The Gatekeeper Chapter 4- A vague sense of attraction.

I set out in the direction of the scream while clenching my teeth due to the hunger being experienced by my body.

It takes me about 2 seconds to reach the location from where the womanly scream originated from, the scenario in front of me is one that has been depicted countless times by manga authors and animators. There is a girl being surrounded by three men.

Wait, something is wrong here. Contrary to my expectations, they don't appear to be your generic thugs. They have hoods over their heads with their body covered in black clothing. I can also see numerous knives hanging from their clothes. While I observantly gaze at the men and their absurd clothing, one of those thugs thrusts his knife towards the girl.

I enter my hyper perspective mode immediately. The people assaulting the girl resemble the assassins from historical movies. But why would they attack a girl out here in the middle of nowhere?

To find out the reason I glance at the girl in question, and I immediately figure out the reason. She is 'beautiful'. Her face looks like it just came out of a painting made by an artist of the highest calibre. Her beauty far exceeds that of both Gatekeeper-san and Haruki, the two most beautiful women I know. The enticing light-blue hair, which turns into a sweet purple as it reaches her waist, give the lustrous and calming feeling similar to that of the sea waves. Her eyebrows of the same blue colour, and blue-green eyes which sparkle like jewels even with tears welling up in them. A voluptuous and mature body accompanied by slender waist, being no inferior to that of a model. Her skin, pure white, no less than the shiny pearls found at the sebed. She certainly is an impeccable and dazzling beauty, I can see why she would be a target for 'some' people. The knife continues on its trajectory, moving so slowly that it would take hours before even reaching her.

I decide my course of action. I run towards the assailant, grab the knife from his hand and take a distance of about 3 meters from him. I return to the real-time to observe their reaction to the sudden appearance of an intruder.

This will be more interesting than thrashing Nex, I will be up against real assassins.

His hand stops a little distance away from the waist of the girl. But his expectations are betrayed, there are no signs of injury, there is no blood or screaming. He realizes that the knife which he held in his hand has vanished. He asks his companions in a surprised voice.

"What the Hell!!?? Where did the knife go? Why isn't this bitch dead!?"

They all are dumbfounded. They scatter their eyes in different directions, seeking an explanation.

Before anyone notices me, for the sake of intimidation, I say while yawning.

"Is this what you gentlemen looking for?"

I display to them the long and sharp knife in my hand which once was held in the hands of the one attacking the girl.

"Eh. What are you doing here brat? Run along or you'll also be buried with this little piece of shit right here!"

The muscular man declares while pointing to the girl. Looks like they acknowledge the danger I present to them. By the way, in this world I'm technically an adult, hearing someone call me 'brat', really pisses me off.

The angel-like girl with teary eyes looks at me and says in a pleading voice.

"Please escape, these people are professional assassins, you will be killed."

"Huh. Are they now?"

I ask her in a sarcastic voice expecting no answer.

I walk up to the short and thin man, the third assassin, putting up a smiling face, I punch him straight in the gut. I hold back a lot of my power because I don't want to kill a person in front of a girl.

The short man, with a height of about 165 centimeters is blown off by my punch, and is hurled into a wall. With blood coming out of his mouth, he loses consciousness. The two remaining men are frozen by the outcome of the confrontation between me and their ally.

"Captain is… defeated? Just like that?"

The muscular man with broad shoulders and a height of one head greater than mine, said so in a grim voice.

"That guy is the captain? This is truly disappointing."

My mutterings which should've been incomprehensible, manages to find itself in the ears of everyone present because of the deathly silence that followed the fall of the captain.

The girl who finds the outcome unbelievable, just stares at me with widened eyes.

Words don't seem to be coming out of her half opened mouth, the same reaction can be seen on the faces of the two assassins. I broke the silence with a wry chuckle.

"Fufufu. Now then, who else is a professional assassin!?"

I ask mockingly.

""You little shit. You are dead!!""

They really are professionals, such synchronization. They would make for a very good comedic duo.

"Yeah… about that. I ain't gonna die hungry."

Both of them take off from the ground with knives clasped tightly in their hands. To any other human, this would be a terrifying situation, but in my perspective, they are frozen in the air like puppets tied to strings. I kick the muscular one in the shoulder joint, and punch the remaining one in the thigh. I avoid hitting people at the vital points because even a light punch from me, if aimed at the vital spots, can be fatal.

