A Warm Reception

Luke and Lala went past the main gate of Naiccos and entered the city.

The main street was similar in architectural design to the streets of Millef, being built out of a bunch of little stone cubes neatly arranged together – a cobblestone street.

It wouldn't be weird to address this street as a road, as it was wide enough to support a dozen people, comfortably walking shoulder-to-shoulder at the same time, while still having enough leftover space to set up various stalls here and there.

The main street was designed in a such a way that it followed the octagonal design of the outer and the inner walls of the city, being parallel to both, and forming a closed loop.

Aside from the main street, there were regular streets which were three times smaller, and connected various other districts within the outer part of the city and the main street together.

The only parts of the main street that strayed from the octagonal design were the two streets which connected the main street of the outer city with the main street of the inner city, those being at the north and at the south of the outer city.

The main street of the inner city wasn't octagonal, but was instead shaped like a cross.

The city also appeared to have some relatively-modern amenities, such as a simple sewage system.

The buildings ranged from tall, five to six story behemoths, to small, shack-like shops.

There were also various street-side stalls, peddling anything from food to artifacts to junk.

'It looks like this is the market district. It makes sense that this is the very first district that the visitors see after entering the city via the main gate, as trade has always been very important, no matter the place or time.'

The main gate that Luke and Lala entered through wasn't the only gate that could be used to enter Naiccos, but it happened to be the closest one to the direction where Luke and Lala came from.

Luke shifted his gaze from building to building as the pair kept walking through the big crowd of people.

People could be heard bartering, haggling, arguing, telling jokes, or just talking amongst themselves.

These were mostly elementalless commoners.

But there were also the elementalist guards, as well as regular elementalists, such as Luke and Lala, that walked through the streets as well, but in smaller numbers compared to the commoners.

And as they kept walking, the number of commoners they ran across decreased, while the number of elementalists increased.

It was because they had left the market district.

"Where exactly are we going?"

"I told you already, we're going to the Water Temple embassy detachment."

"No, I know that, but where exactly is it?"

Lala pointed to a building that was a few hundred meters away.

"There. The one with the azure blue banners."

Luke nodded.

The building wasn't that tall or extraordinary, but the azure banners that hung off its sides differentiated it from the other similar-looking buildings that surrounded it.

In the middle of each banner was a gorgeous silver lotus, similar to the lotuses that adorned Lala's robe.

The crowd was getting thinner as Luke and Lala arrived in the next district, and so, they could move just a tad bit faster.

'A bunch of elementalists and dull-looking buildings. The embassy detachment also appears to be here… Is this district related to business or political affairs?'

Luke's guess was spot-on.

The dull-looking buildings were the embassies of the various minor nations, as well as the HQs of some of the local businesses that operated within the city.

Having elementalists guard these buildings was an obvious choice, as there was no number of ordinary soldiers that could stop an elementalist.

Even Luke would have no trouble fighting hundreds of such soldiers.

"Hey, Lala, how many districts are there in this city?"

"As you have probably noticed, the outer part of the city is following the walls in being octagonal in shape, and as such, has eight districts, one for each side of the octagon. There are two market districts, one entertainment district, one business district, one administrative district and finally, three housing districts."

Luke raised an eyebrow.

"Why are there two market districts?"

"Ahh, about that. Well, one is a general market, specializing in common goods that can be used by both elementalists and elementalless people alike. Basically, things like rations and artifacts that anyone can use. And the other one is a market geared towards elementalists-only, and sells things like elementals, artifacts that need mana to be activated, battle-ready gear, and so on."

Luke scratched his head.

"It still doesn't make much sense to me… Having a single, unified market, would be much better."

Lala shrugged her shoulders, and by the time her and Luke's exchange was over, they had arrived in front of the building decorated by the azure banners – the embassy detachment building.

Lala looked back at Luke with a serious face.

"Let's enter."

Luke simply nodded and followed after Lala.

The double-door opened with a squeak, inviting the pair of people inside.

Inside the building, Luke could see what appeared to be a lobby, with a wide, half-circle shaped desk straight across from the entrance, and a flight of stairs to the right of the desk.

There was a chandelier hanging off the ceiling in the middle of the lobby, shining its warm light on the beautifully decorated blue & silver carpets that laid across the wooden floor.

At the reception desk stood a man wearing a silver robe embroidered with blue lotuses.

The man was an older gentleman, with a bald spot on top of his head, and gray strands of hair on the sides.

The wrinkles on his head radiated wisdom one could only get with age.

Luke looked at Lala's robe and then at the man's robe.

