Strongest Single Father in Arcadia Academy

'So I have a long-term method of making money. That's good. However, the application is due today and dammit, I still don't have the money!' 

Leo planned to meet up with the merchant and Robert tomorrow for when they had to leave. Tomorrow morning, he was going to have to pick up Phoebe. In other words, before midnight struck, he had to hand in his application and get fifty gold coins.

Shit.

'Mercenary work, mercenary work…dammit, if I was in the Dark Sector, I might be able to find shit but I can't go there.'

That damn Ginzo. If he was alone, Leo might have considered fighting through it. However, with the Rikugun-Shōshō, it was a risk not worth taking. The wanton destruction and trouble it would bring would lead to investigations and, most importantly, harm and concern to his daughter. 

He was stuck here in a sector he did not hail from, whose customs he was not familiar, and whose locations were unknown to him. 

"Hi, do you need a job?"

"No…"

"Hey there, are you perchance needing somebody to do something and can pay by the end of, I dunno, the day?"

"...?"

So he started asking people on the streets. Not a good idea. After an hour of running up and down the Recreare, Leo gave up. He put his hands on his hips, sighing. 'Fifty gold coins, fifty gold coins…come on, who the hell is carrying that much on their person? Only someone super desperate would do that. Where do I find desperate people here? Desperate people are in the Dark Sector, not here in the Recreare.'

The Recreare. The Recreation Sector. Post-war, it was a complete urban heaven. People walked with smiles and partners. Mythical creatures were ridden, carriages had to navigate and yell between hoards of people. It was a healthy, fun mess. 

The same could not be said for the Disner. Anybody that went from the Dark Sector tried to get to the Disner as fast as possible. Leo himself had not been an exception to this. The Disner was among the strangest places he had ever been in. It was known as a market to exchange food—a Food Sector, so to speak. If people wanted bread or water, they went there. That was where it was grown. That was where farms were hidden.

Yet somehow, it was an inconsistent mess. The Disner either had thousands of people or none at all. Either beggars on the streets or the middle-class reaching desperately for food. Certainly, there was desperation but there was not the kind of dark desperation Leo sought. 

For his daughter though, he was fine with resorting to unwell means. He did not mind killing if it meant helping her grow properly. 

That meant…

"Hello, sir. Are you hungry?"

…pretending to be homeless and poor in the Disner to be approached by suspicious hooded men. Leo put dirt and paint on his face. Hoodie half-on, leaning on a hollowed out house, and pretending to have struggles with breathing. 

Honestly, it didn't take too long. Only an hour of huffing and puffing and slouching. See, this area he was in was not just any poverty-stricken place. There were burn marks everywhere. Leo had been led to Sakura Lane through mutters and glances. This had been a Japanese neighbourhood where a great battle had been waged.

What exactly happened was none of his concern. This was. This hooded man that approached a pathetic, lonely human.

The voice was soft, calm—practiced. Leo turned his head slowly, letting his shoulders sag even further. The hooded man who had approached him was tall and lean, his face obscured by the shadows of his own cloak. He extended a hand, his smile gentle but unnatural, like it had been rehearsed too many times.

"Y-yes…!" Leo rasped, his voice trembling. He added a weak cough for good measure, clutching at his side. He was acting his ass off here. Whoever the hooded man was, Leo could feel how happy he was to see him so pathetic. 

The hooded man's hand didn't waver. "Come with us," he said.

"We are friends. We are…Missionaries."

"Ah." Leo hesitated for a moment—just enough to make the act convincing—before reaching out and taking the man's hand. It was cold, unnervingly so.

The man pulled him, smiling, and gestured at him to follow. "Come, take it slow. I will walk with you."

So they did. They went deeper down the darkened street. At Sakura Lane, the skeletal remains of old Japanese homes loomed on either side. Roofs caved in and huddled people taking cover inside. 

Suddenly, Leo felt it.

'It's cold here.' 

Leo was air itself. Leo possessed an element that made him mildly comfortable with the cold. Even some ice users could not claim to be as cold-resistant as him. Yet even he shivered. What kind of magic was used to make this neighbourhood like this…?

Then they took a turn. 

Then Leo felt the wind and the presence of others. The shape and cold was identical to the man currently leading him. That of the same fanatic. 

'Definitely shady.' 

The missionaries of the Templar Order did good. These people clearly did not. They had an agenda. Leo could smell it in the wind. The blood. The death.

Suddenly, they stopped. They were at a house that seemed no different from the others—wooden beams weathered with age, paper windows torn and yellowed.

"Come inside. There will be food soon."

Leo gulped and nodded. Gotta be at least a little nervous to make it seem authentic.