A man was sitting on the grass, looking at the sunset. His friend was standing besides him recovering. The man said to his friend "So how do you feel now?" The friend answered, "You rat bastard." The man giggled and asked "Little surprised?" The friend said "That would be an understatement. I never would have guessed your past was like that."
Then the man said "Well now you know." The friend sat next to him and was silent for a moment. Then the friend said "So I'm like dad to you, huh." The man said "Don't say it out loud. It's embarrassing." The friend said "To think that we share that kind of connection. Now that I know that you were trained by the future me, I kind of feel awkward. Basically I learned your techniques from you, who learned them from me in the future. I must say, it's kind of mind boggling" The man then said "I hope you will keep the loop going as expected of you." The friend says "I don't know if I actually have a say in this or is it pre ordained. In any case, I promise to at least survive to the point where I meet the younger you."
The man said "Please do. You were the light that shined on me who had known only darkness. I might be a little cold at the start, but just continue to nurture me to the best of your abilities." The friend says "I promise to give it a shot, but I don't know if I'm actually good dad material."
The man then said "Don't worry. I'm sure you will do just fine. In any case, I hope you and your wife will find what you are looking for. As you are my master, my teacher, my father and my friend, I sincerely hope you have a pleasant journey. Legul."
Then the memory starts to get more hazier as the man in the memory says "Or should I call you Lucas from now on? Questions, questions." Then the owner of this memory heard the last words of this memory "A friend is enough."
Lucas woke up from a dream. It was a dream of his past. He knew that the time was growing nearer to continue the circle. It was about time he went to Lucy and asked for a little assistance with a secret auction happening soon. He knew that she wouldn't be happy to assist him, but he had no choice. There was a certain slave he must purchase at any cost.
Lucas went to Lucy's office and said "So I need you to assist me with purchasing a person." Lucy is silent for a moment as she is processing what Lucas just said. Then she says "Let me get this clear. You want to purchase a slave?"
Lucas answers "That's right." Lucy then asked "Why on earth would you need a slave?" Lucas answered "You'll understand once you see the person I want to purchase."
Lucy rubs her forehead a bit and then says "Fine. But you owe me again."
Lucas smiles and says "That's the spirit." Lucy then asks "So where are we headed and when?" Lucas answers "The auction is held in the capital, so we have to go there. As for when it is, well let's just say that we have to leave now."
Lucas then started walking towards Lucy, who then asked "What are you doing? Don't you dare." Lucas grabs Lucy and starts to carry her like a sack of potatoes. Then Lucas started running. Lucy screamed for a while, but Lucas didn't mind.
They left in the morning and they got to the capital in the evening. Then Lucas went near the auction house and finally put Lucy down. How did he get past the guards at the gate? Stealth. And this meant that they technically didn't enter the capital legally. This infuriated Lucy, who shouted at Lucas "You brute! You didn't have to do all that! I could have teleported us here with my magic!"
Lucas said "You have to teleport three people when we leave. I know that you can use teleportation magic, but you have trouble teleporting other people. This is why I ran all the way here." Lucy said "If it's the mana you are concerned about, then you still could have let me teleport us here. I can teleport five people, me included, to point A to point B."
Lucas just says "To be honest, I had two main reasons why I ran all the way here." Lucy asks "Which are?" Lucas answers "The first reason was to have a little exercise. Haven't run that long of a distance in a while now. The second was that I wanted to hear you scream and get your heart racing."
Lucy is stunned by this for a second, but she collects herself quickly as she says "You are still you after all. What else should I expect? So is that the auction house we are headed to?" Lucas says "Correct." Lucy then asks "Do we have an invitation?" Lucas answers "I made reservations on my name."
Lucy is confused and asks "Would your name be eligible?" Lucas says "Not by itself. I made sure to advertise myself as being sponsored by you." Lucy then says "You did that, while not telling me anything about it?" Lucas says "I simply forgot."
Lucy says "That has to be bs since I would have received a letter of some kind by now." Lucas says "I told Amari to give letters from a certain auction house to me." Lucy says "So you impersonated me and forged my signature. That's three illegal things you have done so far."
Lucas asks "What is the third one?" Lucy answers "So you admit it. The third one is kidnapping me." Lucas then says in agreement "That's fair."
Then Lucy asks "Why did you have to go this roundabout way of doing things when you could have just told me beforehand and explained it. And don't you dare say that you just wanted to see my reaction." Lucas is silent for a moment, but eventually he says "I simply didn't think that you would answer positively, so I thought that making you feel pressured to go along with it would be the best course of action."
