the figures of the young male and female cook’s, who Leo knew as Hakim and Janet, laid out on the ground like ragdolls.

  Seeing them like that felt a little amusing.

  'My bad…'

  Soon enough, when the three men were deep into their meals, Har was overseeing their every need, and the two cooks were finally coming back to their senses, Leo took off.

  He threw his apron into his locker, slammed it shut, took his things which consisted of absolutely nothing, and was ready to leave.

  Leo wasn’t much of a belongings man anyway, so if he ever took something from work, it was his monthly salary that Har handed him in an envelope. If he ever took anything from home to work, it was only ever a larger pair of boots to avoid getting his feet wet in puddles.

  Stepping out of the backdoor exit in the far end of the employee room, Leo found himself in the dark cobblestoned alleyways of the town. The scent was something he was beyond familiar with. A mixture of rubbish, foods, cigarettes, and whatever else happened in the backstreets.

  He couldn’t see the sky almost at all here compared to when he was standing out near the main street's, which was packed to the brim with people celebrating the festival of life during his extremely lacklustre break time. This was because the building behind Har's restaurant was so close to the back entrance, meaning if Leo looked up, all he would see were two towering brick walls and a few stars up above.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  'I wonder if that kid liked my little magic show. He definitely did, it was all over his face!'

  After chuckling to himself a bit, Leo stared at the sky above for a short while, thinking about this and that before he stretched and yawned.

  ‘I’m going straight to bed once I’m home…'

  Turning left from the backdoor of the restaurant, he made his way deeper into the maze-like alleyways of Liver. These streets were made from how tightly packed the different buildings in the centre of the town were, and Leo was moving west, making his way through different narrow paths, twists, and turns.

  These alleyways were practically perfect if one wanted to conduct any under the table business without any prying eyes, which was why Leo had to change his pathway home once or twice to avoid being questioned by shady people on why he was snooping in on their conversations, even if he wasn't.

  He was honestly beyond glad that he chose not to head home early, because these streets would have been just as troubling to navigate with how many people were around during the festival.

  'What a headache that would've been.'

  Once he was close enough to home, he walked towards a rusty ladder on the side of a familiar building which led up to it's roof. As he clambered his way up, making sure not to knock the rusty ladder down, he stood up on both feet and patted himself down with a sigh.

  "Wow..."

  Leo whistled an impressed note whilst staring at his home town. The view never failed to amaze him at this time of night.

  First of all, the gigantic circular stone walls that encased the town never seemed to fail at being as imposing and impenetrable as possible. He wondered how attackers would feel knowing they'd be at a severe disadvantage if they ever wanted to lay siege to Liver.

  Slap bang in the middle of the town was a white manor surrounded by stone walls, and it was where the Mayor of Liver and his family lived. It was also used as an official building where court could be held, and one could visit when dealing with things such as legal documentations and what not. It was almost like a town hall, mansion for a rich family, and a courthouse all at once.

  To his right, he could see the roofs of multiple different buildings, the main streets with its thinning number of people, different stalls which were now being closed, or had already been closed, along with a multitude of brightly designed entrances to different establishments.

  He couldn't see Har's restaurant from here but he knew it was one of those entrances that people were drawn to on these main streets.

  To his left, he could see the vast and dark expanse of the winding maze of the backstreets. It was the place where Leo was most familiar with, and knew how to navigate the best.

  One could see different stone tower outposts positioned near the northern, southern, eastern, and western parts of the town. This was where the town guards were stationed to protect all four gate entrances, allowing people with permitted access in, and those with permitted access to leave.

  . . .

  After hopping from building to building for a quicker and more relaxed journey home, Leo landed on a roof and stared down at an open window of an apartment complex.

  It was his room window, and the only thing connecting this building to the other was a thick piece of rope tied from both ends on pipes connected to both building's.

  He liked to keep his window open just so he didn't need to see his extremely annoying landlady on his way up. The elderly Carmen had a real hatred for people who went up to their room's late at night and made a ruckus whilst walking through the halls of the apartment building. Leo could almost hear her nagging voice yelling about how he needs to buy more soundproof shoes.

  'Just wear ear plugs to bed you old bitch.'

  Therefore, Leo preferred to just make his own way in and out of his small apartment room through the use of this rope, only meeting with other tenants on the rare occasion.

  After huffing a little in irritation of imagining running into the landlady, he gripped the rope tightly, checked for it's safety and let himself hang off of it. The ground below was close to around a seven foot drop, meaning he'd probably break a limb if he fell.

  Leo would be concerned, and even extremely apprehensive if this wasn't his every day life though.

  Once he'd pulled himself across the rope and reached the window sill, he let go of the rope and balanced on the brick ledge outside of his window before slipping in quietly. He closed the window behind him carefully before backing away and letting out a sigh of relief, praying he didn't make too much noise in the small building. Once he turned to face his room, he took in the familiar sights.

  To his near left was a small one person armchair and a circular wooden coffee table where Leo ate. To his far left was his small kitchen where he cooked and kept his food.

  To his near right was his unmade bed where he was about slump down on, and just next to it was his bedside table. On the surface of the table was a framed portrait of three individuals.

  There was a man with short black curly hair that fell just below his earlobes. He was wearing a traditional midnight blue robe, a dark grey waistband, and two wide silver bracelets on both of his wrists. His face held an unforced smile that showed off his teeth, and his eyes were narrowed slightly, presenting them to seem as though he was intrigued by something and amused at the same time.

  Next to him was a gorgeous woman who seemed to be just above shoulder height of the man next to her, the man's arm wrapped just around her waist.

  She had long straight dark purple hair, and three floral designed golden hair pins holding her hair up nicely, and allowing just enough to spill in a neat style. Her smile was kind and gentle, probably capable of sending shivers down the spine's of men who just so happened to look her way. She was wearing a midnight blue gown with black embroidered patterns that seemed to hug her figure absolutely perfectly.

  In her arms was a baby that was staring in the same direction as the other two individuals in the photo. The baby was also wearing midnight blue coloured clothing, and was hugging the woman holding him tightly. The few strands of hair on the top of the baby's head weren't coloured at all, so one would be incapable of discerning what the child's hair colour was.

  After staring at the portrait on his bed side solemnly for a while, Leo got up from where he was with an exhausted sigh and dropped it on his bed. Just in front of his bed was a small drawer where Leo kept his small variety of clothing, and next to that was a wide mirror. At the end of the room was the door leading out into the apartment complex's second floor hallways.

  There were some toilets down the halls since not every room had its own bathroom, along with its own shower, so Leo had to share with other tenants on this floor.

  'I should go get cleaned up.'

  Grabbing a towel, and a small black pouch containing his toiletries, Leo made his way out of the room and headed towards the men's bathrooms.

  After a short relaxing shower, Leo returned to his room, quickly closing the door behind him after hearing a door open somewhere down the hallway on his way back.

  Turning to his room, he immediately noticed the small window was open, allowing a soft breeze to flow through.

  'Didn't I close it?'

  Before he could walk over to close it, his heart stopped as he noticed a figure sitting on the armchair in front of the small circular coffee table.

  The figure was wearing a pure white suit, a black shirt, a white tie, and well polished shoes that beamed a little under the moonlight that seeped through the open window.

  Their legs were crossed and they held the portrait that Leo was looking at early in their gloved hands.

  As Leo took a step back to reach for something to protect himself, and before he could even see the person's face, a voice spoke:

  "So you are their son? Now what's his heir doing in a place like this?"