Rise My Elementals!

Chapter 240 The Smiling Lion group 

Author: M_W Cancer 

Grammar checker: M_W Nomral 

After arranging all of those, Leo and the others, excluding Jeffrey, went towards the street opposite to Aries Weapons, the Smiling Lion street. 

Unlike any other streets, the Smiling Lion street was unexpectedly the poorest of them all. Even in Mischievous Lion organization, Leo was still poor. Not because his Master Olivia doesn't care about him, but simply because everything that he earns are reinvested back to the Smiling Lion street, just like in Heart city. 

Aside from a manor at the very end of this street, there were only a few residential buildings, a small training ground, a building that Leo had said was the Headquarters for his Smiling Lion group, and the most useless but can't be seen amongst the other streets, a fountain. The rest were open lands because there were also no buildings for some businesses and the likes. 

Although it was almost an empty street, it was still big nonetheless, specifically 25,000 square meters big. Leo had explained to them that he purposely made it this way so as to not have a troublesome space when he finally decides on what to do with the empty land later on. In his opinion, when there are plenty of buildings around his land, if ever he wants something to be replaced, he needs to either destroy the building or reconstruct it to his liking, which in both cases not just troublesome but it would also cost him even more money, not only to destroy or reconstruct the building, but also to hire more people to manage the finance, security, the land, and the business of being a landowner in itself.

Moreover, not to mention he also needs to have a place to dump all of those trashes, which includes the dead bodies of the people who dare to break rules and laws in his street, specifically a much more bigger place since there would obviously be more population compare to its current state now, and the debris after destroying or reconstructing a building as well.

"Why have a fountain, though?" Charlotte suddenly asked. 

"Oh, that's not actually just an ordinary fountain. That's similar in function to the 8 fountains up above the ground in Lion Heart city, that fountain is a secret passage to go in and out of this place." Leo explained, "Aside from my Master Olivia, only the members of the Smiling Lion knew about this place, though that also includes all of you now."

"Isn't it... a bit unnecessary?" Princess Elaine suddenly asked. 

"The Smiling Lion group is well known for being one of the most active group in terms of completing missions, but yet at the same time really inconspicuous. It is because of this fountain why we are able to achieve all of those." Leo explained, but only the rough parts. Of course, he wouldn't really reveal to them the entirs truth, especially with Princess Elaine present, that the fountain is actually a secret passageway connecting to hundreds of secret passages all around the entire Southern region of Silver Kingdom. This was the exact reason why the Smiling Lion group can appear anywhere and also vanish anytime they wanted to. This is also the exact reason why almost every mission that the Smiling Lion group handles were successful, which also earns them numerous titles such as Night Walker, Night Repear, and many more titles related to killers in the dark or night. 

Charlotte and the others nodded in understanding. They didn't dare ask any more questions because they are aware that there are things that they just can't know, at least at this moment.

.....

Moments later, Leo and the others finally entered the street. With how empty the street was, members of the Smiling Lion group was easily able to spot Leo walking towards the manor. 

"Excellency, Leo, is finally back!" 

"Men, gather in the fountain to great our Excellency, Leo!"

"Okay!"

"Roger!" 

"Coming!"

Before Leo could even arrive in front of his manor, there were already hundreds of people waiting for him forming in an almost perfect row of lines.

"Virgo's Scouts, reporting to Excellency, Leo!"

"Libra's Police, reporting to Excellency, Leo!" 

"Scheming Shadows, reporting to Excellency, Leo!"

In the Smiling Lion group, there exist these 3 Departments that represents the difference responsibilities of the group's members.

The Virgo's Scouts are tasked to scout the mission before someone executes it. They are also in-charged of gathering information, preparing escape pathways, reporting the status of the mission, and the most important mission of this department, infiltrating the target's territory. This group has exactly 200 people, which is considered the group with the most members in the Smiling Lion group. 

The Libra's Police, just like what their name suggests, are the people who manage the security and order of the Smiling Lion street. Although their department may sound like it's not important and completely unnecessary, considering the fact that this is the Underground World hence enforcing security and order is akin to a kid's dream, but in fact, they were actually able to achieve it and hence making the Smiling Lion street the most peaceful part of the Capital of the Underground World and a few nearby parts in the surrounding. They are also in-charged of escorting missions, guarding missions, and other kinds of mission-related to security and protection. This group has exactly 100 people, the next group with the most members. 

