Chapter 249: Chapter 249 - The two L’s
With Merath’s permission, the gatekeeper left to let Lily in.
Lily made his first steps inside. Despite merely being seventeen, he managed to be the second tallest person present, only behind Merath himself.
He had a lean, slightly toned build despite being a mage. It wasn’t due to any significant physical effort or time, but basic health and magic. It was just enough to make sure that one’s body wouldn’t give out over nothing.
He had sandy brown hair, gray eyes, and his expression was a practiced calm. There was a particular deliberate quality to the way he moved and held himself, a composure that was clearly being maintained rather than simply existing. It was not quite natural yet.
After all, a few months ago, by all accounts, he had been a fundamentally different person. A talented, naive boy who had not yet understood what was expected of him.
Training had changed that. Especially after Chief Tactician Azir had transferred him to a special program. He was still in the process of becoming the person he was working to be, but the direction was clear.
He stopped a respectful distance inside the door and inclined his head toward Lumi with respect.
"Lord Lumi!" he said, breaking composure slightly before resettling. "Thank you for this opportunity. I came as soon as I could."
"Good." Lumi looked him over.
[Lily Windmere: Level - 35]
Lumi nodded. It was a very fast rate of improvement. Even players who dedicated every second to improving, had no need to fear death, didn’t need to learn skills manually, and got EXP would find it difficult to improve so quickly.
That was why talent mattered. At the end of the day, a player’s body was manufactured. Theoretically ideal, but nothing special about it.
Talent could let one bridge years in a single day. Just look at Sol. Had the Phoenix not jumped massively in strength over a single fortuitous moment?
Lumi already knew that both Eden and Lily would quickly start to outpace them. That was the entire point. If they weren’t that talented, then there would be no point in having them.
Lumi gave a friendly smile. "No need to be so formal, Lily. Just call me Lumi."
"Yes, sir!" Lily straightened his back and spoke seriously, before slightly relaxing. "S-sorry. I’m not used to this."
"It’s alright." Lumi shrugged gently, and beckoned him over. "I’ll formally take you as a disciple in a moment. For now, come, let’s wait together. We’re just missing one now."
"One?" Lena blinked. "Oh! I get it."
With that realization, she shifted her gaze to Lily.
She opened her mouth, then closed it. Her first thought, of course, was why the heck is he called Lily? That was a girl’s name. Why did this man have a girl’s name? She was about to blurt that out until she realized she probably shouldn’t.
So she just stared at him really hard. She stared straight into his eyes for an uncomfortably long amount of time.
"Yes!" Lily responded, and went to move towards Lumi. He noted everyone’s gazes. Eden offered a simple nod, which Lily returned. Sol turned his bright eyes toward the newcomer and held the look steadily.
Then there was Lena.
The two stared for a moment before Lily broke his gaze, offering a deferring nod. Lena gave a slight smile in satisfaction. "Hey Lily."
She stepped forward. "So, what do you know about pyramids?"
"What?"
"What?"
"I mean-" Lily caught himself, realizing he broke composure and didn’t answer her question. "I’m not sure I’m well informed on them, miss."
Lily subtly shifted his eyes towards the detail in how the others stood. Merath needed no introduction, being a world-famous magician.
Eden was standing behind Lumi, making his presence a bit smaller. It was clear that he was deferential to Lumi.
But then there was Lena. She was closest to Lumi, and stood at his side. It was safe to assume that she was his. And thus he needed to appropriately respect her as much as he would his new master.
"Lena." Lena gave her name, smiling. "Just Lena."
"Lena." Lily repeated, this time without the miss. "I’m sorry if I didn’t have the knowledge you expected."
"Oh, don’t worry about that." Lena waved it away with a smile. "Why would you know anything about pyramids?"
Lily’s eyes widened just an inch, but he had the calm to not even respond. He responded with a light smile, and said no more. He took his place behind Lumi, subtly behind Eden, taking his place as second disciple.
Lumi lightly smiled as he saw that. That was how Lily made it obvious he came from a noble family. After all, most people wouldn’t be caring about details like who stood where and what it meant. Eden wouldn’t have taken the slightest disrespect to Lily standing in front of him because Eden wasn’t ranking status through proximity to him.
Then the door opened again, and the gatekeeper peered her head, informing them of a new arrival.
Lucy.
When Lucy came in, she walked with loose, unbothered ease. Nothing about her suggested she had put any thought into making an impression on anyone present.
Yet that was exactly the point. As far as she was concerned, she had already impressed the only person relevant here to her. Lumi.
Any further assessment on her would be based through her usefulness, not by acting pretentious.
[Lucy Lee- Level 34]
In essentially any other gathering, that would have made her a standout. In this specific room, at this specific moment, that placed her solidly at the bottom.
She lightly frowned.
She had always been at the top, or at least near the top anywhere she was. Now, she was the weakest person here?
She was sure her skills were beyond at least some of them, but how much did that matter in the long run? All that she could see was that she was replaceable. But she didn’t want to be replaced. Money was money, and this particular money was very good.
Her eyes moved across the group with a quick read, then looked over to Lumi. She nodded. "Boss."
"Lucy." Lumi nodded back, and introduced her to the group, "You already know Merath. You know me and Lena. That leaves Eden," He pointed to him, "And Lily." He gestured to him too.
Lucy looked over the NPCs. Sure.
Lumi put up a finger. "Keep them very, very safe."
She gave a short nod.
Lumi gave a smile and walked over to her. He gently placed a hand on her shoulder, making her uncomfortable. "There was one thing I was wondering, though?"
"Yes...?" Lucy glanced at the hand on her shoulder. What did he... want? There was no reason to touch her like that, right?
"I just thought it was interesting that you’d call yourself Lucy Lee." Lumi replied to her. "Why the same name...?"
"H-huh?!" Lucy jumped back surprised. How did he- wait, wait no. It didn’t matter. It didn’t matter that he-
"Did you know?" Lumi continued, "I actually own a few stores down near that beach. I wonder if you’ve been to any? I’ve got one that serves a wonderful margherita pizza."
"..." Lucy lowered her head. She took a deep breath, and shakily, whispered. "What do you mean by this?"
Lumi lightly tilted his head. "What do you mean? Most employers know where their employees live."
"Don’t!" Lucy snapped, then took a deep breath to calm down. "Don’t play dumb. I..."
"I don’t mean anything bad by it." Lumi took his hand off her, and took a step back. "Really, I don’t. But," He put a hand on his chest. "look at it from my perspective. I’m paying you! What guarantee do I have that I won’t be scammed. I need to know who to sue, you know?"
"Is..." She took another deep breath, and seemed to start visibly calming down. "Is that really it?"
"Yes?" Lumi gave her a strange look, as if she was the one asking questions that didn’t make sense. "What else would it be for?"
Of course, he was lying through his teeth. What nonsense pizza store? What nonsense lawsuit? The math was instead extremely simple. If Lucy respected money, she might be bought to harm his precious Lily and Eden. That was unacceptable, so she had to fear an actual lawsuit as a consequence.
Obviously, this was still risky. The safest play was to simply not take her. But the problem with that train of thought was that there was no gain without risk. Lucy was one of the most talented players he had encountered, he needed to tether her to his side, and boost her strength until she was also a demigod on the side of humanity.
Though Lucy seemed to still have some doubts, he entirely stepped back and rejoined the group. "Alright! Now that everyone is here, let me inform you of our destination."
"Tonight... we’re going to Yunhai!"
