"What do you mean?" Charlie frowned.
"What do I mean?" Cater smiled
'I just made it up is what I meant.'
But Carter didn't say it. He drank the tea.
"I will contact our friend, Zeneros, for you and say that you want to become his Invokers. I will introduce you. But whether or not you can become his allies. That will be on you." Carter said.
"Wait! You just said something about people that don't want to save this world! What do you mean?!" Piper stood up.
"All will be revealed… in time. You're too weak to know the truth." Carter also stood up, "Prepare the guest rooms for them, Kaito. If you find things a little bit hard to manage, you can hire some maids."
"As you wish, Mr. Caine." Kaito bowed respectfully.
Carter nodded and went away.
"He's a weird guy, huh?" Charlie the Invoker said.
"So who's staying?" Piper said.
All of the Invokers that saw the Eldritch Knight stayed. Some that heard about him left, they didn't believe about a man that powerful. In this world, only Invokers were humanity's only hope. Charlie also left.
But there were a few that believed in a miracle. They stayed so that they could see the face of this legendary warrior.
At the same time, the richest man in Hexilia was holding a press conference.
He sat down, adjusted his suit a little bit and looked directly at the camera.
"Hello, everyone. My name is Bart Wells. You may know me through my Ossie Corporation. I am here to give a warning to anyone."
"What is that?" Bill nudged Arthur at the television.
Bill still had his golf club from last night. Their group was staying in a pub inside the city.
"Huh?" Arthur raised an eyebrow.
The television was showing the press conference. It was being broadcasted to the entire world at the moment.
"Recently. There have been some bad actors claiming they have a different solution to our Terror Pandemic.
It was no different from those 'Fairies' in the last decade."
Bart made an air quote.
"There was a man with the name Carter Caine. He and a few snake oil salesmen have been poisoning the Invokers with what they called Eldritch Knights. A race of legendary warriors that could take the Terror head on.
I am here to tell you all that there is no such thing as an Eldritch Knight. It is a fabrication of those that want to destroy our world!"
Arthur frowned. He immediately stood up.
Bill and the other members of the group also stood up.
"Bart Wells? Isn't he the richest man in the world? He did all those charities and shit, right?" Bill said.
"That's right. But why did he say that? Eldritch Knight is real. We were just saved by Zeneros last night." Another said.
Arthur turned to him and covered his mouth, "Shhh! This is bigger than we can imagine. Do not go around telling people you met Zen!"
"But we can't let him get away with that!" Another whispered.
"Don't worry. I have a solution for that." Arthur said.
The Invokers staying in Carter's house were also watching the press conference.
"Why did he do that?" Piper frowned. "Didn't he want to create an Invoker Organization to save the world?"
"Well. Either he truly believes that the Eldritch Knight is fake. Or… He has other motives."
The room fell into silence. Most of them had seen the real Eldritch Knight so they knew the truth. This made them think back about what Carter Caine said.
'There are people that don't want to save the world…' His voice echoed in their head.
"We might be much more ignorant than we think we are." Piper mumbled.
After the press conference, a video was immediately leaked on the Internet.
'ELDRITCH KNIGHT IS REAL! FOOTAGE OF ELDRITCH KNIGHT BATTLED A TERROR! 100% NOT FAKE'.
It was quickly spread all over social media and internet forums. People were shocked. Some were skeptical. A few questioned what Bart's real motive was.
Special effects weren't invented in Hexilia. They didn't have the time or luxury to invent film. With only 8 hours of sunlight every day, the best they could do was to survive.
So when they saw the video, they instantly believed its content. The skeptics, however, weren't worried about the legitimacy of the video. Rather, they were worried about the legitimacy of an Eldritch Knight.
Whether or not he was humanity's ally was a question.
The comment section was Chaos.
"Holy Mother of God! So the Eldritch Knight is real?! Those legends about warriors that could kill Terror were real!"
"He looks so handsome (heart emoji)!"
"Is this some sort of government experiment?"
"ALIEN! ALIEN I TELL YA. THEY'RE COMING TO REPLACE US!"
And many more. However, the original poster did leave an explanation.
"The Eldritch Knight is real. They are a noble line of warriors that endures terrible hardships to protect us. Many died before they could become a Knight. Many Knights died protecting us from the Terrors.
I don't know why Bart Wells had to refuse the existence of the Eldritch Knight. And I am not here to tell you what to think. But BEWARE. A liar cannot be trusted."
The one who leaked the video and left the explanation was, of course, Arthur.
"There. That should shed some light to this." Arthur took a sip of coffee.
At the time, Nina and Quill also heard about the conference.
"Carter Caine? He knows the Eldritch Knight?" Quill was watching the conference on his laptop.
"Seems to be so. Let's give him a visit. He might help us find that knight." Nina said.
"Yup. And I need to ask him where the hell is the Ghost. How can I pass the test if I can even find him?!"
Nina and Quill found their way to Carter's old building right before sunset.
"This is bad, Nina. The sun is going down." Quill said.
"Relax, Quill. We can ask to stay in this Carter Caine's house. If he won't, we will just find some abandoned house to stay in."
Nina knocked on the door. Kaito appeared.
"You are?" Kaito said.
"Hello. We're here to see Mr. Caine." Nina said.
"May I ask what for?" Kaito said.
"We're friends. Ugh, no actually... We're friends of a friend of his." Quill struggled to explain the situation.
Kaito found them extremely suspicious and was about to close the door on them.
Nina stopped him, "Wait! Just go tell Mr. Caine that we know Zeneros."