The Gatekeeper Chapter 29- A Hidden Plot.

While sleeping on Sylvia's lap, I managed to convince my father that I was alive, I did use some 'underhanded' methods, but I was glad that he believed Haru after about an hour's worth of persuasion.

I was woken up by a sudden poke to my forehead by Sylvia.

"Toru~ Toru~ Wake up. We gotta go have lunch."

"Uhm~ Fine, fine, stop poking me."

She retracted her finger as lifted myself from her lap.

When I did, I could see Meri-san looking at me with eyes filled with awe and admiration.

Guess Sylvia told her everything.

"Are we already in Getwien?"

"Um-hmm. It's 3 PM."

"So, it took us three hours, huh."  

We reached the town 'Getwien', which was around 200 kilometres away from the capital in three hours. I was surprised as to our travelling speed, but everybody treated it as an obvious fact.

I descended from the carriage and offered my hand to Sylvia.

She descended in a majestic and dignified way, fit for a princess.

Getwien was a lively town which covered a sizeable land. The town was mostly showered in red and black bricks, and was occupied by blacksmiths, traders, merchants and such.

The number of the small stalls on the road were significantly less than the Capital, but the smell of food which originated from them was enough to make one drool. The building were all two-storey and it made the town look like a real work of art.

We stopped our carriages in front of an exquisite looking restaurant, the horses were led to a stable behind the huge building which was covered in decorations and lights. All the people except us three were already at the entrance to the large and grandiose restaurant. The sign above the door red 'Getwien Marcel'. I didn't get what the name meant, but I had zero interest in going inside. I just wanted to look around town.

"We will take a break for an hour. Do what you must, we will depart from here at 4. We will be picking the pace so don't eat too much."

I instinctively glanced at Sylvia who was standing by my side. Looks like she predicted my glace and had a look of 'I am not a glutton' printed all over her face.

While I was contemplating about what excuse to make to get out of this predicament, it was simply provided to me.

"Hey you, silver-rank commoner, this place is too fancy for you. Go eat in some s.h.i.tty restaurant, I won't lower myself to share a table with you."

Meri-san, who was standing by Delcrox's side started to panic.

I was starting to feel a cold breeze by my side. However, before Sylvia could say anything, I spoke up.

"That would be just perfect. I wanted to look around town myself."

I emphasized on the 'wanted', as to inform Sylvia of my decision. She gasped and retracted her magic and looked at my side with a worried gaze. I just showed her a smile and parted from their group and started walking in a random direction.

"Kuromi, come down. Let's have a date."

"Descending."

I could see Kuromi landing in an isolated alley with tremendous speeds, speeds which normal humans won't be able to register.

She came skipping in my direction. She was dressed in a blue skirt and a sleeveless top with a scarf wrapped around her neck.

She stood beside me and locked arms with a smile on her face, her softness and warmness being transmitted directly to my arm. I just ignored that as it was me who said that it was a date, and various other reasons.

We moved to different stores and bought clothes for both of us. We didn't eat actual lunch, rather, we just ended up filling up on the snacks which were being served on the small stalls arranged in a comfortable manner.

We had an extremely fun one-hour date without any obstacles or discrepancies. I noticed that it was almost time to leave, so I told Kuromi to return to the skies and made my way back to the restaurant, but before I did, I got a moist kiss on the cheek by Kuromi.

"I wanted to steal Master's lips, I was afraid I would get abandoned by my sisters."

"Good decision."

I showed her a thumbs-up, and reached the restaurant at exactly 4 PM.

I had a satisfied grin on my face and my appet.i.te was just as satisfied. However, the one who was obviously unsatisfied was Sylvia.

As we entered our respective carriages after a bit of 'extreme' exchange of words between Delcrox and me, I asked Sylvia.

"You didn't get to eat much, did you."

She puffed up her cheeks and turned her face away from me in a cute manner.

"That, and one more thing. I wanted to eat with you, and you just left me alone."

"Well, I wanted to check this city out. Meri-san, did she behave herself?"

I suddenly asked a question to Meri-san, to which she replied with a tired smile.

"Well... there were some dangerous moments when all the others were insulting you in front of her while laughing. However, I managed to calm the princess down as you told me to."

"Good work."

I nodded in her direction and thought about something which would fix Sylvia's mood.

I suddenly grabbed Sylvia's thin waist and lifted her up like a child and placed her in my lap. The carriage had an impressive vertical height, so it wasn't a problem when she was being lifted in the air.

I thought that she was going to resist, but she placed her legs on the seat where Meri-san was sitting and leaned back into my chest.

"You're not going to resist?"

"At least fix your mood."

Her cheeks were inflated and red. Her head reached my neck. So her l.u.s.trous blue hair were rubbing against my neck, and it felt ticklish.

"If my mood gets better, you'd just throw me back."

She filled her cheeks with more air and folded her hands. Meri-san who was looking at this spectacle had a warm look in her eyes as if watching her little sister acting spoiled.

"You just want to be spoiled."

"...Yes."

Cute!

"Just fix your mood, and I won't throw you away."

"Hehe~ I love you~"

"...No comments."

"You meanie~"

She just kept burying her head in my chest. After that, we actually picked up pace as the horses were basically floating in the air and the mana going to our carriage was drastically increased, both Sylvia and Meri-san pumped up mana into the carriage.

At 9 PM, we finally reached the town where we planned to spend the night.

The name of the town is 'Mendere', and is about 1000 kilometres away from the Royal Capital.

