Otherworld Adventure

Comparing this super clean city with any of the cities from Earth was literally like comparing a piece of jewelry with a rock. Earth"s cities were filthy. Not many people were aware of keeping the environment clean and healthy.

Even now in Silvaria City, the habit of throwing trash wherever one wanted was starting to surface. If it wasn"t because of the kingdom"s council enforcing the people to keep the environment clean and the penalties that would ensue if anyone was caught throwing garbage wantonly, then Silvaria City would have quickly turned into a pretty unappealing city by now.

As they were walking through the city, Matheus began to notice that people were always coming up to greet Celestina now and then so he couldn"t help but ask her, "You and your family must be pretty respected, Celes!"

"Y-yeah, though it is rather embarra.s.sing..."

"What"s there to be embarra.s.sed about? Everyone comes up to greet you out of respect. I don"t see anyone that came up earlier doing it out of fear or because they were forced to do it. Though, I would like to ask what kind of status does your family hold to warrant such respect!"

Celestina let out a small hint of a smile before answering, "We didn"t do much to warrant any sort of respect. My family only contributes a lot to the Revero Church and we produced a lot of the church"s priests. In this generation, my sister also happens to be the church"s youngest High Priestess."

"The Church huh... Judging from the name of this Kingdom, I knew that it was a.s.sociated with something like a church. Can you explain more about it?"

Seeing his piqued curiosity, Celestina pointed at a nearby building and turned to look at him with expectation.

"Hm?"

When Matheus looked over, he noticed that the building was a cafe. He immediately got her intention and scratched his head awkwardly before clearing his throat in slight embarra.s.sment.

"Ahem, uh, okay, let"s take a break over there and talk," Matheus said before walking towards the cafe.

When he pa.s.sed by Celestina, the girl boldly locked their arms together before walking towards the cafe together. Matheus wasn"t that dense. He already knew that the girl was pretty interested in him and it was the same for him as well.

He remembered Celestina"s father"s words from earlier and decided to just go for it. From back on Earth, he never really was good at getting into relationships. It was hard for him since he was always busy working and attending university lectures or when he was back in school, it was studying and training.

Celestina was still feeling a little bit uneasy when Matheus had stiffened up for a brief moment, but quickly grew relieved once he began leading her towards the cafe without minding her wrapping her arms around him.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot! I still haven"t thanked you for saving my life, Matty."

"What do you mean?"

"You protected me from that demon when he tried to strike me down. Thank you, Matty," Celestina said with a smile.

"I-It was nothing. If you hadn"t jumped in to give me that potion, then I would have been the one to fall. I"ll thank you in turn for that."

"Hehe, it"s nothing."

The two made their way into the cafe and ordered a few things to eat. Celestina began explaining a few things about their kingdom and the Revero Church that the kingdom was affiliated with.

The Revertia Holy Kingdom was built around the Revero Church. As for what the church worshipped, it was the guardian deity of the Midgard Continent. No one knows where it lives at currently, but many suspect that the revered deity was somewhere in the No-Man"s Lands.

Matheus narrowed his eyes when he heard this piece of news. If this was the case, then his kingdom might be situated very close to this deity. Matheus didn"t deny the existence of this deity since his little brother had already personally met with Urrugdrasil"s deity, the World Tree Urrugdrasil.

He only wondered if he"d be fortunate enough to meet with Midgard"s deity. They talked about a few more things while they were eating. A couple of hours later, the two walked out of the cafe and Celestina suggested that they go over to her family"s house.

Matheus agreed because his belongings were there apparently. They walked together along the city"s streets and came to a plaza with a beautiful water fountain situated in the middle. Matheus stopped to watch the spectacle of the water magically dancing in the air before falling back down into the fountain.

It wasn"t something that he"d normally see. Celestina started explaining a few things regarding the fountain. It was a bit of a surprise but it seemed that the fountain had some history behind it. Matheus wasn"t paying attention to Celestina"s explanation because he was a bit entranced to see the beautiful, magical waterworks.

"Matty?"

"Hm?"

"You weren"t listening, were you?"