Lucy is saddened to hear this and so says "So that's how little you trust me." Lucas tried to comfort her by saying "It's not like that. I just know you enough and the circumstances made me act hastily. That's why I ended up doing things that way. I trust you. I really do. But I was worried that you wouldn't agree and I felt that I had no choice." Lucy says "Whatever. Since you felt like it was that important to get here, I will let this slide. So do we go in now?"
Lucas says "It should start in about twenty minutes or so, so we probably should go and take our seats." Lucy says "Let's go."
Then the two go inside the auction house and they pass through with little to no issues. They were guided to their seats, which were in a place that only important people could get, and sat down and waited.
While waiting, Lucy asked Lucas "So are you going to tell me what we are going to get or no?" Lucas says "You will know when you see it. You can purchase whatever you want and I will only ask that you will support that one purchase I will take." Lucy sighs and says "Fine. Just don't drive me to bankruptcy."
Then the auction starts. There were some items that looked like they interested Lucy. There were some items that you would not see in a public auction, so Lucy was a bit hesitant to make any bids.
The auction went on and Lucy bought one item that interested her. It was a scry glass of high quality. It was made by one of the Inertia mages a long time ago.
Eventually the auction went to the slaves, and when Lucy saw a boy with a white hair and blue eyes, she stood up and said "No way. That can't be." She used her skill "appraisal" to look more closely, and it said that the boy's name was Roland. Lucy then calmed down and sat back down. While she was still a bit amazed that someone who looked like the hero Ronan, she thought that the boy on stage was only a lookalike.
Then Lucy asks Lucas "Is that the person you want to buy?" Lucas says "Yes." Lucy asks "Why? Because he looks like Ronan but as a child?" Lucas says "If you are limited to only thinking that he looks like him, then I'm a bit disappointed in you."
Lucy asks "What do you mean? There is no way that he is Ronan. My appraisal skill also says it." Lucas says "He is the person that Ronan was before. My mimic senses are telling me that he bears the essence of what will become Ronan."
Lucy asks "But how?" It has been over a millenia and he looks like a boy. Are you suggesting that he traveled through time?" Lucas smiles and says "That's exactly what happened. My memories when I used my "Beyond mimicry" skill on Ronan also told me the same thing. Back then, he came from the future. And now that we are in that future, we must fulfill our end of the circle."
Lucy stands up "Do you have any idea how crazy you sound right now? That would imply that…" Lucas stops Lucy from speaking as the bids are starting to be placed for ownership of Roland. The starting bid is 50 gold.
People do different bids for a while, but eventually it goes to 700 gold. Lucas then raises his slip and says "1000 gold." Everyone in the auction house is stunned a little by the amount he was offering. Lucy then says "What are you doing? You make it look like they are missing out on something big." Lucas says "That's what I'm counting for."
Another bidder raises the bid to 1200 gold. Lucas raises the bid to 1500 gold. Another bidder raises the bid to 1750 gold. Lucas then raises it to 2000 gold.
Lucy was panicking as her money was being spent just like that. She was cursing Lucas with a quiet enough voice that no one else would hear.
There weren't any more bidders for a moment. Lucy was relieved that no one was raising the bid anymore. But then someone raises the slip and says "3000 gold." Lucy then says to Lucas "We can get him by some other way. There is no need to…" But Lucas raises the slip and says "3500 gold." Lucy is about to pass out, so she sits down.
Lucy was now praying to gods that no one else will raise the price. She was considered a wealthy individual, but that wealth is something she had plans on using somewhere else. To give an example of the general cost of things, a small hut out in the woods cost about 1000 gold and an average ownership of a house cost around 4000.
No more bids were raised and Lucy was praising the gods that no more of her budget was being taken away by this greedy man. The auction proceeded without any other purchases from Lucas or Lucy.
Lucas went to take Roland away, who was silent through the whole thing. Lucy said to the kid with a kind smile "Don't worry, this old man here will take good care of you. Just follow his lead and you'll do great." She also patted the boy on the head, who didn't seem to care for it. Then they teleported away to Windstone and Lucy parted ways with the boys.
Lucas then brought Roland to a bathouse where he would clean the boy from the filth he was in. During the cleaning, Lucas saw that Roland had some recent marks of abuse. He decided to heal them right then and there without even asking about them from Roland, who hasn't said a single word to this point.
When they were done with the bath, it was starting to get late, so they decided to go sleep in the inn that Lucas was living in. There Lucas made sure that Roland slept in the bed instead of him, which made the boy a bit confused, but he started to sleep after a while.