A/N: Bonus Chapters for the last castle. You guys didn’t think I forgot, did you? Ha! It’s a bit late, but thank you for the super gift.
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After a few hours, the car slowed and pulled up in front of a building.
The driver stepped out, before walking over to open the rear door. They climbed out one after the other, standing on the pavent and looking up.
The building was tall and clean, with large windows running up its face like a skyscraper.
Lukas stood there for a mont, counting the floors. They were fifteen in total.
He pulled out the key card, reading it again. Their apartnt address was the fifteenth floor of the building.
He looked up again, a smile on his face.
"They gave us the penthouse," he said.
Akira tilted her head back, shielding her eyes against the light. "Of course they did. We’re the best contractors they’d ever sign."
lody said nothing, but the corner of her mouth pulled up into a grin.
Lukas thanked the driver, and the car eased away from the curb and back into the street. They turned towards the building and walked to the front door.
It was closed, but set into the surface beside it was a small flat pad, barely raised from the wall. Lukas glanced down at the key card in his hand.
He raised it, then pressed it to the pad.
There was a small click and the door swung open.
"Oh," Akira said. She hadn’t expected that.
lody nodded slowly. "I thought we’d have to do sothing more complicated." She turned the card over in her hand. "So just contact, huh?"
As for Lukas, he was beginning to feel suspicious. It was possible that this new world could also follow the sa developnt route as earth, but what if it was more likely that he wasn’t the only transmigrator?
First cars, then bank cards, and now apartnt key cards? What was next? Airplanes? At this point, he wouldn’t be surprised to hear they had one.
Without any other words, they stepped inside the building.
The lobby was larger than they’d expected. The floor was a dark polished stone, and the walls had been decorated without being excessive.
Chairs sat along one side for anyone waiting. A front desk occupied the far corner, though no one was behind it.
Akira looked around. "Where are the stairs?"
Lukas was already looking across the lobby when he spotted an open fra built into the wall with no door. All it had was a flat platform sitting inside it.
He walked over, his wives following after him.
He stepped onto the platform, and the mont it registered his weight, a panel on the wall beside him lit up. It showed a set of numbers, arranged in a column. One through fifteen.
It was an elevator.
He almost laughed.
lody and Akira stepped on behind him. They both studied the glowing panel, then the walls of the elevator shaft above them, then each other.
Lukas pressed fifteen.
The platform rose.
lody grabbed his arm, and Akira grabbed his other arm. Neither of them said anything, but both of them held on as the lobby floor dropped away below them and the shaft walls moved past in a smooth, continuous climb.
The elevator slowed, then stopped at the fifteenth floor with a soft sound, and the opening appeared in front of them.
They stepped off into a short corridor. At the end of it was a single door.
lody let go of his arm and walked ahead of him.
"Let ," she said in excitent, already reaching into her spatial ring.
She pulled out her key card, stepped up to the pad beside the door, and pressed it flat against the surface.
The click ca imdiately.
lody pushed the door open, took one step inside, and stopped.
Then she squealed.
The sound echoed down the corridor and probably through half the floor. Akira covered her ears. Lukas winced, but he was already smiling as he followed them inside.
The mont he stepped inside, the first thing he saw was the windows.
They ran the entire length of the far wall, standing from floor to ceiling, and through them the city of Salaria spread out in every direction.
Buildings stretched across the skyline, and far in the distance, with the afternoon sun sitting low and wide over the rooftops. While beautiful, the view was ruined by the fact that a lot of buildings stood taller, breaking the view.
He stood there for a mont, then moved further inside.
The living room was large and open. It had white walls, white tiles, and broad brown couches arranged around a low table.
The light fixtures on the ceiling were bright without being harsh, and the space felt like sowhere that could be lived in, instead of an exhibit.
It was the kind of room that had been put together by soone who understood comfort rather than just expense.
He moved to the side and found the dining room. A rectangular table sat in the center, long enough to seat six, with chairs already tucked in on either side.
The kitchen was behind it, separated by a wide open archway. An island ran down the center, and the counters on either side were stocked with groceries.
He opened one of the cabinets and found it full. He opened another. Also full.
He closed it and kept moving.
Three doors lined the back wall of the apartnt. He opened each one briefly. Three bedrooms, each with its own window and a bed that had already been made up.
The rooms were similar in size, none larger than the others.
Then he noticed a fourth door, set slightly apart from the rest.
He opened it to find a study.
The room was quieter than the rest of the apartnt. A large desk sat near the window, with a wide comfortable chair behind it. Shelves lined one wall, empty for now.
The window behind the desk looked out onto a long straight road that cut between two rows of highrise buildings, stretching far into the distance until it disappeared.
Lukas rested his hand on the back of the chair and looked out.
This was his.
"Lukas." lody’s voice ca from sowhere behind him. "You have to see this."
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