Iylaerion reminded Lukas of the construction style in the Roaring Twenties. A large wrought iron gate stood in the front with a security personnel standing nearby, a large blocky man with a good amount of muscle and armed with a pair of two-headed dogs—
Lukas blinked.
The two heads remained distinct.
There was a little swath of driveway that led into the mansion, and given the unicorn-driven-chariot on the other end, someone was already there. Which probably explained why the guard was studying him with attack-dog eyes.
“Who are you?”
“Maybe I should—” Tanya began, but Lukas cut her off.
“The name’s Lukas Aguilar.” He left the ‘bitch’ unsaid. “Zuken Banksi will want to see me—”
Tanya coughed.
“—Us.”
“Do you have an appointment?” the guard asked, thoroughly unimpressed.
Lukas wondered if the man knew he was mouthing off to a shareholder of the building. But with everything that happened, he decided he didn’t want another altercation with Banksi so soon. Instead, he shrugged and folded his arms.
“Look. You don’t know me, but if I walk away today, your boss is going to lose a fuck ton of potential revenue. So I suggest you calmly walk in there and let him know that I’m here.”
The guard stared at him, his eyes narrowed into tiny slits. Clearly, he was thinking hard.
“Come back with an appointment.”
Swing and a miss.
Frustrated by the whole experience, Lukas shrugged and turned around—
“Hey Hokuro.”
Hokuro— the guard —did a quick head jerk. “Josei.”
Josei, Lukas had learned, was the politically correct term to refer to a woman, especially one who was unmarried. It was also used in an official setting, unless they were referring to someone obviously aged or of noble descent. Come to think of it, that probably fit Tanya’s description as well, but Hokuro the guard didn’t know that.
“Can we go in?” Tanya asked calmly.
“Of course.” He even had the gall to throw in a little portly bow.
Before Lukas could protest, Tanya firmly grabbed Lukas by his arm and walked into the building. But not before he turned around and gave Hokuro a dirty look.
The inside was elegant and roomy, with high ceilings and broad floors that they just didn’t make anymore in America. Every inch of the wall was covered in light, ash-colored fabric, with a velvety carpet adorning the floor. The windows were large and spacious, and fitted with obscure glass that allowed plenty of light to flood the room. It was clear that Banksi was throwing around a lot of money for his new venture.
The spacious hall was filled with cubicles. Lots and lots of soundproofed, transparent cubicles. Lukas could see several workers sitting at desks and talking to what were presumably clients, but he couldn’t make out a single word. Hell, all he could hear despite standing inside the building were the birds chirping outside the window.
“Zuken’s shifted most of his business to this place,” Tanya began to explain, gesturing to the numerous people in the building. “Guilds attract more than just adventurers. Traders, smiths, financers, businessmen, not to mention the common folk who pay for their services. And there are five other rooms just like this.”
“So he’s loaded,” Lukas grunted.
“You have no idea,” she smirked. “Zuken makes it a point to only hire the best, and does it when they’re fresh. I wouldn’t be surprised if there are a handful of spies and detectives around here. Everyone has heard rumors of him owning a vast information network in and about the entire kingdom.”
Damn. No wonder even Bergott gives him a wide berth.
It was enough to make him wonder whether his casual antagonism of the man was really a bright idea.
“Having second thoughts about last night?”
“Of course not!” Lukas made a show of gasping. “The sex was tantalizing.”
“Pervert,” she scowled, a hint of red in her cheeks. “I was talking about the meeting.”
“I made my bed,” he shrugged. “So… where do we meet the big bad boss?”
“The upper floor. Stairs are over there. Follow me.”
After what seemed to be over a hundred stairs, the duo finally reached the top, passing through rooms filled with people of various attires and species, rooms that contained ashwood spears and swords and javelins, rooms that stored layers upon layers of wooden boxes, and finally rooms filled with what could only be guards to keep riff raff from disturbing the peace in the area.
“I see our mutual friend believes in being prepared.”
“One can only have as much preparation as he does foresight. Just keep in mind that you asked for ownership of this building and everything will be fine.”
“In my defense,” Lukas replied, falling into step with her, “I only asked for a partnership in adventuring. I didn’t expect all… this.”
Tanya gave an unladylike snort, but said nothing more as they walked all the way to the door at the end of a long corridor.
“The next time you get into a quarrel,” she said, right as they were about to enter, “remember that there is a much larger world out there. What people do and how they react is not all about you. Or, at least, not only about you.”
“But for that to be true, I’d have to not be the center of the universe,” Lukas grinned.
