The owner of the restaurant, with a heavy throat, said to Lucas, “can I please have a look at the letter?”
Lucas nodded his head, but instead of giving him the letter right away, he said to him, “I will give you the black box and all its contents. I haven’t taken a single thing out of it. However, I need you to do something for it in exchange. If you agree to it, we can bind ourselves in a contract.”
Lucas was well aware that saying this at this time was not a good idea, but he didn’t have a choice. Because time was running out, he had to be cruel and do it.
The owner wiped off his tears and nodded his head. There was indeed no free lunch in this world, and he didn’t blame Lucas for asking him such a thing. It was a fair trade, so to complete the transaction as soon as possible, the owner took out a contract made by a Half Emperor rank witch and signed it along with Lucas, binding them together.
The contract stipulated that Lucas and the restaurant’s owner would not discuss the matter, that the owner would do whatever Lucas asked even if it meant risking his life, and that Lucas would give the owner his wife’s will in advance.
After they had finished signing it, Lucas handed the owner his wife’s will, which he opened and carefully read through. Tears streamed down his face as he read the last letter his wife had written. It had been a long time since they had seen each other, and reading this letter made him feel as if she was right beside him, explaining things to him.
The letter did look like it was written in a rush, however the contents of the letter didn’t match it. His wife thought that once they were caught in the bandits’ hands, they would have to suffer some brutal things.
The letter described how she was grateful to have met him, their sweet time together, them having a daughter and playing with her, taking care of her and watching her grow up. She then stated her current situation in it and what she would do to tackle it.
She promised she would try her best to protect their daughter even at the cost of her life and in the end stated that, if she doesn’t survive today, she would definitely meet him in her next reincarnation, become his beloved wife once again and take care of their daughter.
She also joked stating, she would try her best in the next reincarnation to make her daughter like peas and not secretly feed them to their pet duck.
She ended the letter by telling him how much she loved him, their daughter, and she would continue to do so even in the afterlife and her many reincarnations to come. She asked him to take care of himself and their daughter, given that her daughter made it out safely and reached him back.
The owner couldn’t control his tears anymore as he reached the end of the letter and burst out. Tears flowed heavily down his face and soaked the letter wet. The man kept sobbing while thinking of his wife and daughter, and various scenarios kept playing out in his mind about them.
He kept thinking about the many possibilities that may have happened later. His thoughts were starting to take a darker turn, but just then, Lucas snapped his finger and brought the man out of his thoughts. He cleared his throat and said to him,
“I assume you must’ve read the whole letter by now. Let’s get going. Time is of essence for me, we can’t delay. You check the contents of the ring later. I don’t want to see your mental health get ruined and affect my mission. Anyway, here’s the thing that you are supposed to help me out with…”
The owner wiped his tears and restored the letter in his hands to its previous state with the help of magic. He listened seriously to what Lucas was saying and then, as he finished explaining; the man frowned and asked,
“How do you know about my abilities?”
Lucas shrugged and said, “I have my Intel.”
The man stared at him for a good few seconds, but then sighed. He had already signed the contract now and nothing could be done about it. He looked at Lucas and said,
“We can leave right about now. It won’t be easy, but it isn’t that hard either.”
Lucas nodded, and the two went to the backyard of the restaurant and the man held Lucas’s shoulder and the two teleported away.
….
Auckland city, Villmer.
Space fluctuated in an abandoned alley, and two figures teleported out of thin air. It was Lucas and the owner of the restaurant.
The two then exited the valley and made their way to the Emperor’s palace. They were conversing, and the owner asked Lucas a few more questions about the mission and the things he needed to do and remember.
Lucas just said to him that he didn’t have to do much, and that was the truth. The owner was an Emperor rank, and Lucas knew about it. His name was Mikhail and since he was such a big shot, things were much easier to do.
Lucas knew about him and his backstory, as well as what events would occur in the future relating to him. This man was living a calm and peaceful life with the pet duck his daughter bought one day. The man during the bandit attack was just a mere rank 7 and now he was almost at the top of the world.
However, ever since the disappearance of his wife and daughter, the man cultivated diligently and lived life like a mortal, serving food in a restaurant alongside the pet duck that his daughter once brought home. The man ensured that the duck wouldn’t die, so he made her duck cultivate alongside him and made it an immortal too.
These things, however, were bound to change in the future. As Lucas was about to recall things that would happen in the future, an old man looking like a beggar, walked in front of him.
He was wearing a black turban that was made of a cheap cotton cloth and there were two other pieces of the same cloth on his body, one of which was wrapped around his upper body and another was made into black pants he was wearing. The old man wore simple slippers on his feet, a cloth bag on his shoulder and lastly, he was holding a flag which read ‘Destiny’ on it.
He walked in front of Lucas and interrupted his thoughts by saying,
“Young man, do you wish to see your fate?”