The Gatekeeper Chapter 41- Too Many Shocks.

It has been thirteen days since I arrived in this world, I was sitting on the bed in my room at the 'Moonlight River' while contemplating about what is to come. Today is the inauguration of the annual Athena Festival, and also the first round of the battle-tournament. According to last year's fourth place, the battle tournament lasts throughout the entire festival while the battle-tournament finals being the last event in the entirety of the Athena Festival.

Currently, the time is about 7.30 AM, the inauguration ceremony starts at 10 AM. The partic.i.p.ants of the battle-tournament have to reach there earlier than the other people to prepare for the announcement which would solidify our partic.i.p.ation in the biggest and the most brutal event in all of Athena. I am supposed to meet Alissa at the guild at sharp 9 AM. After listening to the whole situation, which included the matter with Sylvia, she cupped her chin with her hand and immediately turned from a refined and proper lady to a bold one.

She insisted that we'd go to the venue together. I reminded her of her responsibilities and duties as the guild master, and also the co-host of the Athena Festival, but she shrugged her shoulders and said that her instincts as a woman are more important to her than her troublesome responsibilities. After listening to her articulate her thoughts on the matter of the shackles known as societal responsibilities and position-oriented duties, I could only say that she would fit perfectly with Vernyx rather than someone such as myself.

*Knock, Knock.*

Sound of gentle knocking came from the other side of the door. As I was already informed as to the ident.i.ty of the person seeking an audience with me this early in the morning, I tapped into the wind element and rotated the handle of the door without even turning my neck in the direction of the door. The person who came through the door was a beauty who had damp white hair and slightly red cheeks. Her attire which consisted of a blue cardigan over a white shirt, loose-fitting jeans which fell all the way over to her ankles seemed quite erotic because they were slightly moistened as well.

The person in question bowed deeply with her waist tilted at about a 75-degree angle and greeted me with a voice filled with the freshness of the morning and the enticing charm of a mature woman.

"Good morning, Master. It is a very beautiful day for the inauguration of the festival, isn't it?"

I was still a little perplexed because of the gap in her personality that she showed when she was alone with me, and when she is in public and around others of her species. Her voice would turn gentle and sweet when she conversed with me, but when exchanging words with other people, it turns into a low and cold voice which when compiled with her ice-cold eyes, could send a person in the depths of despair by just being exposed to it for a moment.

All of my servants were similar to her in some way or another. They were extremely sweet, spoiled and loving when it came to me while being ice-cold and arrogant when it came to any other human. I was mostly indifferent to this aspect of their personalities, however, it did worry me a little. If I were to give them the order to annihilate the entire human race, would they do so? If I were to command them to kill their fellow beasts, would they follow suit? Such things come into my mind whenever I see the smiling face of one of my servants.

"Indeed it is, Shirone. It appears that you are all ready to go. Can you wait for about five minutes? Then we can go and have our breakfast together."

"Master, do you want me to dress you?"

"No. I can do that myself. Go and sit on that couch."

Her relaxed expression changed into an extremely dissatisfied one before returning to its original form. She obediently and silently moved her feet and settled on the couch. Her displeasure was on full display but she was still obedient. It was silent torture.

I decided to ignore it as there was effectively no way to comfort Shirone in this situation. I increased my bodily functions and completed my morning routine, which included a bath, in under seven minutes.

After patting Shirone on her head and helping dry her hair to fix her mood, we changed our location and had a relaxing and light breakfast. According to the stories I've heard from various people, except for the existence of the battle-tournament, the Athena Festival fundamentally similar to a large-scale festival in j.a.pan. There are various performances, food stalls, various small-scale contests, a meet-and-greet with royalty and n.o.bility, and many such events that seem similar to the ones which exist in my world. Having said that, it would be a shame if I don't fully enjoy the various cuisines being prepared at the numerous stalls near the venue. Being from a culinary background, tasting and creating dishes is in my very blood.

Speaking of cuisines, it seems that our restaurant has been flourishing again. My father conveyed through Haruki that our restaurant, which was reeking of a cemetery after my supposed death, was receiving customers again, and my father has been keeping himself occupied. Haruki herself was quite pleased as well. We talked for more than an hour, during which, she told me about the situation at school. The female population of our school is still depressed, and it has created a somewhat sullen atmosphere around the entire campus. Even the university girls have been having a hard time maintaining their smiles. It made me feel guilty, but there was no way I could help, I am worlds apart from them. Even if I somehow manage to make the people believe that I am alive, there would be a huge uproar due to a supposed dead person being alive in another world. Worst case scenario, Haruki is taken in by authorities to make me talk about the existence of multiple worlds. I would like to avoid that, so I instructed her to keep my existence a secret only known to my father and her.

"Hey! Did you wait long?"

While I was immersed in thoughts concerning my world, a sweet voice entered my ears followed by the sound of high heels tapping on the floor. The one who came through the door that led to the guild master's room was the guild master herself. I was seated on the couch present in the s.p.a.cious lobby of the guild when the door opened slightly and Alissa came through it.

