“This person is…? Can she be…?” Lakshman whispered to himself, staring down at the girl’s photo with shock and disbelief on his face.

“Who is it? Clearly, it’s someone you know, am I right?” Stuart asked curiously as he looked down at the girl’s photo and then turned to look at his friend’s facial expression. “That face definitely says it does.”

Lakshman did not respond immediately as he did not hear what his friend had to say. At that time, he was immersed in the photo of the girl which he saw that completely startled him. She was clearly someone he did not expect to see nor recognise judging by his reaction of shock filled disbelief. However, as he continued to look down at her, he knew it had to be the person whom he knew of from the past and could only be her from the appearance alone.

There was a few seconds of pause before Asura asked, “Don’t tell me you got so smitten by her or something stupid?”

This completely distracted Lakshman, who redirected his thoughts to Asura and thought, “Hey! I am not smitten by her or anything!”

“In that case, you clearly know who she is, so why the heck are you still so taken aback?”

“How can I not be? It’s been over, let’s see, 12 years since I last saw of her so it took a bit longer to recognise her. That’s all,” replied Lakshman in his defence.

“Perhaps but she was an important friend of yours, wasn’t she?”

To that, Lakshman shook his head and thought, “Not just mine. She’s also a very close friend of one of my wives even before we befriended each other.”

At that moment, he was brought out of his thoughts when Stuart exclaimed, “Hey! Stop ignoring me!”

“Huh? What?” His friend asked, reacting in surprise and looking at him with bewilderment on his face. “What’s the matter, Stuart?”

“The matter is her!” Stuart said, jabbing a thumb at the girl’s photo while looking annoyed. “I’ve been trying to get your attention and yet you just ignore me and remain in your thoughts!”

“Oh. Sorry. I was just in deep thought,” replied Lakshman with a smile in realisation.

“So! Who is she then? The suspense is going to kill me!”

Lakshman blinked twice at his childhood friend’s remark and replied, “But you’re already dead.”

This stumped Stuart for a moment as he looked exasperatedly at his friend before asking, “I didn’t mean it in the literal manner! Geez! Get the intended meaning.”

“Yeah, well, when a dead person uses it like that, the other people will not even be sure what to say. Heck. They might as well think you’re an idiot or something along those lines,” said Lakshman, and he smiled cheekily at him.

It was Stuart’s turn to blink in surprise by his friend’s tact before admitting, “I can’t believe I would live to see you fire such a cheeky retort back at me. Ah…! How the pure, innocent and cute Lucky had grown.”

“Again, you’re dead. Let’s be clear on that,” said Lakshman flatly.

“Stop taking it in the literal sense! It hurts… even if I don’t show it,” replied Stuart, looking a little hurt.

Suddenly regretting what he said to him, Lakshman apologised to him and said, “Sorry about that, Stuart. I didn’t mean to bring it up or anything.”

“Ah. It’s fine. I know what you’re like and that part of you never changed after all these years,” replied Stuart with a smile, and the two smiled at one another happily. “So, who is this girl anyway? Mind if I know?”

“She’s someone I met by chance twelve-years-ago when I was studying at Astral Academy and became good friends with one another although, sadly, we had to part because of the circumstances. That’s why I recognise this girl since she looks exactly like the friend I knew from back then.”

“Oh okay,” said Stuart, and he waited for his friend to continue. When he did not appear to, Stuart became uncertain and asked, “What? That’s it? Nothing about her name, history, background or the like?”

“Is there a need for it when she and this person could be different people?”

“Perhaps not but… you seem to be keeping me in the dark regarding her,” remarked Stuart curiously.

To that, Lakshman smiled and stated, “You’re not the only one I’m keeping in the dark,” which puzzled his friend. “Anyway, I should look through all of her information the Phintex Raja acquired before proceeding.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” agreed Stuart, and they began looking through her background information and history.

It took them nearly an hour to go through all the information before finally relaxing while letting out sighs of relief.

“Wow! Now that’s one heck of a background she’s got behind her!” Stuart remarked as he floated away to appear as though he was lying on the bed

“Yes. This is most unexpected,” agreed Lakshman while looking down at her front page where they returned to.

Name: Lina Pricemark

Age: 13

Force (s): Magic

Education: Enrolled as Astral Academy student, first year

Status: Second daughter of Baron Rudius Pricemark

Background: Her father, Baron Rudius has three children who are all girls, with Lina being his second daughter. Their barony was a small one that existed on the edge of the south-east corner of Floria Kingdom and are facing financial turmoil due to their people mainly being farmers. Even the baron himself goes out to work with the rest of the farmers from time to time as the financial profit they gain was low.

