“The essence of friendship is choosing what not to do''. - Milano Vortissimo

“So, would you three wish to be my friends?”.

“I, hm.” replied the half-elf recipient of said message, of whom was getting more confused by the second.

“Of course, I’m up for a challenge any… huh?” The elf next to him seemed even more confused.

Wouldn’t someone normally ask for a rematch in this situation?

Following the period after the conflict, Lucius and co had been left to their own doings, with the former being told to meet up with Tommy during the serving time of dinner.

What he had come to expect of the meeting that would follow would be Tommy expressing his regrets and condolences, before coercing him into guilt and hence extracting a favor or two of which he would use in the future. Not, whatever this was.

“I have accepted my faults and mistakes and I admit to having overreacted by attempting to kill the both of you.” replied Tommy, with a considerable amount of resignation.

“Oh, you definitely should Lucius!” suggested Morgana, who had seated herself next to Lucius, also receiving the message.

Meanwhile, Harux, who was on his third sirloin of the night, nodded enthusiastically. Afterall, he had heard that friends sparred with one another all the time.

“Well, I don’t see why not,” Lucius answered at last.

“I see” replied Tommy “That is good.”

“Yes, yes it is.”

Unable to properly format his words, Lucius admitted to the struggle of the discussion in hand, while the art of parley as a whole was not one that proved to be detrimental to his success, he was not by all means formidable in all forms of it. Viz. ones that involved angst-filled awkward teenagers.

The worst part about it was the sheer honesty that was on display, I mean, how is one supposed to react if an individual, out of nowhere ran up to you, and just wanted to be friends? From what he remembered, it was a natural process, one made possible by the insertion of quirks or bits of dialogue here and there, ultimately revealing parts of an individual's personality before the two established friendly terms based on the mutual consensus that they were compatible. And as far as he was concerned, the only bits of his personality he had seen so far involved either Tommy trying to kill him, or befitting a patient in a psychiatric ward.

Morgana still giving eager nods in the background, Lucius made a vague grimace at the idea at hand, with a glance in her direction he looked for some semblance of assistance, his partner, though still ardent on the blossoming of a new companionship between the lot, made no attempt at such.

It seemed that Lucius’s only choice was to become his friend.

I mean, how bad could it be right?

Dinner soon passing after, Lucius made a gesture to Morgana, the duo promptly excusing themselves soon after.

Lucius gave a frustrated sigh as he looked at Morgana.

“What just happened? Honestly, I’m at a loss for words, is everyone here this… peculiar?”

On the last straws of his sanity, Morgana smiled.

“Don’t worry about it Lucius! You know, they say the best friends are the ones you don’t expect!”

Lucius frowned, though his body relaxed somewhat at the words offered to him.

Opening his mouth, Morgana held a finger against his lips to stop him.

“Plus, I did some research on Tommy, and from what I’ve seen, I doubt that he’s gonna be causing some more trouble in the future.”

“I see.” Knowing what her words insinuated, his heart, at last was at some form of peace, there was a reason why every meeting he had over the last few years had never resulted in disaster. As the old saying goes, the best way to keep yourself out of danger is not to be there, though with a few alterations, the opposition was the one removed in this case.

“Greetings Lucius, my apologies, but I have made myself quite comfortable in your place.”

How was it that in the span of a single day, that Tommy went from trying to kill him, to reluctantly becoming friends with him, and to now having to share the same room.

With the rate things were progressing he wouldn’t have been surprised if Tommy would propose to him, he sincerely hoped that this was not the case. A quaint silence having fallen over the place, Lucius couldn’t help but try to shake off the fact that had he been a couple minutes earlier, that he might have not had to intrude upon such.

Most of the time, it was people that went to him, not vice versa! Harux of course, having already been seated in the room, shared seemingly no opinion on the matter at hand as his hands were busy sharpening and polishing his dulled dagger.

Oh, why couldn’t Harux be the territorial sort of primate? Lucius mourned, his affront a forced smile, he began to make his way towards the shower, hoping the cleansing of his body would decontaminate his mind.

What a misfortune, if only he had been in his skyrise apartment in his home-city of Alpha One, with a glass of champagne at his side, it would’ve have been a matter of a click of his fingers, and, voila, any problem would have been wiped off the face of the world, whether by combat butler, robo-violence, or private police with the innate urge to gun down any degenerate in their sight.

Then again, it was the same butler that would defend him, who asked him to be here in the first place. By the name of Guillaume, he in truth, was by no means a simple manservant, Lucius would never stoop to the level where he would let one of those command him around.

He just so happened to be for the better half of his later years, be his father and mentor figure, in both the art of combat and paralogy amongst other things, and spewing wisdom like one would spit, he had by one occasion proposed the boy to join this school, claiming that the headmaster was an ‘old friend of his’.

Now in the stages of applying his deep conditioner infused with premium pupui nut oil, his mind drifted into the circumstances that had led the others to this place, but without any information on their backgrounds, was in quite the pickle.

The truth was, all of this magic and combat and whatever was quite new to him as a concept, like water and oil, the world that he had previously found himself in was not one that crossed with the other, so while goons with guns and sociopaths with millionaire statuses wasn’t anything avant-garde, wizards and sword-wielding knights were certainly foreign to him.

Ironic, considering his own skills were none other than the zenith of the intertwinement of the two worlds, then again, with all of it having been done for his safety, how could he blame the insistence of Guillaume? On the last strands of hair that had yet to be purified, he concomitantly cursed his equal misfortune and fortune.

So be it then, if he was finally blessed with the chance to explore his powers to his full potential, then he would do so, with some added class of course, and the exclusion of some trite traits like asking everyone to duel shtick of course, he was better than that.

That was why, when Lucius walked out of the shower, that he was with some degree of swagger, and now no longer uncomfortable with the presence of Tommy, casually breezed through a book on nuclear physics, as one would.