Ram was pacing back and forth with a worried look on his face, observed by the only person in the room; his wife Aimi.
“Ram,” she called him after watching him pace around restlessly for several minutes. “Stop and sit down. You’ll wear yourself out.”
“I endured violent blasts from ten different people while standing still inside of a circle. This much is nothing to me,” he replied without looking at her, constantly walking back and forth. “Besides, I can’t sit still without knowing what’s going on on the other end.”
He was speaking about Lakshman going to visit Alestor, worried that trouble might spring onto the hero. When Lakshman had started his decision, both Ram and Aimi were shocked and immediately tried persuading him not to. However, the king from another world would not hear any of it and decided to go with his plan of visiting the minister. After he left, Ram was left with a shocked expression on his face, not believing what he had witnessed.
Since then, he had been pacing back and forth worriedly, anticipating the worst outcome. He was right to think so because of his own personal experience with the run in with the government officials, who pretend they are here to get work done only to boss you around and push hard labour onto him and his people. As such, his belief that a member of the government, especially someone who works close to the king, would be willing to help someone from another world.
While he was contemplating this, a portal suddenly opened where it had opened earlier for Lakshman to walk through and disappear into. This time, Lakshman came out of the portal clutching a large scroll in his hand while Ram and Aimi reacted with surprise and shock at his sudden return.
“I’m back,” he announced with a smile on his face as the portal closed behind him.
“Lucky!” Ram exclaimed, immediately walking over to him and looking him up and down. “You are alright, right?”
“I’m here, aren’t I?” Lakshman asked with a laugh.
Ram sighed in relief and said, “You worried us after leaving so quickly. I thought the worst might’ve happened to you.”
“Sorry,” apologised Lakshman apologetically and scratched the back of his head.
“So, how did it go?” Aimi asked, moving the topic forward as she could not contain her curiosity. “Did the minister agree to cooperate with you?” When he shook his head, she became stunned to the point of loudly exclaiming, “What?!”
It took Ram a moment to react with, “I knew it! All these government people, no matter how they appear on the front, are crooked deep within!”
“Hey!” Lakshman said, and he tapped Ram on the shoulder. “I didn’t say he won’t help us.” When the couple froze and turned to look at him in confusion, he grinned and explained, “He won’t be cooperating with me openly because of his obligations to the king and so on, but he will help me get rid of the threat that he’s unable to do anything about.”
For a few seconds, Ram and Aimi stood there in silence before the Raven’s Guild leader said, “You’re kidding me! He wants to help, but he won’t help directly?”
“Well,” began Lakshman and hesitated for a moment before saying, “for one thing, he owes his life to the king. That’s what he said anyway when I questioned him about it,” and he remembered the words that Alestor had said after refusing to cooperate with him.
“I’m sorry, Asura, but I can’t cooperate with you. However, I can provide you some help to get rid of that alien because he is a danger to all of us,” and he reached for under his desk and pulled out a large scroll and handed it over to Lakshman. “Here’s the map of the world, something that I wanted to hand over to you a while back, but I never got the chance until now.”
Lakshman did not unfold the map and stared blankly at Alestor before asking him, “Why, Alestor? Why do you continue to support the king even though you know he’s like that?”
The older man remained silent for a moment before he smiled sadly and said, “Because he’s the one who helped a poor guy, like me, to come out of the slums and be able to sit in this seat. For that, I can’t betray his expectations.”
Hearing that made Lakshman feel very angry and upset that such a great man had sworn his loyalty to an idiotic person. Still, he knew it was not his place to influence the choice of the other person and decided to take his leave immediately after exchanging words of farewell.
“Here,” said Lakshman, and he handed the large scroll over to Ram, who unravelled it while his wife sidled closer to have a look as well.
“Wow,” they whispered together, amazed by the great detail that was printed on the map. “This shows every city to the smallest details of the streets on it.”
“Hasn’t a map been released to the public?” Lakshman asked, and Ram shook his head while Aimi explained the details to him.
