Below the Statue

Considering that the outer as well as the inner walls of Naiccos followed an octagonal shape, the outer part of the city was uniformly separated into eight districts that were equal in size but served different functions.

The inner city wasn't separated in such a way but was instead a unified district where the city's top brass and the nobles who lived in the city resided. It was the core of the city, and it was there that all decisions regarding the city were made.

When comparing the difference in size between the outer city and the inner city, the outer city amounted to two-thirds of the city, with the inner city occupying the remaining one-third. Compared to the outer city, the inner city was nowhere close to being as densely populated.

In the outer city, even the districts that one would assume were the same were quite different in reality. Such was the case with the three residential districts.

The three districts were quite simply differentiated by the difference in wealth, social status, and power of the people residing within them.

At the south end of the city lay the slums – it was where all of the poor, homeless, or in any way impaired, be it physically or mentally, commoners lived. This was also the most populous district in Naiccos. The housing consisted of things such as makeshift tents, shacks, and, rarely, small houses.

Of course, there were people such as Norma who hid themselves in plain sight by living in the slums. This district was also known as the hub of information gathering due to the large number of hungry children and teens willing to get their hands dirty just to get enough food for them, and sometimes even their families, to survive. The survival rate of performing such a job was around one in four, but the desperate kids were never informed of such a fact.

Next was the residential district in the north-west of the city, which was the second-most populous district after the slums. It was a mid-end residential district, with the people living there being wealthy enough to provide themselves and their families with everything they needed to live in relative comfort.

Elemental-less people with a minor social status, merchants that were doing relatively well for themselves, and even elementalists lived here. The improvement in the housing and the standard of living, when compared with the slums, was akin to the difference between heaven and earth, with medium-sized houses being the norm and even a few outliers – those being the few houses with some additions such as a second floor, a terrace, or a porch.

There were even a few merchants selling basic necessities on the street, such as fresh food and water, sparing the residents from the trip to the general market district.

Finally, there was the third residential district – the high-end district in the north-east of the city, commonly called the paradise district. Why paradise? The answer was simple. Tall buildings akin to apartment buildings, privately owned backyards, lavish decorations at each corner, and so on. The people living here were, of course, the cream of the crop. Very affluent people with high social standing and mighty influence, low-born nobles, rich elementalists, owners of the biggest businesses in the city and the surrounding region, et cetera.

There existed a majestic, giant fountain at the heart of the district, in the middle of the main street. It was made out of expensive white marble and depicted a slim man looking at the sky with his chin held high, with two breathtakingly beautiful women on either side, with smooth streams of water coming out of their pitchers.

He was around ten meters tall, while the two women surrounding him were a bit shorter. A big crown adorned the top of his head with a hexagonal jewel in the middle of it, and he was wearing a pair of obviously fancy clothes as well as a cape with an intricately carved pattern.

If the statue wasn't all white, someone who was seeing it for the first time would've thought that a giant was about to descend upon them.

But Luke couldn't care less about the impressive statue and was instead looking at the girl sitting in its shadow, at the base of the fountain, and next to the plaque that had some text carved on it.

He wasn't sure what was paler – the white marble of the fountain or the girl's porcelain-like skin.

Noticing his gaze, the girl looked at Luke, and as she did, her face lit up with joy. She couldn't help but call out to him as she stood up from the edge of the fountain and started running towards him.

"Luke!"

Smiling back at the girl, Luke waved at her slightly awkwardly.

"I'm back, Lala."

The girl, Lala, nodded up and down a couple of times, with her expression changing into a pout.

"I've been looking all over the city for you since morning! Where were you? The only lead I had was Marvin saying that you left the embassy yesterday, instead of resting as you… said you would…"

She was talking fast at first, but noticeably slowed down as she spoke as she looked at the two people – Ellios and Anastasia, in their disguises – standing behind Luke.

With a wary look, she bumped Luke with her shoulder and whispered her question to him.

"Hey, who are they?"

Luke chuckled and nervously scratched the back of his head.

"Well, where do I even start…"

And so Luke explained the entire situation to Lala, skipping over only some information, such as Ellios and Anastasia's true identities. They introduced themselves to Lala using the same aliases that Luke had come up with when they met with Leon – Elliot and Anna. He also didn't tell her much about Norma, aside from her being a doctor in the slums. If he went any deeper than that, Anastasia's true identity would've been at risk.

Sometime during Luke's explanation, the four of them found themselves sitting together at the base of the fountain.

"…and so, after Leon told us that you were looking for me, we looked for you instead and found you sitting here. That about wraps it up," said Luke with an exhausted expression. Summing everything up took quite a bit out of him.

