Chapter 4 - In Another World, Finally A Free Man
Alright, apparently the fourth one is an oddball. As of now I can conclude that she is not from Earth since she's able to float like that. She's currently still glaring at me without moving or saying anything. Is she doing this because she realize I can see her? Alright, for now let's confirm whether she is invisible to the others too.
I turn my sight to the envoy that brought me here. He has been standing guard near the important-looking people on one side of the chamber.
"Hey you!" I shout to the envoy.
Hearing my shout, he and the people around him all turn their attention to me.
As of now almost all the people are pretty confused on what to do regarding the situation. From what the King said just now, having multiple people being summoned in the same time is a rare event, so they don't know how to proceed with the situation. In times like this the one leading (King) should act and do something, but he himself looks like taken aback with the result of the summoning. You can't blame him, anyone would be taken aback if the hero they are expecting turns out all bloody and looks like criminal.
"I can't see very well due to the light beam from before, can you tell me exactly how many people are summoned? There seems to be multiple silhouettes." I fabricate my condition a little so the conversation can run smoothly.
"Huh?" The envoy has only just realized that I was talking to him. "Eh. Ah...." He looks toward the altar again as if counting the number of people on it and reconfirm it one more time. "Three! There are three heroes being summoned!"
Right after he said that the people observing the summoning ritual begin talking with each other and soon rise to a clamor. There is nobody who deny the envoy's statement that there are only three people on the altar right now, so it must be true that the woman with incredible beauty is invisible to the others.
I wonder, why am I able to see her?
The three 'not so normal' people are still under the side effect of the summoning, they are still either coughing or panting intensely. That old man with the straitjacket looks pretty fine to me though, he can already gaze around left and right to figure out the situation he's in right now. Man, that gaze is scary, please stop it, you'll only unnecessarily intimidate the people in here.
The people are still clamoring, probably deciding on how to deal with these summoned 'heroes' since they don't look much like a hero for having blood splattered all over them (except for the old man in straitjacket, but he still looks the least like a hero).
Some old men wearing fancy robe are discussing something with the King who currently has a blank look on his face. The shock of failing to summon a proper hero seems pretty huge to him.
"NO!" The King suddenly yells loudly, he has an enraged expression right now. All the people stop talking when they hear the King yelled.
"It can't be like this! Not again! Impossible!" He looks mad and suddenly walks toward the altar.
"No your highness! Stop! Don't go near them!" Some of his subordinates try to stop him but the King turn his quick walk into a floating like jump, landing on the altar.
"Young hero! I welcome you to my great country of Gloumell Ataire!" The King madly exclaim so toward the Asian businessman guy.
Bad move, you shouldn't yell toward a guy who is in pain and confused, especially if the said guy looks like he has just killed somebody and is holding a gun.
As if hearing the King shouting at him, the Asian guy who is still in kneeling position turn his face toward the King who is standing in front of him, trying to look at the one shouting at him. Realizing that the people who have been clamoring around are currently looking at him, he immediately try to stand up while pointing the gun in his right hand toward the King who is closest to him.
Seeing the Asian guy suddenly standing and pointing something toward the King, the guardsmen who have been standing guard right beside the King immediately took defensive position, making a human wall in front of King Ramsarast with their shield up and spears pointing toward the Asian guy.
I can see that the Asian guy's eyes are being focused back and forth as if trying to adjust themselves, his vision must be still kinda blurry right now.
Seeing that the situation might turn toward the worst, I interfere by walking up the altar too.
"Alright, that's it! For your own safety, King Imbecile, you step back now! Let me handle the situation for now." I say so while pointing toward the King, ordering him to step back so that he and the guardsmen don't agitate the Asian guy.
"And you, young man, don't pull the trigger, at least not now." The young Asian guy is pointing his gun between the King's group and me right now.
"Okay, give these people some time to adjust themselves with the situation, at least wait till they regain their senses back! Especially you, King, you gonna get yourself killed sooner or later if you keep acting like that." I order the people and warn the King like that.
The King only doesn't say anything, he only looks at me for a second, still with a mad face before finally stepping down from the altar area. His guards keep the meat wall formation and step down the altar while still facing the gun man and me.
I don't come down from the altar and wait there until these 'heroes' finally able to completely regain their senses. It doesn't take long for that, only a minute or so. The room was silent for that one minute, nobody dared to talk, even King Ramsarast only silently watching from the side.
The young man looks fine now and the sexy woman on the floor has stopped groaning. Both of them, plus the psychopath-looking old man and the beautiful floating woman are staring at me, so I decide to begin mediating the situation.
