A few hours had passed since the end of the tournament where Art alone managed to defeat the opposing team, surprising literally everyone who was taking part in the tournament.
After all, it made no sense for one person to defeat the best team in the tournament other than themselves. It wasn't something that was feasible in the mind of a lot of people, especially considering that the person who had done such a feat hadn't even given his all.
Nevertheless, ever since the tournament ended, a lot of people had been speculating about where Art came from. However, looking at those articles, it seemed none of them were close to the real answer, which wasn't that surprising considering the lack of information about Art's father.
There was, still, one article that was on the right path.
[Copycat?]
That was the title of the article. It talked about how the journalist had seen the same swordsmanship from another person.
I noted down the author of the article as I might need him later to find Art's dad.
However, all of that information was secondary to what was about to happen.
I was about to meet Lurok because of the bet we had made earlier at the start of the tournament. It was time to learn more about Perdere and if he knew what had happened recently in the Atlantis Kingdom with the appearance of a demon in their midst.
Lurok had invited me over to his store, the place where I had met him for the very first time.
Compared to last time, the atmosphere was completely different. There was no one standing before the store, the main street was empty. It seemed Lurok had given his very best for them to be completely alone as they had this talk.
There was a small chance that Lurok had decided to disrespect what he had promised, but if that was the case...I would just have to use force against him. There was also a small chance that he would try to kill me, or something along those lines. However, as far as I could tell, there truly was no one around.
I could only feel a single presence and it was Lurok's.
'Is this the extent of his influence?' I thought in the back of my mind as I had to admit that it was impressive to have done such a thing.
Nevertheless, I dismissed those thoughts and entered the shop right away.
"How do you know about that? Who even are you to have such information?"
I laughed. "I ask the questions."
"Meh, whatever, it's only a matter of time before you answer mine."
"The demon was found dead in Atlantis, that's how I found out about its existence. As for how I'm related to it, I'm not."
I activated my skill to see whether he was telling the truth, and it seemed that there was a lie in his answer.
"You lied."
He clicked his tongue. "Tsk, fine. I know who was the demon. In fact, he was one of my best friends before he died and revealed himself."
This time, my skill indicated that he was telling the truth.
"Hm, so a best friend. Can you tell me more about him?"
He smirked. "That counts as your second question. Are you sure you want me to answer that?"
I hesitated. However, I nodded.
"Yes, give me as much information on him as you can. When you met him, how you met him, things of that sort."
Lurok nodded with a smile, happy that one of my precious questions was being used in such a way.
"I met him through a connection around ten years ago, if I recall correctly. We instantly clicked and that's pretty much it."
"Come on. Do you really think I'll accept that as an answer? At least, name the name of the connection who introduced the two of you."
Lurok nodded. "Well, you already met him. It was Zero who introduced me to him."