Being pummeled by me in the blink of the eye, the assassins are blasted away and land near their captain in a comical position.

All three assassins are dealt with under 1 minute, and the girl is frozen where she stood. Tears flowing out of her eyes, but I think in contrast to before, her tears now express joy instead of sorrow.

She is way too beautiful, even in this situation, she looks overwhelmingly charming.

"You okay?"

I ask her with a smile on my face, I expect her to be scared of me, so let's use these looks to comfort her.

"Yes, I'm fine. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You just saved my life. But please, do tell me, do you know who I am?"

She isn't scared or anxious at all!

Looks like my smile worked a little too well.

Also, I don't know why, but I can sense a kind of dignified aura about her. She is wearing a very simple set of clothes comprised of a long-sleeved white coloured shirt, a red coloured full-length skirt with sandals which look surprisingly good on her pearly white feet.

"No. I don't. I just entered the capital, I was trying to find my way to the guild when I heard your scream."

"Fuu~"

She sighs in relief after hearing my answer. Looks like she is kind of famous around here. Well, I can see why that would be.

"Ahh. Guild, was it? As thanks for saving me, I'll gladly escort you. And you also mentioned about being hungry, would you mind joining me for lunch?"

Lunch?

Looking around me, I notice that a lot of time has elapsed, it is afternoon right now. That means it has been more than 7 hours since I arrived into this world. My hunger is at its peak. I answered her with an embarrassed face while brushing the back side of my head.

"This is embarrassing, but please allow me to take you up on your kind offer…"

Her face turned red and she averts her eyes from me.

Oh yeah I am an adult now. I can't go acting like a kid and brushing my hair like that.

"Y-Yes! It would be absolutely no problem. Let's get going then."

I took a glance at the location where the assassins were lying unconscious, but they were nowhere to be found.

I know that I haven't mastered my abilities, but escaping without me noticing, they really were professional.

I throw out these thoughts out of my mind, seems like she hasn't noticed that the assassins are gone, her full attention is focused on me.

Let's keep it that way.

"Okay."

We start walking… She takes me in the polar opposite direction in which I was going previously.

She initiates the conversation nervously.

"S-so then, what is your name?"

She looks at me with a red face. Her beauty just isn't earthly possible. I don't know why, but I feel a vague sense of attraction to her.

I answer in a calm and composed voice with a smile on my face.

"Oh! Forgive me for the late introduction. My name is Toru and I am 16 years old."

You would be wondering as to how am I so calm and composed? Well, I look calm and composed to her, while I panic, stutter and embarrass myself in my super processing mode and finally, after calming down, answer her in a composed manner.

I follow up with a question of my own.

"Can I trouble you for your name?"

She panics and waves her hands in the air.

"N-no, it's my bad. My name is Sylvia ... My name is Sylvia, and I'm 16 years old as well. Nice to meet you."

Her once red face now emanates dignity and grandeur. I feel like I didn't just imagine her adding a last name and then stopping. The only thing I can assume right now can be that she belongs to a well renowned family and was a target for assassination because of that.

But this is just my speculation.

I'll have to confirm some more things before confronting her about it.

"Nice to meet you as well, Sylvisan. Thank you for escorting me to the guild. It is very helpful."

"Just Sylvia would be fine."

She says with her face now normal and her body generating Mana which looks very high compared to that of the common folk I came across earlier.

Wait a minute. Those assassins didn't have any mana leaking out of their bodies, and Sylvia didn't leak mana either when I found her. Why can I sense her mana now?

We enter a populated area with a lot of shops and people around, my chain of thought is disturbed by the smell of delicious food being prepared on the small food stalls.

Damn these enhanced senses. I will start drooling if I pay this enticing smell any more attention.

"Smells really nice around these parts, doesn't it?"

Sylvia says while examining the surroundings.

'These parts' huh.

"Speaking of which where do you live, Sylvia?"

She chokes on air, and while coughing, she replies.

"I live *cough* in the commoner's *cough* residential district."

She definitely hails from a noble family.

We make small talk as we enter a well-established restaurant, which is right beside the huge and grandiose adventurer's guild.

Chapter end