A Fateful Encounter

Luke questioned his hearing.

'How is this possible?'

Looking over to Lala, Luke noticed that he wasn't the only one who was very confused.

Trapping the shadow elementalist and then witnessing the fight between Joseph and Boldee…

It was in no way, shape or form false or fabricated.

'I even died on the first attempt…'

Their power was the real deal.

Luke, especially, could confirm this, since he once died at the hands of Joseph's thunder elemental.

Luke then looked at Leon.

'It doesn't seem like he's lying. What actually happened then? An elemental? Hmm, from what I've learned so far, probably not. But if not an elemental, what did he use?'

A lightbulb went off in Luke's head.

'An artifact?'

Nevertheless, he would have to check first.

"Leon, is there an elemental that can alter a person's appearance?"

Leon cupped his chin and shook his head after thinking for a few moments.

"Not that I know of."

Luke then placed one of his fingers on the table and leaned towards Leon.

"What about artifacts that could do that?"

Leon's pupils darted around and his lips quivered slightly as if recalling something. He then nodded his head.

"…Indeed. There were rumors of such an artifact a few years back. But no one had heard anything about it ever since."

Leon's eyes then widened in realization.

"Wait, Luke... These questions… Are you suggesting that-"

"It is exactly what I'm suggesting. The Joseph that you saw last night must have been a faker."

Luke interrupted Leon and nodded strongly.

Leon scratched his neck.

"It would explain some things, but I'm still not too confident in your theory… The rumored artifact was said to be able to change only the person's appearance, and nothing more. The Joseph that I saw last night was Joseph not just in appearance."

"But those are just rumors. And even if there's truth in those rumors, why would it be impossible for someone to adjust their voice and mannerisms as well?"

Leon sighed and closed his eyes.

"Yes, it should be possible…"

Leon opened his eyes, reflecting his newfound confusion.

"So, basically, Luke, what you're saying is that Joseph sent someone disguised as him to the meeting, which just happened to be on the night on the destruction of the Obron village, just so he could have an alibi?"

Luke nodded.

"After hearing about the meeting, I do think that that's probably what happened last night."

Leon looked at the meeting table for a few seconds before speaking up once again.

"Some things still don't make sense. First of all, why would Joseph not disguise himself instead, when he went to the village, and just used something else as an alibi? Like this, he risked being seen by the villagers who could've identified him. Although that didn't happen, as none of the villagers left alive recognized any of the three people that were seen running around the village. Second, what was the reason for destroying a village that was under Millef's direct jurisdiction? It makes no sense to me… And third, which is the most important question to me personally; why would he target the two of you in the first place?"

Luke scratched his head.

"I do not have the answers to all of those questions, but I'll try answering the questions that I do know the answer to."

Luke then cleared his throat.

"The first question is the one I don't really know the answer to, so I'll just offer my hypothesis. Maybe there are some kinds of restrictions applied to the artifact that they used for disguise, which wouldn't allow the user to use their elementals, or move too fast, or something along those lines, that would've hindered the user in combat or prevented combat completely. Of course, none of this has to be true, it's just what I think may be the answer, or at least, a part of the complete answer. As for the second question, I do not know much about politics, so I rest my case there."

Luke sighed.

"The answer to the third question is quite simple. A tavern-keeper in Obron called Boldee helped me when I arrived in the village, and also imparted a special coin to me before I left for Millef. He specifically told me to give it to someone in the Bounty Hunter's Association, as they'd grant me a favor. I thought that he may have had a personal connection there, and indeed, Joseph seemed to recognize the coin and who it was from in an instant. I did not know this at the time, but it seems like there was some bad blood between the two, as Joseph dueled Boldee in Obron village during its destruction. It seemed like that was the number one reason he was even there in the first place."

Luke leaned back in his chair.

"Of course, as the one who gave the coin to him, I was targeted as well, because of my connection to Boldee. Loose ends and all of that, I imagine. And Lala, who was supposed to stab me in the back then and there, instead chose to side with me, and so we managed to escape into the Forest of N'Gool."

Leon nodded at Luke's explanation.

"I see. I never knew that there was such a man in Obron. As for the disguising artifact, we may need to discuss that in the future, when we learn more about it, but for now… You can say that you have convinced me that Joseph had tricked me."

Luke and Lala smiled at this, and Lala spoke up this time.

"Does that mean you'll help us take Joseph down?"

Leon chuckled.

"That's not really something I can say either yes or no to, especially after hearing what you two had to say. Instead, I can only help you investigate Joseph for now. Only when I see some proof, will I act directly."

Luke nodded.

"That's good enough for now, as long as we can start somewhere."

Leon clapped his hands and stood up.

"We will discuss our first steps at another time. For now, rest up. I believe you've had a very uncomfortable night from how you acted when we first met."

Luke scratched his head and smiled.

"I apologize once again. I'll take you up on the offer."

Leon nodded and turned around.

"Well then… I will call for you when we next meet up. The embassy building is currently pretty devoid of any people aside from Marvin and me, but that should change in a few days, so enjoy the peace and quiet and rest up."

Luke nodded, and both him and Lala bid Leon farewell.

Only Luke and Lala were left in the huge meeting room.

Lala kept looking around here and there, before muttering something to Luke.

"So, umm… Hey. I got something for you."

Luke was surprised.

'She got something for me?'

As Luke was thinking that, mana gathered around Lala's chest and started expanding and taking shape in her arms.

It was a robe.

Lala smiled at Luke.

"Here. I hope it fits."

Luke chuckled.

"Right, you remembered. I wasn't able to buy any clothes with the money you gave me after teaching me how to read for the first time…"

Lala raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean? I never gave you any money."

Luke then remembered something crucial and felt a bit embarrassed.

