"This is a weightless bag from our garments department. You should feel no weight at all," Madam Arizona said, handing me the luggage bag.
I took it, and for a while, I looked at her, confused.
"Everything you asked is in there sir," she explained as she caught my confused gaze.
I lowered the bag and unzipped it just to confirm what she was saying.
"Holy... it's true," I swore, still confused.
Even the shape of the bag was enough to tell you it was loaded, but the moment you picked it up, it felt like you were scooping up air.
"Our emissary departments use a variation of this during long missions to far realms. This way, they carry a lot of food and clothes without feeling any weight at all. This one belonged to me... when I was... you know."
"It's perfect," I said, beaming at her. "This will save me a lot of trouble, especially since I am walking to my destination. Thanks a lot, Madam Arizona."
"It's the least I can do sir."
I nodded before zipping the bag and turning to leave.
This would really eat a lot from my brainpower. I mean, it was so light that I had to constantly remind myself that I was carrying something, or else it would just slip away unnoticed.
The climb up the flight of stairs that opened to the main entrance was not as long as the descent . Maybe because the hotel reasoned that if you had managed to access the dungeons, then someone had to have brought you in since it was almost impossible to escape the twisted staircase without help.
Reaching the top of the staircase, the solid wall before me slid open, and I stepped into the room that just the previous day had been a source of shock after shock.
"I was almost beginning to think you found another route out."
I almost yelped at the sudden voice. Octava was glaring at me from the other end of the small room.
I had been so unaccustomed to being the biggest thing around here that I had quickly forgotten that had changed. Octava made me look like a dwarf.
"Yeah... had to pack a few things."
He didn't even glance at the bag or ask what. He just approached the door, and it swung open.
'Yeah... he was definitely more powerful than Maya,' I thought to myself. She had to fling her limbs to get that door open.
I followed him outside to the wide hotel entrance. I took a huge breath of the fresh air and sighed.
This was the first time I had stepped out of the hotel since yesterday, but for me, it felt like I was stepping out after years.
Suddenly my view of everything had changed, and even the picturesque environment of the hotel no longer had that awe effect on me. Now everything around here paled in comparison to the mission I had been bestowed with.
"Just walk towards it and it will open for you," Octava said.
I stared at the daunting gate ahead. "What about when I return?"
"What of it?" the huge guy grumbled like he couldn't see the point behind the question.
"What I mean is, I tried it once from the other end. It didn't open right away. I think it was Maya who opened it for me."
Now he briefly glanced toward me.
"Well, you weren't the caretaker then."
That made sense. That only a caretaker could open the gate... wait.
"What about you... can you open it? I mean, now that you are my assistant?"
He nodded grimly. "But you will get a prompt to approve or deny."
Even though he wasn't being hostile, he didn't seem to appreciate our little chat, so I stepped out of the entrance to the neat walkway.
Then I stopped as I suddenly remembered the group of girls taking pictures outside. I turned back to Octava, who was now towering above me from the raised porch.
"Will anybody see me walking out?"
Once again, he nodded, bored. "Everyone can see you walking out," he said, turning back toward the small door. "That is where the lying game begins kid."
I watched the door shut behind him with a thud. Being called a kid at twenty-four years was not something I appreciated. However, coming from a guy over two hundred and fifty years old, well... what could I say.
Also, I could understand his anger toward me. I mean, he had explicitly told me he needed rest after being Maya's assistant, but I had forced the position back on him.
I had my reasons though.
Maya was my preferred choice. The reason was that I needed someone who had experienced this in the current times. Just like Octava had said, this game changed quite a lot in a short time, and so did the players. Maya would have been ideal, but having refused, Octava was the next choice since he had served beside her.
Not to mention, if Maya had trusted him, then why shouldn't I? He seemed like a man who got the job done, grumpy or not.
Turning away from the hotel, I rushed toward the gates. True enough, I was almost upon it when it rolled open, and I quickly stepped out.
To my total shock, there were indeed several people near the hotel's entrance. Some who were even just passing by stopped to stare as the gate rolled shut behind me.
I felt like I was an imposter in a Hollywood red carpet event.
I mean, it was common knowledge that Midstreet gates rarely opened. That in itself had been the reason for the many conspiracy theories that had been made trying to explain the reason for its secrecy.
But in just two days the gates had opened for me. To anyone who may have noticed, that put me in the same light.
It seemed people had forgotten their manners as they stared openly. I tried to ignore them, but clearly, someone seemed to have had enough.
"Hey... excuse me."
I turned to see one of the girls who had been taking pictures yesterday when I had arrived. She was probably among those who had yelled after me as soon as the gates opened.
I tried to ignore her while speeding up, but she was literally running after me, and she wasn't alone. A few others were with her as well.
"I know you... we saw you go in yesterday," she said as they caught up with me.
I gave up losing them.
"Well, that is hardly the definition of knowing someone."
I turned around to find they already had phones out.
'Oh shit... I would probably be trending by nightfall.'
"Do you work here? I mean, we have literally never seen anyone coming from those gates... except you?"
She smiled as if she had caught no hint in my hostile voice.
Suddenly Octava's words came back to me. "Now the lying game begins."
But I really didn't have to lie. Yes, I couldn't tell them even if I wished to. There were, however, many ways to package information such that you weren't lying nor revealing anything. The truth was already too strange that they would not believe it anyway.
"Yes, I work here... but on a contract basis."
And I turned and fled across the streets.
May God help me when I return.