Allen and Nera walked skeptically into the dimly lit lounge. As they walked passed, the man who was drawing on a table looked up from his sketch to wave at them. The one sitting next to him caught all the cards he had thrown in the air with one hand and also waved. Allen was not that impressed by the trick and took much more notice of the first person who waved, seeing that their fingers were all completely a metallic black.
He only looked for a moment not wanting to stare and continued with Nera to the counter that the bartender was standing behind. He looked to be in his early fifties with a neatly trimmed mustache and graying hair with freckles peppering his face. He wore a standard bartender suit with a white undershirt and black vest.
"Could you get us in contact with the person who runs the place?" Allen asked.
"Of course, I am that person. The name's Haris Fletcher. What can I assist you with?" He declared with a half bow.
Allen and Nera were mildly surprised but proceeded with their inquiry.
"That's convenient, Mr. Fletcher. Here, take a look at this." Allen handed him one of the fliers they made.
"We wanna know if you don't mind us putting some of them in front of your store." Nera followed up as Mr. Fletcher took the flier in his hands and looked over it.
"A specter hunting service named...Virtuoso?" He looked somewhat confused as he finished reading the flier.
"I know, kind of doesn't fit, right? Personally, I wanted to call it Interstellar Spirit Fighters." Nera commented.
"Again, where does the "interstellar" part come from?"
“It’s just supposed to be cool, that’s all there is to it. It would be how we stand out.” Before Allen could continue bickering with her in response, he was cut off by the lounge owner.
“Excuse me, the name’s not the part I’m confused about. It’s the specter hunting, are you two Traversers?” Haris asked.
“Nah, this is our own thing, not connected to them in any way,” Allen replied, pretending to know more about them than he actually did. He could only vaguely recall that the Bastion attendant had referenced them as being professional spector hunters as well which aligned with why the shopkeep would think they were traversers.
“I see, that must be rather rough than not having the backing of the Traverser’s League such as lodging, resources, and equipment. And you two are the only members of this group?”
“Yeah, although we’re open to new members, I can’t see many people being crazy enough to join,” Allen commented.
“That would be a hard sell. I have a problem with staffing myself I’m afraid.” Haris sighed in dismay and gestured around himself to point out the absence of any other workers there besides him.
“Enough with the small talk. Will you let us post the fliers in front of your lounge or what, Old Man Freckles?” Nera chimed in straightforwardly.
“Old Man Freckles?’
“C’mon Nera, we’re trying to get on the old dude’s good side.”
“Old dude?” Haris muttered sadly as he watched them argue again.
“Your pointless blabbering won’t get us anywhere but wasting time.”
“Even if that was true, being a jerkass doesn’t help either.”
“That’s stellar to hear from you, harda-”
“I think I’ve come to a decision.” Haris interrupted forebodingly and they both stopped talking to listen.
“I’ll let you post your fliers here but only on the condition that you both wash dishes here for a week.”
“What, you can’t be serious!” Allen shouted in surprise while Nera was similarly caught off guard.
“You can’t expect us to be your bus people for no pay because you’re understaffed,” Nera stated with a scowl.
Haris Fletcher simply chuckled in their faces and nonchalantly handed them back their flier. They were stunned silent in bewilderment enough for the large explosion noises from the video game in the corner to become noticeable to them.
“You’re right, I wouldn’t do such a thing. Just a little jest from this old fellow. I’ll let you place a few ads on the windows.”
“Really? You had us going for a moment. Thanks a lot, sir!” Allen shook hands with the bartender and so did Nera.
“No skin off my back, although buying a couple of drinks wouldn’t hurt.” The older man winked and pointed a thumb to the menu up above him.
“Roger, it’s the least we can do. You’re the only one all day who allowed us to post them.”
‘Especially for free.’
Allen looked over the list of drinks and saw there was a wide variety of beverages in a mix of different flavors such as soda, juice, coffee, shakes, tea, and his favorite, smoothies.
