Dawn began to break as The Sacred Inventory ship rose the waves to Hurm. Joined by the Hero's party, things would surely get hectic, especially between Luka and Emilia.
Luka began waking everyone up, much to Emilia's annoyance. He walked around the hallways smashing two pans together.
"Wake up, losers!" He shouted. "We should be at the harbour in 6 hours so everyone get busy"
"Uuuugh shut up. I'm trying to sleep" Emilia grunted.
Luka raised an eyebrow before using water magic to throw water at her face.
"Are you awake now?" Luka said.
Emilia then got angry and began attacking Luka, but was calmed down by the rest of her group.
Some time later, the group were all on the deck, some were keeping watch while others were preparing food. After everyone ate, people began doing their own thing. Lucia was admiring Luka; the Hero's party (along with Viktor and Rebecca, were training; and Luka and the Belamond brothers were playing with trading cards from Summoners Plateu, a world reknowend card game.
"Alright I'm attacking Luka directly with Grand Wizard Ogre King" Zagritz claimed.
Luka smirked "you really thought you'd beat me with this amateur shit?" Luka questioned.
"Bluff" remarked Zagritz. "You don't have a beast on your field…. Oh no"
"Yes. You just activated my trap card!" Luka cried "I'm now allowed to call one beast from my hand and force you to attack it! Go, Golden-Eyes Silver Dragon!"
"Impossible!" Zaine proclaimed. "That's one of the strongest cards in the game! It's so powerful there are only 5 out there! How do you have one in your deck?!"
"I'm just better" Luka said "now Golden-Eyes! Attack Zagritz's Grand Wizard Ogre King!"
"Dammit! You've gotta be joking! How was I supposed to know he had one of the best beasts in the game?!" Zagritz said before smiling. "Good thing I have counter measures! I activate Ogre King's magical ability to negate the damage my health points would've taken and summon another ogre type beast from my hand by using half of my current summon points! I'll summon a new Grand Wizard Ogre King!"
Luka kissed his teeth. "Tch. What an annoying creature" Luka said. "The ogre will cause me trouble so I'll deal with it later. So looks like Zaine is next on the chopping block".
Zaine grew anxious before shouting "with this treasure I summon!" Before sacrificing all his summon points and most of his HP to summon a beast. Luka both looked in awe.
"No way" Zagritz said.
"You're kidding me" Luka said with an anxious smirk.
"No way he has that card!" The two said in tandem.
"Uuuh guys" Emilia said, interrupting the moment. "Can you stop slacking off while the rest of us are working?"
Luka side eyed her, as though taken aback by her audacity. "Huuuuuh?" Luka said. "Like I'm letting you tell me what to do on my ship. Get real"
A while later, Luka began preparing the Leviathan meat for everyone to eat.
"Woooow~" Lucia said, flirtatiously. "I didn't know you could cook"
I have a lot of siblings who I needed to cook for from time to time back in the day, so I just have the skill handy" Luka said. "It's a skill that's helped me make money so I guess those parasites helped me out with something after all"
Everyone set a table on the deck as they prepared for Luka to bring out the food.
"Alright guys-" Luka said before looking at the hero's party confused. "What the hell are you guys doing at the table?"
Emily responded with even greater confusion "to eat obviously".
"Oh!" Luka said before laughing. "Did you guys think you were eating for free? What a laugh." Luka calmed down before saying "anyway that's 15 silver coins for each of you"
The Assasin of the hero's party, Misha, said "we already paid you to be-"
She was swiftly interrupted by Luka who retorted by saying "On the boat. You already paid to be on the boat. I don't remember packing food for you guys, but if you want some it'll be 15 silver". Luka maintained an arrogant smile while saying this.
Emilia scoffed and said"Wait, that means you prepared food for us anyway"
Luka smiled and nodded before saying "yeah, that doesn't mean you'll eat it without paying. I cooked it knowing you would pay for it"
Emilia was taken aback by Luka's arrogance "whatever" she said "Your food was probably garbage anyway"
"Alright your loss" Luka said while rolling his eyes . "As for the rest of you, you're employees so you eat for free" Luka said before giving out the plates of food.
