Maya (1)

Dead in the night, two people could be seen talking on an empty park bench.

"So, the people that were transported there were people from around this area? Why didn't I recognize any of them?"

Lucas stared at the ordinary little girl wearing a white frilly dress sitting beside him.

Her hair was currently black and her eyes were brown now, but Lucas could still see the resemblance of the fox girl with a medieval dress, yellow eyes, and white hair.

"The Aarush kingdom should cover quite a large area and they wouldn't just pick a group of people from the same area. The other residents of this world would be wary if that were to be the case."

Without even looking at Lucas, Maya munched on the hotdog that Lucas bought her using the money he got from exchanging the gold coins.

"It's quite intriguing, I've never eaten anything like this before."

Staring at the simple unknown meat shaped into a cylinder, a halfway-cut long bread hugging it, and colorful sauces on top, Maya took another big mouthful.

"It's been so long since I've traveled and tried out new things…" She mumbled.

Her voice was so low and heard like an incomprehensible muttering so Lucas ignored it.

Instead, he asked more questions.

They already talked about Gula enough that Lucas already got quite an understanding of how things came to be.

Just like Maya said, the people in the world of Gula discovered a way to travel freely between the two worlds and they have realized Earth's potential.

They didn't need any of Earth's materials or natural resources. 

Their world already had plenty of them and the treasures they could get there were literally heaven-defying compared to Earth's minerals.

They were fascinated with Earth's technology that didn't use even an ounce of mana in any of them, but they already got a mana-equivalent technology or even better ones.

Just like the first thing that Maya told him about Earth being the greatest source of manpower was the reason they decided to do what they did.

The sheer number of people on Earth was about the same amount in Gula or even more despite Earth's size being several times smaller than theirs.

And for a society that didn't know anything about mana and only knew them as something fictional, the average mana affinity of people on Earth was surprisingly higher than the people in Gula.

It was at a point where people from Gula could just walk around on a random street and find someone with a good mana affinity in just a few minutes.

Their constant wars with each other really needed manpower.

With the people over there relying on mana to do inhuman feats, what else would make a good soldier other than people with high mana affinity.

Because they wanted manpower, going to war with Earth wasn't an option they could use.

Instead, the people from Gula infiltrated Earth and studied how the people on Earth operated.

What the people on Earth wanted, what problems they were facing, and most importantly, what could they do to absorb the high-quality manpower on Earth over to Gula.

After doing research for a while, they had already prepared everything they needed to execute their plan to slowly integrate Earth with Gula.

And today, the day a small percentage of people from all over Earth suddenly disappeared, was the day that they executed their carefully planned operation.

Many kingdoms, empires, and other powerful factions had already chosen a place where they would start bringing people over.

And the area where Lucas lived was the place that The Aarush Kingdom had chosen. Hence why he appeared inside the Aarush Kingdom after being transported to Gula.

"But Maya, if this area is inside Aarush Kingdom's territory, why were you the one who had brought me there?"

Lucas didn't know anything about the traditions and etiquette of Gula. 

However, even without that knowledge, he knew that Maya wasn't someone from the kingdom. Or at least, she didn't want anyone there to know of her existence.

"You are most likely not from the Aarush kingdom.

Not only did you not reveal this appearance to them and instead became an inanimate object but you also refused to reveal even the smallest presence to them.

You didn't even want them to know about the illusion technique at all."

"Aside from that, I didn't see anyone else who had a guide that helped them and promised them anything.

The people there just seemed confused about suddenly finding themselves in another world."

Maya didn't answer Lucas' question for a while and only opened her mouth to finish her hotdog.

But after the last bite, she finally answered,

"Lucas, you want to cure your grandma right? You wanted to give yourself and her a happy life, correct?"

Seeing the seriousness in her eyes, Lucas only gave her a short yet full of conviction answer.

"Yes."

Maya nodded her head and fixed her sitting position so that she would be staring face-to-face with Lucas before continuing,

"As you've already guessed, I didn't just suddenly decide to help you out of the goodness of my heart.

Just like I will keep my promise with my life on the line to help you, I also wanted you to help me with something."

Noticing her carefree attitude from answering the previous questions had gone, Lucas also took her words very seriously and asked,

"What is it?"

Keeping her eye contact, Maya raised her hand in front of her.

"Make this oath first before I tell you anything about myself,"

"I swear by the heavens, earth, and hell that not a single word would be said about the knowledge I will hear without Maya Valeska, The Illusion Embodiment's agreement."

Lucas was once again intrigued by Maya's words, especially the title that was attached to her name.

But he knew that he wouldn't get any answer from her before he made the oath so he didn't ask anything about it first.

And hearing that it was only an oath to keep his mouth shut, Lucas didn't complain about it and just spoke it out loud.

Maya heard Lucas' vow and felt mana binding him with her and the world.

Knowing that her secrets would be safe now, Maya returned to her relaxed state and spoke out loud,

"I'm wanted by the people in Gula. Not only by the Aarush kingdom but by all the factions that exist there. And that's why I need to hide my existence."