Elan's offer

Lorn was still very confused. How did he know where Lorn was, first of all. And why was he bonded to someone so powerful?

He looked at the woman once more. She was a short, sharp-eyed woman with a long scar running along her cheek. It slanted down, making her look like she was frowning on one half of her face. She was wearing dark clothes similar to Elan's but hers popped out more because of the two pieces of silver on both her arms, wrapping around it like a coil.

She noticed Lorn's gaze and frowned with annoyance.

Lorn checked her through Visions and Whispers. Her heart was a tranquil blue, but her head was a messy mix of yellow and orange that was hard on the eyes. She was annoyed.

Elan's heart was a soft mix of purple and turquoise, while his head was a black base with a yellow triangle in the middle. The colors were mostly what he expected. The only odd one was the turquoise, which Lorn didn't know the meaning of.

"Hello?" Elan asked again. "Are you trying to pretend you don't know me?"

"I'll send you the money in ten days," Lorn said.

Sybil's expression changed a bit, realizing who she was talking to.

"Ah, don't be so boring. Paying one's debt is important, yes, but today, I came for a different purpose. But before that, meet my Spirit Partner, Kitara. She's the vice-captain of the Dei Volu clan's branch here."

Sybil's expression changed a lot. This Kitara wasn't someone random.

"…" the woman only shrugged as her greeting.

"Anyway," Elan continued. "I came here to challenge you to a ranked match."

Lorn tilted his head.

"What?"

"You've heard of the Crescent church, right? They host duels and whatever for-"

"Yeah, yeah, I know about them," Lorn cut him off. "But why are you challenging me? It feels like you became a Hunter just today?"

"Oh, yes. It took me some time to get used to these skills and such, but I've been diligently practicing since morning, trying to get used to my new abilities. I got excited and thought who else but to test out my new powers but on you?"

Lucas's words appeared in Lorn's head. 'You fought well, but you could've fought much better if you didn't limit yourself.'

What if he fought Elan without limiting himself? He barely contained his smile. When else was a chance like this going to appear?

"Sure, why not?" Lorn replied.

But he had to be careful.

"Ah, but I want to fight with a few of my underlings, is that okay?"

Lorn expected something like this. Elan wasn't someone who did things without plans. Of course he was going to muster advantages.

"How many?"

"Ten."

Lorn thought about it. It would be easy for him. But he couldn't be negligent.

"By underlings, you mean the ones from Earth, right? Not Hunters from here that work under that vice-captain you're bonded with."

Elan paused, his smile turning wide. "Of course."

'Motherfucker,' Lorn sighed, feeling thankful for his foresight.

But if Elan's team only consists of a few F-ranks, Lorn really wouldn't face any problems. Even if a few of them became E-ranks, Lorn was confident in his abilities.

"Sure, why not. When are we going to have the match?"

"I asked already. There was an empty spot tomorrow morning, let's fight then."

Lorn nodded and Elan left. The woman followed behind, looking annoyed and bored.

"What's Dei Volu?" he asked Sybil.

"It's a worldwide clan that answers to the One Emperor," she murmured back. "Every country has at least one branch of Dei Volu, but it's not really clear as to what they do exactly. You can hire them to do some odd jobs, but most of the time they're busy with other things… But it's the undeniable truth that they're one of the strongest individual forces inside a country."

It sounded worse the more Sybil spoke.

"I don't get it," he sighed. "We don't receive any information when coming here. The ones in charge of our departure don't even tell us the country we're going to end up in, looking like they would get shot if they did that. So how does Elan manage to become bonded to such a bigshot?"

"Perhaps he's lying…? But that woman definitely was someone at least B-rank and she didn't react in any way when he introduced her as his Spirit Partner."

"I know, right?"

Sybil's expression turned sour. "Perhaps he received information from the One Emperor."

Lorn's eyes widened.

"That's… not impossible."

If it was the One Leader behind all this bullshit, then many things would make sense. How Elan was able to become bonded with someone from Dei Volu and how he knew so much about Lorn.

"That's kind of bad, isn't it?"

"Yeah…"

The One Leader was fair, most of the time, but that didn't change the fact that he was someone above the law. Who knows what he thought? A scary thought passed through Lorn's head.

'It can't be the One Leader targeting me, right? It has to be just Elan trying to bully me somehow.'

With a heavy heart, Lorn headed back to their lodging.

He explained everything to Adrian and the rest, before heading to meet Lucas again.

He became a member of the Crescent church after an hour-long talk.

***