Setting the Scene (4)

Fwoomp.

“Ah… so nice.” As soon as I walked into the dark hotel room on the second floor, I flopped onto the bed. Well, the second thing; I didn't want to get the bed covered in dirt. The sheets embraced my exhausted body, giving me a soothing breath of comfort. I must’ve been more tired than I thought. Streaming in the morning, kidnapped to another world in the afternoon, and becoming a wealthy tourist by night – it was a pretty hectic day.

Still, I had to wonder, why was I here? As the manager back in my world, my girlfriend always made sure to verify my emails before I opened them – a safety precaution against the threat of unknown magic. Of course, she could always miss a spell or two, but it was never anything dangerous. Well, okay, a teleportation spell was pretty bad, but I doubted PAX was being malicious. At the very least, it was a legitimate sponsorship offer.

Yet, this entire situation felt off to me. Everything was too perfectly timed, too convenient. A queen giving away her valuable ring to an otherworlder she didn’t even know? A pawn shop and hotel that didn’t even ask the names of their customers, much less for their ids? It was as if everything was planned out, like I was a character in someone else’s play.

“Or maybe it’s much simpler than that, and you just refuse to look at the people around you.” A voice in the darkness whispered into my ear, one that I was intimately familiar with.

I’m always looking at the people around me. I’ve even learned to read them to some degree.

“Are you sure about that?” Maybe I imagined it, but the voice sounded a bit sad. However…

Of course I am. I will never make that same mistake again. That way no one else will suffer and meet the same fate.

“Okay, sis?”

I found myself staring at an unfamiliar ceiling. No, that wasn’t quite right. The ceiling was familiar, but the light catching off the beams was different. Did I pass out? I thought I only closed my eyes for a brief moment, but evidently, I was wrong. I pulled my stiff body up off the bed, squinting from the light shining through the window.

The room, which had once been shrouded in darkness, now resembled a familiar junior suite. Though, it only had four pieces of furniture: a bed to sleep on, a closet to stick clothes in, a desk with what looked to be a lamp, and a chair tucked in underneath. No TV or other sources of illumination. Those… mana stones? – no, a spellstone – were probably more expensive than this hotel could reasonably afford.

Out of curiosity, I played around with the lamp after putting on my clothes. First, I flicked the obvious switch. As expected, the light turned on, giving a decent amount of illumination comparable to the first incandescent light bulbs. Fiddling with it, I managed to remove the bottom plate and found a deeply embedded spellstone about the thickness of a dime. Not the length of a dime, mind you, but the thickness. Compared to a pumpkin seed worth a thousand reale, this was probably about three to four hundred. Yet, I bet most people didn’t even use or know about them, instead opting for their own fire or light magic.

Growwwlllll.

My stomach rumbled loudly, disrupting my antics. I hadn’t eaten dinner last night, and the time before that was back in my world. With all that walking and sneaking, I was definitely hungrier than usual. So, pulling myself away, I headed downstairs to the dining hall.

The hall seemed to seat somewhere around a hundred people broken into groups of six, four, and two the closer you got to the wall. I noticed this last night, but there weren’t that many people eating here. There were three yesterday, but currently, I had the hall all to myself. If I recall, the pawn shop man mentioned that the food here wasn’t that great, but since it was included, I decided to give it a try. After all, it couldn’t be worse than those breakfast-flavored instant noodles. I could still remember the disgusting flavor as it tickled my tongue; I didn’t even want to describe it. Though, I guess it finally made me take the time to learn how to cook from my girlfriend.

I took a seat in one of the two-seaters.

“Oh, good morning, sir! I guess you were feeling rather tired last night,” the hostess came up from behind me. Her clothes were the same style as yesterday's: obscuring yet somehow sensual.

“Good morning, are you also the waitress?”

“Yep, it’s not like we have that many guests anyway right now. Though this and all the rest will be booked full for the queen’s birthday celebration. We normally hire a few part timers to handle that…” Her expression seemed to take on a glassy look for a moment. “But never mind that! What would you like to eat? We have omelettes, sausages, and pancakes for today.”

“Can I choose more than one?”

“You can, but they’re each pretty filling,” she said, averting her eyes slightly. All three normally appeared on a breakfast platter or buffet, so I didn’t understand how that could be possible, but I decided to trust her. I could always order something more tomorrow.

“Then an omelet please.”

“Right away, sir!”

It didn’t take long for the food to come out, probably since I was the only one here, but man, was I glad I listened to the hostess. The omelet was so large that it covered an entire large plate. It looked like someone put two tortillas on top of each other and stuffed it to its maximum capacity. The absurdity made me wonder how it would taste. Daresay, I was excited.

I picked up a three-pronged fork and a butter knife to cut off a small piece. The familiar scent of parsley wafted… huh? There wasn’t really a smell, or at least nothing I could detect. I saw the bits of green and orange intermingled with the egg, but without the aroma, it didn’t wet my palette. That’s a bit disa– no! Can’t be having those thoughts yet; I haven’t even tasted it!

Hopeful that the food had some flavor, I took a bite.

And then, I immediately spat it out.