After grabbing our luggage at the carousel, Marie and I head for the exit together.
As we exit the Terminal, we entered the waiting area of the arrival terminal and we were greeted by a huge crowd towards our left and right that are behind a clear screen glass barrier that displays different types of ads ranging from products to services to different tourist attractions in the city.
Marie and I start walking at the gap between the crowds which is actually a runway for passengers.
Marie is earnestly searching for someone through the crowds which is most probably the one who is going to pick her up while I silently walk at Marie's pace.
Earlier I was able to gain access to the internet through the Terminal's public Wi-Fi and I received a message on Facebook Messenger from my sister Rei who is supposed to be the one to pick me up with her fiancé here at the airport stating that she would be a little late since her hearing took longer than expected.
My sister
is a prosecutor for Libra City so it couldn't be help that she
prioritizes her job over our meeting.
As for my sister's fiancé,
he is a police detective.
I don’t
know how those two end up together but I guess I’ll hear about it
once I have met them.
While I was thinking to myself, Marie
suddenly screams which took my attention.
"There she is!"
I look at Marie and see her pointing at a girl who seems to be in her early twenties that is behind the clear glass screen barrier towards our right.
The girl that Marie is pointing at is happily waving at her.
Marie waves back at the girl most probably to indicate that she have noticed her.
After the exchange, Marie continues to walk forward while the girl leaves the crowd.
I'm guessing the girl is heading towards the end of the runway to meet up with Marie.
After walking for a while, we reach the end of the runway and just like I predicted, the girl that left the crowd earlier is here waiting for Marie.
Marie turn towards me.
"There's my ride."
"I see. Well take care then."
I responded with a smile.
"Take care Yuto and I Hope we meet again someday."
Marie said her farewell and walk towards the girl.
As she was halfway towards the girl, she suddenly turns around and looks towards my direction.
"Don't forget to subscribe to my channel!"
She yelled cheerfully.
I yell back at her.
"I already did!"
That wasn't
a lie. I already subscribed to her channel earlier when I connected
to the Terminal's public Wi-Fi.
Marie cheerfully yells back at
me.
"Thanks and take care!"
I didn't yell back and just smile and wave at her.
After that, Marie turn towards the girl who is most probably her friend and continue walking.
I watch Marie for a while since this is probably the last time we would ever meet.
Although my time together with Marie was short, I enjoyed her company.
As Marie approach her friend, they both hug each other like two friends who haven't seen each other in a long time.
After they hug each other, they happily chatted with one another.
I'm guessing they are catching up with one another.
The two chatted for a while and then merrily left together.
Now then, where can I kill some time?
I guess I'll hang out at a nearby café that has free Wi-Fi while waiting for Rei and her fiancé.
The question is, is there a café nearby?
There is no
use pondering about it, I'll just go ask someone.
…
Thankfully,
a kind couple gave me directions to a nearby café with free Wi-Fi.
The name of the café they told me about is Café Blanca which is a very popular café that has multiple branches all over the world due to its vintage style interior and its unique blend of coffee and tea.
Speaking about Café Blanca, I am here right now seated on a table near the glass window pane sipping a hot cup of mocha with a tinge of hazelnut milk while looking at news articles on the internet with my laptop.
What kind of news articles I'm looking at, I'm looking at news articles about the incident that happened 10 years ago at Libra City.
The incident where several other children and I got kidnapped by a syndicate for our organs to be extracted and sold on the black market or so the article say.
In reality, we were kidnapped by a cult to be used as a live sacrifice for a ritual.
I don't know what kind of ritual that is but I remember parts of the chant that the cult use which is "Ave Illustratio" and "Ave Armaros".
Those two phrases are in Latin which translate to "Hail Enlightenment" and "Hail Armaros".
Enlightenment meaning a higher state of mind or to gain greater understanding of something which is often tied to religion.
As for Armaros, Armaros is one of the four watchers that was sent by god to watch over humanity from the first book of Enoch.
Like the
other four watchers, Armaros corrupted humanity by teaching us
enchantment or in other words Magic.
Armaros along with the four
watchers was sent to hell by god as a punishment for corrupting
humanity.
I am not a big believer of religion, so I don't think the story of Armaros and the four watchers nor do I think that what happened in the book of Enoch is real but what I do know is the existence of Deities which is what we call gods.
I myself have met a Deity before which is one of my teachers in the school for mages that I attended through out my middle school and highschool that teaches Dark History so I know that they are real although their existence is somewhat hidden to the public, only those of us involved in the occult knows that they truly exist.
Deities are only known through religion and myths and let's face it, majority of us humans don't actually believe that gods exist and treat them as a symbol rather than an actual being.
In reality, they exist, but they aren't gods or let alone godlike, they are just beings with tremendous supernatural abilities and a lifespan that far exceeds us human beings.
The Deity that I met which is my professor in college is human like, appearance and personality wise, which gave me an impression that Deities are just like us humans but very powerful.
Although I heard that there are Deities that doesn't have a human like appearance like the nine tailed fox from eastern mythologies or the Naga which is a giant snake with tremendous wisdom but I never seen any of those so I don't know if they exist or not but my professor who is Deity said that they exist and she met them before so I guess they are real.
Who really knows, maybe I get to see them someday.
Anyways, I asked my teacher who is a Deity about Armaros and she gave me a vague reply stating that "Armaros no longer exist" and immediately drops the subject and talk about something else.
Of course I didn't give up and continuously ask her to give me answers, so she threatened my grades to shut me up.
So I'm left with no answers on whom Armaros is other than the story in the book of Enoch.
Armaros
must have done something terrible to the point that the great deity
Freya doesn't want to talk about it.
As to who is or what is
Armaros, I don't really know.
He or she might have been a Deity or a powerful Magi.