'Her robe is pure white, while that man's robe is silver. What does the color difference signify? There was also the case of the Wind Temple's priests, Alissia and Mark, having a different color of embroideries compared to old man Wilfred's robes. Boldee told me that only the elite priests of the Wind Temple had the golden embroidering, but he failed to mention anything about any of the other ranks in the Temple.'

The man slightly bowed his head at the pair after noticing them enter.

"Welcome, what business do you have with-", as the man raised his head to look at Luke and Lala, he stopped himself mid-sentence.

His serious face changed into a warm smile, and he continued talking.

"If it isn't young miss Lala. What can I help you with?"

Lala gently smiled back at the receptionist.

"Hello, Marvin. Is Leon here right now?"

The receptionist, Marvin, slowly shook his head with a bitter smile.

"I apologize, but he just left this morning. He should be back by tomorrow, around noon. If it is urgent, we can-", Lala shook her head causing Marvin to stop speaking.

"It's fine, we'll wait for him to come back."

Marvin nodded, and shifted his gaze at Luke, studying him from head to toe.

"Is the gentleman also going to be staying here?"

This caused Luke to look at Lala.

She looked back at Luke, warmly smiled and answered, while still looking at Luke.

"He is."

Marvin nodded, and reached for something under the reception desk.

He held something in his hand, and then placed it on top of his desk.

It was a pair of keys.

"Use the guestrooms on the second floor."

Lala took the keys from the desk.

"Thank you, Marvin."

Marvin slightly bowed and smiled.

"My pleasure, miss."

Lala then turned to Luke.

"I am going to head to the market. Do you want to come with me?"

Luke shook his head.

"I haven't slept at all last night, so I think I'll just hit the sack."

Lala curiously looked at Luke.

"What does 'hitting the sack' mean?"

Luke cracked a grin and chuckled at the question.

Lala's cheeks flushed red in embarrassment.

"W-what's so funny?!"

Luke waved his hand, still grinning.

"Oh, it's nothing, I just wasn't expecting a question like that from you. It means that I will go to sleep."

Lala looked away from embarrassment.

"Was it really that hard for you to simply answer me? I never laughed at some of your silly questions…"

Luke chuckled and took one of the keys from Lala's hands.

"True enough… Well, see you later then."

He waved his hand at Lala as he climbed up the stairs.

Lala stood there, pouting for a bit.

"See you later…"

She said that to no one in particular, as Luke was already gone.

The smile that formed on her rose pink lips was a lot brighter than usual.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Luke slowly opened his eyes.

But something was weird.

He should've woken up in a lying position, but was instead already sitting up.

Luke tried standing up, but quickly realized that it wouldn't be possible.

He was sitting down on a chair made out of a metallic material and fixed in place, so that it couldn't move.

Luke was tied to this chair using an ordinary-looking rope.

'What the hell happened?'

He looked around the room he was in.

'It's pitch black… I can't see anything.'

His hands were tied behind the chair, but using a separate rope.

They were tied in such a way that made both of his palms press against one another.

'This is going to be tricky.'

Luke frowned.

He tried forming a wind blade in one of his hands, but as there was practically no free space between his palms, nothing happened.

'As I thought… Then…'

A small wisp of a flame appeared on top of Luke's fingertips.

He couldn't move his fingers, but he could still control the fire elemental to a certain extent.

The wisp of flame slid from his fingertips to his nails, and then continued moving until it was in contact with the rope.

The rope caught on fire and started burning.

Even though it was Luke's elemental, the fire that was caused by it couldn't be controlled by Luke, and would still hurt him.

He clenched his teeth and endured the pain.

The rope quickly lost its strength because of the flames, and Luke easily tore it apart from his hands.

'It burned some of my fingers, but it's not too terrible.'

He could now move his hands as he wished, but there was still the rope that tied the rest of his body and arms to the chair, as well as the rope that tied his ankles together left as well.

Just as Luke was about to form a wind blade, he heard the creak of a door.

Light suddenly entered the room, blinding Luke.

There was a silhouette of a person in front of him, with their hands behind their back, and they were wearing loose clothing.

Luke narrowed his already almost-closed eyes even further.

'A robe? Is this person a priest?'

The person nodded, and waved their hand across the air.

Following the person's motion, the room was lit up by a chandelier that was right above Luke.

He had to close his eyes for a moment because of the even bigger change in the level of light in the room.

And, when Luke opened his eyes, he could now fully see who the mystery person was.

Luke chuckled in realization.

"Marvin, was it?"

In front of Luke was standing the embassy detachment receptionist.

The balding old man smiled and nodded at Luke's question.

He then approached Luke and looked down at him.

"We're going to have a nice, long conversation now, young man."