Chapter 111 - Like A Restart... (1/2)
— Monday morning, late July, Year 512 of the Arani Era, the last hero to die. 1 year and 9 months before the Decay of the Broteforge Empire. —
When Luke entered the hotel room again, he saw Alexis placing a scroll inside her Invocation. Then she whispered a few things to the green bird, which took off northward.
It was a very sunny morning in Oukiwa and Luke was feeling as if a huge weight had been lifted from his back after he had decided not to start a lifelong search for his friends.
Internally, Luke was convinced that he had really underestimated his friends too much, and now he was quite sure that it would be easier for him to get caught by the First Servant than to quickly find the others in the gang.
If the First Servant referred to Oukiwa as a city that was at his fingertips but Vasconcelos was not, that could mean that Luke could now also be reached by the demon and if he could be reached, he needed to get even stronger to protect himself.
Once he was sure that Koven was headed in the right direction, Alexis asked:
”Did you leave Matthew where he asked?”
”Yes. I think after the weekend we managed to camouflage our tracks well. It should be safe to leave by now and when I explained to him that I still work for the Strogueher's, he preferred to go his own way. I don't judge him for that...”
”But will he be safe that way? We still don't know how the First Servant found him in the hospital.”
”It was his choice, but I hope that theory of ours is correct... Matthew was hospitalized for two weeks, yet the First Servant didn't try to kill him before... It's a little strange, but I still think he just has a vast network of informants.”
”I believe that too. Although I felt myself watching when we fought in the castle, I never felt anything like that again... Somehow we got in the way of his plans that night.”
”When he said his fingers reach out to us in Oukiwa, I think he meant his subordinates... He must have more influence here.” Luke theorized, sitting down on the half-dragon's bed.
”If he does, we can try to use that to our advantage. I have contacts who owe me some favors here.” Alexis replied, winked her right eye, and smiled at the half-wolf.
Luke smiled back. ”I appreciate everything you are doing for me.”
”N-don't be an idiot...I'm doing this because I want to kill demons.” She said, turning her face to the side to hide her blush.
”Well, then we have nothing left to do. Shall we hand over the room key?” Luke asked with a smile to the half-dragon and held out his arm as if calling him to dance.
That weekend, Luke found a new favorite pastime: teasing Alexis. She turned, opened the pouch on her bed, and took out the last vial of Elixir of concealment of half-beast traits. She drank a little and replied:
”Let's go soon, silly.”
So, Luke and Alexis went to the West Port to receive Ayumi and Nathalia. When they got there, they saw from afar a very beautiful small boat. On the hull of the boat was the word 'Strogueher' painted in silver.
Just before the boat docked in the harbor, the white sails were lowered, and from then on only the remaining power was enough to complete the movement.
As soon as a small bridge came down, connecting the ship to the pier, Luke saw beautiful blond hair fluttering in the wind. Following Ayumi closely were Nathalia, Martha, Shiro, and two other guards that Luke recognized as the morning shift guards.
The people in the harbor recognized the craft from afar as well and stopped to watch.