“No, Lucky. They reasoned that this would give terrorists and potentially dangerous people a key access to the cities, the important locations, and so on.”
“That is actually a very good reason,” admitted Lakshman with a smile. “Even in my world, we lack a map and only follow the road paved between cities and villages for us to go head in the direction of our destination.” Then he realised that he was going off topic and coughed before saying, “Anyway, Ram, summon your guild members, and I’ll lay out my plan to them as well.” Suddenly, he became curious and asked, “Did you, by any chance, talk about it to them?”
Ram shrugged and replied, “Never got the chance since those two only returned a day after you released them from prison, and a day later, you suddenly appeared. So, no. I haven’t been able to tell anyone about this. Other than Aimi of course,” and he smiled at his wife.
Lakshman nodded with a smile and said, “That’s fine. Please summon them now.” Then he became curious and asked, “Can you? I mean, would your M.E.D.s be able to reach your members wherever they are?”
“Yes. I’m pretty sure we can get in touch with them no matter where we are,” replied Ram with a smile, tapping the device on his wrist. Then he looked concerned and asked, “Why everyone, though? I thought your plan only involved a few people in groups moving to different places to gather information.”
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“Yes, but I was concerned that maybe sending in a few runs the risk of them getting captured or attacked, leaving them vulnerable and defenceless,” stated Lakshman, expressing his concern.
“As insurance, ah?” Ram asked, smiling and nodding at the wisdom of the king from another world. “A wise choice. However, I don’t think my boys will want to speak with you considering they are, well, very anti-government because of their past issues.”
“Oh,” said Lakshman, looking sadly at him. “That’s a pity. Oh well. I’ll just explain it to you, and you can get them organised.”
“Yeah,” said Ram with a smile.
Lakshman sighed and sat down on a chair facing the Raven’s Guild leader before explaining, “I want a group of people investing, in each city, investigating each and every hospital there is.”
Ram nodded in understanding while Aimi looked confused and asked, “Question: When Ram told me about this, I got confused. I mean, why start at the hospitals and not the governmental departments like you were going for in the next set of plans?”
While her husband looked at her in exasperation, the Solaris Hero smiled and said, “You wouldn’t know this, but we engaged in battle against him during the recent alien attack, where they self-destructed their ship in order to destroy the capital, although it was actually a distraction in disguise.”
“A… distraction?” She asked, looking confused.
“You see, he and I fought hard against one another during the alien attack, and I managed to injure him, but he also surprised me and hit me pretty badly, too. Then he went on to fight the other heroes and was finally brought down before the alien ship exploded,” explained Lakshman while she followed his every word intently. “This is where, I believe, he communicated with the ship’s crew and conducted a course of plan they had sketched as a last resort in order to buy their comrade enough time to escape our detection.”
“But… that’s crazy!” She exclaimed, looking shocked with her eyes widened to the fullest. “Killing many lives just for the sake of one. That’s… unbelievable!”
Ram nodded his head in agreement with his wife’s sentiment, and Lakshman also nodded his head in agreement while saying, “You’re right. It is, but that goes to show how deadly serious they are about the mission they are here to conduct and how much faith they have in their comrade. It’s truly remarkable.”
“Look who’s praising the enemy now,” said Asura inside his mind and made Lakshman smile to himself.
“Anyway,” said Lakshman, carrying on with his explanation of the plan. “The next plan requires another group of people figuring out a way to get information from the hero groups that operate with the League of Heroes.”
“That,” started Ram by raising his forefinger in the air, “is a difficult task.” When Lakshman looked at him dejectedly, he smiled a little and said, “It’s not completely impossible. I think my group has some friends? Connections they could rely on? That’s about it at most. I don’t know how deep we can get into the league to figure out about the alien.”
“Again, why go there next?” Aimi asked, feeling confused again.
“It’s because, for him to be able to reach the Hero Academy and enrol without any issues means that he had made contact with someone of some importance. As such, I can only think that some unlucky hero member from the league spoke to him and was instantly put under his mind control. From there, he gradually made acquittances with others, put them under his mind control as well, and progressed from there.”