"I call it, 'Marine's Banquet'. It's made of multiple different herbs and spices with slow boiled meat from the Leviathan Dragon we killed the other day, decorated with an ensemble of other aquatic based foods like shrimps, clams and such"
Much to the heroes' surprise, the dish he made was perfect, great enough to even put some of the most reknowned chefs in the world to shame. The crispy exterior yet juicy and tender interior of the mouthwatering dragon meat, the colourful array of vegetables and seafood, all in perfect tandem with the aroma of exotic seasonings was enough to even have Emilia admit Luka's skills. It was a culinary masterpiece in every sense of the phrase.
"Anyway I guess we can find a way to deal with the leftovers I had for the heroes~" Luka said, looking back at them.
"Miss Emilia" Charlie the mage said. "You have to admit that looks goods"
"Don't you dare take his side! Caving in to that man? Where's your pride?" Emilia responded.
"I'm willing to pay for myself if that works, Luka" Aiden said, looking away from Emilia in shame. "Sorry, leader" Emilia felt offended and betrayed by this.
"Money's money" Luka said. "Fork it over and I'll get your plate, same goes for the rest of you. If li'l Emilia doesn't wanna stop being a baby she can starve I guess"
The Misha and Charlie quickly followed suit and paid Luka. As they enjoyed their food, Emilia refused to let go of her pride, regardless of the temptation to do otherwise.
"Mmmm" Charlie said as she was scarfffing down . "This might be the best meal I've ever had!"
"The boiled clams are exquisite." The Assassin said.
"I'll admit, this is great! Both in presentation and taste" Aiden claimed.
"Alright alright, I get it, I'm amazing" Luka said, clearly giving in to flattery.
Aiden then turned to Emilia who's piercing gaze was upon her team mates, as if saying 'you damn traitors!'
"Emilia… come on" Aiden said. "It's just 15 silver. If anything, it's a bargain. Food like this usually goes for like 70 at le-"
"It's not about the money!" Emilia shouted. "It's a matter of principle!"
"Oh leave her be, Aiden" Luka said while enjoying his food. "I'm sure she can eat all those "principles" she keeps babbling about" he said before laughing.
The taunts only made Emilia more angry. "I'm not hungry enough to eat food made by the likes of you"
Luka smiled and raised an eyebrow before saying "madam your stomach is rumbling and you're drooling from the mouth. You're not fooling anybody"
Emilia was embarrassed before whimpering the word "fine".
"Huuuuuuuuuh?!" Luka said in a blatantly mocking tone. "I didn't quite catch that! You'll need to speak up!"
"I'll give you your damn money just give me the food pleeeeaaaase!!" Emilia cried, throwing a bag of coins at Luka.
Luka caught the money then said "so much for 'principles'" before teleporting a plate of food to the empty seat. Emilia immediately sat down before devouring the food, but felt ashamed while doing it simply because Luka made it.
Everyone was eating well Zaine randomly stood up. He then threw his half eaten food of the ship.
Luka looked in horror. "My culinary masterwork!!!" He shouted as though a loved one was killed right in front of him. "What the hell is wrong with you, you dumb brat?!"
Zaine then walked to Luka before hitting him with Lightning magic at point blank range, causing him to fall to the floor. Everyone looked surprised.
"Guys! Help!" Zaine shouted. "I don't know what's happening to me!"
Everyone then heard a playful laugh from above them. There, they saw a petite woman in a pink robe levitating above them. She had pink hair and purple eyes as well as dark purple eyeliner. From her back we're multiple wooden arm-like appendages. She also carried herself with a playful smile. Under closer
"Who are you?" Emilia questioned, drawing her sword.