"Eh? Oh, sorry, I wasn"t paying attention... it"s not every day I see a water fountain like this, you see..."

"Hmmm... well, I wanted to give you something, but you didn"t say anything even after I called out to you for a while..."

"Sorry about that..." Matheus apologized while scratching his head. "W-what did you want to give me?"

Celestina unhooked the necklace that she was wearing and held it out to Matheus, "Will you accept this?"

"Hm? Uhh...okay?" Matheus said as he motioned to take the necklace in her hand. He didn"t see any point in refusing.

"I"ll put it on you!"

"Sure..."

Matheus was about to lean down but Celestina quickly grabbed onto his hand and began wrapping the necklace around his wrist.

"For us women, this is supposed to be a necklace, but for the men, it could be worn as a bracelet!"

"Oh, I see, now that you mentioned it, there were a few pa.s.sersby that were wearing this on their wrist. I didn"t notice that until now."

"Hehe, anyway, thanks for accepting this. You can"t give this back, to me, alright?"

Matheus chuckled and said, "Whatever you say, Ma"am."

"Let"s get going now, Father and Mother should be expecting us soon," Celestina hurriedly said while tugging onto Matheus"s hand and leading him out of the plaza.

Unbeknownst to Matheus, a few people had begun gathering around earlier and were sending him and Celestina a few heartwarming looks. He couldn"t understand the meaning behind the looks.

Before they could even exit the plaza few people who were watching them earlier immediately stepped forward and began expressing their congratulations to her.

���Congratulations, Lady Celestina!"

"We wish you the best, Milady."

"Th-thank you, haha... please, excuse us, we must be going now."

"Yes, please take care, Lady Celestina!"

"We wish you a beautiful future."

Celestina quickly dragged Matheus out of there and bolted in the direction of her house. She even used magic to enhance both of their speeds. Matheus was quite confused now. What did she do that warranted all of those people"s congratulations and well-wishes?

"Hmm... weird..."

Matheus was a bit skeptical about it but thought no further and just kept up with Celestina who was now practically fleeing from the area. When they stopped running and began walking normally again, he immediately began questioning the girl.

"Hey, what happened back there?"

"Huh? What do you mean, Matty?" Celestina asked with a blank face.

"You know what I mean, Celes, why did those people start congratulating you? Did you do something?"

"I-It"s nothing, let"s just head to my house first, okay? We"ll talk about it there!"

"...Sure, whatever you say, Celes," Matheus agreed with a shrug. He didn"t want to press for answers anyway so he didn"t pressure her to explain.

After a few more minutes of walking, the two arrived at the residential district and arrived at a large house. While they were walking through the district, Matheus noticed that there weren"t any mansions, large estates, or anything of the like. All of the houses were similar in size and were only different in design.

Since the kingdom was rather religious, the populace wasn"t really materialistic and more spiritualistic instead.

"Luxuries and the like aren"t really pursued in this kingdom it seems," Matheus thought while nodding in approval.

Celestina opened the gate to her house and quickly led Matheus in. When they were walking to the door, Cecilia suddenly popped her head out from behind it. He eyed the two before looking down at Matheus"s hand, or more precisely his wrist which now had a new accessory wrapped around it.

"!"

Her eyes widened in pleasant surprise and she quickly rushed into the house while hollering, "Mama, Papa, Celes gave her Unity Necklace away!!!"

"C-Ceci!!!" Celestina called out as a blush crept up her cheeks.

Matheus raised his arm and eyed the bracelet on his wrist. He eyed the blushing Celestina and asked, "Celes, was this necklace of yours really important to you?"

"Uhh..."

"Of course it"s important!" Hector answered Matheus"s question as he made his way down from the second floor of the house. His hearing was pretty sharp since he could answer Matheus"s question.

"S-Sir Hector?"

Hector eyed his daughter once before turning his attention to Matheus, "What my daughter gave to you and you accepted is called a Unity Necklace."

"O-Okay?"

"In our Kingdom, when one asks to give their Unity Necklace to someone, it means that they want to be tied together with that person forever. And if that person accepts, then it means that they"ll be bound together starting from that moment."