He looked at Ram and said, “I think that’s how he was able to arrange that bombing of the train.”
As Ram and Aimi looked confused, he went on explaining what he believed was the fact.
“I think there was a report about the man we apprehended was the same person that they apprehended a few days before the bombing occurred. Which means, he had already infiltrated the higher offices at the league and gained some control over the authority system. From there, putting your man under his mind control and making him do something so reckless was probably how it all went down before he headed to enrol at the academy.”
“Yikes,” commented Ram while Aimi started at him with a look of horror on her face. “This guy is crazy strong to be able to mind control so many people, even those of higher authority such as the League of Heroes!”
At that moment, Aimi, who had been listening intently, suddenly suggested, “Hey? You say the alien is crazy strong, but Lucky, I think you far outclass him. So, instead of going through all this complex plans and schemes, why don’t you just go and apprehend him directly?”
“Thank you!” Asura’s voice sounded inside of Lakshman’s mind when he heard her question. “My thoughts exactly!”
Lakshman smiled sadly and replied, “I thought the same, Aimi. Believe me, I contemplated about it very seriously… and I realised the problem it poses.” He lifted one finger and explained, “For one thing, we don’t know the kind of people he has ensnared with his mind magic. What if capturing him triggered some kind of activation of a sequence of unfortunate events, such as riots, mass murder, random attacks, and possibly the destruction of a city. It becomes a deadly situation from capturing an enemy to trying to stop a mass outbreak of unexpected things to come.”
His words shocked her and made her cover her mouth in horror while Ram gulped nervously. The king from another world, however, grew serious as he went on speaking in a firm voice.
“The entirety of the blame falls on weakness of the people of this world. Cutting down nature in favour of improving technology and so obsessed with it that it made you completely dependent on those devices for survival to do everyday things. Not to mention, the advancement of the technology was not sufficiently high, allowing a foreign existence, such as the alien to place his mind control magic on suspecting people.”
“You’re right, Lucky,” agreed Ram, looking down sadly at the floor. “For ages, people had been cutting down trees and harming environment while improving the technology, the development of factories and industries that polluted rivers and lakes until they completely dried up. Since then, people have been creating artificial foods with chemicals to make them safe for us to eat and not contract any illnesses or diseases.”
“Well, at least you developed technology that makes your society modern compared to the lifestyle being led in my world,” admitted Lakshman wearily, “but I don’t believe harming the environment is a healthy thing to do, especially when it gave you natural resources and plentiful to sustain all of you.” Then he sighed and said, “Whatever is done is done, so let’s look at the problem at hand and fix the problem to save the future.”
Ram stared down at the floor for a moment before he looked up at Lakshman and said in a firm voice, “Yes! I’ll do my best for my world, and I promise to improve our current lifestyle!”
Lakshman narrowed his eyes and said, “Don’t make empty promises because they aren’t achievable.” This surprised the Raven’s Guild leader while the Solaris Hero continued to say, “Even I made a promise when I was at a young age, immature and overconfident in my ability, that I’d become a righteous hero! Years later, I do hold the status of a hero, but I was officially a king trying to protect his people and the world at large from the threat of the other kingdoms.”
“So, make a promise you know you will keep no matter the cost!” Lakshman said firmly, looking very seriously at him. “That’s the starting point any good leader would do; being realistic and giving hope to the people around him. That’s what makes one a true hero, not a righteous one, but one that’s willing to sacrifice his own life for the greater good of those around him.”
“I understand!” Ram said, and he smiled at the king from another world. “And thank you for the advice, Lucky.”
Lakshman shook his head and said, “Don’t thank me before you see the fruits of your results. Then, and only then, I’ll happily accept your words. Till then, keep trying your best and don’t give up,” and he smiled at him before finishing with, “Maybe, all this time, you had run things alone, but don’t worry, I’m here to help you now, and I promise I will deliver the best strategy I can think of that’ll lead us directly to safety.”
As the two of them looked at each other, Lakshman smiled and thought, “It’s about time you become the hunted, alien.”