Chapter 204- Zeus, The Flying Sky Castle (Part 1)
"It's gigantic!" Rin blurted out with shock clear in his eyes.
Even though the castle was high up in the sky, its frame still covered most of the sky, making the whole floor darken completely. As for the castle's appearance, Rin assumed it was a mix of a Japanese and Chinese design he had seen before in games.
It did look quite beautiful, however, the eerie feeling it instilled in Rin stopped him from appreciating this magnificent piece of art.
"It was made that big to simply show the power of the academy and the higher-ups that control it," Emilia explained.
"Well, something this size for only a group of people. Isn't that wasteful?"
"Money and power in the wrong hands and this is what you get," Emilia said as she suddenly looked up as if sensing something coming from afar.
Rin also looked up, only to see a small silhouette flying down toward them on a small stone platform.
"Here he comes, one of the only two guards allowed on that castle. Don't say anything."
"Ok."
When the platform landed on the ground, a man appeared in front of them. He wore huge armor that covered every inch of his body. In his right arm was a huge spear that was at least 9 feet tall.
"The Great Ones have been waiting for you." He said in a deep, husky voice.
'Hm, this isn't that guy named Letum. Still, my chance to meet him has now finally come. I won't let it go to waste. I must extract the truth from him.'
After that, he stepped aside, allowing Rin and Emilia to step on the platform. After that, they started flying up slowly as if they were in an elevator.
'What could there even be inside this castle? 1000 rooms, maybe more?'
The platform reached the entrance to the castle soon after. When Emilia and Rin landed there, what welcomed them was a giant gate with a long stretching wall that surrounded the castle and linked at that exact point.
"Follow me." Saying that, the man started walking without waiting for a response.
"Keep close to me," Emilia whispered in Rin's ear which made him nod in acknowledgment.
The gates opened slowly the moment the guard approached them as if they specifically waited for him. Inside, a mesmerizing garden stretched far and wide like a forest filled with exotic trees and plants and even animal life.
"This is the Entrance Garden." The man said briefly as he walked through the passage in the middle of the garden heading deeper into the castle.
'Entrance garden?! So there are more gardens this size or even bigger around?' Rin almost coughed from sheer absurdity.
The garden was gigantic, way bigger than anything he had ever seen and yet it was merely put at the entrance. How extravagant were these higher-ups? He asked himself.
The journey through the garden took almost 15 minutes at walking speed. At the end of it, they found another gate similar to the one at the entrance however this one led to the castle itself.
"Welcome to Zeus." The man said announcing their arrival.
The inside of the castle was massive from the rooms to the ceiling and even the chandeliers hanging from up there. Rin felt as if he was a dwarf discovering the world of giants. There was nothing that wasn't luxurious or expensive looking at first look.
'... This is more overwhelming than I expected.' Rin thought with a frown.
The place was too shiny and perfect to be the place where he wants to live. There was no sense of familiarity in it as if it was a piece of art rather than a real place.
As they stood there, admiring the place, a maid approached them with a stoic expression on her face.
"Miss Emilia. Please follow the maid, she will guide you to the lounge where you can relax for the time being. As for Mr. Rin, please follow me." The guard said.
"..." Emilia was hesitant at first but Rin quickly tapped her shoulder as a sign of reassurance.
Finally, she took a deep breath and walked away with the maid. That left Rin alone with the guard as the two continued walking away, going up along the staircase.
The corridors on the second floor were as vast and complicated as Rin thought. A place this size could never be simple to navigate.
However, the guard easily found his way through clearly showing how familiar he was with the place.
Eventually, the trip finally ended in front of a particular door.
"The Higher-Ups are waiting. Please, show respect and don't do anything that might require me to resort to unwanted measures."
'Hm, a threat, huh?' Rin thought as he didn't reply and simply opened the door and walked inside.
'Hm, it's dark.' The door closed behind Rin as he was submerged in darkness.
Then, out of the dimness, a voice spoke, surprising Rin.
"We have been awaiting your arrival, Rin Silvereye."
"Uh... I can't see anything."
"You aren't allowed to see us and don't ask for it either." Another voice replied that had a similar tone but a different sound to it which indicated that it was a different person.
"Sure. Can I ask why I was invited here?" Rin said as he looked around warily.
"We have heard about all the things that happened. You do like to be in the limelight, don't you?"
"What can I say? Trouble follows me wherever I go." Shrugging his shoulders, Rin didn't want to comment much on the topic.
He was basically a walking bad omen as no matter where he went, trouble will follow suit. That's something he grew accustomed to as time went on.
"That trouble yours caused us a lot of problems. We had to keep the people calm even though danger is lurking in the shadows around us."
'There are no shadows here, though. The room is dark as hell.'
"My apologies for the inconvenience. However, I did what I assume is the best possible thing for the academy which is to kill that demon. Am I not supposed to be praised for my action?"
"It is indeed worthy of praise. However, we all know that you aren't that naive to believe that we invited you here for that reason. Since we did hear some rumors here and there about you."
"Yes, rumors... Ones that link you to our enemies in more ways than one."
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