Tanya rolled her eyes in a strictly Tanya-like fashion and reached for the knob. But before she could open it, someone else did so from the inside. The familiar face had brunette hair tied backwards into a single tail and bright hazel eyes. She wore a formal white shirt, a black skirt with a slash on one side that showed off a generous portion of her thigh, and high-heeled shoes that were clearly meant to be used for torture.
Overall, it was quite a contrasting appearance from an airhead obsessed with eating peaches.
“Elena,” Tanya tipped her head.
“Zuken’s inside. He asked me to inform you that everything is ready. We can move ahead.”
“You work here?” Lukas chimed in.
A shadow of a frown flashed across the changeling’s face before it disappeared, as if it were never there. “Zuken Banksi is my boss. I do everything he asks of me, including occasionally dealing with the trash.” She punctuated the statement with a bright smile.
…Right then.
He cleared his throat. “After you.”
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“You look a little green,” was the first thing Zuken Banksi said.
He was seated on a very comfortable chair against a long table, with Olfric Bergott standing by the window. Lukas observed that the window in question was covered with a velvety drape while the others were stark open.
“Tanya offered me a joyride.” He heard Tanya exasperatedly growl, but went on. “I haven’t ridden on unicorns yet, but I’ll choose anything over the Wind Express.”
Lukas really would. The blonde had conjured up a sphere of pure wind that revolved around them at incredible speeds. Before he knew it, they’d shot off in a random direction, weaving through a web of contorted paths that seemed to go nowhere until the sphere had come to a halt a few feet away from the Iylaerion. He had instantly emptied the contents of his stomach onto the ground, much to her ire.
“Oh?” Zuken cupped his chin. “I don’t recall seeing her perform that before.”
“I used it to get us all back to Haviskali from the desert,” Tanya corrected. “It’s a taxing technique, and not something to be used at random.”
“And yet you used it today.”
“I was feeling… energetic.”
Lukas felt his stomach stir at her answer. He was oddly reminded of the mind-bending headache he woke up with that morning. Did it have something to do with him and Tanya going at it like bunnies? Or maybe her power, the ability to consume lifeforce, had done something to him without him noticing?
He made a mental note to think on it more later.
“I see,” Zuken said, glancing at Elena who gave him a nearly imperceptible nod. “Well, it’s good to see you both here. Tanya has been here for some time, so she is used to it. What are your impressions of my modest guild?”
“Too silent for my tastes. A little buzz would do the place some good.”
“I see.” Zuken’s dark eyes glittered. “Still, I prefer to encourage discretion among my employees, despite it making them appear somewhat standoffish.”
Lukas glanced at Bergott. “Yeah. I can see that.”
The Banksi’s lips wrinkled at the edges. “Now, let’s get to business. I would prefer to get everything clarified and contractualized before you and Tanya leave for your mission.”
“Just the two of us?”
“Are you afraid?”
“Shaking in my boots,” Lukas dryly replied.
“The svartalfars will be less trusting if you ditch your very first mission by delegating to some lesser fool.”
“I see.”
“I must admit,” Zuken went on, “I have little information on the nature of their demands. Tanya is the only one among us with experience. Once we have a clearer idea about the nature of svartalfar contracts, we can delegate it to the appropriate people in Iylaerion’s employment. By the time you return from this mission, I will have contracts for your new positions drawn up, as well as everything necessary for Tanya’s restoration of her family name.”
The man watched him carefully, a calculating smile on his face. “Lukas,” he began, before pausing. “May I call you Lukas?”
The deliberate politeness began to grate on Lukas’s nerves.
“Would it matter if I said no?”
“Such a response would tell me something about you,” he replied. “With us working together for the foreseeable future, I would like to get to know you and, if possible, have an amenable relationship.”
“I’m listening.”
Zuken pulled out a card from his pocket and put it on the table.
“Then I’ll be frank with you. When Tanya told us that your physical prowess was comparable to the jotunns of the Far North, I was skeptical. But then I witnessed you trade blows with a genius loci of a Class-3 Anomaly. More recently, you wielded a svartalf creation.”
“You flatter me,” Lukas said, batting his eyelashes.
Tanya kicked him in the shins.
“Violent woman,” he swore, giving her a dirty look.
Zuken cleared his throat.
“Sorry,” Lukas apologized, “but I didn’t exactly hear a question there.”
“I have also seen you wield fire despite not having a kami. I have consulted with scholars and sat with holy men, and everything tells me that the chances of a person wielding both lifeforce and mana is impossible.”
