Divine Mysteries

As soon as Lucian leaves his home, he is excited about the possibility of visiting Porto Rico.

“In the short memories I have of Lucian Berfort before I arrived here, the city is divided between Porto Velho, Porto Ferro and Porto Rico, with Porto Velho being a place of poverty and miserable people, while Porto Rico is a place of nobility and one who usually has a lot of money or power in the city to live there. If the old Lucian were here, he'd probably have an even bigger reaction than me, after all, I only moved to this other world three days ago...” thought Lucian as he walked along the smooth stone streets, several people walking on the sidewalks, and several horse-drawn carriages passing by.

After 10 minutes of walking, Lucian arrived at an interesting place: a circus! There was a clown entertaining children by throwing wooden clubs into the air and catching them. There was a man wearing a black tuxedo, black tie and pants, brown shoes and a big top hat on his head. He was doing card tricks for the audience watching him. He took 3 cards, then closed them, making a deck of only 3 cards, he turned them sideways showing the audience how many cards were in the deck, totaling three, then he turned the back of the red card to the audience, and when he opened the cards they multiplied, being 6 now, then he closed again and again multiplied, now 12, and so on.

It was an interesting trick, but how does he do it? Forget it... I have to go to Puerto Rico. He walks further and sees several other attractions, but suddenly something catches his eye. -Come on! Come on! Tarot divinations! Come and find out more about your future!” he hears a hoarse, old voice coming from a relatively large violet tent.

Lucian noticed a woman wrapped in a long black cloak, only her face showing, it was very wrinkled and slightly frightening, she had two teeth missing.

When he was Leonard on earth, Lucian was very interested in these things, but he never did much research, he just liked to believe.

He decided to give it a go, so he approached the purple hut with yellow details, and said: “Good morning Madam, how much does your divination cost?” he asked politely, with a smile on his face.

The lady smiles too, showing her yellowed teeth and the fact that two of them are missing, and then says - It costs 1 silver, sir.

He pulls 1 silver out of his pocket and gives it to the woman. After she puts the money in her pocket, she opens the violet hut a little wider, allowing Lucian to enter.

As he enters, he notices that the place is very dark, lit only by the light of a white candle on a wooden table in the center of the room. Above the table is a Tarot deck with a gold back, and on either side of the table is a black cushion for the two of them to sit on.

The two sit down and the woman picks up the deck - Well, what's your name, young man?

- My name is Lucian Berfort.

-All right, Mr. Berfort, take this deck and shuffle it as well as you like- She hands over the deck with its back turned upwards, and Lucian begins to shuffle. He shuffles slowly, he's not that good, besides he doesn't want to damage the old lady's deck.

When he's finished shuffling, he hands it back to the old lady, who says - Well, now that you've shuffled, now that you've touched the deck and now we can guess your future...

She then spreads out the 22 Major Arcana cards on the table, all with their backs facing upwards, the backs of the 22 cards are gold and flashy.

The woman smiles and says: “Pick a card from the deck, kid... Depending on which card you draw, it will have a different meaning. You'll draw three, but let's draw one at a time.” Lucian does as the woman says, then points to the last card on the right.

She then takes the card and smiles, then shows Lucian the face of the card, and he is shown a drawing of a court jester, with a dog running after him. Underneath the card was a small white table with something written on it: “0, The Fool”.

The old woman then says - The Fool... he means the start of a new journey, the start of something new for you... take another one - She places the Tarot card on the table in front of her and again waits for Lucian to take another card.

Lucian then points to the card to the left of the one in the center.

She takes the card and again smiles strangely, turning the card over so Lucian can see her face. It was a card with a drawing of a woman wearing a long blue cloak and a reddish dress underneath, a priestess's outfit. She holds a book in her hands and below the picture is a blank table with a sentence saying “2, The Priestess”.

The old woman then says - The Priestess... the card represents mystery, reflection, and the hidden knowledge of you or of something... take another young woman... - She places the card in front of herself again.

Lucian then points to another one on the cards that are spread out in a straight line in front of him, and so, the woman as before picks up the card and looks at it, smiles again, and then turns the face of the card so that Lucian can see the image on the card. It is the image of a man tied upside down by one of his feet, he is tied to a structure. Despite the uncomfortable situation, he has a calm face. Below, a white table with something written on it, “12, The Hanged Man”.

The woman then says - The Hanged Man... often talks about the need to look at a situation from a new perspective in order to find solutions or better understand what is happening. What's more, it's a card about acceptance and surrender. In other words, in certain situations, it's better to accept what can't be changed and move on.” The woman says as she places the Hanged Man card next to The Madman and The Priestess. She slides the three cards towards Lucian... This is your divination, young man... Well, thank you for coming to find out about yourself with me... come again if you wish- She begins to organize all the cards again.

Lucian soon gets up too and walks out of the hut, and as he walks slowly he begins to think: “The Fool card could mean the question of my transmigration... A new journey. The Priestess's and the Hanged Man's I can't tell yet what they might mean... well, if her divination really worked, then fate will show me the meaning of these two cards sooner or later...” He then takes out his pocket watch and looks at the time... 8:47!!