"Alright, you people looks fine enough, let's tal-"What's going on and where the hell am I?!!"-k now." the Asian guy frantically cut my speech and point the gun at me again. Contrary to his professional look, he appears to be a pretty hysteric man. He speaks a really fluent English with some Japanese accent mixed in, he appears pretty educated so I expected that he could speak English, but not this fluent. From this, I can guess that he's a Japanese.
"Calm down alright? Geez, no need to be hysteric like that."
"What's this about? Who are you people?!"
"I told you to calm down alright. If you want to point the gun at someone, point it toward that old man." I pointed my finger toward the King. The King, in turn, glares at me.
"You are a victim of kidnapping, just like me. These punks, surrounding us, are the one who kidnapped you people." I make a hand gesture to point at the people around me.
"Such insolence!" several people from the side yell like that right after I describe the situation. Well, I'm not wrong in stating the situation right?
I don't give any attention towards such retort and continue with my explanation. "Now then, I know it sounds strange, but this isn't Earth. I'm not exactly sure whether this place is some kind of distant planet but magic does exist in here, so it's most probably a different world altogether."
"Di-d-different world?" The Japanese guy looks shocked upon hearing my statement. I had hoped for him to argue on my statement but he seems pretty easy to accept the situation of this possibly be an other world.
As for the other summoned people, they just silently listen to me without giving any feedback.
"Right, other world. Now if you'd let me, I want to ask whether you met a certain entity upon being summoned here, something that might resemble a God or a Goddess to be precise. Think about it carefully because your future in this world might be decided on your answer right now." I decide to cut to the chase and ask whether they possibly have the so called gift as the legend said, meeting the Goddess and all.
"W-what?" He looks like genuinely doesn't know what I'm talking about so this guy is most likely a failure too.
"You don't?"
"I-I'm not sure what you're talking about, I was in the office wit--"
"Okay, you are failure, next."
I cut his speech short and look toward the other three for their reaction. The sexy woman still has un-trusting expression on her face but I notice that she frown a little, that's a sign. The scary old man does't say anything and his expression is not visible, let's skip this guy for now. As for the last one, she's currently folding her arms in front of her chest while looking around, avoiding my gaze... She's really bad at hiding it, even a kid can act better than that. I marked the woman as suspicious for now.
"Any of you two met the Goddess or feel anything special in your body?"
Both of them don't reply my question. They just silently look at me.
"Okay, I see." I turn my direction toward the King and casually say, "Apparently this time the summoning also failed, your highness."
"That can't be!" He furiously retort my statement.
The King strongly gaze toward the people here on the altar. He first look at the Japanese guy and decide that he most probably really doesn't know about said Goddess from his reaction. Then he proceed to appraise the scary old man but soon turn away to look at the last person, probably because even if that scary old man does receive the Goddess's blessing, the Kingdom wouldn't let such a dangerous-looking man roam freely. Onto the sexy woman on the floor, her expression is hard to read but she doesn't exactly say or show whether she receive the blessing or not.
Being the last of his hope, the King quickly walk toward the sexy woman, hoping that she actually receive the blessing and can be a hero like the legend stated.
"You haven't answered yet! Tell me! You must have met and receive the blessing fro--. Gaah!" King Ramsarast frantically asks the woman while grabbing her shoulders. He has a very hysteric expression not befitting a King right now. But in a surprise, before he can finish speaking, the sexy woman he's currently holding suddenly jump up from sitting position and pins the King from behind while holding her knife right beside the King's neck.
The situation suddenly turn very dire with the sexy woman holding the King as hostage. The guards immediately move forward to apprehend her. The Japanese guy is also surprised by the sudden turn of event and is now pointing his gun toward the coming guards while the scary old man maniacally laugh at the chaotic situation, really, this old man is insane.
"STOP!! Damn it. You, You, You, and YOU stop whatever you are doing right now!" I shout and point toward the knife woman, the Japanese guy, the guards with the spears, and especially toward the laughing old man.
"I don't care where this is, but I want to go back! Bring me back to where I was, right now!" The sexy woman finally speak, she looked calm before but apparently she too has been holding it before finally bursting out her feeling. The knife in her hand is touching the skin on the King's neck.
She's speaking English with some Spanish accent mixed in, I'm impressed that she could speak English very fluently, seeing that she has Spanish accent meaning English is not her native language. At first I thought about the possibility of her being some kind of a hit women but seeing how unskilled she's in holding the knife and pinning the King, that thought soon vanish from my mind.
"NO! Don't send me back! You go back, I'm staying here!" Contrary to the woman, the Japanese guy claims that he doesn't want to go back. What the hell man, she didn't even say that she's taking you with her, you really should calm down a little.
To make matter worse, instead of stopping, the scary old man laugh even louder toward the situation. Making the situation sound even more chaotic than before.
