Mia had already known the correct answer, so it wasn't exactly something for her to ponder over. However, the actual question wasn't something she had heard clearly until now.
"...Neither."
Knowing what the answer was made the question seem completely different to her. Mia wouldn't have answered this way if it wasn't for her prior knowledge. She thought it was simply a question that was rigged with an obscure answer.
In response to her question, the androgynous person holding onto the masks stopped for a moment. Then, they suddenly lost their cheery stance, relaxing their muscles and letting their arms fall to their side.
And in the process, taking off the mask and revealing the face.
It was a woman with a gruesome wound at the top half of her face, replacing her forehead and nose with red and purple flesh. Her eyes remained all the way open not by choice, but because she didn't have any eyelids to close them.
"Correct. After all, you can't buy anything with kindness or family. You need money."
Her voice had grown quite deep and spiteful. Though that spite wasn't directed toward Mia. She reached out with a hand and pushed against the wall, causing it to move aside, creating a door to another hallway.
Mia looked down the hallway before looking at the tester.
"Is that... really what you think?"
The woman stared at her, taking her time to reply.
"It is simply the truth, whether you want to believe it or not. If you don't understand now, then you will either die believing the lie or live long enough to know the truth. Value can be imposed by an individual onto the immaterial, but that does not change their objective value."
She spoke as though it was an obvious fact like two plus two was four. Mia opened and closed her mouth a few times, but in the end, wasn't able to argue back. When she thought about it, the reason she wasn't welcome in the first place was indeed because of money.
Perhaps that really was the right answer.
The more that Mia thought about it, the more sense it made. She gave a small nod.
"I guess you're right."
The woman nodded in turn before looking forward once more, standing like a statue. Mia decided not to linger and continued down the hallway. Like last time, it was a short walk before she reached the next section.
This one led to a very open area, unlike the first two. There was a fairly wide path down the center that led to a staircase up. But in the way, there was a familiar oscillating set of cubes with glyphs on top of them.
Although she was told the solution, it wasn't a big deal since she had already done a puzzle awfully similar to this. Within a minute, she finished the entire thing, causing it to pulse. It floated upwards, no longer blocking the path, and revealed a set of doors behind it.
Though unexpectedly, two more cubes showed themselves on either side. They were not blocking the path but were still available to solve. Mia was a tad bit confused but decided that she might as well do them anyway.
The solution was partially based on the solution of the original cube, a pattern she was quite familiar with, and thus solved it rather quickly. A clear feeling rushed through her head, similar to the time when she first solved them.
She took in a deep breath simply out of the satisfying feeling.
Then, she walked towards the doors confidently.
...
When Jack suddenly found himself in the room with four doors, he only looked around briefly before excitedly running towards the hearts one. Once he pushed through without the tiniest hint of caution, he was exposed to a large field of flowers, surrounded by a white picket fence.
However, when he turned around, to his dismay, the door disappeared.
"Eh? Wait, I still wanted to see all of those!"
Jack clearly had not put a lot of thought into his actions, even if there wasn't much for him to conclude given the lack of information. He pouted for a little while, but let it go very quickly. With a smile, he looked curiously at each of the flowers around him and even at some of the blades of grass despite the fact they were essentially the same as any other.
"Ooh~"
He inspected them curiously for a long time, moving between them. They were something unfamiliar to him, such a vibrant and striking color compared to the dull color of gravel and rock.
"Are these flowers?"
He tilted his head to the side, thinking for a few seconds. Then, after realizing it was too much effort to think, he began running in circles around the flowers, just appreciating how they felt as they brushed against his legs and how colorful everything around him looked.
With a bright smile, he giggled while running around the place.
As he was doing so, a girl curiously peeked at him from a distance, raising her head just above the flowers before ducking down again. Her eyes had glimmered with curiosity, but her actions were filled with cautiousness.
Eventually, Jack let himself fall into the bed of flowers, just staring up at the sky for a while.
After sitting there in silence for a little while, he eventually caught sight of a little girl peering at him from above rather curiously. She had long brown hair and emerald eyes. There appeared to be a large number of flowers in the back of her hair, but upon closer inspection, one would notice that they were growing out of her head and even back, the roots spreading out in her scalp and skin.
Though that didn't seem much of a concern to her as she appeared rather casual about the whole thing.
She sheepishly waved at him with a shaky smile.
"H-Hi there."
Her voice was incredibly soft, the kind that came from a person who rarely ever talked at all. Jack quickly sat up, waving back energetically.
"Hello! My name is Jack, what is yours?"
The girl interlaced her fingers together and averted her gaze ever so slightly.
"M-Mari."
Jack raised his hands in the air.
"Mari! Do you want to play with me? What kinds of games do you like?"
She curled her shoulders forward and uncomfortably twirled his body from side to side like she had her first crush. In the end, Mari didn't give any response, which made an awkward silence spread out between them.
Jack tilted his head to the side curiously.
"Do you not know any games?"
Mari shook her head from side to side.
"I... am not supposed to play any games. But we can still do other things together."
Jack let out a small gasp, putting a finger on his chin as he frowned slightly.
"Eh? You can't play?... Ok then. What other things are there?"
Mari placed her hands together almost like she was trying to pray.
"You need to be strong in the next test, there will be flowers that hurt you a lot. You need to go as fast as you can before any flowers can latch onto you and grow from your body. After that, you have to convince the old man to let you pass. I can try to help you, but I'm not sure that he will listen to me. I'm not too sure, but I think he will like it if you talk to him about flowers, he probably will enjoy it."
Jack scratched the side of his head before nodding.
"Ok, then let's do it!"
Mari wore a concerned expression.
"Are you really ready?"
Jack let out a giggle.
"I'm really really ready!"
Mari took a deep breath, almost like she was the one who was going to take the test instead of him.
"Alright, it's happening right now."
She waved her hand, causing all the flowers to seemingly shiver. The white picket fence on one side dropped down into the ground, revealing a long path that consisted of many swaying flowers that appeared rather innocuous. Though from Mari's warning, it should've been quite clear that they weren't to be underestimated.
However, Jack didn't seem to register any of that and leisurely skipped into the pathway.
"Ok, let's go!"
And just as he raised his hand in excitement, he saw that his arm suddenly disconnected from the rest of his body, making for a rather awkward start.