Seeing his kind attitude, Cheryl lowered her vigilance, “T-Thank you, my lord!” She went to bow again, but Issac grabbed her shoulders and straightened her.

With a straight face, he said, “I know it’s in ingr-… Please minimize bowing in my presence. I’m not used to it.”

“U-Understood, my lord.”

“Thank you,” Issac’s beamed with a bright smile, “then could you step out of the room? I want to take a bath.”

“Y-Yes,” she took one step away from the doorway, but before Issac could close the door, she asked, “Should I call some maids here, my lord?”

“Why would you do that?” Issac frowned.

“To bathe you, of course!”

Her straight face made Issac choke. “No, I can bathe myself!”

“I see…then I will call you once dinner is ready.” Cheryl bowed and left. Issac closed the door. He walked into the room and slumped down on one of the sofas. The softness made him melt.

“What the fuck is this?” he held his head with his hand. ”Heroes, demons, legends, kingdoms…i-it feels too unreal! A scene straight out of one of Ray’s mangas.” Thinking of Ray, Issac remembered his excited expression. He groaned. ”For a guy like him, this should be heaven, right?”

He turned around and looked out the window. They were really high up. His room was probably on the highest floor of the castle. However, otherwise, the castle was on the same level as the other buildings in the area. Spires reached the sky; the paths below were paved with bricks- the castle was reminiscent of Buckingham Palace back on Earth with the verticality of Hogwarts Castle mixed in.

Beyond the castle, he could see the tiled roofs of houses clustered together in a uniform manner. Because he was too high up, he could barely see the roads and the people walking on them. As the sun overhead lit up the world in front of him, it finally dawned on Issac that he truly had been summoned to another world; an unfamiliar world.

He got up and took off the jacket he was wearing. He looked at it bitterly. ”Who knew that I picked out this jacket for a fun time just this morning? And now…I’m in a different fucking world. Speaking of strange shit….”

He glanced at the decoration on the table in front of him. It was a lion figurine made out of crystal. It looked surprisingly lifelike. The strange part was the illusionary symbol of an eye and ear floating above the figure. The symbol looked like it was made of turquoise smoke. Without looking at it directly, he moved towards the bathroom. He could see the eye tracking him in his periphery while the eye stayed still.

His heart pounded furiously as he walked into the bathroom. ”What the fuck? What’s that? What’s with the eye? A-Am I…are we being kept under surveillance?”

Inside the sink, there was another crystal figurine. It was a swan. But it had the same symbol of the eye and ear above it. Issac turned his back to the figurine. His expression became grave. ”We are being kept an eye on. But they acted like 『Heroes』 were supposed to be treated with the highest respect. They shouldn’t be doing this, right?”

Without much change in expression, he inspected the bathtub. Rather than a bathtub, it should be called a small pool. It was built into the marble floors and had a golden tap. Water gushed out like spring after he opened the tap. He touched the water. It had a perfect temperature.

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To his surprise, the bathtub filled very quickly. Steam wafted off the water. Now came the time for him to bathe. Even though he was incredibly embarrassed inside, he took off his clothes and put them aside. There were some liquid soap bottles on a table next to the bathtub. But he did not use them.

Because a disgusting aura radiated from them, a black and brown miasma seemed to float around soap and shampoo bottles.

He rubbed his eyes. ”What the fuck? Am I hallucinating?” He decided not to ignore the bad feeling that rose from the depths of his heart. Without using soap, he stepped into the bathtub and sat down.

The warmth loosened his nerves, which had been stretched taut all this time. It seemed to seep into his bones and made him melt.

“Ahh…” he let out a comfortable groan. He put his arms on the edges and let his body go.

“There’s definitely something wrong with this… And what’s happening to me? Are those symbols really there, or is it something only I can see? Wait, how have they understood what I have been saying this entire time? I’ve been speaking in English all this time!” Issac’s eyes shot open. He scooped up some water and splashed it on his face. ”Does the Queen have some sort of ulterior motive? I don’t believe she’s told us everything.”

Issac dunked his head into the water so that he could wash his hair. ”Wait, isn’t this a fantasy world? Then according to Ray’s mangas, there should be-” He stopped himself. ”Even if there is one, I can’t call it up now.” He remembered that his room was under surveillance. He couldn’t even breathe right.

As he soaked, he heard the door to his room open. He looked at the doorway and said with a raised voice, “Who’s there!?”

“M-My lord, it’s me. Cheryl.” He heard Cheryl’s voice coming from inside the room.

Issac frowned. Now that he knew something was wrong, he kept his guard up. He asked, “And why have you come here?”

“Her Majesty asked us to provide the Otherworlders with clothes after they were done bathing.”

“Oh? Then put the clothes on the bed.”

“Very well,” he heard the door to his room close again after a while. With his thoughts interrupted, he no longer soaked in the bathtub. He got up and wiped himself with towels inside the bathroom. Wearing a towel on his waist, he walked into his room. His eyes went to his bed. Cheryl did just as he asked. But the clothes were wrapped in the same disgusting aura he saw on the soap bottles. Without much change in expression, he turned around and went inside the bathroom to wear the clothes he had been wearing before.

After wearing clothes, he opened the door and peered outside. Cheryl wasn’t there. But two armored knights stood at attention on either side. When he opened the doors, the knight on his left looked at him and asked, “Is something the matter, Sir Issac?”

“Uh, I’m looking for Cheryl. The maid assigned to me.”

“Then there should be a bell right next to the doors in your room. Ring it and uh…Cheryl will come right away.”

“Ah, okay. Thank you.” He closed the door and looked around. Near the exquisitely carved door was a one-legged table, upon which rested a copper bell.

“I wonder…” he looked at the bell and then sneakily glanced at the lion figurine. He took the bell off the table and walked to the table where the statuette stood. The table also had the sofa nearby, so he set the bell next to the figurine.

“Man, I wonder if this bell will call Cheryl over,” he thought aloud. He picked up the bell and rang it once. He then put down the bell, and as he grabbed the lion figurine, he muttered, “This castle is large as hell. It’ll take quite a while for her to get back here.” He then looked at the figurine with some appreciation, “But I got to say, whoever made this had ski-”

However, a series of knocks interrupted his thoughts, and Issac pretended to be badly shocked. “Jesus!” with a jerk of his hand, the lion figurine fell on the wooden armrest of the sofa and then onto the carpet, breaking it into four big pieces.

Cheryl yelled from the other side, hearing the commotion inside, “My lord, is everything alright? May I come in?”

Issac looked at the shattered figurine; the crystal fragments glittered as the sunlight hit them. The symbol of the eye and ear dissipated. Heaving a sigh of relief, he said, “Come in, Cheryl.”

The door opened, and Issac saw her green hair and petite figure which stood in the doorway. Seeing the broken figurine, her face warped to show a mixture of worry and panic. “A-Are you alright, my lord?”