"Oh, no…" Alicia gasped.
Although Baston won, his arm took more damage. Any ordinary person must surely let their sword go when they got the impact they couldn't handle. Luke was fast and quite strong but his body limited his maximum
potential. Baston on the other hand used his puppet as the replacement since he was going to lose quickly if he dared to spar by his fat body. Noticing his broken arm once again, the disguised Baston sighed. There was still a limit on the strength and endurance that the puppets could display. He was lucky his opponent wasn't too strong but once he faced someone else like Tasco, all the bones on the puppet would be broken before disappearing into the old book. He
then needed to wait for one day before he could summon it back.
Baston slowly cracked his bone, fixing his arm manually. It was the third time he did this and all of it was done when he was in this
Luminos City. He wondered if he fell off the cliff, would the puppet survive or not? If it survived, what it would look like? How many bones he needed to fix before he could go back to his usual self. The bone snapped for a few times before Baston saw his arm looked good. It was really a miracle he could
mobilize the puppets into this so he as the puppet master didn't need to feel the pain by himself.
"Your body is really something!" Luke patted, "It's already the second time you broke it."
"Actually, it's already a third time…" Baston lamented inside his mind.
"By the way, we have a guest here. Let's greet her first!"
"A guest?" Baston looked over and found Alicia with her father and her uncle were staring at him.
The fat boy closed his eyes, shaking his head from time to time because in order to cope for the sparring, he was too focused on Luke without any sense about his surrounding. By the time the match finished, he just noticed them and it was too late to react. While there was recognition in their eyes, he just worried about trivial thing at the moment. Supposedly, the matter about fixing his own broken bone should not be known by Xavierius family. It was because he once used it when training with Tasco. Surely, the old knight would tell everything about him once he met with Alicia and the others. Cracking the bones forcefully might be just an ordinary event but it would become
exceptional when no painful groan was heard.
Sebastian as Tasco's customer did it and Baston also did it. The fat boy worried if Alicia heard it from Tasco, she might wonder why both of these people had the same behavior. By then, many questions would pop up before there was an urge to investigate more. With somehow miraculous imagination from Alicia, the matter would soon become complicated. There was a possibility that she would think Baston and Sebastian was the same person even though it was crazy thought. Truthfully, it was indeed related since they were the same people. This thing was really hard to explain once someone asked about it so to be sure, he had to warn Tasco not to tell them about this. As for the reason, just tell the old knight that he didn't want his secret to be found out.
Baston then found an excuse to go to his room first, changing his clothes even though he didn't sweat from the start to finish. While he was in the room, he mobilized one of his puppets to go to Tasco's barrack first while he would stall for the time. Hopefully, Alicia and the others weren't in a hurry. If not, he would need to find another reason to hold
them back. Looking at the flying bird, he then rushed ahead to the training room where Luke and the others had been already waiting for him.
"Kid, it's a coincidence you are also here. I wonder did you already spend all the money?" Angus whispered, patting him to remind back the source of the sudden wealth, "But it's strange… Luminos City will surely forbid you to enter if your status is lower than the merchant. Even though the money is in your pocket, but the status in here is the most important one."
Baston twitched before replying, "I become Luke's servant temporarily on vacation. With this, I can enter the city and earn my own money. You know that as a poor person, every penny is meaningful."
Although he said that, Angus just scoffed as the reply. No one knew that the fat boy was actually quite rich by now. When he acted as the intermediary, he knew the amount of money he transferred to Baston. It was all
in cash and he didn't believe Baston had already used all of it. The fat boy wasn't a simple one and deep inside his heart, Angus could tell that Baston was a smart one just like Alicia. This kind of conduct was rare nowadays.
Baston glanced at Angus and didn't think too much. The matter about him and Luke was only known by a few people. Surely, everyone might think he was just working with Luke to earn a little money, but
unknowingly, the fat boy did it because he was forced to by the quest from the old book. He had to kill a noble, making him to think deeply how the plan should work regarding his present situation. So, in the end, he had to pretend like this. Thankfully, it was decided that he became a servant and not a slave. If Angus and the others saw him as the slave, there would be many questions by
then. Regarding the explanation, he already decided to throw it to Alicia if it really happened to him.
"I never know you are also talented for being a knight," Alicia suddenly came up to Baston.
"It's just a coincidence…"
"Oh, really?"
The noble girl surely couldn't be convinced easily but it was really just a coincidence brought by the new quest. Baston was just too wary against Viktor so he searched around and finally found Tasco in this city.
