Starbound: A Space Odyssey 179 Fujiwara Rei 2

Of course she knew he had survived before even meeting him in person, but seeing him okay lifted her mood.

She was worried since she lost communication with a lot of people after the incident on Earth.

Her friends such as Cael, Zyanya and Liese were all missing and presumably dead.

Some other people she knew were among the lucky ones to survive, and to her relief, John was one of them.

"So, John..." Rei cleared his throat and began, "On behalf of Fujiwara Clan, we profusely thank you for saving Fujiawara Saito. And as his older brother, I'm eternally thankful to you for saving my little brother."

"It wasn't exactly me who saved your brother." John said.

"Oh?" Rei was surprised and then looked at Peri.

"It wasn't me." Peri smiled and shook her head.

"Then..." Rei was at a loss of words. He invited them because he thought they were the ones that saved his little brother.

"It was my...friend and his companion that saved Saito." John spoke, "Their name are Lenny and Forge Umbra. Lenny was at the s.p.a.ce station when they were attacked, and Forge was a scientist there. It was both of them that fought the invaders, I only rescued them with my s.p.a.ceship."

"Lenny and Forge..." Rei scratched his chin and asked, "Well, you two helped them to escape so you count as saviors. But, where are this Lenny and Forge that you spoke about? I want to personally thank them."

"Hmm..." John didn't know how to answer this. He couldn't just say one went to buy a s.p.a.ceship and the other meet with an old friend, John thought it could seen as rude in Rei's eyes. As he didn't have a grasp of Rei's personality, he couldn't risk to just offend him. "They had something urgent to deal with here in the Ark Outpost."

"Uh, alright. I think I will them at a later date then." Rei didn't take as a offense and just casually shrugged it off.

With that, the stiff and professional atmosphere worn off eventually and John described the events that happened in the s.p.a.ce station to Rei and Aoi. Of course, John only spoke what Lenny and Forge personally said to him.

As for the motive why Lenny was there in the first place, even John didn't have an idea, since Lenny just dodged the question every time John asked him about it.

Rei listened from beginning to the end with a serious expression. It was clear that he was 100% focused in the events John was detailing.

The food arrived and they ate while talking about the events. John found it good and he was hungry, so he ate a lot more than usual.

After John finished eating and talking about what happened, Rei decided to ask, "So you saying that you think the ones behind the attack was the Miniknog?"

"It's what we think." John answered honestly, "According to Lenny, all the members of the invading group were Apexes with military training and advanced gear in perfect condition. The gear was also made by an unknown manufacturer without a single characteristic that could be traced back to them. See this armor of mine? Is one of the ones they were using."

Rei's eyes scanned the black armor in John's body and even with his extensive knowledge, he couldn't think of a single manufacturer, organization, or government, that used had an armor like that.

What Rei could do was to take a sample of the Durasteel used in the armor and see if they could trace to the origin of the manufacturer through the technique, or machine, used in the smelting of the metal.

"May I take a sample of you armor?" Rei politely asked.

"Oh? You don't need." John waved his hand, "Lenny has a lot of spare armors he took from the soldiers he killed there. He also has some tools and even got one their PIPS. If you want, you can simply ask for him, it's not like we need all that anyway."

"That's good." Rei relaxed and thanked John, "Say, John, since you saved my younger brother, what do you want as a reward? No, don't reject me yet, I have to reward you or else it will be shameful as a member of the Fujiwara Clan to not thank the savior of their young master."

"Eh...you see I don't actually-" John was about to say he didn't need a reward when he suddenly thought of something, "Well, since you insist, I could use your help in something."

"Just say it." Rei puffed his chest, "Although he aren't as rich as the Sumeragi clan and not as powerful as the Kurogane clan, I believe we have enough to help you with whatever problem you would like to solve or buy what item you want."

"I don't want anything of great value, at least I don't think it has great value. What I want is information and possibly the location of an object I'm searching."

"What this object be? I don't usually brag, but as the oldest clan, Fujiwara has the most acc.u.mulated knowledge of all the clans combined."

"It's an Artifact." John looked over to Peri and signaled for her to take it out.

Peri knew what John wanted, so she retrieved her other spear from the PIPS and placed over the table.

The spear was obviously the one that John won in the the Great Hunt, the Nature's Sting, it was the name of the spear.

It was a long, green spear, about 1.5 meters in length. It had little decoration in it, the only think that resembled a decorating was the bright green jewel that looked like a flower right at the blade of the spear.

Even from the distance, Rei could feel some strange power coming from the spear.

As soon as it appeared, the air inside the room was instantly cleaned and refreshed. It felt like they entered in a forest.

"What is this?" Rei was instantly shocked and curious. He never saw something like this spear. He had seen some of the weapons and tools created by the famous Hephaestus, but those were not near the power and feeling he was receiving from the spear in in front of him.

As a scholar and someone with thirst for knowledge, he was very intrigued about the weapon.

"The spear itself is not important." John said. John was surprised to see the blazing gaze Rei have in his eyes as it was glued in the spear on top the table, "The thing I'm searching is similar to that jewel that looks like a flower."

"What?" Rei broke his gaze from spear and looked over John, "There's more of it?"

"Yes..."

"How many?"

"I'm sorry, but I don't think I can tell you." John apologetically said, "I need permission from someone else to disclose these type of information." John wasn't sure if he could say about this things to a stranger, he could only close his mouth and wait for Esther to see if she allowed him to share info about the Artifacts.

"Oh...okay...you said you were searching for these... Artifacts? What are they? Their origin? I need information about them to better search."

"Well..." John embarra.s.sedly scratched his head, "I don't know a whole lot of it myself. I think I can tell a few things to you."