The Gatekeeper Chapter 40- Hollow Eyes.

This Earth, no, this Version of Earth is more advanced than I initially surmised. Their infrastructure is especially impeccably done, it won't lose to my own world's infrastructure in any aspect other than height. The city plans and arrangement of facilities is done beautifully, there is never a rush to be seen in any part of the Royal Capital, which is supposed to be the busiest city in the whole Kingdom.

The economic and commercial growth is consistent and flourishing, new businesses and shops are being launched frequently, adding to both the revenue of the state and the personal a.s.sets of the people concerned. Long-distance communication is a definite thing here, even though it is extremely hard to obtain the means to communicate over long distances, the rich sure do enjoy this luxury.

Transportation here is, in my personal opinion, better than that of my world. We traveled a distance which exceeded 2000 kilometers in a mere two days. Of course, in my world, this distance could have been covered easily in no more than three hours considering the advanced aviation facilities. However, we also have to take into account the amount of damage done to the environment while traveling, in which case, the method of utilizing horses and magic is infinitely more profitable.

Magic, a concept that had only been a fantasy for the citizens of my world. However, now I am here, utilizing it daily like I would use any other skills at my disposal. I don't know what caused the creation of this overpowered ent.i.ty known as magic, but I am somewhat grateful that my world was untouched by such harmful and dangerous power. If the citizens of my world had access to such power, I can hardly visualize the consequences of their fun experiments.

Education here is pretty advanced and systematic. There is a clear-cut concept of primary school, middle school, high school, and university. The subjects taught to the children there may lack the scientific fundamentals, but it does teach the children what they need to know to survive in this world. Also, there is a perfectly systematic concept of a year. I don't know how they did it, but they were able to perfectly ascertain the time that Earth takes to revolve once around the sun. I expected people here to be in the phase of 'Earth is the center of Universe' or something, but it appears that I was wrong and the people here are satisfactorily knowledgeable about astrophysics. The length of a year in this world is 365.25 days, which is the same as my world. Surprisingly enough, they do also have the concept of 'leap year'. According to my invisible sources, it just so happened that the year system was established right after the Holy War, and the year in which I am currently residing in is year 500.

Many concepts have already been discovered, and many more are left to explore. I wonder when that special apple will fall on a person. I wonder when someone will randomly go on a sailing trip, only to find the biggest block of ice on the entire planet. I wonder when they will combine wind magic and aerodynamics to produce a new transportation system. These are all the things which I couldn't witness happen, but now I have the chance to achieve exactly that. However, I am quite reluctant about interfering with the natural flow of civilization. I would rather watch people discover the things about which I study in high school than not.

I was wondering about such things as I moved through the streets to reach the guild. The streets were relatively busier today and the people seemed quite lively than usual. It was obviously the result of the upcoming Athena festival, but I just couldn't help but smile gently while watching the kids in the area imitating the top compet.i.tors last year and playing role-play. I learned one more thing while I was searching for a certain piece of information, and it was that Princess Sylvia Silbinas Athena, the second princess of the Wise Kingdom Athena, is extremely famous and popular. It appears that the people are practically crazy over her. Her overwhelming beauty and her love for the ideal known as 'equality' has led to her gaining more fan-following than the Crown Prince himself. I was once again made aware of the fact that, despite her airheaded and straightforward personality, she's a genuine princess.

I mentally sigh and mildly regret the message I pa.s.sed on to Sylvia through Celice. However, as a man, I can't take back my words. I will have to take responsibility for Sylvia. I just hope that it doesn't turn into something troublesome. While contemplating on my course of action, I pa.s.s by the restaurant and reach the guild.

I started to pick up bits and pieces of a commotion occurring inside the guild. I calmly enter the guild through the entrance and reach the outskirts of the hall where all the receptionists sit and attend to the adventurers. The reason why I stopped at this particular location rather than going over to Mirae-san was because of the dense crowd I discovered gathered here.

"Ah~ Toru-san. You're back?"

"Ah, yeah, Volt-san, I am back."

The one who addressed me in this hectic situation was one of the adventurer friends I made. Volt-san is a commoner and a gold-rank adventurer.

"Won't you go and rescue your girlfriend?"

He asked me in a worried voice, to which I could only respond in confusion.

"Girlfriend?"

"I don't know her because a different attendant always attends to me, but if I am not wrong, her name is… Mirae-san?"

"What makes you say that she's my girlfriend?"

"What are you talking about? Ever since you left, she's been radiating this negative miasma, while having empty eyes. I asked my attendant about it, and she said that Mirae-san missed you…"

"Well, whatever. First, let's take care of this 'rescue' thing."

I was more or less able to connect the dots and infer as to the current happenings around me. I moved through the crowd with speeds that couldn't be described as humane. After moving through the ranks of people standing at gazing at happenings in the center, I reached the core and saw something which honestly p.i.s.sed me off.

Mirae-san, the same beautiful person who I had gone out on a fun date, was held captive by the strong and ma.s.sive arms of a n.o.bleman. The reason I cla.s.sify him as a n.o.bleman at a moment's glance is because of his overly-flashy choice of clothes and the tone he is taking with Mirae-san.

"Hey, a great man such as myself has decided to take you as a concubine. Isn't it the greatest honor for a commoner woman to be sought out by a n.o.ble?"