“I’ll take an avocado-mango smoothie.”
“Give me an Earl Grey tea.”
After Allen and Nera ordered their drinks respectively, Haris promptly prepared them behind the counter using a multi-purpose machine that functioned as a coffee brewer, automatic tea kettle, smoothie blender, and shake maker. They then both received their beverages from each of the lounge owner's hands and sat down on stools next to the counter to enjoy them.
They were only there for a moment before noticing footsteps coming up from behind and turning around to see the two guys they saw earlier approaching them.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
“Hey, how’s it going there? It’s not often we get people coming here who aren’t looking for directions to the nearest water fountain, much less ones who actually come in.” This was said by the young man who had been drawing. He wore a zipped-up green jacket with orange accents on it and had a green and orange streak running through his black hair that resembled lightning.
“My name is Luka DelaCroix, one you’ll want to remember when I make it big." He signed his name in the air in front of him in bright orange as normally as if it were a blackboard and it then exploded like miniature fireworks as he kept on talking.
“And you two’s would be?”
“What is that and how do I get one?” Allen abruptly asked in amazement while Nera looked unimpressed and yawned.
“That’s a pretty wordy name don’t you think?” He chuckled lengthily at his own joke while everyone else, including his acquaintance, looked on in exasperation.
“Sorry about him, sometimes I wish he was as good at talking as he was at drawing.” This was said by the man who had the playing cards and was now shuffling them. The light blonde-haired man wore a long-sleeved black t-shirt with a wavy lavender line on it, gray wristbands, and a necklace with a square red charm. He also wore two simple gray rings on one of his hands.
“He looks like some sort of street magician. I hope he doesn’t try to mind shatter us or whatever they call it.’
“I can’t see why.” Nera sarcastically remarked.
“I can, what is that device in his hands anyway?”
“It’s an airpoint pen, uses ethereal ink that allows him to draw in the air. It’s a pretty nifty tool but he mostly uses it to make random doodles in the air.” As the young man in the black shirt explained this, the other was drawing a beagle wearing a bow tie in the air which further proved what he was saying.
“Hey, these aren’t just doodles, They are incredibly cool works of art. I can even put them into motion any time I want too.” He pressed a button on the side of the pen and the dog began walking.
“How did you do that with just one button?” Allen asked curiously.
“Heh, you can preset certain actions to happen depending on the drawing and then activate them accordingly. Pretty neat, huh.” Luka elaborated as he waved the pen in the air smugly.
“Gotta admit, that would be awesome to have. Maybe I could even draw something that doesn’t look like crap with it.”
“Yeah, this is great but it costs a few Gs and you guys seem like you’re having money problems already if you’re willing to come here.” He laughed energetically.
“Uhh, I think I’ll pass on getting one of those for now then,” Allen stated meekly.
“What do you mean by 'willing to come here', Doodles?'', Nera questioned.
He glanced over at Mr. Fletcher who just merely sighed and nodded his head before continuing to polish one of the many clean plates that had never been used before at all. Luka then proceeded.
“Let’s just say that this place isn’t the most popular place around in the Chandelier District and more like the opposite. By the way, how is it that I’ve already gotten a nickname but still don’t know either of your names?”
“My bad, it’s Allen.”
“Mine’s Nera.”
“That’s more like it, this guy right here is Glenn.” Luka gestured to the blonde-haired man beside him.
“Cool.” Nera took another sip of her Earl Gray tea and looked around the building. It looked nice. It was spacious, and clean, had nice lighting, a lot of tables for people to sit, a dartboard on the wall, and a couple of pool tables in one corner of the lounge, much better than the pizzeria she worked at. She could tell the owner had put in a lot of effort in making this a comfy place to relax. There were even flat-screen TVs perched on each of the four pillars spread across the place with one of them being currently used to play video games by one of the patrons. All this made her wonder why a place like this was so unpopular in the first place.