Ellios and Anastasia stopped listening to him quite a bit ago, opting to instead do something that, to Luke, looked like meditation. They simply sat still with their eyes closed. It was the same thing Ellios was doing when the three thugs broke into Norma's house in the slums. Only then did Ellios intentionally snore with the intention of irritating the thugs, as he was awoken by their loud knocking and yelling.

Luke grew curious about what it was and made sure to remember to ask about it later.

Sitting still and pondering about what Luke told her with a disgruntled expression, Lala had a couple of questions about his misadventure.

"…Why didn't you at least leave a simple note saying where you'll be going?"

Scratching the back of his neck, Luke answered honestly.

"It's actually not simple at all… At first, I was going to the specialized market district, but then, as I've already told you, unexpected things happened. I didn't trust Ellios and Anas – Anna – at that time."

'Shit, my tongue slipped.'

"Ellios?" asked Lala probingly.

"I said Elliot," answered Luke matter-of-factly with as blank of an expression as he could muster.

"…Sure. Anyways, did you do this to gather new allies in our fight against Joseph?"

Unconvinced, she moved on nevertheless. She was sure that Luke didn't have any ulterior motives but was now suspicious of Ellios and Anastasia's true identities.

"Erm… Yeah, you could say that. I did it with the goal of getting stronger. That will obviously help us with defeating Joseph, among other things," explained Luke, albeit with some uncertainty in his voice. In truth, Ellios and Anastasia weren't even aware of Luke and Joseph's relationship.

Nodding curtly, Lala didn't mind Luke training with the intention of getting stronger. Quite the opposite; she wanted to get stronger herself, so she might yet be able to use this situation for her own growth as well. She was aware that she wasn't quite up to par with other elementalists her age. But with the weight of everyone's expectations, both back at her home of Istorial as well as in Naiccos, she found herself overwhelmed and unable to keep up.

"I almost forgot, but… How did you even find me?" asked Lala with a questioning gaze.

Ellios opened his eyes and poked his head out from next to Luke.

"That's an easy one to answer."

Mana started gathering in front of Ellios' chest and soon took the shape of a bloodied and torn black robe.

Widening her eyes, Lala stood up in shock and pointed at the remains of the robe Ellios was holding.

"That robe…!"

Looking between the robe in Ellios' hands and the one Luke was wearing, she figured out exactly how she was tracked down.

Lala whispered to herself with bated breath, "Mana tracking?"

Ellios picked up on this and nodded, the corners of his lips curling up.

"That's right. This was the robe that was damaged in Luke's fight. As you can see, we replaced it, but I kept this one around as a memento. Good thing it came in handy this soon, as there was a lingering trace of your mana remaining on it, which I used to track you, just as you assumed. I'm guessing that the trace was from your storage elemental."

Luke knew all of this already, so he just sat in silence, listening to the explanation once more.

"But how did you know that the mana belonged to me, of all people?"

Waving his finger to the left and then to the right, Ellios answered with a playful smile.

"A magician cannot reveal all of his tricks."

"Pfft," grimaced Luke as he almost burst out into laughter before stopping himself.

"What's so funny?!"

Lala demanded an answer with a heavy pout on her face and clenched fists.

'…I see. He told me, but he doesn't want to tell her. I guess he doesn't really trust her yet.'

The way Ellios knew it was Lala's mana was actually very simple. He noticed a trace of someone else's mana on Luke's robe quite a while ago. He could roughly tell that an element of water lingered in that mana trace as well.

After visiting the embassy, which belonged to the Water Temple, the dots connected in Ellios' head. The embassy was pretty much empty, and the two people that were there definitely didn't seem like they wouldn't really be in a situation to leave such a mana trace on his robe.

All that was left was the third, missing person, that being Lala. Considering that the girl spent the whole day looking for him, he guessed that she was close enough to Luke to have left the mana trace on his robe.

When Ellios implied to Luke that he and Lala were close, Luke couldn't help but blush and deny any and all accusations. Although he did confirm that he had received the robe from Lala.

Ellios looked at the statue standing tall above them and smirked. It was a depiction of his grandson, the Emperor, so it wasn't at all strange for him to make such a face.

"Well, now that we're all caught up, let's go and rest. Luke, your training starts tomorrow," said Ellios with a stern expression. He looked at Lala and then back at him.

"I won't be going easy on you, so make sure to properly relax tonight," said Ellios with a wink as his lips twisted back into his usual smile. Although this time, that smile was filled with ulterior motives.

"Can it, pervert."

Anastasia showed up behind Ellios and dragged him away by his ear, with Ellios still wearing his smile and giving Luke two thumbs up.