The Sense of Being

Luke woke up in the pitch dark room, still tied to the metallic chair.

'Uhh… How long was I unconscious for? And how long has it been since I've been abducted?'

Sitting here wouldn't really help him in finding these things out.

Luke formed a dagger made out of wind in one of his hands, and used it to cut some of the rope that tied him down.

Once a few strands of the rope were cut, the whole thing came apart and Luke was freed from the chair.

'That's better. Now, for the legs.'

His legs were also tied with a separate set of ropes, but since the rest of his body wasn't tied down, this posed no problem, and so, Luke cut the rope apart with ease.

'I still can't see anything…'

Luke raised one of his palms up and a wisp of a flame formed on top of it, providing Luke with light.

After confirming that he was still in the same room, he made his way to the door on the other side of the room.

He pressed down on the door handle, but the door didn't budge.

'As I expected, it's locked.'

The door didn't appear to have been made out of any especially durable materials, so Luke simply formed a wind blade, and swung at the door.

He cut out the part of the door where the locking mechanism was, bypassing the need for a key.

'Hmph. Easy enough.'

Luke stepped out of the room and was now in a straight, narrow hallway.

Unlike the room he was just in, the hallway was lit using wall-mounted lights.

'I didn't get a good look before, but it seems like there's multiple weird sources of lighting available in this world.'

So far, Luke rain into weird blue flames, candles, and now lighting orbs.

'It's really all over the place… Oh, I can see a stairwell at the end of the hallway!'

Luke kept walking down the hallway on a soft, blue & silver carpet and headed towards the stairs.

'It seems like I'm still in the embassy detachment building. Am I in the basement or something?'

Luke passed by a bunch of doors, but ignored all of them.

At the end of the hallway, on Luke's left, there was a staircase leading downwards.

'It's definitely not the basement, since I can go down a floor. Am I on the top floor then?'

As he walked down the stairs, he checked his pockets.

'Everything's gone… The map, the clock, and even my memo pad and the pen!'

Of course, the key he took from Lala was also missing.

'I'll need to be careful. I don't know what time it currently is. It's possible to run into someone and get in trouble, even though it's not my fault that I'm up here.'

The room he was kept in didn't have any windows, and neither did the narrow hallway he just went through.

Even though he was angry at the receptionist, Marvin, for what he did, he couldn't just go to him without a plan.

'My best bet would be to find Lala first. She knows these people better than I do.'

Luke could remember that this building appeared to have had a total of four floors from the outside, and since he went down a floor, he should currently be arriving at the third floor.

'If I go down by another floor, I should be able to find Lala's room. It was supposed to be next to mine.'

Luke had previously been on the first and second floors, but only briefly, as he was in a hurry to find the guest room so that he could rest.

The hallways of the fourth and the third floors were similar to each other, being long and narrow, with doors to various rooms being on either side of the hallway.

The stairwells used to go up a floor and down a floor weren't connected to each other, but were instead on the opposite ends of each hallway.

To put it into perspective, the stairs that connected the third and the fourth floor were on one end of the hallway, while the stairs that connected the third and the second floor were on the opposite end of the hallway.

That was the reason why Luke couldn't simply move from the fourth floor to the second floor directly, but instead had to walk through all of the hallways on each of the floors he went through.

As he walked through the third floor, a door that was just a few meters in front of him, started opening with a creak.

Luke's eyes widened and he immediately tried opening the door that was to the left of him.

'Shit!'

The door was locked.

Luke could now hear a male and a female voice coming from inside of the room where the door opened.

He quickly turned around and tried opening another door.

Luckily, this time the door wasn't locked.

He entered the unknown room, and closed the door almost completely, leaving only a small opening that he could peek at the hallway through.

Luke could see two people leaving the room while talking to each other.

He could see both of their faces.

On the left was a tall, black-haired, young man.

He appeared to be in his late-20s, and wore a fancy azure blue robe, adorned with silver lotuses.

The amazing contrast between the beautiful silver lotuses and the man's black hair and sharp jawline made it appear like the robe was tailor-made for him.

And on the right stood a young woman, with freely-flowing silver hair, even more gorgeous than any words were fit of describing.

She was wearing a pure white robe, intricately adorned all over by small, blue embroideries in the shape of a lotus.

The pair of people was laughing and smiling at each other as they talked, but contrary to them, Luke was frowning and biting hard on his lower lip.

'…Lala!'

The young woman was Lala.

Was Luke mad because she was chatting with and blissfully smiling at another man?

Of course not.

Luke once again felt the disgusting sense of betrayal creep up on him.

'Why?! Why isn't she even looking for me?! I was still in the same building! She could've found me if she actually tried! Instead she's chatting away with some random guy!!'

He clenched his fists until blood started coming out.

'Just when I thought that I've actually found a true ally!!'

Even though he knew it was a bad idea, Luke's emotions got a hold of him, and so he stormed out of the room he was hiding in.

The black-haired man and Lala stopped talking and stared at Luke in surprise.

Just as Lala smiled and raised her arm to wave at Luke, Luke shouted out.

"Lala!! Why did you not search for me, or help me?! I thought you were someone I could rely on!!!"

Lala's cheery expression crumpled at Luke's question.

Her brow slowly lowered and she asked.

"Luke… What are you talking about? I thought that you were-", but she couldn't finish the sentence because Luke interrupted her.

"Oh, you thought? What was it that you thought?! Did you think of how I have felt when I realized that someone had abducted me in the middle of a 'friendly' place that you've brought me to yourself?!"

Lala now had a worried expression on her face.

"Luke, I don't know what you're talking about! Please calm down, and tell me what happened!"

But Luke, still blinded by anger, couldn't even notice that Lala was genuinely concerned about him.

