Shades of the New World

Chapter 282: Lupin

Many questions swirled inside his head, but in the end, none of it really mattered. After all, the choice of accepting always carried a certain about of risk to it. 

After a bout of deliberation inside his head, Khunichi decided to take a figurative leap of faith. Gulping, he gently clapped his hands and looked around the room fearfully.

As he'd half-expected, something started to materialize in the corner of his vision. Next to the window, a tall, well-dressed man materialized into existence. Khunichi could only stare silently, met with such a man who exuded charisma out of every pore of body. Although impossible, something told him that even if this man came from the secret organization he'd been chasing, he'd still find himself wishing to work under him.

'No, what the hell am I thinking about? I have to play this out calmly and eloquently. I can't let myself get caught in his rhythm!'

"Well met. And thank you for not making such a fuss due to my appearance," the man spoke eloquently, and without pause or deliberation, like most others tended to, "You must be Khunichi, am I correct?"

"Yes, I am uh, who are you?" Khunichi stammered, despite his intended calmness..

"Oh my, how rude of me. I go by the name, Lupin. I'm an agent of Paradra, sent to investigate the abandoned remains of a secret base, located near this city somewhere."

"Paradra, really? You're going to get me my horn back?" Khunichi asked excitedly, before his brain registered the meaning of Lupin's words, "Wait, abandoned base?"

"Exactly as you say though you seem to think otherwise."

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"No, of course it's not abandoned. It's been functioning since three years ago! Sure, they've been a bit silent for the past few months, but they can't have abandoned it all."

"It could be as you say, as we've no method to be completely sure, but the Paradra is fairly certain it's abandoned," Lupin said.

"Then what about that fight a few days ago? How did those fights come to be?"

"It's the other counties' agents trying to put their hands on something that rightfully belongs to us."

"Why are you searching for it in the first place? What's so important about it?" 

"I'm afraid I won't be able to tell you about that. But even if I could, most likely, I could only utter a somewhat believable lie," Lupin said unpretentiously.

Khunichi didn't quite understand everything, but he did like how honestly Lupin spoke to him. It felt like he was being taken seriously and it pleased him greatly.

"Wait, how do you know of all this in the first place?" Khunichi suddenly realized.

Lupin only smiled and pointed at Khunichi's right hand. Confused, Khunichi looked at his hand, and saw a black spider with overly long legs, its eyed marbly eyes staring back at him. Startled, he shook his hands in an almost exaggerated way. The spider on his arms jumped like some kind of insectoid rabbit and landed on Lupin's hands.

"Sorry if I've startled you. One of my companions here heard your conversation in the tavern, which lead me to visit you personally. Isn't he cute?" Lupin explained, playfully fondling the spider on his hands.

"Uh, yes of course," Khunichi said, even though he didn't really agree with the man at all.

'What the hell? Spiders can understand humans? No. It should be the case for that spider only,' Khunichi finally calmed down, but something didn't sit right with him.

"Isn't that immoral? To listen to people talk, without their knowing."

"Well, you would be right, but I don't think you're fit to say that, really. After all, you've stalked quite a lot of beauties with your friend, haven't you? Both of you, covered in the safety of your illusions," Lupin said with a smile.

Khunichi was suddenly reminded of a distant memory in which him and Khama stood awkwardly inside the woman's bathhouse, ogling at the beauties without consequence or punishment.

"How do you know that?!" Khunichi found himself exclaiming. Panicking, he put his hands to his mouth, and looked towards the room where his wife was sleeping.

"Ha-ha, it seems you've indeed done something similar in the past. Don't worry, any man with a silver horn seems to think of the idea one day or another. I was simply guessing randomly," Lupin said with a laugh, "And you don't have to worry about your wife hearing you. No sound will leave this room."

Khunichi found himself wanting to hide somewhere, blushing from both his ears. 

"Well, embarrassing pasts aside, will you help me find that base or not? Although I don't think the monsters in human clothing aren't there, I'm sure they've left a pile of stuff worth seeing. Who knows? Maybe your horn is in there somewhere? If you're unwilling, I'll take my leave here. I can't force you to help me as per my vow, after all," Lupin urged.

At this point, Khunichi only had one path left for him. 

"I'll help to the best of my abilities. Where do we begin? Although I can't use the World of Water now, I can still fight close combat pretty adeptly."

"Hold down there, soldier. I don't need you to fight my wars, I just need you to provide me with information. Leave the rest to me," Lupin said. 

"No, I can seriously help you. Trust me!" Khunichi said.

The reason he was being so unreasonable was because he was afraid they wouldn't bother to bring him back his horn. Fearfully, he looked at Lupin, but the latter simply smiled back.

"I'll be honest with you here. First of all, I'm not allowed to take random strangers under my care, like I'm collecting a bunch of stray cats. Secondly, it's much too dangerous of a job for a Hornbearer to live through. And thirdly, you're much too weak to be of any use, even if you were to join me as a porter of some sorts."