"Wow! I'm so lucky!!!" The woman said. "Two court mages, an adventurers party, the heroes and the princess of Gran! So many great toys to play with, so little time"
Aiden grew tired of her talk. "We already asked… who the hell are you!" He said before jumping up ready to attack. However he was surprised to see himself suspended in midair.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk" the woman said. "Bad boy! Toys aren't allowed to move on their own. I'll have to treach you a lesson"
One of her wooden puppet arms started moving its fingers, seemingly prompting Aiden to slap himself across the face continuously, causing the lady to laugh.
"What's going on here?" Emilia questioned. Her confusion was interrupted by pain as the Viktor launched a physically enhanced strike on her stomach, blowing her back.
"Hero Emilia!" Viktor yelled. "Run away! I don't know how, but she has to be controlling our movements!".
Emilia then began to levitate before attempting to attack the woman, who dodged her attack.
"I won't ask again" Emilia said, preparing multiple magic circles via multicast. "Who. Are. You?"
"Oooo, scary" the lady said, mockingly. "I guess I can say it, you deserve to know who's about to kill you. I am "The Puppeteer", Marrinette Mariah! Nice to beat you, O great hero~"
Emilia was confused. "'The Puppeteer'?" She pondered. "What does that mean? Who do you work for? Who sent you here? And why?"
"So many questions!" Marrinette said. "Sorry but that's all satisfied. Woops I mean sanatised. Classic fries? Class defied?"
"Is the word you're looking for 'classified'?" Emilia questioned.
"Oh yeeeaaaah" Marrinette said.
"Hm. This person is clearly a grown woman, but the way she acts is the same as that of a little girl. It's probably an act though, she's clearly cunning enough to sneak up on us, has the magic skill to control others and levitate, and judging by the fact that she referred to herself by the title 'The Puppeteer' it implies that she either has a title or codename. That means she's probably not operating alone. She said she wants to kill me, but I just would humans want to kill their hero? It just makes no sense" Emilia thought. "No matter. I'll just beat the answers out of her!".
Emilia flew towards her and started to fight her. With every sword attack, the enemy dodged. She then sent multiple magic attacks to her at once, which get blocked by a force field. Emilia then used the opportunity to close in and slash her force field to try and break it.
"I'll admit it. If I fight the hero herself, I'll lose" Marrinette said. "Good thing I'm not alone".
After saying that, Zagritz and Zaine flew up to her and began attacking Emilia. This forced the hero to go on the defensive.
"Just as I thought" Marrinette said. "You can't fight them. They're innocents. As the hero, you have a duty to protect the innocent, so harming these poor mages to get to me is not in the cards for you, even if it's the more logical option. How could you? It would go against everything you and your precious golden sword of yours stands for."
Emilia looked back at her with anger as she was fending off the two mages. "You bastard!"
"This is why Boss sent me to deal with you! Because of my unique skill: Marionette! My strings can control anyone. There hasn't been a soul who could stand against my power…. Well except for one I guess. And now, as the Boss demands, I'll kill you all! Oh yeah… I'll kill you all except the princess!"
"Except the princess?" Emilia said. "What do you want with her?!"
"None of your business, nosey!" The Puppeteer responded. "Mages, tire out the hero, the rest of you, capture the princess! She won't attack her precious subjects!"
The others then tried to get to Lucia, with Lucia being helpless against them, being unable to harm her friends.
"Dammit! Princess Lucia!" Emilia said, flying towards her to help. However, as she flew down, Marrinette already prepared a spell to fire as her guard was down.
"Hah. Gotcha~" she said. "Ultimate Vegetation Summon Magic: Amalgumarionette!". This spell created a large, grotesque puppet-like creature with a countless number of hands with blades coming out of its body and arms. It rushes towards the Hero, and it seemed like it was the end of her story. However, she was rescued by a third party: Luka.
"Alright, I admit it" he said. "I was just pretending to be unconscious"
"You were what?!" Emilia shouted, furiously.
"Don't be such a crybaby" he said back. "Excuse me for thinking the one shouldering the fate of humanity to be able to handle things"
"Shut up! I would've beaten her already if she wasn't playing dirty!"