"You're still going to lie to my face?! How dare yo-"

But Luke's nonsensical rant was interrupted as a clenched fist collided with his face.

He was knocked down into the floor, and rolled across the hallway, barely managing to stop himself.

Luke was glaring at the person who had just punched him.

It was the black-haired man in the azure blue robe.

The unknown man stood in front of Lala with his fists still clenched.

He looked down at Luke from across the hallway.

"What kind of a bastard are you? At least listen to what she has to say first, before continuing to spout bullshit."

Luke grit his teeth and barked his words out like a rabid dog.

"And who are you to tell me what to do?!"

The man grinned at Luke.

"Me? I'm just the guy who's about to beat some manners and sense into you."

"You!!!"

Luke gathered wind around his legs and shot out towards the man.

The man chuckled and instead of moving backwards, moved towards Luke instead.

It looked as if he was gliding across the hallway.

This was one of the more advanced movement techniques of the Water Temple.

Luke didn't care though, and just continued charging at the man with as much speed as he could muster.

Luke formed a sword made out of wind and enveloped it in flames.

He was going all out.

The man's eyes widened at the sight of Luke combining two different elemental attributes into a single attack.

In just two seconds, the men closed the distance between the two of them and clashed against each other.

No, to say that they clashed would be an overstatement.

'Huh?'

From Luke's perspective, the entire hallway rotated upside down.

But in truth, he was just flipped like a pancake by the man wearing the azure robe.

Luke felt someone grab him by the back of his neck, before being slammed into the ground.

Aside from the movement technique, the man didn't use his elemental at all to overwhelm Luke.

It was done purely with physical strength.

Luke squirmed and tried escaping from the man's grasp, but the man's hand simply refused to budge.

Luke tried forming a wind blade in his hand, but the man kicked his hand, causing the wind blade to disperse in an instant.

The man then lifted Luke by the back of his neck, grabbed both of his hands and placed them behind Luke's back, causing Luke to slightly bend over.

He then dragged Luke to Lala, in such a way that would allow the two of them to look at each other face-to-face.

The man spoke.

"Apologize to her first. And after that, tell us what happened to you."

After the swift beatdown, Luke did indeed calm down by quite a bit.

But even still, he avoided looking at Lala's face.

The man easily noticed this, and twisted Luke's neck in such a way that he had no other choice but to look at Lala.

'!!'

Luke's eyes widened.

'I'm a fool.'

Just taking a calm look at her face gave him all the answers he needed.

She was holding a hand to her chest, her facial expression holding untold sadness.

Her moist eyes reflected Luke's own face.

'I've attacked her and worried her unnecessarily…'

He lost the strength to struggle against the unknown man, and noticing this, the man released him.

Luke crumpled to his knees, and his head hung low, his forehead almost touching blue & silver carpet.

He raised his hand.

At this, Lala's body twitched, and the unknown man was on-guard once again.

But something unexpected happened instead.

Luke raised his head, and slapped himself across the face.

It wasn't a weak slap either, as Luke was using the wind elemental to increase the speed and the strength of his arm.

Luke's eyes went blank for a few moments.

'Oddly, I feel better now. What the hell was wrong with me? I've never been that angry in my entire life… I snapped at the one person that I have actually bonded with in this world and for something that she wasn't even at fault for… That man is right. I must apologize.'

After coming to his senses, Luke bowed his head to Lala.

"I… I was a fool. I don't know what came over me to make me act like that. E-even though you were always kind to me and never mistreated me…"

A tear flowed down Luke's face, as he bowed even deeper.

"I am… truly sorry."

The man in the azure robe crossed his arms and nodded a few times in approval.

Lala was still shocked by this bizarre situation.

She wiped her eyes and crouched down next to Luke.

Lala grabbed Luke by the shoulders and lifted him up.

'I really feel like a piece of shit…'

Luke's head still hung down. Lala opened her mouth to say something multiple times, but nothing came out.

What Luke did was shocking to Lala for a multitude of reasons, one of those being her past.

But such topics were best left for another day.

Lala finally spoke.

"Luke… I am the one who should apologize instead."

Tears started forming in her eyes once more.

"You are correct… I should've tried harder. To find you and to help you. I… We…"

She then started stuttering, the words getting caught in her throat and not coming out.

Luke was finally able to raise his head and look her in the eyes once more.

"No, Lala. Don't apologize. It's not your fault… I am the one who is at fault."

Luke smiled bitterly and wiped Lala's streaming tears.

He held her by her shoulders, and then looked at the black-haired man.

"As for what had happened…"

Luke then explained what had happened since he and Lala separated.

Of course, he omitted the part about being able to enter his own soul and converse with a man he had previously murdered.

The black-haired man held his chin and nodded, with a serious expression on his face.

Lala, on the other hand, widened her eyes, as if she couldn't believe what Luke had just told her.

She then stuttered.

"B-but, Marvin told me that…!"

The black-haired man shook his head and heaved a heavy sigh.

"We should go talk to Marvin. He is downstairs."

Luke nodded and the three people started walking down the hallway, towards the stairs.

As they walked, the man smiled at Luke and extended his hand towards him.

"Oh, and Luke. I am Leon. You can thank Lala for me going easy on you. She told me a lot about you."

Luke looked at this man with a sense of respect and gratitude, because he was the one who forced him to snap out of his rage.

Luke scratched the back of his head and shook Leon's hand apologetically.

"I should apologize first, though. I charged at you with the intent of seriously harming you."

Leon chuckled.

"It's fine. And besides…"

Leon then flexed his biceps.

"You'll need a lot more strength than that to be able to challenge me."

Luke's shoulders dropped at that gesture.

"Haha… Even so…"

And a few minutes later, they were standing in front of the reception desk.