'Ah. That never happened from her point of view. When the shadow elementalist killed me, I went back in time to the middle of that very lesson…'

Luke feigned a smile.

"Haha… I'm joking. Thank you very much. Can I try it on right away?"

Lala nodded with some suspicion in her eyes.

"I didn't really find what you said funny, but yes, you can try the robe on."

Luke still kept the smile up as he took the robe from Lala.

As they were still in the meeting room, Luke just wore the robe over his current clothes.

The robe was a dark shade of blue and the sleeves were slightly longer on the backside of Luke's arms, but above his wrists at the front. It just barely covered the top of his feet, and there was also a curved collar around Luke's neck.

The robe had a few embroideries here and there, such as on the back of it and on the sleeves, and all of the embroideries were woven out of a black thread.

The robe also had better utility than Luke's old clothes, including large pockets, and better ease of movement, especially in combat.

'I think I'm beginning to understand why elementalists prefer wearing these…'

Luke smiled.

"Thank you Lala, I will repay the favor as soon as I can."

Lala gently shook her head and smiled back.

"No need. Consider this a gift from me."

Luke grinned and slightly bowed his head at Lala.

"Alright, Then thank you once again."

Lala cheerily nodded a few times.

"I'll go rest for a bit now, so I guess I'll see you later."

Luke waved at Lala and exited the meeting room.

'Alright, I'll go and take off these old clothes first, and then I'll go out. There's a whole city to explore after all.'

Nodding to himself, Luke headed to his room, as appointed by Leon, and quickly changed.

He made sure to transfer all of the stuff he had out of his old clothing, which amounted to a map, a notepad with a pen, his now-useless phone, the compass and the pocket watch, as well as two strange little orbs, being the artifacts he obtained in Millef from the fat merchant.

'I'm sure these will be useful very soon.'

Luke walked down to the lobby.

He exchanged a glance with Marvin, but they proceeded to ignore each other, and Luke exited the embassy building.

It was around noon, so the streets were packed, but this district wasn't that bad, as not many people currently had any business here.

Luke gathered wind around his legs and hips, and started running through the cobblestone streets of Naiccos.

He passed many interesting looking buildings, but as he had no reason to stop by them, he ignored them for the most part.

Luke could read some signs, albeit barely.

'Even after graduating from college, the studying grind will seemingly never end.'

He smiled bitterly as he kept running.

Soon, the streets were completely packed, and Luke could no longer run at full speed, but had to walk instead.

But after some time, he spotted a relatively short building in a sea of tall buildings, and so he decided to jump to the top of it.

'Lucky. I should look for shortcuts from up there.'

The roof of the building was flat, but that was because it was actually an outdoor caffe of sorts.

A man and a woman were sitting in the middle of the roof, and gazed coldly at Luke as he suddenly jumped onto the roof.

The chairs and the table they were using were nothing fancy, but the pair of people exuded a strangely noble aura.

Three people in black robes were stationed around the roof, and they all started gathering elemental attacks of their own as soon as Luke appeared.

Luke realized what was going on and quickly spoke as he raised his hands up.

"Wait, wait, wait!! Sorry! This is a misunderstanding! I'll leave!"

The man and the woman exchanged glances with each other.

The man shrugged his shoulders and continued sipping on his drink.

The three elementalist guards were also keeping an eye on the pair, and seeing their reaction, they proceeded to launch several elemental attacks on Luke.

Luke's eyes widened.

'Shit!'

Using his newly strengthened wind elemental, he enveloped his entire body in wind, granting him agility that couldn't be compared to anything he could ever do before.

A fireball came from his left side, a wind blade from the front, and something was slithering through the surface of the roof from the right.

Luke didn't have to move his head to be able to see all of these attacks coming at him, thanks to his expanded field of vision.

But seeing the attacks didn't mean that he could counter all of them at once.

Luke jumped up and spread his legs in a reverse T-shape, avoiding the wind blade, which was the attack that had reached him first.

While falling back down, the fireball locked onto him.

'I can't use wind against this, it would only strengthen the fire…'

Luke used his fire elemental, and tried forming an identical fireball, even though he had never tried to do such a thing before.

In the few seconds he had before the fireball hit him, Luke only managed to muster a small ball of fire.

'Crap!'

He landed back on the ground, and the fireball was now meters away from him.

He shouted out.

"Dammit! Wind it is!!"

Luke raised his arms from the level of his hips to above his head, conjuring a current of wind in an upwards motion.

Surprisingly enough, the wind current changed the fireballs trajectory, and it missed Luke's head by a hair's breadth.

Luke's eyes widened, but he shook his head.

'No time to be impressed! One more left!'

The final, slowest attack, was the one coming from underground.

It slithered and bulged through the flat roof's white, slightly cracked, surface.

Just as it was a couple meters away from Luke, something started rising from the bulge in the roof.

Five spikes made out of gray stone accelerated towards Luke from the bulge.

Each one of them were aimed at Luke's vital spots.

One spike was rushing at his head, two were rushing to his knees, and the last two were aimed at his heart and liver, respectively.

Luke instinctively formed a sword of wind in an instant, and slashed at the spikes in one swift motion.

Thanks to the fire elemental which had physically strengthened his body, and the boost from his now semi-decent wind elemental, Luke was able to destroy the five spikes all at once.

Silence.

Only the sound of Luke's ragged breaths could be heard.

Luke was glaring at the people on the roof.

"I said I was sorry! Why did you still attack me?!"

Seeing that their attacks were insufficient, the elementalists started preparing even stronger spells, but the man who was sitting in the caffe raised one of his hands and spoke.

"Stand down."

The elementalists immediately dispersed the spells they were preparing and bowed.

The man arrogantly smiled at Luke.

"I like your spirit kid. What's your name?"