We see a little bird flying through the beautiful blue sky filled with completely white clouds. The little bird begins to dive down until we can fully see... the wonderful kingdom of Ystir, with its great walls and advanced watchtowers, forming a wide circle that protects its lands. In this kingdom, there are three entrances: one in the east, another in the west, and another in the south. There is no entrance in the north, as the palace is located here, and beyond the harvest fields, there is a large canyon, a very dangerous place with natural traps. Ystir has four main commercial areas but also has other zones like the northwest and southeast. Here we can find various businesses, such as bars, libraries, different types of stores, and, of course, a large number of inhabitants' houses, both in the main zones and in other areas.
We follow our little bird, who now rests in a tree beside a new friend. As the new couple cuddles, we see Louis nearby, wearing a blue trench coat. It has its characteristic flaps on the chest, without any pockets or buttons, except for the adjustment straps on the cuffs and, of course... his blue collar on the chest. On the back, he had a dark blue yoke that covered the upper part and extended to the shoulders. Additionally, he wore a back waistband and an opening at the lower part of the coat. He wore a blue compression shirt, dark blue pants, dark blue gloves, and red leather boots, which rose just below his knees, with a simple and sturdy design. They had no decorations, except for a cuff at the top. Louis was running with a box in his arm as many cars passed on his right, and the sun began to light up the streets with its wonderful splendor.
"This way!" he said, stopping and seeing two paths to take. While running, we could see people working on mechanical items. "Goodbye, Louis!" a man shouted from afar, waving. "Goodbye, Mr. Brin!" he responded, happily waving back as he continued on his way.
"I made it... Whew..." he exclaimed, slightly tired, in front of a house door. Louis knocked on the door and heard a lot of noise behind it.
"Finally! Thank you for bringing it!" said a rather disheveled woman. You could see the fatigue on her face and also the desperation she was going through. She instantly took the package Louis was carrying and opened it as quickly as she could, assembling the pieces with great speed.
"Mom! Where are you?" It sounded like six kids shouting those words at once. The woman, desperate, smashed a potion onto the pieces when she finished putting them together. The pieces, along with the potion, formed a clay doll with a human shape, much taller than Louis.
"Incredible!" said Louis, watching the doll transform.
"Please! Take care of them while I rest; I can't be like this any longer!" she said almost in tears, kneeling before the clay doll.
"Don't worry, I'll take care of everything. You can rest," the doll replied, going towards where the children were, who continued shouting.
"Thank you, I couldn't go on any longer..." said the woman, standing up and closing the door.
"You're welcome!" Louis left and walked down the sidewalk while cars passed on his left. "Poor thing... Is that what having children is like? Though I heard more than one..." he thought, marking a check in his notebook.
"Make this place know suffering!" shouted Dark in Louis's mind, showing him a destroyed scenario.
"Don't start!" Louis shouted, annoyed, while a man behind him got startled and fell to the ground.
"Human emotions will make you weak!" he retorted.
"Leave me alone..." he replied, lowering his voice while helping the man up. "Apologies, sir."
"Grrr! I won't let your humanity damage who we truly are!" he replied, coming close in his mind.
"I already got rid of you once; I'll do it again, but alone, as I left Alahead to learn to do things on my own," he said seriously, showing irritation on his face. Dark simply faded from Louis's mind, growling as his face glowed from the lava within him.
"What a nuisance to live with these intrusive thoughts... But at least he's stopped showing those images. Though in dreams, he has more control... Drinking those anti-dream potions helped. Thank you, Amelia! I'm glad she helped me when I delivered a package to her library... Still, I must not let people see me talking like this; they'll think I'm crazy and hate me! I don't want to worry the Professor," he thought as he kept walking, showing a bit of worry on his face. "I can do it! Just as Master Rei taught me," he said with determination after shaking his head several times.
After a long walk, Louis returned to Professor Maxwell's new house, which was located a few streets away from the PT agency. Louis opened the door with some keys and entered.
"I'm back!" he shouted, closing the door again.
