Leopold maintained his stoic demeanor as he exchanged pleasantries with the two family heads. He found their manner far more tolerable than the courtly excess of Avalon's nobility.
These leaders had been tempered by the ongoing war, their words and actions stripped of unnecessary flourishes. It was a refreshing contrast to the nobles of the Slatemark Empire's heart, who had grown soft in their unchallenged comfort. Central's aristocracy seldom faced the grit and chaos of true battle; they played their games in lavish halls, insulated from the harshness of the world. Even the East, until the vampire war, had enjoyed relative peace compared to the relentless strife faced by the North, West, and South.