History: The elder sibling also attended Astral Academy as Baron Rudius hoped that she could help improve their barony’s financial struggle. Unfortunately, she chose to pursue her own ambitions of wanting to get out of that struggle and managed to find love with a Viscount’s son that was her classmate at the academy. While she married the Viscount’s son, Lina and her younger sibling’s situation worsened as the family had put together what money they were able to get the elder sibling educated at Astral Academy. This left the two remaining children to have only one choice: to be married off to someone of similar or lower rank due to their low standings in the aristocratic world. But the second daughter, Lina, objected to this and promised that she will get enrolled at Astral Academy by getting top marks in the annual entrance exam for the academy. As she earned the marks she promised, she was allowed to enter and became the youngest to enrol at Astral Academy. However, it was under the condition that she scores highest in the final exams of year one to prove herself otherwise she was to return home and marry a candidate selected by her parents.

“Man, this is one heck of an info dump your Phintex Raja acquired!” Stuart praised with a wry smile.

“Yes. They are very thorough in anything that they do,” agreed Lakshman with a satisfied smile.

“Hmph!” Asura said inside of his head gloatingly with pride. “Who do you think that transformed the once Assassins Clan into the now renowned Phintex Rajas? Of course, they’d be damn good at their job! I expected no less from my subjects!”

“Spoken like a true dictator,” replied Lakshman in his mind.

“What can I say? Difficult times called for harsh measures and… well… the results speak for themselves.”

“You’re right but… all their strengths and achievements… at the cost of their individual personality?”

“Not everyone can be wealthy, can be healthy, and can be heroic. Everyone has a role they must play in this large world where things change daily and the same applies for the Phintex Rajas; they must accomplish their given role and to do that, they train very hard from the beginning and remain at the top of their league. Which is why, to this day, the Phoenix Clan have such immeasurable presence around the world compared to the other clans, including the Dragon Clan. The reason you know why I take it?”

Lakshman nodded as he remembered vividly of the day in the ancient times. It was right after they had gone on an expedition to slaughter the clan that had ordered the assassination of the Phoenix Clan’s head, which resulted in the death of Asura’s mother and father. With the expedition successful, they returned to the clan with pride but everyone else that had remained behind were scared for their lives.

While Asura went off to sit near the pavilion, everyone began arguing with one another about what to do, where they should go, and how they should survive. They did, after all, take out one of the prominent clans in an underhanded method in the same manner their enemy clan had done to Asura’s family. This made them the prime target for all other clans around to view them as a threat and take them out.

Seeing them worried, scared, and acting like cowards angered Asura and his anger worked itself into a rage, and he finally snapped at them and gave a powerful speech that inspired all of them to take to arms and fight back against the oppression.

“Why are you scared?! What is there to be scared of?! I’ll tell you! What you’re scared of… is yourself! You’re scared of what will become of you when things change! When the natural balance gets upsets, but you know what?! Screw the balance! What is most important right now, the most important matter we should focus on… is not the present! It’s the future! Our children will live in it, our grandchildren will live in it, and so will for however long our families will live but for that future to come, we cannot escape forever! We must stand and fight back because we’re not fighting a lost cause; we’re fighting for the future of our next generation and even if it means we throw our lives away into the wind, I don’t care so long as they get to live in it! I’m not going to let the mistakes of my forefathers weigh me down! I will make a change! I will make a difference! I will charge forth into this conflict and rise up and make a world where the younger generations can live in peace! I swear this on my name, Asura Rangavardan, the leader of the Phoenix Clan! Follow me! Those that want that peace! Rally behind me so that the next generations will not suffer like we did today!”

That powerful speech was followed by loud claps from everyone around as well as roars and cheers as they all surged with hope. It was not a misplaced hope and thinking back to then, Lakshman could only smile at how that changed their entire future forever.

“That day changed all of our futures completely,” thought Lakshman, and Asura only grunted in agreement. Then he looked down at the profile picture of the girl and thought for a moment about what to do next after knowing a brief detail about her past.

“So, what will you do about her now that you all of this?” Stuart asked, putting Lucky's thoughts into words while gesturing at the profile document of Lina Pricemark.

It only took Lakshman a moment after hearing the question spoken aloud for him to have a clear goal in mind. So, he turned to look at his childhood friend and smiled sweetly as he asked him a curious question.

“Knowing me like you do, what do you think I will do given her circumstances and my history with her?”

Stuart looked at him with a raised eyebrow and said, “Well, you have no history with this person except for the fact that she looks like someone you knew from years ago. However, taking into consideration of her difficult situation and your own personality, at a guess… I’d say you will help her. Isn’t that right?”

He spoke very confidently and firmly because he knew too well what his childhood friend was like. Even then, he would stick his nose into other people’s businesses and do his best to help others of his own volition despite it getting him in trouble in the end. Despite his current position, Stuart was sure that that part of him, of always smiling and being ready to help others, had not changed since childhood.

Lakshman looked at the ghost of his childhood friend, and his smile widened as he gave a simple response of, “No.”