Professor Maxwell's house was two stories tall. The entryway, shaped like a tunnel, had a large window to one side that led to his office. The walls had red wallpaper and a black carpet covered the entire floor. Upon entering, there was a staircase leading to a small landing. To the left of the entry stairs was the kitchen; further to the right and ahead was the living room; at the end of the hallway were the stairs leading to the second floor.
"Mr. Louis! You've adapted very well; now you deliver packages quite quickly," said Hanks, pleased with Louis's achievement while holding a tray with a teapot.
"Louis, Hanks, please don't call me 'Mr.,'" he said with a slight smile, approaching him.
"I like to call you that, sir," Hanks replied, heading to the kitchen.
"Yes, but being called that makes me feel old or as if I were older than you," Louis replied, climbing the stairs.
"I see... Then I'll try not to say it," he responded, understanding his concern. "By the way, Professor Maxwell is expecting you in the office."
"Okay, thank you," Louis said, heading toward Professor Maxwell's office. "Professor, do you need anything?" he asked upon entering.
"Louis! Ha, you've memorized the kingdom's routes, haven't you? You no longer take as long as before. Two weeks to stop getting lost; I still remember last week when you got lost in the southwest zone, hahaha," he joked cheerfully, recalling the incident while sitting at his desk.
"Please don't remind me... It was so embarrassing, and Ririam scolded me just for that..." he said, slightly embarrassed and uncomfortable.
"Ha, sorry. As you know, things have been a bit calm, but Mei, after much work... or rather, torture..." he said, recalling what Mei told him to get the information. "Mei managed to get the men of Zthur, who attacked my other house the day I met you, to reveal Yeynos's hideout location... And she wants you to go to the agency to discuss it. But first... Do you really want to help this kingdom? You don't have to if you don't want to..." he said, switching to a more serious and firm tone.
"Should I go...? Yeynos... That guy wiped the floor with me... But... I should try to help, and I won't just be someone passing through a kingdom. And Master Rei said always to do things that help the kingdom, and I like helping," he thought, remembering how easily Yeynos defeated him. "I'll go! I should try to help as much as I can, and seeing the others in action also interests me," he replied with a small smile.
"Good... then you may leave," he replied cheerfully with a smile.
"What? Now?" he asked in surprise.
"Yes, it would be better if you go now so as not to keep Mei waiting. This mission is very important," he replied conspiratorially.
"I'm off, then! Thank you!" he said excitedly, leaving the office.
"You're welcome..." he whispered with a smile as he watched him go.
"PT Agency... I wish I could see the place; I couldn't see much when I came in two weeks ago..." he thought while grabbing his katana and a blue bag in his room. "This outfit is more comfortable than the other one I used to wear; in the end, it wasn't so bad being forced to go into that store. Mr. Lowin did a good job... I wonder if the clothes are as durable as he said... Well, I'll find out," he said after leaving his room.
Louis left Professor Maxwell's house and ran toward PT Agency. Many people passed by him, and some recognized him and whispered.
"I should also give Mr. Lowin a gift for this bag; I like it a lot," he mentioned before arriving at the place, ignoring the people's murmurs. "This is it! I remember it perfectly; I don't usually come by here..." he said, looking through the window next to the door. "Do they sell jewelry?" he said in surprise. "Right... I remember the professor said that to keep the king from finding out, they made a jewelry store to disguise it as an agency," he exclaimed, recalling what the professor told him, hitting his right fist with his left palm and heading to the door.
"Well, here we go!" Just as he was in front of the door, about to reach out to grab the handle, the door opened, and taking a few steps... there stood a dark-skinned woman in front of Louis. She had bright brown eyes, short neck-length brown hair; she stood 180 cm tall. She wore a fitted black high-neck top that contrasted with a cropped white blouse, which was snug in the upper torso area and left her well-defined abdomen exposed. She wore a loose-style brown jacket of light fabric, with yellow accents on the edges; the jacket reached down to her knees. She also wore two golden bracelets on her hands and had thin curved earrings, wore black martial arts shoes, and seemed to be hiding something in her jacket.
A sound escaped Louis' mouth, but he couldn't say anything. "Huh?" he thought... His eyes fixed on her in amazement, feeling a warmth in his chest he couldn't explain.