Mirae-san's eyes were hollow, the back of her hair was in the n.o.ble's grasp, and Shirley-san could be seen struggling to release the grip of the men restraining her movements.

"Use this body of yours to please me. I will force you to leave this job. You will become mine and come to serve me in my mansion. The Guildmaster is my friend, and she will obey my every command."

Force, huh.

"Hey, where's the guild master?"

"She's out right now. She went over to that banquet organized by the Prince to welcome the emissaries from Hades."

"Thanks, random stranger."

"You're welcome."

People are so nice here.

"Camie?"

"Master!?"

"Yeah, it's me. I want you to initiate contact with The Guildmaster, Alissa Semohart, and tell her that I need her in the guild, like, right now."

"Understood."

While I was having this conversation with Camie, one of the two maids working in the Royal Palace, Mirae-san uttered words that were filled with pain due to her hair being pulled like that.

"I-I am sorry, Mahtob-sama. However, I-I am already interested in someone else."

Her resolve can be felt through the strong words she spoke while being subjected to such harsh treatment.

"What did you say!?"

This person, whose name seems to be Mahtob pulls back his other arm as a prerequisite for a punch. And after he had pulled back his arm to its limit, he released it in the direction of Mirae-san's stomach with full force.

I had a lot of time, so I used it. I walked calmly over to their position and when I glanced at the surroundings, I saw multiple adventurers trying to make their way over here to stop his punch.

Too slow.

"Ugh, ugh."

Mahtob started groaning in pain as his arm was gripped quite strongly. While he was trying to pull away from his arm, I used my other arm to pull Mirae-san towards myself. Her silky hair slipped past Mahtob's fingers as she collided with my chest.

She was utterly dumbfounded at this development, she looked me in the eyes. Her eyes slowly started gaining their usual sharp glint back, the color on her face returned to what it was before. Mahtob was squirming like a pig, so I let him go, and as soon as he did, he resumed spouting nonsense.

"What are you doing!? You b.a.s.t.a.r.d! You dare touch me! I am a Mythril-ranked adventurer-"

"Ann~"

He was cut-off by the sound of a wet kiss originating right in front of him. His words were p.i.s.sing me off, so I grabbed Mirae-san's cheeks with my hand and pressed my lips against hers. I let my tongue enter inside which resulted in a wet sound reverberating throughout the hall.

Mirae-san was confused as well, shocked even. However, she got used to it pretty quickly. I separate my lips from hers after about twenty seconds of deep kiss.

She silently came around and hid behind my back and grabbed onto my shirt.

"Now then, Mahtob-sama, you wouldn't want a woman defiled by a commoner to be your concubine, right?"

"Y-Y-Y-Y-OU L-LOWLY PEASANT!!!"

So loud…

"Wind Magic- Wind Blade."

A heavy amount of wind gathered in front Mahtob, and it was surprisingly quite powerful, for him at least. The compressed wing came in our direction and Mirae-san buried her face in my back on reflex. However, that blade never reached me.

"I-I-Impossible!"

Mana is very versatile and convenient, no?

"You are an adventurer, right? I'll get you arrested and your card confiscated! Alissa, the guild master is madly in love with me, she'll do whatever I say!"

Yeah… No.

"I'll do what exactly?"

This sweet voice came from somewhere among the crowd, but I immediately recognized the person who spoke those words.

"Yo Alissa, I am back. I am a bit low on money, can I receive my payment."

"Yeah, Toru, about that… Sylvia… She was basically dancing with joy at the banquet, then she suddenly approached me with a satisfied expression and said, "I win yet again", then she told me to raise the payment for your job by ten times. I have a vague idea about what happened, but I'll ask just in case, what's going on…?"

"Let's talk about it later over a cup of tea, shall we?"

"You mean that you are taking me out... right?"

d.a.m.n… That's one scary expression.

"Y-Yes, Semohart-sama, it would be an honor."

She narrows her eyes and glares at me even more fiercely than before.

"Fine, fine, Alissa, I'll take you out somewhere after this."

Alissa showed a satisfied smile and then proceeded to address a wide-eyed Mahtob.

"So… What were you saying, Zech? Me? In love with you? Stop kidding. Besides, I've already got my eyes on someone."

She said so and subtly glanced in my direction. Yeah, yeah, I got the message.

"What are you saying!? Alissa, weren't you going to marry me? Didn't you promise me that you would when we were children?"

"No?"

Hey, leave the poor guy alone.

After that, Zech Mahtob was taken by the guild employes and I was paid the appropriate compensation for my a.s.sistance. I even received 10 Royal Gold coins as payment for the mission. I wanted to apologize to Mirae-san for kissing her like that, but I couldn't as she expressed her grat.i.tude to me for kissing her before I even began to speak.

After the whole situation was dealt with, I took Alissa out for tea, where we discussed the first day of the Athena Festival, which was tomorrow. She even asked me about the happenings with Sylvia, and I honestly told her what had happened. In the end, she just said, "at least you believe in polygamy", and left. I feel like my life is gonna be more hectic than before.

After that, I returned to my inn and extended my stay. I had dinner with the dragon lady and then went to bed early because tomorrow was the inauguration, an important event for all the big-shots, which means that Sylvia will also be there.

I'll just sleep and leave it all for the Toru of tomorrow.