That night, Maria lied on his bed while staring blankly at the ceiling, as Sky still remains unconscious in the infirmary, Maria is all alone. Thinking of everything that happened in the day, Maria is unable to fall asleep at all. Aside from worrying about all of his friends including Hoshe who just got chased out by Ben, Maria's ears are continuously occupied by a desperate cry of ladies from different ages along with a peal of eerie laughter from a weird feminine but inhuman voice. Those voices are the voices he heard in that botanical garden he went to with Ai and Yuki.
After some meaningless flips on the bed, Maria got up from his bed, he changed into his outdoor outfits, and was about to get out of his room.
"My Lord, it's late midnight right now, are you planning to go out right now?" Suzaku asked as she suddenly appeared at behind of Maria and brushed his slightly messy long hair a bit with her fingers.
"Suzaku... There is something I am concerned about, I need to check it out before I could get any good sleep." said Maria.
"I see. Please let me accompany you, the night can be more dangerous than you could imagine. Especially in Kapis Dimension." said Suzaku as she reached a new strand of ribbon on the table and was about to help Maria tie up his loose long hair.
"It's okay, Suzaku, just leave it like that. I had a bad headache just now. I guess it's better to keep it loose like this." said Maria.
"Oh dear... That wasn't good. Are you sure you want to go out right now?" Suzaku asked, rather concerned.
"Well, I believe the headache would not go away until I got everything solved." said Maria, with a bitter smile as he opened his room's door, and to his surprise, Ai and Yuki waited for him outside his room.
"Maria-chan, are you planning to leave us behind?" said Yuki, who pretend to be a bit angry.
"Yuki-chan! Ai-chan! What are you girls doing at here? Shouldn't you two be sleeping right now?" Maria asked.
"Well, Ai-chan kind of feels uneasy about that murderous intention she felt at the botanical garden this morning, so she wants to check it out before going to bed." said Yuki.
"Ah... Ai-chan, you are my soulmate!" Maria exclaimed in an exaggerated excitement which caused all the ladies including Suzaku to burst into laughter...
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Later, Maria and the ladies once again reached the botanical garden. Just like how the other three saw the garden for the first time, Suzaku is amazed by the view of the garden with the oversized plants, but despite that, she is alerted by some unusual hidden presence in the garden.
"Suzaku, did you sense anything?" Maria asked.
"Mmm... It's a somewhat familiar feeling I had experienced in the past." said Suzaku.
"Does that mean you had figured out about the real identity of the Flower Queen?" Maria asked again.
"Well... I kind of feel like knowing what it is but it's not quite possible since we are in Kapis Dimension right now." said Suzaku, a bit troubled.
"I see... Hmm?... Did any of you smell some really nice scent of some sort of flowers?" Maria asked, rather confused and concerned.
The ladies shook their heads, equally confused.
Suddenly, a thick pinkish mist raised from the ground and covered the whole place within seconds. As all of them were trapped in the mist, they heard some rustling sounds from their surroundings before feeling getting pushed away by some unseen solid objects. However, before they could react to the situation, they felt an intense numbness that quickly spread through their body and slowly lost their consciousness...
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After a while, the mist is slowly fading away. Maria strenuously opened his eyes as he endured the intense pain in his head. As he opened his eyes, he saw Suzaku who looked at him, rather worried.
"My Lord, are you alright?" Suzaku asked.
"Mmm... Kind of." said Maria as he dragged his body up from the grassy ground. Maria looked around and is shocked to find out that they are separated from Ai and Yuki.
"What happened just now? Suzaku, do you know anything about that pink mist?" Maria asked, in a totally different tone than usual.
"I'm not very clear about it, but if I am not mistaken, it's most likely to be a paralyzing mist that emitted by some more advanced 'Yao' to bewitch their preys." Suzaku explained.
"Yao? But I thought they were not supposed to exist in Kapis Dimension." said Maria, a bit confused.
"Mmm... That's what I thought as well. But I certainly felt that special energy emitted by it." said Suzaku.
"I see..." said Maria.
Suddenly, the pain in Maria's head worsened drastically, as if something had exploded in his head.
"Argh!..." Maria screamed in pain and fell on his knees due to the extreme pain.
"My Lord!"
Suzaku is shocked by the sudden occurrence, she immediately held onto Maria and applied soothing magic on him...
*Yao is some sort of monster/jinx in Chinese legend.
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At the same time, Ai is staring at Yuki who is still fast asleep. Yes, fast asleep.
Ai softly poked Yuki's cheek with her fingers to see if she will have any reaction or not. But Ai never expected Yuki to have such a reaction...
"Mmm... Seito-kun, stop kissing me in front of all this crowd... It's embarrassing..." Yuki murmured.
Seeing her reaction, Ai became even more intrigued. She stared at Yuki's lip for a while before staring at her index finger, middle finger, and thumb...
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*Something out of the story
Sky: "Dear readers."
Chris: "Hmm?"
Sky: "This chapter is meant to be released for webnovel.com."
Chris: "Oh! This matter. Yes, if you're reading this chapter on another platform than webnovel.com, know that it's an illegal copy diffused without the Writer's authorization."
Sky: "As what Chris said. Right now, this story is free on the authorized platform, so please read it from authorized platforms as mental support for the writer."
Chris: "Mhm... There are two authorized platforms. One is webnovel.com. And another one is that messy and half-dead Weebly site that she uses for draft and backup... But not recommended."
Sky: "Ah... Haha. Yes, as Chris said."
Chris: "But look out, those scums might change this note to their own website link. So, be cautious.
Sky : "By the way, if the cover page is the old cover page that shows two stickmen, stop reading it, it's cursed and might caused the writer to stop writing."
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