"One blue eye and one red eye... Well, well! I found you. Hard not to with your eyes and your peculiar hair..." she remarked sarcastically, with a calm, deep voice, a subtle strength, but with reserved emotion. "Nice to meet you! My name is Dahlia Xitlari, but just call me Xitlari, please..." she frowned. "Are you okay?" she asked, noticing his silence and that he was staring at her.
"Uh... yes... I... I'm fine," he replied with difficulty, lowering his face, which was blushing, and he noticed Xitlari was hiding something in her jacket.
"Alright, let's go! Mei is waiting for us in her office," she said, turning and heading toward the door next to the counter.
"Sure," he said, entering and closing the door, then following her but keeping his distance. "I've never felt anything like this... in my chest... not even with lava covering my entire body," he thought, trying to shake off what had happened as he looked around the agency.
"Why are you keeping so far back?" she asked, annoyed, turning around.
"It's nothing! Well... I just... wanted to look around a bit first," he said shyly, with a slight blush he tried to hide, looking away.
"Huh! I see... I'll show you around," she said, feeling a bit bad for judging him.
"Huh...? Are you sure? I don't want... to delay Miss Mei's mission," Louis asked.
"Yeah, it's fine; I was going to pick you up at your house anyway. There's time," she responded with a bit of repressed kindness. "The PT Agency looked small from the outside, but... it's just a facade... Here's the investigation area; it's not very big, but it works. They prepare and create equipment here; they also research vital data that we need to expose Count Jens' fiasco," she said as she observed others without entering the room.
"Whoa, that's amazing!" he said, looking at the investigators who used holographic devices, controlling them with their hands. "Huh? It's like that time in my room," he thought as he noticed a white layer at the entrance, which didn't have a door.
The room was 10x10, and they were creating an ice grenade, combining ice magic contained in a tiny sphere and embedding it in the grenade, which turned white; then, they threw it into a special container to test it, and the whole container froze.
"That's incredible!" he said in awe, making people look at him because of his shout. "Uh? I'm sorry! It's just that I love your technology," he said, placing his right hand behind his head with a slight smile.
"Thank you, kid!" said one of the researchers. "Yes, it's appreciated," added a woman. "Thanks!" everyone in the room said at once.
"Hey! You're Paladin Louis; your help in our kingdom is much appreciated," said a woman with glasses and black hair tied in a bun; she wore protective gloves and a white suit, as well as black heels.
"You're welcome, I enjoy helping," Louis replied kindly, as Xitlari watched him.
"You're good at talking to others..." Xitlari said after Louis left the room.
"Huh? Uh... Thank you," he replied shyly, looking away a bit.
"But with me... it seems not..." she thought, growing suspicious of him from his response. "Here's where all the materials and equipment we use are stored, though Ririam uses this place the most," she said, showing him a small room filled with artifacts, weapons, and communication devices.
"It's packed," he said, looking at the room.
"This next one is the room where we wait for missions or hang out," she said, opening the door with a slight movement. Louis noticed a long gold bracelet with a large gem embedded in it, and he also saw a hand hidden in her jacket.
"Was that a hand?" he thought, deciding not to say anything as he looked at the room. The room was 8x8; it had several sofas and bookshelves, as well as a round glass skylight in the ceiling.
"And, well, that's it... I doubt you'd want to see the cells and interrogation area," she said, stopping at the last door down the hall; in front of Louis, there were stairs leading downward.
"Of course... thanks for the tour," he commented with the same shyness. "Do I look like an idiot acting like this?" he thought as Xitlari went through the door. He then entered too, and there was Canbel, sitting at his desk, typing on a keyboard with a hologram in front of him; to his left, he had a camera view of the shop's entrance, and to his right was Mei's office door. The place was small but had a sofa with a table and a brown carpet with gray stripes.
"I remember this place..." thought Louis as he entered the room, noticing that Canbel was very focused on typing.
Xitlari opened the door and entered with Louis behind her.
"Louis! I'm glad you came... We'll need all the help we can get for this mission," Mei said, revealing a bit of nervousness in her words, while the others looked away.
"Hello, everyone, I'm glad you invited me to the mission," Louis said sincerely, with a slight smile on his face. Silence...