"Yeah yeah you just keep making excuses"
Emilia was getting angry. But Luka then turned his attention to The Puppeteer.
"Now to deal with this cotton candy and her big toy with a defect" Luka said, referring to the Puppeteer and her summon.
Marrinette was taken aback. "How could you say that to us?" She said.
"Wait a minute" she thought to herself. "How is he still alive and uninjured at that? He's a mere merchant, how did he survive lightning from the Grand Court Mage? Maybe he was able to hold back? No matter, he won't survive with me."
"Sorry, Mr Merchant, but I've been ordered to kill everyone here, you included. Sorry. You were just down on your luck~" She said.
"You come onto my ship, use my employees to attack me on my own property and you still possess the gall to make threats? People like you ought to be put in their place" Luka said. However he then noticed something on his shoulder, where his coat hands on him. He looked in horror at this. "M-my coat… you pink piece of filth! You singed it!".
Luka dropped Emilia to the floor, preparing to fight.
"No way" Marrinette said. "You want to fight me? Please! You're just a normal civilian! Know your place! Amalgumarionette, Attack!"
The Amalgumarionette flew towards Luka, only for him to flick it and instantly destroy it. This deeply worried Marrinette.
"W-what?!" This situation was so surprising, it had Marrinette stuttering in her own thoughts. "That guy destroyed my summon in one hit! I'm level 450! There's barely anyone out there who can match my power, let alone surpass it! He has to be using some
kind of trick. There's no way. He's just some nobody!"
"Marionette!" She cried as strings came out from
One of her hands and going to the merchant.
"Oh no. If Luka gets controlled, it's game over" Lucia said.
The strings attached themselves to Luka before instantly breaking.
"W-w-w-w-w-what?!" The situation constituted more internal stuttering from Marrinette. "He managed to break my strings? No one's done that before? He's a threat. Whatever trickery he's doing, he needs to be dealt with, before he becomes a threat to the boss!"
"Puppets! Attack!" She shouted as the others swarmed towards Luka. "Hah! Let's see how easily you'll fight your alli-"
"Simple magic: omnidirectional slashes" Luka said, casting a flurry of flying slashes in every direction, cutting the strings of his allies, and his allies, in the process.
"He cut the strings, regardless of whether his friends were hurt in the process? What is he?!"
"What the hell was that for?!" Aiden shouted.
"Stop being such a princess" Luka responded. "I saved you. Be grateful, loser. If you weren't so weak it wouldn't have happened. Anyway… now to deal with the talking strawberry"
Marrinette looked at Luka in fear before flying away.
"That guy is a monster!" She said. "Nothing I do works on him. His level had to be higher than mine somehow. If I take him head on, I'm dead! He might even be strong enough to be a threat to the Boss. I have to head back and report!"
She then stopped as Luka floated in front of her. She screamed in fear and tried to fly away, but Luka grabbed one of her puppet hands, stopping her.
"It's about time I tell you why I personally stepped in" Luka said. "Firstly, it wouldn't be beneficial for me to let the Hero die. Two, I'm you were jumping my ship so naturally I had to put you in your place. Finally, your robe has a symbol on it. I saw an identical symbol on that Leviathan Dragon yesterday. You appear to be in an organisation as you were 'ordered' by someone by which you refer to as 'Boss' to kill us. All of these points lead to one conclusion: the attack on the harbour and the attack you just pulled on us were connected. I've also deduced the reason: to stop the hero and princess from reaching the Hurm Kingdom. It seems me and the rest were simply collateral damage to leave no witnesses. Why your organisation wishes for this is beyond me, but I'd like to find out. In short, you're soooo coming with me".
Marrinette then cut off the arm in order to flee. However, an unexpected interruption occurred.
"Weapon Creation Magic: Hook" a female voice said, as a large hook grabbed Marrinette and dragged her towards an unfamiliar ship. She was then punched and knocked unconscious by a female sailor. The tall sailor had long, dark blue hair are light blue eyes. She won't a long scarf with the same hue as her hair, as well as heeled, thigh high boots. And black leather mail armour and a black cape. This mysterious figure then looked Luka dead in the eyes. Luka looked back in a mixture of surprise and focus. The others sailed the ship towards where Luka was floating and witnessed this.
