"Come work for us," said Christian.
"And who exactly is "us" supposed to be?" Luke asked as he crossed his arms and slightly narrowed his eyes.
"Among the many names we have, you are most likely to have heard of our most common moniker," Christian announced with his chin slightly raised and his eyes half-closed, "The Artificers."
'Now that he has heard that name, there is no chance he'll refuse my offer!' Christian thought.
But Luke simply stared at Christian with disinterest in his eyes.
'Sounds lame.'
"I'll have to refuse, but keep up the good work, I guess?" said Luke as he waved the man off.
Christian's facial expression remained unchanged, albeit his mind grew chaotic.
'Keep up the good work?! Is he really not afraid of trying to negotiate with me in such a brazen way?! It seems like I need to butter him up first…'
"Would you reconsider? We have quite a bit to offer a man of your talents."
"Hmm…" Luke cupped his chin in thought.
'Where is Ellios when I need him?'
"Tell you what, answer a few of my questions first. I will only hear you out after that," Luke said in a flat tone.
'If that's all it takes…'
Hiding his displeasure behind his blank expression, Christian wordlessly nodded.
"Why are you really here?" Luke questioned.
"I have received a report about an unlisted item getting purchased," Christian replied emotionlessly, almost like reciting a script, "and it's within my jurisdiction to investigate such unprecedented matters."
"And? What's the unlisted item?" Luke probed further.
"I'm not at liberty to say," Christian replied with a small shake of his head.
"Could it be an old, hexagonal artifact?" asked Luke with a smirk on his face. He was half-bluffing and half-guessing.
A corner of Christian's lips noticeably twitched for the first time since the conversation began.
'How does he know?! Wait… Could he be the one making the purchase? He was just standing here when I arrived, so he might've been waiting for someone… His underlings? Or maybe companions?'
Without answering Luke's question, Christian asked one of his own with a humble bow, "Sir, if I may ask, could you perchance be waiting for someone out here?"
'Bingo,' Luke thought. He got all the confirmation he needed.
Luke frowned to put Christian off, and nodded.
'Time to go all-in,' he thought as he grinned inwardly.
"Yeah, a bastard I've been dragging around was supposed to finalize the purchase of some artifacts, but he's still nowhere to be seen. It seems like you can't trust anyone these days, even with such trivial tasks. What do you say? Do you agree? Christian?" Luke sought affirmation as he walked closer and closer toward Christian with a grin and a tinge of madness in his eyes.
'It was his underling! But I can make this work in that case… If I let him keep the artifact as a sign of goodwill, and then he ends up joining us, there wouldn't be any loss at all! In fact, we would profit! And if not… Well, it is a low-quality item, anyways…'
Standing face-to-face with Christian, Luke pompously spoke, as if to provoke him, "You won't even answer my questions. So why should I listen to your offer?"
And for the first time, Christian smiled, a strange shine reflecting off his round-frame glasses.
"Very well. What a shame."
'I couldn't risk any information leaking… But I'm not going to just give up.'
Christian reached inside his suit and took out a small, rectangular artifact.
'It isn't inside of his storage elemental?'
"Please take this, sir. You can use it to get in touch with me if you change your mind. Our door will always be open for you."
Not seeing much harm in it, Luke nodded, accepted the artifact, and put it in his pocket.
"Fuse the artifact with just a little bit of mana, and it will activate. Just make sure not to break it like the storage elemental. Now, if you'll excuse me, sir."
Excusing himself with a bow, Christian walked into the tree.
'Seems like he completely bought my bluff. What a weird guy, though.'
A couple of minutes later, Ellios and Anastasia walked out of the tree.
"Finally! What took you so long?" Luke said with a sigh of relief.
But Ellios carried a different expression on his face. One of surprise, mixed with a bit of worry.
"Luke, what'd you say to that guy?"
"What do you mean? Did he tell you anything weird?"
"No… He walked in like he owned the place, and not only did he let us leave, but we didn't even have to pay for any of the artifacts…"
'Already trying to make himself look good, huh?'
"Isn't that great? You saved some money, so use it to treat me to some delicious food later, and we'll call it even. Let's get out of here," Luke said, turning around to leave.
"So, you did say something to him… You need to be careful around those people. They're from the Artificers Company."
Ellios and Anastasia followed Luke and started heading out of the swamp, but Ellios soon took over the leading position.
"The Artificers… Yes, he did mention some lame name like that," Luke said as he smirked.
In contrast, Ellios almost started fuming as he glanced at Luke in disbelief.
"Lame? They're one of the most powerful groups on the entire continent!"
"Oh? First time I've heard of them, though."
'Which is not a surprise, considering that I haven't been in this world for even a month yet…'
Anastasia, who's been silent until now, couldn't help but chuckle at their exchange.
"Hey, Ellios. Time to actually teach your disciple something for a change, eh?"
"Tsk. Since you don't even know about them, I'm guessing that you don't know much about artifacts either."
"Not really, no…"
"Long story short, artifacts can be split into two groups, depending on their origin: natural and artificial."
"…!"
"As you've probably guessed by now, natural artifacts are found in nature. Places like caves, monster lairs, underground, and so on. On the other hand, artificial artifacts are manmade, and there's only one known group that's capable of performing such a feat."