"Ah, so basically it"s just marriage right?"

"..."

"..."

"..."

Hector, Emily, and Cecilia turned a strange look at Matheus while Celestina blushed even further at his words. It was then that he finally understood the meaning behind Celestina giving him the necklace.

"...Ohh... well s.h.i.t...that wasn"t how I imagined it...instead of proposing I"m the one who was proposed to! Hmmm..." Matheus crossed his arms and slightly frowned.

"Is there a problem, Matheus? Unless of course, you mean to say that you accepted that necklace without knowing the true purpose behind it and want to return it to its owner?" Hector said with a flat tone before he eyed his daughter.

Celestina only looked away and this caused Hector to let out a tired sigh. He was prepared to give Matheus a few words but the young man quickly spoke up before he could lecture him.

"Huh? Oh, no way, I"m keeping this. Celes gave it to me after all, and I promised her that I wouldn"t give it back to her."

"Eh...okay?"

"Hmmm, it"s just that... it wasn"t really how I imagined things... Man, do the people in this world just settle down like that once they find a partner they love?"

Matheus mumbled the latter half to himself. Celestina was rather glad to hear him say that he wouldn"t give the necklace away or return it to her.

"So will you accept her?"

"...Well, if I"m already wearing this, then I guess I did, right?"

"...Yes, but did you know the purpose behind—"

"No, I didn"t. But if I did, I probably would have still accepted it anyway," Matheus replied with a grin. "We only met a month ago and we still don"t know much about each other, but I think we can use the rest of our lives to do that, right?"

Hector eyed the young man before him and didn"t know how to judge him. He only shook his head and said, "My daughter is normally not this rash and impulsive, but I guess there"s a first for everything."

"Hehe, congrats, big sis, looks like you found your better half pretty quickly!" Cecilia happily said.

"T-thanks..." Celestina turned to Matheus and said, "Sorry for tricking you, Matty..."

"It"s nothing, like I said earlier, even if you told me the purpose of the necklace, I would still have accepted it."

Celestina smiled brightly at his words. Hector rolled his eyes and waved his hand at the two, "Hurry up and come in. We can talk more inside and please stop flirting in front of us. You two can do that later..."

Matheus awkwardly laughed at his remark and entered the house. Cecilia couldn"t stay however because she had to head back to the Church.

They talked for a bit inside the house and Matheus learned about the true meaning behind someone gifting their Unity Necklace to another from Hector and Emily. It didn"t mean marriage but more like engagement.

The two people would stay together for a year before deciding on whether or not they were suitable for marriage. If they were suited with each other, then the necklace would have to be brought to the church and the priests would split it into two pieces that would then be used as the symbol of the couple"s marriage and hold a matrimonial ceremony for them.

Since this was the case, Matheus felt a little bit more relieved. He wouldn"t have any explanations once he came back home to his family, but now he can explain to them that he went out to find a wife and therefore he was late.

His father would probably laugh it off but his mother would most like be furious because she was left out and would immediately start asking for explanations. She had missed Cecil"s marriage to his two wives so their mother didn"t want to miss any more of her children"s important events.

"I don"t mind spending a year with Celes before we decide to tie the knot. It"ll give us some time to learn more about each other, but I do want to ask if it"s okay if she left with me?"

"Are you going somewhere, Matheus?" Celestina"s mother, Emily, asked.

"Yes, I have to return home. I wasn"t supposed to be away from my family for this long, but then I happened to stumble upon Celestina"s party and helped escort them all the way here. Although I would like to stay a while longer, but I really should head back."

"I see... Well, if that"s what you want, then it is up to you. As for whether Celestina will go along with you, that depends on whether she wants to or not," Hector simply replied.

"I want to go with Matty—uh, I mean, with Matheus..."

Seeing that their daughter wanted to go, Emily immediately stood up and went to the second floor while Hector turned to Matheus and asked, "...When will you be going?"

"Tomorrow, I guess. It"s quite urgent that I get back home. There"s something very important that I have to attend to."