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Seeing that this is getting out of hand, I decide to take drastic measure. I swiftly move toward the Japanese guy who is currently focusing on the armed guards. His hands are grabbing the pistol tightly so it will be hard for me to take it away from him when my own hands are being tightly handcuffed. So instead I grab his hands and push it upward.
Panicked, he pulls the trigger and shots are fired toward the glass ceiling, breaking them. The loud sound of gunshot and breaking glass surprised the people around, they don't seem to know what a gun is which caught them completely off guard against the loud sound.
" " " Waaaaah! " " "
Complemented with the broken glass raining down on them, most of them panicked. In that short moment, the guardsmen activate some kind of magic to protect the area around the King, as expected of a royal guard they do their job properly.
Since the area around the King is protected by a semi transparent shield, both she and the King are untouched by the rain of glass.
In the midst of confusion, I managed to take over the gun from the Japanese guy who is panicking and covering himself from the glass. The rain of glass soon subside but the people around us are still panicking.
"Alright lady, calm down a bit would you?" I ask her once again while checking the remaining ammo in the pistol's magazine, there seems to be still plenty in it, a quick glance shows that it still has a dozen bullets left.
"I want to go back. Send me back, or I kill this man." She still insists to be sent back to Earth.
"Believe me, you won't be going anywhere by killing that old man. Definitely not home, possibly to jail, most likely to the guillotine."
The guards are slowly getting closer toward the woman and she slowly step back while still holding the King. Then suddenly the King, as if not caring about his current situation, angrily shouted. "ENOUGH!"
*BOOM!*
A burst of semi transparent force spread out, repelling the woman away and the people around him which include me, the Japanese guy, and the guardsmen. Just like that, he manages to release himself from the hostage situation.
His expression looks angry and furious, but there are also traces of sadness and disappointment. His clothes flutter wildly and his body is emanating some kind of oppressing aura that would make the one receiving it to feel pressured. Apparently he is not a simple King.
I should have thought so, this is a world where magic existed. The system and structure here are most likely different from Earth. To be able to stand on the top of the hierarchy must mean that he has something more than just name and lineage to back his position. He was even the one who conducted the summoning ritual and personally chanted the summoning spell. This old King, he himself might be a powerful magician.
The woman fall down on her butt a few steps away from her previous position, a look of surprise and little bit of fear can be seen on her pretty face. The knife in her hand is also blasted away somewhere. The repelling force is pretty strong, I myself is even forced to step back a bit.
After the oppressing force lessened, I look at the King. He's staring at the three summoned heroes that failed to meet his expectation. The fourth person is still there standing nonchalantly as if nothing is going on.
"What now?" I ask the King.
He looks at me and scan the surrounding one more time before answering, "The summoning ritual is over, as promised, you are free to go." He expressionlessly answers me, as if he doesn't care about it.
"And them?" I look at the slightly cowering Japanese guy who is still covering himself from the small oppressive force emitted by the King, the sexy woman who has fallen down, and the crazy old man who has stopped laughing and is currently glaring at the King.
".... I don't care, take them with you."
"You highness!!" As if disagreeing with the King, many of his vassals frantically yell at the King's decision.
"Silence! I've promised and decided so. Don't question my decision!" He only shortly stated so before turning and preparing to leave. All his subjects immediately fall silent, nobody dares to argue with him right now.
Then without looking back at us he says, "This is the last mercy I will show to you. Do not mistake this as an act of kindness, I simply wish to hold my promise and let it over with. You are now free and has no relation with the royal house from henceforth!"
He doesn't show his face when he said it but I can tell that it's grim. He quickly walks away and exit the building from the main door with his subjects and vassals following him shortly after.
Seeing how the sudden turn of event ends up, I'm a little bit surprised too. I truly didn't expect it to be like this. I expected the King and his 'ministers' to apprehend and imprison these failed heroes, especially since one of them even threaten the King and took him as a hostage.
But they just simply left us here alone, not even one guard stays behind to lead us out somewhere. I look at the four people around me, they are not saying anything about the situation we are in right now.
As I thought of that, one man return inside, it's the envoy from before. Apparently there was supposed to be someone leading us out but due to the sudden turn of event, the one that should have managed this kind of thing simply walks out following the King. Looks like they are all as surprised as me that they even forgot their duty, none of them expected the King to be as lenient as this.
He said that he's been ordered to lead us out from this place toward the public area like the city or anywhere that doesn't belong to the royal house.
That's fine by me because in conclusion, I'm free to go.... Wait, that would be 'we' are free to go.
I look at the those four. The Japanese guy is currently looking at me, to be precise, he's looking at the gun I'm holding in my hand. Too bad for you young man, I'll be keeping this for now.