Lukas hummed, deciding not to mention that the woman standing beside him could also do that very thing.
“Well?”
“I don’t know what to tell you. It’s a whole wide world out there.”
“Do not mock me, Aguilar,” Zuken snapped. “I did my research. You look bremetan, both in appearance and physiological constitution. I assume there was an Asukan invasion upon your world sometime in the past, or perhaps your world arose from an anomaly like the one you recently annihilated.”
Technically, every world rises out of an anomaly, Lukas mused. And it is quite possible what he says is true, what with the Shinto pantheon and everything…
“Maybe,” Lukas trailed off. “But I can’t really comment on something I don’t know.”
“And what do you know?’
Lukas squared his shoulders. “Let’s cut the shit. What is it you really want to ask me?”
“I want to know what your aims are.”
“I told you. I want to find a way out.”
“Back to your world?”
Lukas hesitated at that. “I’m not sure if that’s an option any longer.”
“What do you mean?” Tanya demanded.
“I…” Lukas weighed his options. “I have reasons to believe that my world is destroyed, or at least damaged beyond repair. It’s also entirely possible that there might have been an Asukan invasion on my world. Or maybe a jotunn one. I know of gods from both.”
He could feel the collective gaze of the room upon him.
“Jotunn gods…” he heard Tanya whisper.
Lukas shrugged. After his work on Emma’s website, he could write an entire thesis on the subject. “Well to be honest, they aren’t really jotunn gods. In my world, they were called the Norse, or Nordic. Its—”
“Those that howl in the Far North,” Tanya murmured.
He was taken aback by that. “I… didn’t know that.”
Zuken clapped his hands. Loudly. “As interesting as that is, we have digressed from the topic. You say your world was destroyed. Then how are you here?”
“My parents put me on a baby shuttle and sent me to a different world so I could live a normal life and love sunshine and rainbows. Instead, I got stuck in an underground cave.”
“Funny,” Zuken replied, his expression apathetic. “Another question, then. What would you say is the soul capacity of the average… hu-moan, was it?”
“Human,” Lukas corrected. “Why do you ask?”
“Humor me.”
Lukas narrowed his eyes. Confessing that the concepts of soul capacity and leveling up were absent in his world would only lead to more questions he didn’t want to answer, mostly about how he then had soul capacity. He quickly recalled how Tanya had described a soul cap of 1500 as being significantly high. Based on that…
“What’s there to think about? Surely it’s not a difficult question?”
This was a trap. Lukas knew it. He could feel it. But not giving an answer would make things worse.
“Around... three to five hundred. Give or take.”
Yeah, he could go with that.
“Three to five hundred…” Zuken repeated slowly, as if tasting how the words felt on his tongue. “That’s fairly high, even for bremetans who start from as low as thirty.”
Elena coughed in the background.
“And you?” the Banksi pressed on. “How would you compare yourself to the others from your world? Average? Greater than average?”
“What’s this all about?” Lukas demanded, a cold uneasiness spreading across his chest.
Zuken said nothing. Instead, he clicked on the top of the card, causing it to unfold and expand until it resembled the notebook Tanya had gotten for him. On it was an image— or rather, information —laid out in tabular format.
SCHEMATIC ANALYSIS
TARGET: LUKAS AGUILAR
Total Soul Capacity
140423
Used Soul Capacity
92795
Total Lifeforce Capacity
2570
Lifeforce Production Rate
134/hour
Mana Production Rate
118/hour
A small icy feeling ran down his spine.
Of course!
In a world where everything was calculable, where growth was of the highest interest, where things like the soul were quantifiable, it was only natural that there would be technologies that could scan someone else’s soul capacities. Tanya had told him how Banksi had kept him in his mansion for a long time before transferring him to her place. No doubt he’d performed tests on his comatose form during that time.
“I must say,” Zuken said, uncaring of the turmoil inside Lukas’s head, “your presence not only triggered the sensitive detection alarms in my estate, but also overloaded them. Honestly, your arrival from a different realm should have been a clue in itself. An accomplished Earth-type I may be, but certainly not a fool. It is only common sense to acknowledge that there exist beings above my power.”
Lukas reflexively gulped. There was no way out of this.
“So far, you have shown no inclination towards disruptive tendencies, bar your unorthodox attitude and lack of respect towards observing societal hierarchies.”
Zuken’s eyes drilled into him as he leaned forward.
“What would I like to know from you? Tell me, Lukas Aguilar. Just when were you planning on informing us that you’re a fucking demigod?”
…
…
“Huh?”