Clue

Ubel was following after the maid as she led him towards the place that will become his living space for a while.

On the way there, he looked at his surroundings and noticed various things about the castle.

He saw statues, probably belonging to the previous lords. He also saw a gorgeous fountain around which a few children were playing.

On the top of the fountain was a statue of an extremely beautiful woman. She was depicted with an extremely long robe and her hands in front of her chest, which were clasped. Her eyes were closed.

He recognized this statue as the famous Goddess of Humanity, Izal. It seems that she was worshipped in the Ruthergett territory.

Religion in the Gredia Empire was quite loose, something most people wouldn't expect from the usually strict empire.

People were free to believe in whatever god they wanted to, with a few exceptions. Though, from what he remembered, the Emperor, or at least the one he knew, was not religious.

In this world where Gods were proven to exist, though mortals could never truly understand as to what exactly they were, it was rare for someone to not believe in any of them.

Well, he was one of the most powerful men in the world, who was worshipped as a god himself by some people, so it was kind of understandable.

Ubel himself was not religious either. Though, some of his family kept up a façade of faith. He remembered one of his step-mothers praying and crying while looking at the rest of her so-called 'sisters' trying to kill each other.

She was a pretty weak-willed woman, so maybe only her faith kept her going. If you looked at it like that, maybe religion wasn't so bad.

Not his father though. That man had always been truthful with his desires and beliefs.

They arrived in front of a door, which they entered.

It was a luxurious room, with a king-sized bed in the middle, shelfs on the left and a big desk on the right. It had big bathroom included too.

"This is your living quarters. It has already been cleaned and will be cleaned regularly. For now you should rest for a little, you should be tired from the journey. Further instructions will be given to you after dinner." The maid instructed Ubel.

"Then, please excuse me." She bowed and left.

Ubel inspected his new room for a little more, before sitting on the bed. It was pretty comfortable.

Not something he wasn't used to, though.

Then he fell back on the bed and looked at the ceiling as he thought about his situation.

'What on earth happened that led to my current situation? My last memories are me going to bed after completing my plan for the tournament that I was going to sign up for.'

'There are things I recognize, such as the Gredia Empire, which is my home country, the Noble House of Ruthergett and other various things, but there are things that differ too. For example, the Ruthergett were only Barons and the head was certainly not William and he didn't have a daughter.'

'Am I in some kind of a parallel universe?' Ubel pondered.

He had used the information he knew that beast tides often occurred near the territory of Ruthergett to explain his background, so he could only hope it was still correct, if they decided to investigate him. Which he was sure William would do, otherwise he would be a very incompetent leader.

'And the most important thing is that I am older than I remember, plus the strange vision I had when I woke up in that bloody city...' He then widened his eyes.

'Right! The bloody city. That should be the biggest clue to what happened. I need to investigate that place.'

The young man then sighed as he stretched.

'I will have to do that, but that will be left for later . First I need to investigate this world. I can't draw a conclusion where I am from what little information I have. I will need to-'

He couldn't finish his train of thought as he was interrupted by the door opening with a slam.

"Hey, Allen! Let me show you around the city!" Ayla burst into his room with a wide smile.

That surprised him.

He didn't mean the door opening suddenly, though that did surprise him. He meant Ayla herself. The way she carried herself now was very different from his impression of her. She seemed more carefree and lively than what he thought.

However, he did see her for the first time when she was depressed about the calamity she had a vision about. So maybe that was the reason.

Ubel stood up and smiled at her.

"It would be my pleasure, Lady Ayla."

"Then let's go!" She beckoned to him to hurry.

"Yes."