"…The Artificers."
"Exactly. It shouldn't come as a surprise that their power is great and their influence widespread. Stores like the one we just visited started popping up all over the continent decades ago, but very little is known about who's running them or how they operate."
"I understand now. Thank you, master."
"Khm, it's nothing, disciple."
'Someone from such an organization wanted me to join them? Going as far as gifting me some artifacts to win my favor? Why?'
The answer remained in front of him this entire time; it was simple.
'…He saw me absorbing the storage elemental that should've dispersed.'
"You look nervous." Anastasia chimed in from next to Luke.
"…It's nothing," said Luke as he turned his head away.
'I'm sure it's fine. He didn't seem aggressive. Maybe I can even use that connection in the future…'
"I may not be the one best suited for it, but if you want to talk to someone, I'm here," Anastasia said with a bright smile.
Although her hag-like disguise didn't allow the smile to shine as much as she'd wanted it to.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Back in Naiccos…
The western gate of the city didn't usually get too much traffic when compared to the northern and eastern gates, but today could be chalked up as an exception.
Hundreds of people made the front of the gate look like a hell pit. The uniformity of the waiting line crumbled hours ago as people pushed and struggled to be let into the city even a second before anyone else.
The guards were having a hard time containing the crowd and still performing the regular check-ups, but somehow managed, at least for now.
On top of the wall stood a single man, wearing leather armor, and looking down at the crowd of people with crossed arms.
He looked as if he were constantly frowning, but he would usually tell people that's just how his face was. That, along with the diagonal scar across his right eye, made him look very intimidating.
Another man, dressed in similar armor, called out with bated breath while running towards him, "Captain!"
He turned his head towards the soldier in response.
"What's the situation?"
"Reporting! It appears that the other gates are having as much trouble as we are!"
Since the walls were hundreds of meters long, the gates were also quite far away from each other. Unless one's eyes were enhanced by an elemental, you couldn't see the situation at the other gates from where the captain stood.
"Hmm… Did we manage to get in touch with any of the surrounding cities?"
The soldier apologetically shook his head, "No, sir, we are still trying to get through, but it seems like something is interfering with the comms artifact…"
'A pre-mediated strike? Or a coincidence? I wonder…' thought the captain.
The loud crowd loudly bickering in front of the gate made it difficult to think.
"Ahem…" clearing his throat, the captain loosened the collar of his armor, "Let's get this over with."
Taking a sharp breath in, the captain opened his mouth: "SILENCE!!!"
The elemental-enhanced shout was louder than he expected, but it didn't matter.
Lowering the intensity of his voice, the captain looked at the now-completely silent crowd.
"Where did you come from? Why are you so desperate to get into the city?"
After some time, a small child spoke up as loudly as it could muster.
"M-monsters! M-mommy… mommy told us to, to run, but she… she didn't… U-uwaaaaah!"
The child couldn't take it any longer and broke out in tears. The other slightly older children around it, although not looking much better themselves, tried their best to console the child.
Aside from the child's weeping voice, no other voices could be heard. The adults looked away, as if trying to escape from reality, and still refused to speak up.
The captain gritted his teeth at the miserable sight.
"…Do you have no shame? Does a child that small really have more courage than all of you combined?! Speak!"
The intensity of his voice even scared the soldier who stood next to the captain.
This made one of the people in front of the gate raise his voice.
"W-we are all from the villages east of Millef! A-as that child said, m-monsters invaded n-nearly all of our villages one by one, s-starting from the west! W-we had n-no choice but to flee eastwards!"
'Monsters? Not people? Were our malfunctioning comms really a coincidence then?'
"Why didn't you say that from the start, then?"
Nearly all the people in front of the gate eyed the man who spoke up, anticipating his response.
"W-we tried, b-but the g-guards wouldn't listen at all!"
The captain looked towards the guards in front of the gate, but they all shook their heads in unison. One of them also spoke up, "Reporting! We've heard many reasons from them, but villages getting overrun by monsters wasn't one of them!"
Nodding to himself, the captain smirked.
'I see. Now it's all starting to make sense…'
"S-sir, please! My wife is wounded! Let us in, I beg you!"
"M-my child has a fever!"
"I'm feeling nauseous!"
Starting with the man who spoke up, the crowd once again erupted into loud yelling.
It was as if the people were competing to see who'd had it worse, as if that'd let them enter the city sooner.
"What's your opinion on this?" the captain asked as he glanced at the soldier next to him.
"M-me? I, well, it's not my place to say this, but I think there's only one right thing to do here, captain…"
"You mean to let them in?"
The soldier nodded with a smile.
"Nice answer. Here's another question," said the captain as he pointed at the soldier's right arm which was behind his back.
"What were you planning to do with that dagger?"
The smile on the soldier's face froze before he nervously chuckled.
"What are you talking about, cap…tain?"
His expression froze mid-sentence as his head separated from his shoulders.
The captain put his sword back into its sheath and spit on the ground.
"A mole, huh? Disappointing."
The sight of the beheaded soldier made the crowd grow silent once again as the bloody head hit the ground below the wall.
The guards in front of the gate were equally shocked by what had just happened. And as if pouring salt onto their fresh wound, the captain's next command left them speechless and unable to think.
"Guards! Heed my command! Kill them all!"