“I'm really late for the street circus! Damn it, I've got to run!” He then starts running towards the pass between Puerto Ferro and Puerto Rico.

When he finally reaches the passage, he notices a river that runs between Porto Ferro and Porto Rico, it divides them, and has a bridge made of white polished stone and details made of pure gold on the ends.

Lucian then notices how little traffic there is compared to the others he's been to before, so he walks onto the bridge.

He arrives in front of two guards who are frowning at him. They are wearing military clothes, a blue jacket with black details, they have red armbands with stars on them, both of them have 3 stars.

The armband and the stars signify the “rank” of the policeman, the simplest being white, then red, and finally black, the stars start at 1 and go up to five... these two are average.

One of the guards then said: “Good morning, sir, what can I do for you?” His voice was thick and slightly intimidating.

Lucian then says - I came here because I'm going to pay a visit to a friend...

The policemen look at each other, and they look like they're probably just going to kick his ass and go back to their normal work.

Lucian then remembers a specific phrase from his captain, Trung. “We of the Night Breeze are a secret organization linked to the police.” He quickly remembers the brooch he was carrying in his pocket, and already knows how to get permission to cross into Puerto Rico.

He takes the pin and points it out to the two guards.

They both straighten up and say - Right... welcome to Puerto Rico.

They make their way towards a relatively large door made of dew wood. It's big enough for a carriage to pass through.

Lucian smiles, “That brooch is really useful, heh heh.” he says internally.

The guards then open the wooden doors for Lucian, and a vision passes through his eyes, a city completely different from Puerto Rico, different from the worn-out buildings and houses, there everything was so beautiful and well done, the houses and buildings were either very light in color or more of a gray, the streets were made of very well polished stones, almost no holes, or depending on none!

There were also a lot of people and carriages passing by, but the people wore formal and beautiful clothes, well groomed.

Lucian soon felt ashamed, since in front of all these people, he was the only one wearing clothes that showed signs of seam repair. Where the signs were almost obvious was because his older sister, Mary, couldn't afford to buy a lot of cloth or sewing thread, so she repaired it with cloth and thread in different colors than ordinary clothes, making it look a bit flashy, but not as flashy as the brightly colored clothes worn by the people of Puerto Rico.

So first he looked for a map to see if he could find the street to Ruby's house, and luckily he found a wooden plaque with a map of the whole of Puerto Rico. He then starts looking for Nurston Street No. 15. He finally finds it, memorizes the way, and then walks back to Ruby's house.

When he arrived, he was impressed: the house had a beautiful, bright green garden with lots of flowers, especially the beautiful reddish roses. It had a beautiful house with white as the main color, a wooden door, a balcony below and one above, both with black railings in each corner.

Lucian then shouted- Ruby? Are you there?!” His voice echoed in the street, and the few people passing by looked at him with disdain.

Ruby soon comes out of her house through the wooden door and says in a serious voice as she stands in front of him- You shouldn't shout like that... you're disturbing the neighbors.

-Oh... I'm sorry - Lucian feels embarrassed again.

Ruby then makes way for him to enter, and so Lucian enters Ruby's house. He walks slowly through the garden, appreciating the flowers and the beautiful grass, apparently Ruby took very good care of this part.

The two of them enter the house, and just like outside, it was lush, a spacious enough kitchen, well-aligned and flawless wooden floors, a living room with a red sofa without any holes and two armchairs of the same color. A rectangular wooden table in front of the sofa with a newspaper on it, then a bookcase with several books.

Ruby then says - Okay, training will be in the back garden... there's no way anyone can see us training from there.

Lucian is even more surprised “Another garden?! What kind of house is this?” The houses in Porto Ferro barely had a single garden, now imagine two! This is a dream for the people of Porto Ferro.

She leads Lucian into the second garden, and unlike the front garden, this one had less grass, and a circular beige stone floor, resembling an arena, and on the side, around the arena, a beautiful lawn.

Ruby then begins her training, she first teaches him the basics, fighting stances, defending himself, striking with his hands and feet, evading grabs, dodging and so on.

Lucian takes a while to learn, but from 9 to 12 hours, he has learned well, he has at least become someone who can fight someone, even if it's sloppy or bad, he has a chance of winning.

The two of them took a break for tea and some cookies, it was little food, but it energized him a little. Then they went back to training, he swung his fists, bent his back and lifted his leg, kicking it in the air. He was getting more used to the movements, he learned relatively quickly, but he still needed a lot more training than that, he's just a beginner.

After a while, Lucian, who had taken off his long coat and was left in just a dress shirt, without his tie, said, drying the sweat from his forehead with a white towel - So, Ruby... we're practicing hand-to-hand combat, but I've chosen a revolver as my weapon...

-Lucian, imagine you're fighting someone, and then they disarm you of your firearm, what are you going to do? Are you just going to take your eyes off your attacker and try to take the gun back? or are you going to try to fight them head-on and when you find a gap, take your firearm and you'll have a better chance of winning the fight?