“I’m not sure why a place as posh as this is so empty. It’s kind of strange.” Nera stated, voicing her thoughts.
“Well, that sort of has something to do with the people Mr. Fletcher lets in. We all have a pretty bad reputation. I’ve gotten into a few fights here and there, this guy pisses people off with his magic tricks, and I’m not quite sure what’s the deal with the guy in the corner..” He pointed to the person at the other side of the lounge who was playing some sort of first-person shooter game and had not moved a centimeter from that spot since Allen and Nera got here. “...But once when I tried talking to him in the middle of his game, he tried to throw a chair at me, so I can sort of guess what it is.” He smirked as he elaborated.
“Wow, Mr. Fletcher must be one hell of a guy to put up with all of you guys,” Nera responded.
“Sure seems like it.”
“Yeah, he’s pretty grea-”
“Hey!!!” Luka was interrupted by a loud shrill cry that came from right next to him. It came from the young woman who had been singing on the lounge’s stage. Allen did not even notice her walking up to them due in part to her small stature. She was a short young woman in an elaborate frilly blue dress with sleeves that hung down from her arms and a long collar that went all the way up her neck. She had black hair, and teal eyes, and currently wore a fierce and irritable expression on her face.
“How dare you introduce everyone else besides me, Luka!?” He exclaimed loudly again and he clutched his ear, he had taken the brunt of the yelling being right at ground zero.
‘His ears must be ringing right now. I’m a few feet away and that hurts from here.: Allen thought to himself daring not to say it out loud in fear of getting yelled at.
“You got it wrong, I was just about to get to you. How could I forget our lovely songstress?” Luka wryly replied.
“Hmph, then go on then," she huffed and then folded her arms across her chest.
‘Alright, everyone, this is our resident songstress, Evelyn Facilis, who has the courtesy of singing at the R&R just out of the goodness of her heart. She has an incredible set of lungs on her as you have just witnessed. She once had an entire crowd's ears ringing for seven minutes.”
“What, that’s not what you were supposed to say," Evelyn said.
“Well, you didn’t exactly give me lines.”
“Ugh, whatever, I’m Evelyn like he said. I’m a singer looking to perform concerts all around the world for millions of people. The unfortunate incident he’s told you about happened a long time ago when I was just starting out. I’ve gotten a lot better from practicing here. Maybe I can treat you two to a song sometime? This place has great acoustics.” She said in a much calmer and composed manner than before.
“I’ll pass on that. I heard enough of your off-key singing earlier.” Nera remarked.
“Those were just some vocal exercises. My real singing is a lot better. I’ll prove it!”
Nera chuckled, “Okay, don’t go overboard. I’ll be fine with listening some other time.”
“Alright, you won’t regret it! You’ll be serenaded by a future superstar.” Evelyn declared boldly and pointed directly at Nera with a determined smile on her face. Everyone else had an amused grin.
“Oh! Almost forgot, there’s one more regular here but she’s been pretty busy with work this week. She’s actually the most normal one of the group.” Luka added.
Allen spoke up then, “What about you? Glenn, right? How does a magician even find work in a place with people who can use magic everywhere?”
“In a very nuanced way, do you want a demonstration? It shouldn’t take long.” Glenn offered.
“Hmm, sure why not?” Allen accepted.
“I’m kind of curious to see this myself.” Nera followed.
“Ah, then how about we make a wager between you two to make this more entertaining?.” Glenn suggested.
"What kind of wager?" Allen asked.
"Well, I heard an urban legend from Luka over there that the reason The Night of Rising Stars is because Atelier City is looking for the next Virtuoso. Isn't that a coincidence?"
"It is. What exactly do you mean by that?" Nera probed while Allen was clueless.
"The two of you are the talk of the town and I'm curious to know more. You tell me why you're here in Atelier City if you can't win my game. If you do win, I'll tell you why people are seeking out the real Virtuoso."