Leona Downplaying (pt1)

Ace realizes that, despite the things that Leona says, he actually does look out for others, and Ace is not the only person who has noticed how Leona will downplay the effort he puts into helping those around him: when Skully compliments Leona on his efficient delegation, on how he “that you took everyone’s strengths into exhaustive account when reallocating” tasks, Leona downplays his contribution, saying, “There’s nothin’ ‘exhaustive’ about it. I just dumped all the hassles on other people.”

Skully responds, “Such modesty.”

Cater also notices this about Leona during a birthday interview where Leona says his hope for the next year is to win a national spelldrive championship.

Cater says, “it’s supposed to be what YOU want…Sounds like you go above and beyond to make sure everyone on the team gets what they need to succeed. You really care about them, don’t you?,” but Leona claims he is “just doin’ the bare minimum.”

When Leona reveals he is going through the phantom cages one by one in Tartarus due to the danger of Grim getting caught by his unique magic were he to handle them all at once Jamil observes, “You seemed truly worried about Grim a minute ago. And here I thought you couldn’t care less.”

Leona claims he isn’t worried at all and just doesn’t want to deal with the fallout of turning Grim into sand on accident, but Jamil looks unconvinced.

Ruggie has also noticed Leona’s downplaying: when Leona claims he is only looking to get refreshments for his dormmates during Halloween because “their brains are in their stomachs” Ruggie responds, “Can’t you just admit you wanna do something nice?”

After reuniting with Jack towards the end of Spectral Soiree Leona teases him for being a “little lost pup” and Ruggie whispers, “C’mon, Leona. Would it kill you to be honest with the guy and tell him you were worried?”

After being told that he should confer with someone whom he deeply respects and admires with his Port Fest struggles, Jack goes to Leona for help.

At the end of the event Jack credits Leona for giving him the advice that led to the success of their performance. Leona says that he didn’t do anything at all.

Leona protects Jack behind the scenes repeatedly: in a vignette he see him scold Jack for failing to “play smart” against a group of upperclassmen as though he is not on Jack’s side, but as soon as Jack is out of earshot he turns on the upperclassmen themselves for getting “all huffy” about losing to a first-year student (“It’s embarrassing to watch”) and telling them, “don’t you dare make me clean up after you again,” as though warning them off Jack, without Jack’s knowledge.

When Ruggie volunteers to “take care” of Jack when he starts to be a problem in Book 2 Leona forbids it, also unbeknownst to Jack.

While Ruggie might have noticed Leona’s concern for Jack, he may not have realized the efforts Leona goes to for Ruggie himself: in a vignette where Ruggie is doing both his and Leona’s laundry he audibly reflects on how he wishes he was a little taller, but “that would come with extra eating expenses,” at which point Leona appears behind him and hands over his entire wallet when Ruggie says he needs money for laundry detergent.

Leona says, “I’ve got plenty in there. Take what you need and keep the change,” and when Ruggie responds “all you’ve got in here are big bills. You really want me to break one of these?”

Leona says, “Why’re you getting all hung up on the details? Don’t make me repeat myself.” Ruggie observes, “He wouldn’t even notice if I kept more in change than what the detergent cost, I bet,” apparently unaware that that is possibly, exactly what Leona wants him to do.

When Riddle’s group discovers a rare lanternblossom on a cliff face during Vargas Camp members of the spelldrive team appear soon after, declaring that they will be taking it for themselves, but Leona calls them off, claiming they should look for one in a more accessible location in order to put in less effort.

Sebek interprets this as Leona balking at the idea of climbing the cliff and does so himself, informing Leona that he plucked the flower that Leona presumably gave up on and apparently not making the connection that Leona’s intent was possibly just to keep his club members from stealing Riddle’s club’s flower.