Chapter 9: Attack on Elle

Lu followed the blonde lady into an unoccupied music booth. He closed the door assuming that whatever they were going to discuss was supposed to be between them and only them.

The woman looked into the window and crossed her arms. Then without facing him, she spoke, "I'm not going to deny it. I'm the owner of this book".

Lu shook his head in confusion. Lacking words for the many questions in his mind, he fell silent for a time.

Noticing this, she looked aside to take a side glance at him. "Go on, what are your demands? If it means I can keep this Elle's peace... I'll do anything"

Still perplexed by the situation he's in, Lu couldn't help but keep quiet, matched with a curious look.

After she heard nothing from him for a long period, she decided to finally face his way and asked, "Do you not get it? The book is my own, and the author's last codename is Rema".

Once more, Lu said nothing at all. She asked him a barrage of questions that might ring a bell to him, but he replied to all of them with but an indifferent response -- shaking his head.

"What's with the codenames?", he thought to himself. "I'm going to have to find that out too when I can"

"Rema? One of the six great kingdoms in conflict?? Having a kingdom name attatched to your codename tells if you are from a kingdom and where??? A lot of hatred between their folk????" The lady asked, each question becoming more specific than the last, and less formal.

"Kingdom? Conflict? Codename? I'm sorry, I really don't get it" he revealed.

Upon hearing this, she tried her best to hide her laughter through a smile distorted by half-puffed cheeks.

"I've seen that same look yesterday. You're not joking. You really don't know what having this book means, don't you?" she said.

Lu could only maintain a straight face, feeling that he is yet again an object of idiocy without meaning to.

"Ahem. I could just leave you here and move on with my life safely, but if you really are that oblivious of things it would feel wrong to do as such" she told him and sat on a chair, making a gesture for him to do the same, and Lu in response took a seat at the opposite side of the room.

"This is supposed to be common knowledge and I don't understand why you don't know, but being from a kingdom... can mean a lot. Especially because I'm the governess. One could only imagine the uneasiness it would cause if this gets out"

Lu almost jumped from his seat. "You're the governess!?" he exclaimed.

She tilted her head with a curious look, "Did you think I was just another tavern maid, or something of the like?".

A bead of sweat slid down Lu's cheek as his thoughts were guessed correctly, and there was a short delay before he could put up his obvious lie.

"No, maam!" he sat up straight.

The governess sighed, "Moving on, my code is Chrio (cra-yo) Cybel. Call me Chrio. Only those from the six great kingdoms have last names. As I've already mentioned, the inhabitants aren't exactly the best of friends. They harbor heavy hate and discrimination towards each other. So much that they started hating all outsiders even those not from the cities."

"Sick and tired of that same old unchangeable tradition, I founded this town to build a community that accepts and welcomes everyone from anywhere. So far it's been running smoothly. Though there are ten of us from kingdoms, they've all been playing nice with everyone. In fact, it saddened me when one of them told me that they were leaving soon"

"If there are people here from other kingdoms, what's wrong with you being one? Wait how are you sure that there are only ten? Don't you think most of them are from those places and only ten of them admitted it?" Lu asked.

Chrio shook her head as she failed to come up with words to explain. "We... just know... When you become an official resident, you feel who is from a kingdom and from where just by looking into each other's eyes. It's like a magnetic polarity between souls. Allan does that to every outsider and if they are from one of the six, he directs them to me for additional paperwork records and proper interview"

"Allan?" he asked.

Chrio stood up. "The man at the gate. Leatherclad and all. If you got here then I'm certain you have already met him".

"I see" Lu replied as he had a flashback when the man looked into his eyes and asked him what business he had in Elle. Lu now understands his purpose.

"Speaking of Allan, I almost forgot I have come to tell you that preparations for the bounty are fulfilled and you're good to go. Just go to Allan. He'll tell you the rest" she said.

"Thank you" Lu got up and headed for the door, but just before he was about to open it completely, he was reminded of the book. "Say, do you know who Teri Rema is?" he asked. It seemed to him that the contents of the book wasn't written like a story, but rather an encyclopedia of some sort.

Chrio rose from her seat. "I almost forgot. You really were asking who Teri Rema was, weren't you? I thought it was just you telling me you've got me figured out. Moving on, you shouldn'y really pay Teri Rema any mind. He is most famous for being a lunatic just claiming to be a scholar, saying he can see some "ethereal ghost humanoid creatures with animalistic features". My husband bought this book just out of curiosity and pity on him, and I couldn't really care any less about it. Perhaps that's the reason I put it somewhere and forgot about it".

"Then... May I borrow it?" Lu asked.

"Maybe after you get back. It's best not to make customers waiting" Chrio laughed. "Though in all seriousness, sick people are suffering as we speak, so it is indeed best you head off now and deliver those meds" she added.

