"You are commendable, o hero of justice!", said Lubbock, all chipper having had his fill.
I kept glaring at him wide-eyed as he cozied up to Claire. Somehow, the two hit it off so good, I was feeling left out.
"Oh hardly!", chuckled Claire.
Claire seemed to have forgotten me. I suppose he was more drunk last night than I imagined. I didn't insist upon it, when he said that he didn't recall meeting me. He did admit to having a hangover last night, so perhaps his memory of me had already faded. It seemed to me that we'd come out here for nothing. Now that we were in a pitch black desert, I didn't think Claire would be able to see Rouge's semblance in me. Even with the fire going, he was completely occupied with Lubbock so I felt safe on that note.
Still, it was strange that he left in such a hurry after a hangover. Although, I hadn't pressed the matter, we still needed to make sure he wasn't lying. I think that was why we were still sitting with him even after we'd eaten.
"Ah, you said you saw me last night, didn't you sir?", he finally turned to me.
"Uh, yes. You were talking with someone at the bar."
"Oh goodness! I must have chewed out his brain, then!"
Lubbock laughed more than what was due, "You must be an awful drunk, Mer!"
So they were already on first name basis. I just watched them in silence as they began sharing stories of their drunken stupor. Although, Claire didn't say it, it was easy to see that he was an alcoholic. And a terrible drunk. Their chatter went on far too long, until I was droopy. They finally decided to call it a night just before I was about to come crashing down. I hadn't slept the whole previous night and the day wasn't any less exhausting.
"You go to sleep, Mer. We'll keep watch. We can take turns, alright?"
"Ah, but you must be tired. Let me take the first shift", Claire said.
"Actually, I'm not really sleepy so I'll stay up with my friend here until I feel like going to bed. You can take the second watch. I'll take the third."
With that settled, Claire, being an unsuspecting, gullible, fancy man, went to sleep. I too wanted to sleep but Lubbock decided otherwise.
"Aren't you real chummy with the guy we're about to kill?", I leaned against a dried tree trunk.
"So, what I'm thinking is...", Lubbock took a few moments to compile his thoughts, "We're in trouble."
"Why?! How?"
"Well, he doesn't seem to have any contradictory statements, so I can't say he's lying about anything", Lubbock went on in a low grim voice, "But he did leave like he was running away. But its also true that only the two of us knew of our plan and neither of us left the room and made contact with him."
Lubbock suddenly started sounding like Chopper.
"But then, he did run away. If we take that to be true, we should assume he learned some other way of our intentions. He didn't seem to have any emergency in this desert. So if he did run away from us, then he is more than what he says. He is a scholar at Norn, so he must have some really advanced magic. Though, he says, his expertise is magical history, artifacts and alchemy. But I think he might be more than that."
"That isn't plausible", I opined, "From what I've heard from my father, he didn't come from a good family, which means he doesn't have a strong magical affinity running in his blood. To have some special magic like that, he'd have to have been born with it, right?"
"Isn't it possible that he's lying about his identity? Maybe he didn't know your mother like he says. Maybe he isn't Mer Claire, at all."
Lubbock wasn't giving him the benefit of doubt, which made me think he didn't sound like Chopper, after all.
"Now you're just going off the tangent. How would he know Rouge had a servant when she was young, then? I don't think there's any doubt about him being the real deal. But if you think he has some special magic, to read minds or something, then-"
"Mind reading isn't hard with magic. Everyone can do it. That's why we have mind barriers, to prevent magic intrusion to the mind. It is near impossible to break through these mind barriers undetected. So if he had...No wait, you don't have magic, do you?"
"Ah...", escaped my mouth feebly.
Lubbock slapped my dumbfounded face with as much strength as his metal arm could muster, which was a lot.
"No, no, wait, wait, wait!", I stopped him before he could go in for a second one, "He doesn't know that so he wouldn't have tried mind reading on me. He must have known if he tried I'd catch him."
Lubbock stood silently for a while.
"Hmm, fair point. But regardless, we can't be sure yet, if he really doesn't remember you at all or if he's lying. Even if he isn't, maybe he will remember you later. That just means-"
"Yeah, yeah! If you think he's lying then he must be listening to us right now too, no?"
Even though, we had walked quite a distance away from him, we didn't know how strong he really was. And seeing as Lubbock was hell bent on proving him as being untrustworthy, I had to play along.
"Well, if he really can, then no point hiding it anyway. Better make it all clear while we can."
"You did say you hate roundabout ways, didn't you?", I remembered, "Why not just ask him, Lubbock?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"There's no fun in that."
"You're just playing detective, huh?", before I could grab him and give him a thrashing, he was already heading back.