Alissa was dressed in a long red dress with a high split, her dress appeared to be quite expensive. Her feet were endowed with a pair of beautiful black high-heels which went so perfectly with her long dress that it was just criminal. Her already impeccably beautiful face was covered in make-up which seemed to be done by a professional as it looked perfect on her. Her straight, black and l.u.s.trous hairs were left to sway with every step she took.

There were many people present in the guild, each one of them seemed to be in a hurry and engrossed in work a second ago, however, once Alissa made her appearance, everything changed. Every eye in the guild was fixed on her. Gender wasn't even a concern anymore, even the employes of the guild who were used to seeing her almost daily were entranced by her current appearance.

I gulped in surprise, but I was able to reply in time to not turn the situation into something awkward and embarra.s.sing.

"No, I just arrived. I am surprised that you were able to make it despite all your work."

As soon as I said this, all the gazes in the guild turned towards me. Alissa steadily and gaudily walked towards me while moving her fingers through her smooth hair.

"Tch! Still not enough to make you fl.u.s.tered, huh."

She subtly clicked her tongue and made her way to my side. She stood beside me and grabbed my right arm and buried it in her voluptuous chest.

Honestly, at this point, I am unsure of how to describe my state of mind. However, the one thing that I am sure about is that it is calm.

"What are you trying to do?"

"Win a war!"

"Allow me to ignore that statement… You look really beautiful today Alissa."

"I need this much to win against Sylvia. As much as I hate to admit it, she's extremely pretty."

Her eyes had a certain drive in them, so I held off on pouring cold water on her.

"Okay…? Anyway, let's go, I feel like these gazes are going to pierce holes through my very soul."

"Okay."

She says so and grips my arm with more force and pa.s.sion from before, I concluded that there was no point in telling her off, so I silently started walking in the direction of the exit while followed by the killing-intent filled gazes of all the men present in the guild.

We exited the guild and made our way to the North entrance of the Royal Capital. The dome that was recently created explicitly for this year's Athena Festival was situated about two kilometers North from the North entrance. The distance could be justified as being leniency towards the commoners who were unable to afford carriages. It just so happened that this particular decision had Sylvia written all over it, she mentioned something about this during our travels, if my memory serves me right, she said something along the lines of "I had to use everything at my disposal to make this happen!".

The distance from the guild to the North entrance was quite significant. The adventurer's guild is situated in the South-West region of the Capital. To reach the North entrance, you had to cross the Central Plaza, the Royal Palace, and many more such attractions. If we were to travel on foot, it would take us more than two hours to reach our destination, which, considering the time, wasn't the most desirable situation. As such, we decided to ride a rickshaw to the North Entrance.

The rickshaw was small, barely enough to fit two people, but Alissa seemed to be right at home as she snuggled up close to me with a smile that conveyed her genuine happiness and affection. Looking at her childish yet seductive appearance, I couldn't help adopting a gentle smile. When Alissa saw my gentle and caring smile directed at her, her cheeks reddened, while her defenseless and bashful appearance took me by surprise.

"T-That smile is too unfair…"

She said so and then proceeded to avert her gaze while slowly shifting closer to me. At around 9.45 AM, we reached the dome. Our original plan was to get off at the North entrance and then walk to the dome, however, the rickshaw guy was a very nice person, and he was headed to the dome, so we just extended our ride and accompanied him here.

The dome was what it was called, but it looked to be something entirely different… The dome was a circular arena in the middle of nowhere which was about four-hundred meters in diameter and about fifty meters in height. It had the insignia of the Athena Kingdom, which was a woman dressed in battle-gear, engraved above each of the eight entrances which connected the world outside, to that of the inside of the dome. It was well within my expectations considering the amount of money and personnel utilized for creating this particular piece of infrastructure. However, the unexpected thing was what we found outside the dome.

It would be quite hard to describe the scenario in front of my eyes with mere words. If I were to use one word to describe it, it would be 'nostalgic'. Stalls, stages, souvenir shops, clothes shops, merchandise shops, podiums, small-scale temporary restaurants, battle-tournament viewing areas, betting areas, pubs, and whatnot. Everything that symbolized a true festival could be seen here arranged in a perfectly distinguishable and disciplined way. Except for the eight paths that led to the eight entrances to the dome, no area could be seen unoccupied.

Placing my sights at such an overwhelming scenario reminded me of large-scale festivals in my world. We would open a stall as well, serving customers various dishes cooked by the famous 'Itsuka Duo' of my mother and father.

Both of us couldn't utter even a single word. Alissa had been here several times, but she was even more surprised and taken aback than I was. We made our way through the path that led to the dome while resisting our urge to indulge in such mouth-watering delicacies.

However, once we entered the dome after identifying ourselves, the sight was as shocking as the one presented to us before, no, it was even more breath-taking.