Lu nodded and went straight for the gates with words echoing in his mind.

"He claimed to see ethereal humanoid creatures with animal features", Lu whispered to himself, vocalizing the echo. He twitched when Chrio mentioned this, but he had done his best to not let it show.

Esther's kin came to mind, and his heart raced at the thought. However, believing on it would be treading on a rope bridge. He would have to meet him in person, if he'd want to have any reliable information on it at all.

On the other hand, normal people would have been nervous to take even just one step outside the gates, for there were terrors beyond comprehension living trampling the lands as he learned back from Monitum. But as for Lu, he was only looking forward to how it feels to finally be able stretch his restricted wings in the open world.

***

"You're the bounty hunter?" the brown-haired guard inquired.

"Yes I am" Lu responded politely.

"You know what this is?" Allan pointed at a strange four-wheeled machine covered in four smooth wooden sides. Its front looked similar to a car's hood, and the back was a space filled with sacks full of what seemed like smaller bags, all filled with some weeds, presumably the meds he were to deliver.

"A speedwagon, yes I am familiar with it and I know how to use one" Lu said. Truly, he has experience with driving the vehicle from the videogame.

"Good" Allan turned to the gate's levers and walked to them. "I trust there's no more to explain?" he asked Lu.

The boy hopped on to the vehicle and placed his hand on the front. Like almost every other machine in the current world, the speedwagon was also operated through the use of feathers. The quills are to be attatched to certain levers and spin them around, turning other gears and gizmos that eventually reach the wheels of the cart and make them roll along as well.

Luckily, the internal parts of the wagon where the quills are used was covered for aesthetic purposes, letting Lu be able to use it without a worry.

The guard opened the gate for his exit and warned him. "I wouldn't have lent it to a random person especially a kid if it wasn't for the emergency. The next safe haven isn't reachable in one mana bar except from Craih where you're supposed to deliver these. The guards there will make sure you'll come back, so if you're thinking about running away with it, forget it. Oh and if you so much as scratch her, you'll literally pay for it".

Lu felt a chill up his spine as he heard Allan's threats. He hadn't thought of running away with stolen goods, though he's sure that if he did, he'd drop it right now.

He rolled the wheels forward and as soon as he exited the gates, Allan closed it and nodded to him for good luck.

The familiar patches of dirt and grass greeted him as well as a few trees that varied sizes in the orange light of the sinking sun.

He then directed the speedwagon to the far west where he was told the next city would be. The air gently pat on him as he rode smoothly through the terrain, giving him a sense of freedom for two reasons. The first being the atmoshpere of dangerous ventures, and the second was because he could finally use his feathers whenever he wished.

He didn't want any trouble, but he does welcome anything that needed him to use his plumes right now.

Though against his wishes, not even a titan's footprint was seen throughout the boring trip. A few minutes later he saw a man waving to him a little far off the walls of yet another village. Though this time, they had black walls instead of gray ones.

He slowed down as the figure grew, and finally to a stop after he was right next to him.

"I'm the one that sent the request, are you the bounty hunter?" The man asked.

"Yes" Lu answered the question for a second time for a different person.

No sooner than he said that the man started transferring the bags to his own speedwagon. Lu helped out and finished it under a minute. Afterwards the man gave him an bronze coin with a square-shaped hole in the middle as a proof of his completion and he was sent back.

On his way back, Lu couldn't take the book off his mind. He wanted to meet its author, blatantly hoping it would be someone who can help him with his situation despite the many things that testify against it, most of which requiring only common sense to know. There wereany things he wanted to ask Teri Rama if they were to meet.

There was something that bothered him in the middle of his thoughts. A red feather that closed the book forcefully before he could read the content.

His uneasiness grew. Not just because it was uncomfortable, and downright annoying and disrespectful, but also because he was brought about a realization.

"Red feather... Chrio Cybel... Cybelian?", he thought, while rejecting his idea at the same time.

Before the two masked men died to the scythe meister, they called the hooded individual "Cybelian".

He didn't want to make a baseless accusation of her, but he doubts he will ever let his guard down around her again. However, he still does want to know if it was her, if given a chance without conflict.

His focus shifted to the road as his want to return increased. His travel went smoothly and was far from dangereous. It was so smooth that he became suspicious of the environment throughout the return trip and even felt like there was an impending danger.

Call it experience, or intuition, fortune or misfortune, his gut feel was proven correct when he noticed two figures he had seen countless times before.

A humanoid form had long, rust-brown, metallic, mechanical arms easily four times the length of a grown man. It was attatched to an identically metallic torso, and a glowing golden circle marked on a simple bump at the topmost part, where a head would be if it were a person. Its feet resembled a duck's but were rounder and made of the same steel as the rest of its upper half.

A titan.

And not just one, but two. Two that were about to reach the walls the same time as he would.