We had travelled 1000 kilometres in nine hours, I was honestly impressed at the transportation speed. The transportation methods here would not lose to the ones on my earth.

Mendere is a town which seemed to be highly developed. They had gla.s.s buildings, I managed to get a peek at their guild, and it looked very advanced, they had small magic powered robots working around the floor, screens made of light magic displaying various information and requests.

The inn which we were supposed to stay at was an amazing one as well. I could just sleep on Freya's back if it came down to it, let's just see how this goes.

We descended and walked towards the entrance of the inn named 'Myura Residence'. Everybody had their luggage with them, Sylvia's luggage was carried by an adventurer from a different adamant.i.te-ranked party than Delcrox's, they had 7 members, and each one of them were a n.o.bleman and n.o.blewoman.

I was waiting for someone to criticize me and send me away so that I could explore the city and enjoy the nightlife. I spotted many clubs and pubs on my way here, going to a pub sounds fun when you can drink and you have super high resistance to alcohol.

That opportunity presented itself to me when a member of the n.o.ble party said.

"We can't have a commoner, on top of that a silver-ranked adventurer sharing the inn with us. Go on, spend your night in an alley or something."

By the way, one thing I found out was that no adventurer who accompanies us had attended the party yesterday. Meri-san told me that both their party and the n.o.ble party returned to capital yesterday night, and were put to work immediately, but as the order was from the Royal family, they couldn't refuse.

"You're right-"

"We'll take him in our room."

The one who crushed my happiness was Delcrox. He said so while placing his hand on my shoulder.

"No, Delcrox-sama, that isn't necessary. I think that the idea he gave was excellent. I will see you guys tomorrow after breakfast."

"Delcrox-san, please provide Toru-san with proper accommodations. I wouldn't want one of my bodyguards to stay the night away from me, would I?"

You are clearly misinterpreting the situation, Sylvia. I wouldn't do what you're thinking I am going to do.

"Fine... I'll be in your care tonight then."

I said dejectedly and started walking with them inside the inn.

"Say, Toru-kun, don't you have any luggage?"

"No, Meri-san, I'll just buy what I need."

I can't tell her the truth. If somebody found out that I can manipulate s.p.a.ce element to such degree. It would be... disastrous.

"Is that so? Take care of yourself tonight, okay?"

"Yes, thank you, Meri-san."

We had a warm conversation between us, which was interjected by another n.o.ble from her party, who seemed to be in his early twenties.

"Oi! You commoner, how dare you talk so familiarly with Meri-chan?"

"We shared the same carriage for the whole day."

His face was red with anger. He was clearly in love with her. However, Meri-san didn't even spare him a glance.

After that, we went into our separate rooms. Meri-san dragged Sylvia away as she was pleading to me with her eyes to come hang out with her.

In our room, there were five people.

There were four beds and one mattress. I thought I'll just take the mattress but Delcrox had totally different plans.

"Why don't we play a game to determine who sleeps on the floor?"

The four men with me were all from his party.

Delcrox himself is a man in his late twenties with facial hair which strangely looked good on him, he also has a ripped and wide body.

The man who is in love with Meri-san is here as well, he is in his early twenties with a childish appearance and long blonde hair.

The third man appeared to be in his early thirties, he looked older than everyone else, but his youthful spirit betrayed his age.

The fourth man is a swordsman who is in mid-twenties, with golden hair and a neat face, he was quite the charmer. A brilliant and shiny sword was hanging from his belt.

"Shouldn't I just take the floor."

I said aloud because I just wanted everyone to go to sleep, I had plans of escaping and enjoying the nightlife after this.

"No... we said we'd take care of you. So who sleeps on the floor should be decided fairly."

Why are they being so nice to me, did Meri-san say something to them?

I knew that nothing I could say would get to him, so I just went with it.

"Fine, what do you want to do Delcrox-sama?"

"Let's drink, the one who can stay sober until the end wins."

"Sounds fun."

The swordsman said while stroking his hair.

"Y'all gonna lose."

The old man said while stroking his long beard.

"Well... let's just get on with it."

I said. After about ten minutes, the other guys came back with more than thirty bottles of booze. Each bottle had 500 mL of alcohol in them.

"These babies have 70 percent alcohol content."

Delcrox said so while taking a glance at me.

I mean, I am highly resistant because of the up-grade. But let's check just how much.

*THUD*

I was slurping on my third bottle when the old man, who was the only one left, finally pa.s.sed out.

I placed each one of them on a bed and took off to the city from the window. Our room was on the fourth floor, so I had to manipulate wind magic to get out.

I took to the city after equipping a good enough attire.

I got Freya down and we went on a late night date. Freya was wearing a red dress and black heels, which went perfectly with her curves and beauty.

However, at about 1 AM, while we both were enjoying the casino situated in the heart of the city, I got a sudden call from the leader of my bodyguard unit, Dane.

"Master, attack on the hotel where your companions are residing."

"Can they take care of it?"

"Probably not, the fighters have all collapsed, and they have magic restraining artifacts."

"What's the current situation?"

"All of them have already been captured and now are being held in one of the rooms together."

"Sylvia?"

"Yes, even the Princess, she was calling Master's name while shedding tears, that's why I contacted you."

"Is that so... Take the whole squad and rescue them, reverse the roles, capture all the attackers and detain them in the same room. Don't kill them yet, first I'll question them."

"Understood. What do you want to happen with the ones we save?"

"Just keep in the same room and don't let them move even an inch."

"Understood. Expected time until task is completed, five minutes."

"Got it, let me cash in my winnings until then."