Lucian reflects and says - I see... Right - He throws the towel on top of a black railing on the balcony that leads to the garden.

Ruby then says - Come...

-Come...? To what?

Ruby smiles- Well, for your first hand-to-hand fight...- She arranges herself in a position where she is covering her abdomen with her right fist, and the other fist is a little further away from her waist.

Lucian is taken aback by Ruby's suggestion, he knows very well that his chances are slim, but... why not try?

He then makes a position similar to Ruby's, only more awkward, where his right hand covering his abdomen is a little lower, and his left hand is a little further back from his waist.

Ruby soon starts, she takes two long strides and turning her waist and bringing her fist back, throws a punch towards Lucian.

Lucian, with a last-minute reflex, dodges Ruby's fist, which was about to hit him in the face. He takes two steps to the left, crouches down and spins around.

Ruby jumps up in time and swiftly raises her right leg and lands a heel kick to the back of Lucian's head. Lucian feels slightly dizzy and ends up spitting out some of his saliva, but he soon gets back on his feet and, still crouching, makes a quick retreat and stands up, returning to his original position.

“In terms of skill, she's much better... my chances are too slim for me to beat her... can I really?” Before he can finish his thoughts, he notices a left kick coming at his head, he raises his right arm and defends against the blow, then grabs her leg.

As he grabs Ruby's leg, Lucian spins around and manages to knock her to the ground, but she rolls twice and gets up, returning to her original position.

She advances and unleashes a sequence of three punches, which Lucian manages to parry the first and the others he luckily deflects. He is at a huge disadvantage.

They start exchanging blows with each other, kicking, punching, deflecting, defending.

Between the two of them, Lucian ended up taking the most blows, Ruby being hit at least three times.

Ruby then staggers backwards, and quickly shoots towards Lucian, who is taken completely by surprise “That's fast!”.

He brings both fists up to defend the blow to his stomach, and manages to cushion the blow, but is still thrown back a little, and narrowly misses falling to the ground.

He sighs and decides to go all out “If I don't go all out, I probably won't beat someone with experience like her!” he says internally.

He then takes two steps and raises his right leg and throws a heel kick, which Ruby dodges by crouching down.

He sets his foot on the ground and notices Ruby going for a right hook, but he deflects it by stepping back slightly.

He then takes advantage of the gap and moves to Ruby's right, grabs her head and lands a knee to her head.

Ruby's nose bleeds a little and she wipes it with her finger- You're much better than I expected, congratulations- She says with a slight smile.

Lucian then feels proud, he's finally proved himself! He had never received a compliment on his strength in his past life!

His thoughts are soon interrupted by a punch to the face, which knocks him off balance and onto the ground. His nose starts oozing reddish liquid, but he doesn't have time to worry about wiping his nose, because Ruby is already trying to punch him while he's on the ground.

He starts spinning on the ground, dodging Ruby's blows. After three blows, he centers one of his feet on the ground and manages to get up, wipes his bleeding nose and then moves on. A direct punch to Ruby's abdomen, she raises her open fist to hold Lucian's punch, but is surprised by a deceptive blow from Lucian, in fact he faked a punch, but stopped in the middle and then a common left kick knocked her down.

Before she could fall, she grabbed Lucian's arm and knocked him to the ground.

The two of them are enveloped in dust as they both fall hard on the beige stone. Ruby lets go of his arm and remains lying on the ground, she sighs and says - Well done...

Lucian soon feels his nose bleed again from Ruby's punch, and Ruby also feels her nose bleed from Lucian's knee. They both get up and Ruby takes two white towels, hands one of them to Lucian and presses it against her own nose.

Ruby sighs and says - Well done Lucian... you've really learned a lot faster than I expected, but you're still a beginner, I am too, I'm still learning...

“Wow, she's still learning too...” Lucian thinks and his thoughts are broken by Ruby's voice saying -My congratulations, you'll be a great companion for us in the Night Breeze, I'll report to Trung on your progress and I want you to visit our base tomorrow, Trung will give you some information... well, you can go home- She says as she removes the white cloth slightly stained with red from her nose.

Lucian immediately thinks “I... got the recognition of a person from Night Breeze... I... won't be a burden to the people there!”

Lucian then says - After all, how do missions work?” he says with doubt in his eyes.

Ruby says - You can't do very serious missions yet, just simple ones, you don't have a Core yet... but sooner or later you'll get your first Core. I got mine a little while ago, it's a Weapon type, it's a throwing knife that can also be used as a regular knife to attack at close range, the more I spin it the more electrical energy it carries in its blade, and when I throw it or use it to attack at close range... Zap! I unleash a shock blow against the enemy!” she said excitedly.

Ruby then says with a smile on her face, it's one of the first times he's seen her smile since he met her a day ago. She then says - I'm excited to see the Core you'll get and the missions you and I will have to take part in, you're skilled, I hope to have missions by your side... again I say to you, welcome to the Night Breezes, Lucian Berfort.

To be continued...