Book: 2: 67

Book 2: Chapter 67

Lukas said that they needed time to discuss.

Elijah accepted this without thinking too much about it, but he gave Lukas a deep look of interest before leaving the room.

Lukas deliberately pretended not to notice his gaze.

Thud-

After the door closed, silence befell the room for a moment. Lukas sat on a nearby wooden box, lost in thought.

Currently, there were two paths they could take.

The first was to go to Kran as they had originally intended.

To do that, they would have to say goodbye to the Gray Sun. In other words, they would have to refuse their request for help. This might cause the Gray Sun to feel discontented, and there was a chance that they would do something drastic.

Of course, he wasn’t really worried about that.

The Gray Sun already had its hands full carrying out resistance activities. It couldn’t afford to pay attention to Lukas and Joanna, and if it did, it would only be a weak observation.

It was almost certain that they wouldn’t want their relationship to devolve beyond that point.

So the first path wasn’t so bad. In fact, it might even be the best choice.

After all, meeting the Top Three was the reason he came to this land in the first place.

‘However...’

Lukas recalled the halfblood boy he’d just seen.

Hybrid.

A being who had the traits of both the demons and the humans.

God had talked about being able to ‘fool the laws of this universe’.

So what if the hint wasn’t about Kran but about the half-bloods?

In fact, wasn’t it Lukas’ assumption that the hint, ‘three’, that God had mentioned to Sedi referred to the Top Three?

Helping the Gray Sun might give him more clues on ‘hybrid’, which he was still uncertain about.

That wasn’t the only advantage.

Lee Jong-hak had said that the true identity of Dragul Phisfounder, the ruler of Zinga, was Gullard, the Vampire Duke.

One of the Five Dukes, who was the most powerful and influential among the Demon Dukes.

Lukas had never met one of the five dukes before. That wasn’t all. Unlike the other Dukes, whose information was easily attainable, little was known about the Five Dukes.

And yet, such a mysterious being had Iris’ last name. At first, he thought it might have been a mere coincidence, but now, he wasn’t sure if that was the case.

The most obvious way to resolve his doubts was to capture Gullard alive and ask him about the last name ‘Phisfounder’.

But that was hard for Lukas at the moment.

‘I can’t overpower one of the Five Dukes with just 9 star magic.’

It might be possible to kill him, but that would be going against his agreement with Sedi. And it wasn’t the time to do so. He at least had to maintain his alliance with her until they got rid of Nodiesop and figured out Letip’s goal.

Then what could he do?

The only other power that Lukas could use at that moment was Joanna, but even if she was an Archmage, she would only end up dead if she ever had to fight against a Duke.

Furthermore, capturing a target was many times more difficult than killing one.

“...”

Lukas turned to look at Joanna.

She still had her head bowed in a depressed manner.

“Joanna.”

“Yeah.”

Her voice was still soft, but it seemed that she had regained some of her energy.

Lukas smiled.

“Of course, it’s up to you whether you tell me or not.”

“...you’re a good talker. You’d be amazing if you were in sales or something like that.”

After saying that, Joanna suddenly let out a soft cough before glancing at Lukas and blushing slightly.

“A-, and. Thank you for comforting...”

It was at that moment that the door was suddenly opened and someone walked in.

Joanna frowned as she turned to look at the door.

A man was standing there.

It was the man who had been sitting on Elijah’s left earlier. He had a tattoo of three suns on his forearm.

Now that she thought about it, she realised she hadn’t heard his name yet.

The man spoke in a blunt tone.

“Have you made a decision yet?”

“Haven’t you heard about knocking?”

The man folded his arms instead of answering. It seemed that he didn’t like Joanna either.

If it had been before, she might have flinched at this action, but now, she didn’t react in any way.

Joanna turned to glance at Lukas, who nodded to say that she could decide on her own.

She felt greatly encouraged by his attitude.

This man was a strange person.

He was weak, his looks were only so-so, and he didn’t seem to have any special abilities, but strangely, she couldn’t treat him lightly.

Joanna had a wide range of knowledge since, instead of hunting, she frequently met with the famous hunters and leaders of various regions.

Thanks to that, she was able to build a facade that allowed her to not shrink back when faced with the various big names.

Nevertheless, she had been completely overwhelmed by Elijah Kipatosh. The pressure that this man, the Big Boss of the Gray Suns, gave her was beyond imagination.

At first, Joanna was able to pretend to be determined, but it didn’t take long for him to peel her mask off, causing her to flounder.

But Lukas didn’t.

He had clearly expressed his opinion in his distinctively calm demeanor. It was as though he couldn’t feel the heavy pressure rolling off Elijah’s body.

It was only then that Joanna saw the true face of this man named Frey.

‘This man is weak, but he’s not weak-willed.’

At the very least, Lukas had always displayed confidence in himself.

When he’d run away during the beast tide, she’d wanted to pull his head off, but when he returned she couldn’t even be mad at him. Because he acted like he’d done nothing wrong.

It was to the point that Joanna couldn’t help but wonder if maybe something was wrong with him. Nevertheless, she couldn’t help but envy him a little.

‘I want to live like that too.’

Though faint, it couldn’t be denied that she’d had that thought.

She had a thought that she’d never had even with Association President Neil, whom she admired the most, for a man that she hadn’t even known for a week.

“Joanna Goldberg.”

The man at the door called her name as if urging her to answer.

Joanna turned to learn him.

Lukas had already displayed the attitude of leaving the decision to her. So Joanna had to make a choice that wouldn’t disappoint his expectations.

But at the same time, she had to make a choice she wouldn’t regret.

Her lips slowly parted.

(Note: Changed mixed race to halfblood. I just felt it sounded nicer.)