Lyon approached the bar slowly, careful not to stir trouble. He ignored the group of Shinras harassing the bar attendant and quietly took a seat beside the counter.
"Excuse me," Lyon said calmly, "Could I get a bottle of one of your drinks?"
The bar attendant glanced nervously between Lyon and the Shinras. "Uhh… hold on a second, sir. I'll attend to you soon."
"You ignoring us now?" one of the Shinras growled, gripping the attendant by the collar. "How dare a lowly bartender disrespect a Shinra like me?"
"I'm sorry! I… I need to make more money from customers to pay the guidance fee," the bar attendant stammered, trembling in fear.
Lyon sat quietly, watching the situation unfold with growing discomfort. So this is what this kingdom has become? Shinras extorting citizens under the guise of protection? He sighed inwardly. I should just stay out of it…
He stood up, deciding to leave before things escalated.
But he didn't make it to the door.
"Hey, you!" barked the Shinra still holding the attendant. "You don't look like you're from around here. Probably a foreigner. Sit down and wait for my permission before leaving this place."
Laughter erupted from the others.
Lyon kept walking, completely ignoring them.
"You deaf, moron? I'm talking to you!"
The Shinra flung the bar attendant to the ground and stormed toward Lyon, attempting to grab his shoulder.
But he never made contact.
A sudden pulse of raw, monstrous aura exploded from Lyon. The force shattered every glass in the bar — windows and bottles— and launched the aggressive Shinra through the window, crashing into the street outside.
The entire bar froze. Customers dropped to the floor, shielding themselves from flying debris. Even the remaining Shinras stood stunned, unable to move.
Without another word, Lyon reached into his storage ring and threw a sack of gold coins onto the bar counter.
"Ten thousand gold. Use it to deal with these scums… and fix your bar," he said, walking out into the night air.
As he exhaled deeply outside, he muttered to himself, "I really didn't want to cause a scene. That aura release might attract attention. It's getting dark. We'll have to wait through the night in case they move again."
A thought struck him. "We"? Wait… where's Sasaki?!
He grabbed his head in panic. "Ahhhh! Don't tell me I lost him—again!"
A familiar voice answered behind him.
"Partner?"
Lyon turned, relief washing over his face. "Sasaki—thank goodness. I thought I lost you."
"You didn't find me. I found you," Sasaki replied coolly. "The moment I felt your Renshical aura burst, I knew something was up."
"Pfft, come on, partner. There's no way I'd be in trouble," Lyon said, grinning.
"Wait—did you just call me Sasaki? Is that a new nickname?"
Oh crap… Lyon thought. I knew I couldn't keep the Exca act going forever.
"Huh? Uh, yeah. I thought it up after we got separated. Just something casual, but don't get used to it. You're Exca. Always have been, always will be."
Please let that work…
Sasaki smiled. "I like the nickname, though I still prefer Exca. So, what's the plan now, partner?"
Thank goodness that worked, Lyon sighed inwardly.
"Here's the deal," he began. "If the kid and the woman are planning to travel tonight, we won't be able to catch them if we wait till morning. The Kingdom of Berserker is three kingdoms away. I've only been there once in my youth, and trust me—it's not somewhere we want to chase someone blindly into."
"So?" Sasaki asked.
"We wait. At the border between Sunflower and Eminence. If they move, we intercept."
"Sounds solid. I'm in," Sasaki nodded.
"Alright, let's move."
As they walked toward the nearest town, Sasaki raised a question.
"Hey partner, how do we plan to find the border exactly?"
"We're close to the first town. Might take a few hours on foot, but we'll be there before midnight," Lyon replied.
Sasaki frowned. "That's a waste of time. We should use a teleportation spell. ' will get us there faster."
"I know, Exca. But if we use powerful spells now, the upper Shinras will detect us. I just released a serious aura in that bar — we're already on thin ice. We can't afford more attention."
"Hmm... I see," Sasaki said thoughtfully. "Still, we can't waste too much time,we should try moving faster with switch mode, there's no way we're drawing attention with that ."
Lyon sighed. I thought this strategy would work, but Sasaki's loyalty to Exca runs deeper than anything…