Learning for a few days, he finally got used in his style of fighting before he had confidence to battle his way. Who knew that there was a sudden change of plan since a dark wizard appeared? The quest became more complicated before he could finish it. Slowly but sure, he created his own opportunity before he was able to kill the target. Even though the reward was quite amazing, he would try his best to hide it since he was afraid the same situation would happen if he
showed his holy magic.
"By the way, what are you doing here?" Baston asked, pretending not to know the purpose.
"We…" Alicia wanted to answer but knowing the bleak future, she stopped herself.
"What is it?" Baston didn't hear clearly.
"We are just spending our time here…" Angus coughed, trying to divert the situation, "Because Alicia won the competition at Prius Academy, we want to celebrate it together."
"Celebrating? With you and the head of the family here?" Baston thought, already knowing the truth before replying, "I see.
Congratulations for your winning."
"I demand a rematch," Alicia sneered, "This time, I will challenge you fair and square without any pretense."
"I don't want to. I'm too tired right now."
"How about tomorrow?"
"Still tired. Need vacation."
"I can pay you a lot."
"Nope!" Baston still rejected her.
Angus and Harry looked at each other, thinking how the match back then. When they saw the recorded video, they were taken aback since Baston could win easily but he pretended to fight Alicia and lose on purpose. Many people thought the noble girl surely would win because the resource and
experience she had was way much more than a poor boy. Inside their head, Alicia
didn't need to take Baston seriously but several smart people could see it was Baston who handled the match in his palm. If he wanted to, he could afford to win without many dramas. Alicia harrumphed before Harry started to talk.
"Excuse us, we are in a hurry at the moment… Alicia, let's go."
Alicia nodded expressionlessly before Baston interrupted, "Don't go yet! Luke wants to talk about something. It's very important, right?"
Luke noticed Baston's sign, thinking that he created this opportunity just for the talk about the cult, "Yes, it's very important. It's
just only a few minutes. I promise I won't waste your time."
"All of you just arrive here, so it won't do hurt if you rest for a few minutes. Unless, there's something very important to make Lord
Harry and Lord Angus to be at somewhere else. I wonder what is that…"
Noticing the suspicious Baston, Angus coughed before relented, "Of course, it's fine. We are not in hurry anyway. It's just that we already book a place to celebrate Alicia's winning, so it's a pity to bypass it. If she doesn't mind, then it's okay for us."
Harry didn't comment and Baston squinted his eyes, pondering how badly they wanted to meet with Sebastian. The fat boy who knew everything just barely stopped everyone to go to Tasco's place. Angus and Harry also were thinking that they must not be in a hurry or else, people who knew them would be suspicious. In the end, someone would investigate and Sebastian's existence
would be known. It was dangerous for everyone and many troubles would soon
follow. Alicia and Luke then went inside the room while Baston didn't accompany them. The fat boy said he wanted to rest somewhere, yet unbeknownst to them, he
wanted to focus his consciousness on Sebastian. Luke made sure no one heard his
conversation before he started.
"Alicia, can you explain more about the cult?"
"The cult? Who did you hear from?" Alicia was surprised.
"It's Baston. After the incident regarding my uncle and dark wizard, he said it was all related to the cult. I don't know what the dark
wizard is doing on Luminos City, but one thing I know is this dark wizard should be a perpetrator for the explosion at the academy."
"What? Are you sure?"
"Yes, Baston told me about it. Although he helped me with the matter of my uncle, the dark wizard should escape successfully from here. I was looking for the news but no one knew about it. Either the dark wizard is
already dead or he has just escaped, I think the second one is the most possible."
The news of the dark wizard was hidden from public since it involved the space magic. That was why Luke didn't know the truth yet. Everyone believed the dark wizard had already been subdued, waiting for the
investigation result. However, there was also a rumor stated that the dark wizard was already dead and the one who finished him came from the royalty. There were many versions and even the official at the gate told everyone that the dark wizard had already been captured. Alicia thought it was the truth but she never thought it was just a disguised lie. She would still believe it if Luke didn't tell her about it. The noble girl sighed, looking at her new companion before telling everything about the cult.
She started from where Baston warned her at the academy, encountering a clown man named Joker at the town, solving the dark wizard's experiment about fake eternal life, until exposing a hidden one at her family's land. Just by this event, everything connected from the very beginning. It was almost like the cult had already been there, but people didn't realize it yet. They were
just busy with daily routine, unable to comprehend the dangerous things nearby.
Regarding Joker, it seemed Panto had also encountered this man so she advised Luke to go and ask the boy. At the moment, only she, Panto, and Luke had an understanding about it excluding Baston. Even her uncle and her father were still in the dark. Luke then realized he was just a frog in the well after all this time.