I guess the only way for me to find out is to catch the cult and dive in deeper into the incident that happened 10 years ago here in Libra City and in order for me to do that, I guess I would need some connections and luckily, Rei’s fiance is a police detective.
I could definitely ask him about that case 10 years ago to get some insight.
As for the rest, I’ll just investigate it myself.
I took a sip of my now cold cup of mocha while my eyes is glued at the screen of my laptop.
Although the taste is still good, it tastes better when it was hot but I guess I have no right to complain since it was my fault for neglecting to drink it while it was still hot.
After taking a sip of my cold cup of mocha, I place the half empty cup on to the table and as I did, I heard a voice calling out to me from behind.
"Hey Yuto! Sorry we took so long"
I turn towards the person that is calling out to me from behind.
As I did, I saw a couple who are standing beside each other.
One of the couples is a woman with jet black long hair and scarlet eyes who is wearing a black dress with a white jacket.
The other one is a tall man who has brown hair and emerald eyes who is wearing a smart casual outfit and glasses.
The woman is my older sister Rei Nanase while the man beside her must be her fiancé.
As to why they knew where to find me, I message Rei my location earlier when I connected to cafe's Wi-Fi.
I answer Rei.
"No worries! I understand that your job is important being a prosecutor and all."
"I'm glad that you understand and now that you will be a university student and a future detective on top of that so you will be very busy as well!”
Rei looks at me with a stern look.
“I know sis, I know!”
I answered her.
“And don’t you dare bring any girl home late at night young man! You are not ready yet! If you do, you will receive a lot of hell from me! I’m warning you!”
Where the hell did that came from?
That was so random!
But anyways, I don’t have any plans to go in a relationship yet since I’ll busy investigating that event ten years ago so I do not have anytime for relationships.
I assure Rei that I don’t have any plans of having a relationship.
“Don’t worry sis! I do not have any plans on starting a relationship anytime soon.”
“Good! No one is allowed to date you without my permission! Okay?”
She said sternly.
“And why would I need your permission?”
I asked.
“Because I’m your big sister and no one is allowed to date you till I say so!”
If I continue to question Rei’s authority, she will probably argue back until I submit to her so it’s better to just agree with her.
“Yeah, yeah! If you say so!”
“Good!”
She answered with a smile.
I feel bad for having for Rei's fiancé for only conversing with Rei, so I ask her to introduce him to me.
"Now that's all said and done, aren't you going to introduce me to your fiancé?"
"Oh right! I almost forgot!"
Rei reacted in a surprise manner and turn towards her fiancé.
"Come on honey! Introduce yourself."
She calls her fiancé honey. Hmm… I see.
They still must be in the lovey-dovey stage.
Rei's fiancé introduces himself to me.
"Hi there Yuto, I'm Arnold McDowell, a police detective from Libra City Police Department."
Arnold stops midway and gives me a smile and then continues.
"Nice to meet you!"
Then he offers a handshake.
"Like wise!"
I answered and accept his handshake.
"If you need anything especially in regards to your studies, please let me know. I’ll definitely assist you in anyway I can."
Arnold said to me while still shaking my hands.
"Anything? Really?"
I asked eagerly.
"Yeah! Anything!”
Arnold assured me.
Well, since he said that, I guess it’s the appropriate time to ask that.
“So, are you familiar with the incident 10 years ago where there was a mass kidnapping of children here in Libra City?”
“Yeah... I did a research on that back in college for my thesis. W-why you ask?”
I
can certainly see his nervous expression as he answered.
I’m guessing he knows I’m one of the victims and he is just feigning ignorance.
Should i push my luck and ask him for details?
He did say he would assist me in anyway he can and he definitely could not back down now can he?
Time to ask, I’ll definitely will get an answer.
“Well, about that incident, you see-”
As I was about to ask my question, I was immediately interrupted by Rei.
"Yuto, are you hungry? Do you want to grab dinner before we go home?"
"Dinner? Isn't it only-"
I look at my laptop's screen and saw the time.
The time right now is 6:30 pm.
"Oh…"
It's definitely almost time for dinner.
My stomach incidentally growls at me.
Grumble*
Now that I think about it, I haven't eaten anything yet besides breakfast and not to mention Airplane food is nasty and also, the country where I came from which is Singapore is only one hour behind Libra City.
Singapore is actually my connection flight to Libra city since there is no direct flight from Europe to Libra City due to several reasons and one of them is probably to spend more money with airplane tickets.
There was a “free tour” of Singapore after all which is part of the package.
While I was silently thinking to myself, Rei calls out to me.
"Yuto?"
I immediately respond to her.
"Yeah! Sure!"
"Great!"
Rei said with a smile while clasping her hands together.
After that, Rei turn towards Arnold.
"Honey, go get the car ready."
"Sure thing!"
Arnold answered happily and left the café.
After that, Rei turn towards me.
"Shall we go then? I think we already extended our stay and besides, there are customers waiting outside since this is a popular café after all."
Rei is definitely right since I've been sitting here for at least three hours now and all I ordered was a cup of mocha and I feel bad for the other customers waiting outside and for the staff's tolerance to my long stay so I guess it's time for me to leave and surrender my seat to others.
"Also, we kinda barge ourselves in here, and the staff was kind enough to let us in to meet you."
I could sense a hint of guilt in Rei's confession due to the shifting of the tone of her voice and the awkward yet meek expression on her face.
I don't want Rei to feel guilty much longer nor do I want to hinder the café's business in its busy hours so I decided to get up on my feet and leave.
"Alright!"
I responded and drank my cold cup of mocha in one go.
After that, I folded my laptop and picked it up.
Then I stood up from my chair, grab the handle of my luggage and walk towards the exit with Rei.
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