"What's wrong with you guys?" Xitlari asked, observing everyone, then approached Mei's desk.
"Are you okay, Mei?" she said sarcastically and then pressed a key on the keyboard on the desk. A hologram appeared, showing an image of Louis's back, with the office and others in the background.
"I knew it! That's why you sent me to get him!" she said, annoyed, using the keyboard to move the camera, revealing a flying beetle-shaped camera.
"Sorry, it's just... I was curious how Louis would react when he saw you, but you were in your jacket..." she said in a soft and sweet tone, getting up from her desk and trying to calm her, feeling a bit disappointed at the end of her words.
"I wanted to see if you'd start a fight," Ririam said, crossing her arms and closing her eyes.
"What? How would I fight him?" Xitlari asked, surprised by Ririam's words.
"I was hoping for that too... I'm sorry, Ririam's argument was convincing," Kassie said, averting her gaze in embarrassment.
"You too...?" Xitlari expressed, disappointed.
"Haha, well, it's good nothing happened, but now you have to show your secret," Ann said cheerfully, a smile on her lips.
"It's not a secret!" she shouted, pounding the table. "And anyway, I can't walk around without my jacket... These people discriminate a lot... even though they already know who I am..." she said, crossing her arms and lowering her voice at the end of her words.
"What's going on here?" he thought while witnessing the entire discussion.
"Well, anyway, here it is!" she said, raising two additional arms hidden under her jacket. Each had long bracelets with a blue gemstone embedded. "If you don't like it, you can die," she said disdainfully, as if Louis's opinion didn't matter to her.
"Ah... was that it? I had already noticed," he said warmly and a bit shyly. Silence...
"That's why you didn't get close to me! And here I thought you were nice," she retorted, moving closer to Louis.
"No, no, it wasn't... because of that... Actually, I think your arms are amazing..." he stammered, blushing as Xitlari got close.
"Huh...? I see..." she said, surprised by Louis's response, blushing slightly and looking away, before sitting beside Kassie and crossing her four arms.
"Hmm, I know that reaction..." Ann thought as she saw Louis's reaction when Xitlari approached him.
"Well, putting that aside... Let's get serious," Mei said, adopting a serious attitude and using her keyboard to enlarge the hologram. "After a gentle but long interrogation..." she said, showing a short video of her torturing one of Zthur's men she had captured.
"Say it, damn you! Say it!" Mei shouted in the video while choking Jori with her arm.
"I can't! Please... Stop!" Jori shouted, struggling to speak.
"Then here we go!" she said, pulling out an electric rod. Upon seeing it, Jori started to scream "Aaaaah" as the video cut off.
"What the hell?" Louis thought, watching the footage.
"I finally got the location of Yeynos's hideout. We're all going, and we'll drag that bastard out of our kingdom," she said seriously, clasping her hands and bringing them to her mouth. "Prepare your gear!" Instantly, everyone got up and headed to the armory.
They all left immediately, except Ririam, who was choosing carefully. "Maybe I need one of these..." she murmured as she examined the item, adjusting her glasses.
"Why are you the only one here?" Mei said, annoyed.
After Ririam finished, everyone waited outside the agency.
"Why do they create things if no one uses them?" Mei muttered as she exited the agency with Ririam following.
"We have our communicators," Xitlari replied, and everyone showed theirs except Louis, who still felt a bit out of place because of how the others behaved. "And we have our shields too."
"Okay... So, the location is in the eastern area, in an alley; I've sent you the location through the communicator," Mei said in her sweet and soft voice as she used her communicator, while people passed by nearby. "Four will go in my car, and Ririam and Ann in the air."
"I'd rather go with Ann; she knows how I like to travel," Kassie said immediately.
"Yes, Kassie! Let's go!" Ann said, giving her a hug.
"Great, then I'll go with the ones who enjoy when I go full speed," Mei said, excitedly starting up her car.
"Do you like how Mei drives?" Xitlari asked as she looked at the others leaving.
"Yes..." Louis replied shyly.
"Why is he acting this way?" Xitlari wondered as she got into the car.
In the car, everything was quiet. Xitlari gazed out the window to her left, and Louis... well, he was looking down, unsure of what to say.
End of chapter