Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

"Before we go," Makary leaned towards the car's doors, ready to leave, only to stop in his tracks and turn his head back towards the rest of us. "Just… leave the talking to me. Just your presence will be enough. And if it will be good for any of you to speak up…"

Makary took a moment to weigh his words.

"Then I will let you know."

With those words in his mouth, Makary pressed the doors open and left the car before holding the doors to let first the girls and then I followed him to the outside. And it was only there, with our view unobstructed by the frame of the car, that we could finally appreciate the magnificence of the world created by the filthy rich.

"Woah…" Madam released a small moan of awe. Her chin moved up as her eyes tracked the tall, glass buildings all around her. And the more she angled her head, the wider her eyes opened.

"This place…" Even Fay, despite her previous exposure to the wonders of this world, was flabbergasted by the simple, straightforward magnificence of human architecture at its peak. "It's both beautiful, but also…"

Thanks to our bond, I managed to notice the conflict of feelings deep in Fay's soul.

Sure, she was astounded by the towers of glass rising high up into the sky… But at the same time, she felt pretty much a shadow of how I felt when I first noticed Irene's presence.

Overwhelmed, oppressed, squashed by the greatness.

I reached out and grabbed her hand and gave it a slight squeeze.

Fay lowered her chin and took a look at my face, rewarding me with a small, grateful smile.

"Guys, stop dawdling," Makary called out while pulling on his suit to straighten its folds. "We need to go."

That was it for the ceremony. And as we weren't here for the sake of tourist amusement, all the gawking and staring quickly found itself on the backburner as we gathered our wits and headed straight for the most impressive building in the area.

On our way to the building… not a single person paid us any excessive attention. While sure, Fay's and Madam's beauty was more than enough to attract a few wandering stares from the salesmen rushing around on the streets, the dark look on Makary's face was more than enough to discourage anyone from approaching.

Soon, we found ourselves passing through the beautiful entrance of the city's magistrate. It was only here when people started to pay us any special attention, the older of the guards hidden all over the place in particular.

By the time we arrived at the reception and allowed Makary to unleash a long string of corporate lingo, a total of five of the higher-ranking security guards of the building positioned themselves around, their younger companions only starting to follow their older colleagues into position.

"I'm sorry, but a meeting with the high council is impossible without a prior verification. And even with it, it would take at least three to four months of waiting for any of the nearest free spots…"

"I understand that it's not within your competence to satisfy my request. I also understand that you are not intentionally trying to make things hard for us. Still, with no hard feelings, I would like for you to call your superior, who hopefully will have the prerogatives to deal with people like me."

Makary's voice was perfectly monotone, deprived of even the faintest hint of emotion. A voice that only a year-long manager in one of the soul-sucking corporations could develop…

Or so I thought, given how I was just witnessing a living and breathing example of a military officer using that kind of voice.

"Sir, win that case…"

Thanks to Makary's well-aimed words, the poor girl at the reception desk didn't take his request personally. And from the looks of things, she was actually happy to satisfy it, given how it would put the responsibility for potentially problematic applicants over someone else's shoulders.

The young woman behind the desk glanced at Makary and Madam a few more times, only ever sparing me and Fay an occasional look. In the end, though, she pressed several buttons on her panel in quick succession before raising an old-style phone's receiver to her ear.

After some chatter that even I couldn't make out from the noise, the girl's face brightened. She put the phone's handle down and raised her face only to beam a huge, professional smile at our group.

"My supervisor will be arriving shortly. In due time, I would like to invite you over to our premium lounge, where you can relax while waiting to be received," the girl uttered out the full formula in a single breath, raising up from her seat and leaning forward only to point towards a set of glass doors just a bit ahead down the main hall.

"We will do just that," Makary nodded his head, "thanks," he added before turning on his heel and moving towards the lounge area.

Without a single word, our trio followed him like ducklings would follow their mother, each and every one of us struggling to maintain our composure for a different reason.

Madam, when faced with the luxurious design of the building's interior appeared to be charmed by it; her eyes almost sparkling as she threw her head around in a desperate attempt to see as much as possible while we walked past.

To my right, Fay was slightly freaked out by the number of people busying themselves with their tasks all over the place, with hardly anyone paying her attention with the exception of the keen-eyed guards.

Lastly, there was me, standing at the center and the bottom of the building where the entire government of the city was located. A building where all the decisions that set the city's course were made.

A place that was so distant to my old safe as were the airports, where the richest of the rich could go to pay exorbitant amounts just for the sake of leisure travel around the fractured world.

I stood in a place where my foot was originally designed never to stand. And yet, rather than feeling overwhelmed, small…

I just felt empty.

'Is that it?' I thought, silently following Makary into the room.

The empty walls are decorated with just some precious type of marble. The worn-down stones of the floor. The impressive, crystal chandeliers basked the whole reception hall with a warm, yellow light…

All of this was extraordinarily… mundane.

'Even Etaria's uniform alone was in a greater taste,' I thought, squeezing my fingers over Fay's hand right as Makary brought his hand to the handle of the doors… Only to stop and take a look back at the reception where we came from.

A moment later, a slight buzz sounded from the doors, finally allowing the man to pull them open and walk inside.

Contrary to the empty lounge, though, we were met with a group of five men leisurely sitting around one end of a nice, relaxing room. In front of them was a long line of desks stacked with all sorts of foods, sweet and sour treats, and whole buckets of ice filled with bottled refreshments.

A welcoming sight, I won't lie… But also an impromptu barrier that kept the part of the lounge where the men relaxed separate from its other half that we just walked into.

"So you knew we were coming," Makary spoke in the same calm and collected voice that he used with the receptionist. "What's all of this ruse for?"

The man in the middle of his own group smiled.

"What, you dislike the city's hospitality?" the man asked with a smile that only grew vicious as he turned his eyes behind Makary's back, to where we waited in silence.

I didn't need to look to my sides to tell what was going on.

After being faced with the magnificence of the earth's architecture, Madam wasn't prepared for all the treats those men prepared. And right now, even if she wanted to hide it, a skilled negotiator could easily see how her attention continued to draw towards the welcoming reception the other party prepared.

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To my other side, Fay managed to put up a better front, sparing the welcoming luxurious repast a mere glance… But failing to treat the bottles of all sorts of expensive alcohol with the same indifference.

Even I struggled not to gawk at the food of the class that I'd never seen before. But again…

A mere chicken hunted back in Fay's world, cooked over a simple fire and sprinkled with just a bit of earth's spices would be more enticing to me than the treats those men prepared. Was it because everything of Earth's origin has long since lost its novelty trait in my eyes? Or maybe…

"Either way, it would be rude for us to bait those lovely women with this sight only to then disallow them from partaking in this feast," the leader of the magistrate welcoming party smiled as he spoke while spreading his arms out as if to invite everyone to the table. "So please, my ladies, do not hold back and enjoy this humble treat from the magistrate."

The man raised his eyes… and turned into the very first person in a while to pay Fay any real attention. A person who looked at her… In a way that rubbed me the wrong way.

"Are they important?" I suddenly asked, ignoring Makary's earlier request not to open my mouth.

"Huh?" Makary turned his eyes and looked at me, genuinely surprised I failed to keep my mouth shut so damn fast. Yet, as he turned his head back to glance at the magistrate people… He shook his head in denial. "No, they are not. Why do you ask, though?"

I turned my eyes away from my sponsor and directed them straight to the leader of the other party.

"Ah, nothing much," I shrugged my shoulders. "If they are not important, then I'm just going to castrate this fucker and watch him bleed out if he dares to look at my woman with those eyes again."