"Uuuuuh what's going on?" Rebecca said. "And who's that blue haired lady who caught The Puppeteer? And why are those two staring at each other?"
After prolonged silence. Luka charges towards the woman, the woman pulled a large greatsword from her back, then shouted "Equaliser!". She flew up to him and they started fighting.
"What the blazes is going on?!!" Charlie shreeked as the fight broke out.
Magic flew in every direction, punches and swords strikes were thrown left, right and center. And after about 2 minutes, Luka lost, and was pinned down on his ship.
"No way….." Viktor said in fear. "Luka….lost?"
Everyone surrounded the Azure assaulter who was sat with her legs crossed on Luka's back. She looked at them, but immediately ignored them and grabbed Luka's leg before bending it backwards while smiling.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!" Luka shouted. "I give! I give! I giiiive!"
"Good boy~" the lady said, letting him go and standing up. "So what's this, 265 wins to me and 260 wins to you?"
"Piss off!" Luka responded. "You know that's the other way round! You will not rewrite history!"
"Bullshit! I know at least 50 of those wins of yours were dumb luck anyway" she said back
"Dumb luck?! If anyone here has dumb luck, it's you!"
"Do I look like I give a damn about your yapping, Luka? I won and you lost"
"Basing your whole superiority on one win is crazy"
"Bursting a blood vessel over one loss is crazy, bro"
They then stared at each other for a while, then burst out laughing, confusing the others. They were even more confused when they started doing a fist bump, a high five, a low five, and multiple joint hand signs, seemingly a secret handshake.
"What is going on?" Aiden questioned.
"Good to see ya, Blue" Luka said.
"Same, Luke" Blue responded.
"Stand down guys, she's not an enemy" Luka said to the others. "This is Blue, my twin sister". This news left everyone in shock.
"Twin sister!" They all shouted.
"No no no no no. There are two of him?" Emilia said in disbelief.
"Interesting. They both seem to be equal in strenght too? Could it be their upbringing?" Zagritz questioned.
"Wow! I need to know where she got those clothes!" Rebecca said.
"Twins? Weird. They look nothing alike" Viktor said.
"Alright everyone, get over it. There are more people as cool as me in this world, although naturally they'd be in my family~" Luka said, arrogantly.
"Yeah, that's for sure" Blue said with equal Arrogance as they laughed in unison with an almost identically condescending laugh.
"They even laugh the same…" Emilia complained.
"Hello, Miss Blue Randz" Lucia said. "Is there a way I can get your blessing to have your brother's hand in marriage?"
Blue looked at her with a confused side eye. While they didn't look the same, their behaviours were very similar. "Luke…. Who the hell is this crazy lady?" Blue asked.
"I beat her up and now she's in love with me I guess" Luka responded.
"….charmed" Blue said to Lucia. "As for the marriage thing, I really couldn't care less, do whatever". Lucia took this as a blessing some reason. "Oh, who's the girl in the overcompensating golden armour" she said, referring to Emilia.
"How dare you?!" Emilia shouted.
"See lil Emilia, I told you it looked dumb, but you just wouldn't listen to the merchant" Luka said. "Anyway, she's the human hero, basically the biggest goodie two shoes humanity has to offer"
"Bahahahahaha! That's hilarious!" Blue laughed, annoying Emilia.
"Well, fun and games aside, what're you doing here, B?" Luka asked.
"Well me and my party were off to Hurm to just explore for fun. That's what life's about I guess. We'll also find some money where we can" Blue responded.
"Oh, you can come with us then since we're on our way there" Luka said. "While we're at it… we have a puppet master to get some answers out of"
Marrinette woke up chained to the mast of Blue's ship, surrounded by everyone. She looked up to see Luka and Blue, smiling.
"Good morning, sleepy~" Luka said. "I've got some questions and I'll need them answered"