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

Chapter 225: Issue of lookalikes

The work moved a lot quicker than I ever expected.

It all started with me taking a few minutes to convince Makary I wasn't joking. Then, with a few more calls, he called in quite a colorful bunch.

Save for the small incident when the recipient of his call misunderstood the meaning of the 'tools' Makary wanted him to bring, the entire process took merely forty-five minutes.

And in this short time that I've passed filling in Makary on various details either I myself considered important or he asked about, the hangar went from empty and peaceful to crowded and busy.

In the end, Makary called in only twelve of his men, all more picturesque than the other.

Out in the far corner of the hangar, a heavily inked bodybuilder was starting a set of power tools to drill a hole into the concrete floor of the hangar. A thin, feminine man already turned his flame torch and lowered the protective mask over his face as he started to weld two different pieces of metal.

Punk from the bygone era. An unkempt man in glasses and a checkered shirt. A typical bloke one could find in any shadowy gate in the worst parts of the city.

'One hell of an array, are they not?' I thought, watching in silent amazement how this colorful bunch somehow proved to be perfect for the job.

The task of transforming a massive frame into one-fourth of its size was relatively simple. All they needed to do was to add two new sides to cut off a quarter of the original frame…

But to do so, they had to bring over heavy, metal beams, cut them into pieces of the right sizes, weld them at the right angles…

And that was all before even tackling the task of clearing all the rubles that served as the permanently closed backside of the massive hangar!

"We should be done in ten to fifteen more minutes," Makary called out as soon as he lowered the phone from over his ear. "Building up a screen will take two to three more hours, though."

I nodded my head to acknowledge the information before breathing a deep sigh and turning my eyes away from the potential anchor for my permanent gate.

'It's great that things are going rather quick,' I thought, taking in a deep breath to refill my lungs with fresh oxygen.

Quite justifiably, this breath tasted quite bad, given all the dust and dirt kicked up by all the activity within the closed space of the hangar.

'But still…'

Taking a few steps to the back, I reached out and grabbed Fay by her waist before pulling her into a light embrace. I silently rested my forehead on her shoulder, breathing in her faint yet rich fragrance to kill the awful taste of the hangar's dusty air.

"At least now we know what we are up against," I muttered, just loud enough for Fay to hear.

The noises of the power tools, grinders, and flame torches created enough buzz to stop anyone from eavesdropping on our small exchange.

"Aren't you…"

Fay's body trembled within my embrace.

'It's okay…' I thought, pulling the girl a bit closer before slowly patting her back.

But then, my face tensed up for a second. My eyebrows pulled together and my head moved back an inch as if to get a better, wider look at what Fay just said.

"Aren't I… what?" I asked, genuinely lost.

As easy as it was for me to catch Fay's drift, there were still times like this when I simply had no clue what she was going on about.

Assuming we somehow avoided discovery, we managed to pinpoint the culprit of the entire mess with dark aura to just two people. And while I could imagine both Cassie and her bitchy culprit as the villain and or innocent victim…

Heck!

Two over an entire population of the city, that's some nice progress!

'I could understand if she was bothered by the level of our potential opponent, potential schemes laying in wait to explode in our face… But why is Fay's main concern somehow focused on me?'

"Aren't you disgusted?" Fay asked, opting to keep her head slightly lowered, her forehead resting on my chest.

"Fay, I'm sorry but I really can't follow," I hurriedly raised my voice and even took a step back while grabbing Fay's arms and pushing her away, all so I could get a good look at her face, hoping to find the answer to this quandary in her expression.

And yet…

The moment I tried to look Fay in the eye, she raised her hands as if to defend herself, using them to cover her face from my sight.

"That was your ex, wasn't it?" Fay cried out, her palms pressing hard into her delicate face. And the hints of moisture squeezing from underneath her fingers only caused my heart to tear itself in a sudden jerk of pain.

"And she's very likely to be the one behind all of your misery, isn't she?!"

By now, our voices grew loud enough to attract some stares from across the hangar. Yet, while Makary's men and Makary himself spared us an occasional glance, they were ultimately too busy focusing on their tasks to pay much care to my personal affairs.

"Wait, are you worried about how the two of you…"

For a moment, I forgot how to breathe.

This was so fucking obvious, yet so impossibly hard for me to notice in advance!

With how I could hardly spare Cassie a glance, how her general looks and aura declined by a lot since the last I saw her, with how she was merely an ugly parody of the perfection that Fay represented…

In theory, they looked exactly the same, a result of how Fay's human form came to be and how I was still infatuated by that bitch at the time. And yet, in my eyes, they couldn't be any less different. Find adventures at m v lem|p-yr

But this personal distinction of mine was something that Fay, maybe due to our restraint in abusing our bond, could have missed.

With this one piece of puzzle finally fitting in the one, glaringly empty spot of my picture of the situation, I reached out and quickly brought Fay back into my embrace.

And this time, I didn't hold my strength back at all, keeping it at the absolute top of what Fay's human form could withstand.

"Sweetie, I'm sorry, the thing you are worried about," I pulled my upper body back and reached out for Fay's chin, all so I could prompt it up and look right down at her beautiful eyes. "It never even occurred to me, to begin with, that's why I struggled so much to understand your worry."

Fay's body relaxed in my embrace. As she took the initiative and pulled my upper body back close to her face, I could hear her mumbling, "Maybe I should go and look for ways of changing how I look, after all…"

I gulped my saliva down.

For a moment, I imagined Fay suddenly learning how to assume all sorts of different forms…

And amidst all the nostalgia that flashed all over my soul… I could clearly perceive a hint of excitement.

Still, with the issue settled, my thoughts moved back to the crux of the issue.

We now limited the number of suspects of who was behind all of this dark aura in my life. But that didn't change the fact that the culprit… Was simply beyond powerful, beyond any reasonable means to deal with.

And with their level of strength, their acts might not even be born out of hostility. I might've simply fallen victim to some sort of casual plan that my mundane self could never hope to even fathom!

"Hey guys, I hope to break your moment, but it's ready."

Makary's voice pulled me out of the limbo of Fay's softness and my dark thoughts.

Letting Fay go and turning my head to the side, I noted with amazement that the job was indeed done.

Much sooner than even Makary expected and announced.

And more importantly, this time…

I could clearly see the freshly finished frame lit up with the ghostly purple shine of my system.

My guess proved to be correct. And now, all I needed to finally get this gate set and done with...

I took a deep breath and waved my hand as if I was trying to convince a certain trooper that this wasn't the droid he was looking for.

And just like usual, the purple portal weaved itself into existence right where I wished for it to appear. But more importantly...

[The stable gate can be now placed.]

[Please, cross the portal to confirm the placement.]