The sexy woman is just staring dagger towards me, she has a hostile attitude right now. It hurts when a pretty lady has such a scornful gaze towards you.
Then I look at the scary old man and he looks straight at me too.
"Old man, you sane?"
"Would normal people be bound by such a cool jacket like this? Hehehe..." He replies with a little bit of chuckle at the end. Just like the other two, his English is pretty fluent but with a mix of accent in it. From the sound of it, he seems to be Russian.
His reply is not exactly the kind of answer I hoped for but that's fair enough to show he's still sane, being able to answer with a joke.
"Alright, I don't know what you did to get yourself like that but I can't just leave you to rot here, so I'm gonna release you for now. But don't even think to do anything stupid, I'm the one with a gun here, so be nice, at least until we get out from this place, then you can do whatever you want as long as it doesn't concern me, alright?"
He only laugh a little in respond to my question, creepy.
I proceed to release him from his straitjacket. I pick up the knife that was blasted away from the woman and use it to cut open his jacket. The woman is staring even more intensely after I pick up her knife for myself. The iron mask is chained to the human trolley so I also need to open it but it's made from iron so the knife doesn't help much in opening it and I can't seem to open it in normal way.
He himself after being released from the straitjacket try to force open the iron mask with bare hands but failed, he then proceed to banging his head onto the stone wall, wanting to break the hinges and lock of his iron mask only to fail once again.That was insane.
I then offer to help break the chain attached to his iron mask by shooting my gun at it, but he asks for an even more insane method, he asks me to shoot the lock which is right beside right eye, just centimeters away from his face.
So instead of breaking only the chain now and try to open the iron mask later on after we get out from here, he prefer to just risk it and break the iron mask right now. No hesitation, simply seeking the most efficient method while ignoring the danger, this crazy old man really has no fear. This is the kind of man that would survive the underground world, no wonder he got himself in such situation, he must have a lot of experience himself.
Complying with his request, I point the gun from point blank range and take the shot, easily blasting the lock away. I notice that this old man doesn't even blink when I shot the gun right next to his face. I need to improve my evaluation of this guy, he might be even more experienced than I think he is.
He's now free from his boundary, since his straitjacket are cut open and his iron mask is taken off, his figure can be clearly seen. He really does have the figure like that of a wrestler, a huge body with well-built muscle and thick limbs. His face is that of a man in his late forties or early fifties, not ugly, but more like scary with lots of facial wrinkles and unshaven facial hair, showing his age which is already past his prime. I say scary, but he actually grins a lot, which in turn only makes him look scarier instead of friendlier.
I then walk toward the last one, she's still floating with uncaring attitude and is still looking at me.
"So, are you coming too?" I try to start a conversation with her. Now that I look at her closely, she is even more outstanding than before. Her orange hair which has richer color than that of a ginger really is glowing with subtle golden light. Her face, although frowning, still looks pretty and enchanting.
I can feel that the other people behind me are thinking strange thought about why am I speaking toward nobody at one side of the chamber.
Even after I try to start a conversation with her, she just turn her face away from me like a prideful lady. I try to ask her again, this time with hand gesture, but she still gives no respond. I know that she realize I can see her and that she has been staring toward me all the time before, but now she is ignoring my attempt to talk with her. Then so be it, I'll leave her as she is. I'm not even sure what she is in the first place anyway, who knows, she could even be some kind of spirit or ghost who happen to wander in here during the ritual process as a spectator, this is a world of magic after all.
"If that's what you want, so be it." I turn back toward the envoy, ignoring her. "Alright, all done, lead the way."
"Ah? Oh, right, let's go."
The envoy exit the building with me following after him. The Japanese guy follows behind me just a few steps back, the old man who is now wearing a cut-up straitjacket follows behind him, and the sexy woman is following at the very back. Surprisingly, the floating beauty decide to follow us and even following closely just a few meters behind me.
"Holy hell!"
*Gasp*
"...!"
As expected, when we exit the building, I can her them being surprised, gasping, or inhaling deeply upon seeing the view. The small island where the summoning ritual took place is around thirty meter higher than the main island, although not as high as the prison island I was in, we can still have a good view of the surrounding area, especially since there are many higher floating islands visible around the area, showing that this really is a magical foreign world.
But unlike last time, the envoy isn't stopping to give them some time to enjoy the view so we have to keep following him. Nevertheless, they still look around with surprised expression while walking, even the scary old man has a surprised look on his face.
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Kinda late a couple of days in posting the update, I have a bad habit of not concluding the chapter and end up writing a third of the next chapter while writing this one. That means the next one should be released faster, and since it's almost weekend, I'll have more free time and will try to finish it by Sunday if possible.