Lastly, Scheming Shadows, the most important yet highly risky department of the Smiling Lion group. This is the department with the fewest number of members, specifically exactly 20, including Leo himself. The people of this department are the ones in-charged of missions with a high risk of dying, such as assassinating a highly valued target, like for example corrupt officials of Silver Kingdom or other neighboring Kingdoms; hunting Magical Beast, mostly because their employers needed to have some important parts of a certain Magical Beast; treasure hunting, like for example looking for specific herbs in the Yellow Forest or being a grave robber; and lastly, eliminating an entire group of people, like for instance some dark organization that wants to take root in Silver Kingdom, take the Black organization for example. 

The Leader of this Scheming Shadows Department is actually someone living in the Heart city, specifically Fatty Ben, the head of the Logistic Department of Heart city. Though his jus a normal person, but because of how good he is in handling different kinds of missions, he had been specially granted by Leo to have the Leader position. 

"Just go back to what you were doing before, I'm just here to rest and will be leaving tomorrow for something else," Leo said as he motioned for everyone to leave. 

"Yes, your Excellency, Leo."

With everyone gone to do their own things, Leo could finally lead everyone to his manor. 

This manor was just like the same as the one back in the Heart city. In fact, the one who made this manor was the same person. The only difference between this manor and the one back at Heart city is that it contains fewer security measures, simply because this is the Underground World, a place where no one would really dare offend the Mischievous Lion organization. 

"Just look for any rooms upstairs to sleep, I need to do something else." Leo said before walking to his study room. 

Charlotte and the others nodded before quickly going upstairs. Majority of them were already longing for a place to sleep as they have spent almost the entire day without any rest. After all, what they have just went through was basically a seemingly endless amount of continuous life-threatening situation. 

Arriving in his study room, Leo then took off his clothes before throwing it inside the fireplace, letting it burn down. He then grabbed a pen and paper before writing something. 

Unbeknownst to almost everyone, he had already noticed the Sword and Magic silently following him ever since he had arrived in the Capital of the Underground World. And he is absolutely sure that the man who has approached him the moment he arrived in this place is actually a secret member of the Sword and Magic who has put some kind of tracking Magical item in his clothes. That was also the reason why he didn't really bother stopping the Headguard from killing them. 

The exact reason why he realized it's the Sword and Magic is simply because of the familiar movement that the henchman who had defended the man from before had used to arrived in front to block the Headguard's attack, or maybe it was just slightly the same. 

During the time when Elizabeth tried to kill him, or rather he should say that her real intention was actually to kidnap him with the intention of asking him why he was acting like he doesn't know her, and then Madam Silva suddenly appeared along with her men, he deeply carved it in his mind the movement technique of those people wearing black clothes had used, which was really similar to that henchman from awhile ago.

After writing a few letters, Leo then called some people to deliver them to their designated places, specifically to the Smiling Lion group, Gemini Dagger group, Claw of Cancer group, and Aries Weapons group, to prepare them for a battle that he was sure would most likely be happening tonight. 

After doing that, Leo went to the cabinet to change his clothes. Aftrwards, he then pulled a lever at the side of the cabinet. 

*Whooosh!

The cabinet door opened, and inside were a bunch of custom-made weapons that he had prepared in case of something similar to this happens while his in his manor in the capital of the Underground World. As an assassin, he knows that he needs to always have a place to get extra weapons at all time.

Without any hesitation, Leo took all the items and put them inside the Storage Ring. This was actually also the reason why he didn't hesitate to sell almost all of teacher Homer's item inside the Storage Ring, it was to prepare himself for a fight against the Sword and Magic. 

He doesn't really know the exact reason why the Sword and Magic wants to attack him, but he can somewhat assume already that they might want to either kill him in order to cause a big damage to the Mischievous Lion organization or kidnap him to use him as a bargaining chip for something that is advantageous for the Sword and Magic. No matter what it is, he wouldn't let it easily happen, especially if that is related to his safety. 

After taking out everything and putting them inside his Storage Ring, Leo then closed the hidden compartment behind the cabinet as he walked upstairs. Obviously, before this so-called battle starts, he needs to rest so as to recuperate the energy he had lost during he trip to the Lion Heart city. 

Arriving inside his room, Leo made sure first that it wouldn't be easy to attack him while resting. 

After doing that, he then crossed his legs on the bed as he began cultivating. As a Mage, he realized that he can actually recuperate his energy when cultivating.. So, their is no need for him to sleep, especially since there are people that has no good intention to him silently creeping around his Smiling Lion street.