The following days, the excitement did not subside, and the number of people willing to have lunch at the café only increased. The twins kept coming up with new outfits for the girls. Having lost hope of becoming popular with the customers, I moved to the kitchen. My contribution was minimal, but at least I managed to kill some time.
During all these days, Katrina didn't show up again. It seemed she took this matter very seriously. I myself became curious about how extensive the secret passage could be, considering Rumy's words about doors leading to different parts of the continent.
On the 22nd, after lunch, we closed the café and announced that we were taking a break until the New Year. Of course, the regular customers were disappointed, but Vivien promised them new costumes for the girls after the holidays.
"Guys, I'm getting worried about Katrina. She hasn't shown up for so long," even Kurone started worrying about our princess.
"Yeah, I thought she would at least visit us from time to time. What an irresponsible GM," Ragni tried to hide her concern behind sarcastic remarks.
"Well, if you're all so concerned, let's pay her a visit. Just keep in mind that her room is quite small, so only a few of us should go," I suggested.
"I want to go," Kurone volunteered first.
"A-a-and I'll go too, just to find out what she's been doing all this time," Leira couldn't leave the princess alone, of course.
"I'll join you as well. I'm worried about Kat," Seleria said, cunningly approaching me and whispering in my ear, "You know something, Krito, I'm right, aren't I?"
"Well, Katrina is preparing a surprise for everyone, but perhaps she needs our help to finish it," I replied.
"Hehe, I knew you guys had something up your sleeves."
I led the girls to the clock tower. At first, they didn't understand why we came here, but when they saw the large room on the top floor, everything became clear. As usual, the room had plenty of space, except that Katrina brought a couple of writing desks here, cluttered with some papers.
I even thought that the pile of papers moved slightly. But on closer inspection, it was a person sleeping at the desk under a pile of documents.
"Oh, here's Katrina."
"Lady Katrina!!" Leira rushed to the princess at full speed, but upon seeing her peacefully snoring face, she stopped and said, "She's just sleeping, although usually, the princess wakes up early in the morning."
"Looks like she's been working hard these days and didn't get enough rest."
I examined the scattered papers on the table; there was that map I saw when I first spoke to Katrina. She hadn't touched it; nearby lay another map, more like a small plan. It depicted a corridor with numerous doors, each door marked with symbols and notes. It seemed Katrina had managed to traverse the entire path and created a detailed scheme of it. Various maps of the continent, countries, cities, and detailed maps of the Academy were also spread around. All the maps had markings with the same symbols as the plan; evidently, she wanted to mark the exits on the maps. However, the scale of this endeavor astonished me. Some exits led far beyond the boundaries of the Academy – 14 to Leran, 12 to Nordrune, and even 38 across Verania. In total, there were 118 passages on the plan, with three of them marked only with crests, without explanations. Katrina had managed to explore them all, find out where they led, and provide detailed descriptions. As always, she didn't know when to stop.
"Krito, what is this?" Kurone also noticed the papers over which Katrina fell asleep.
"This is the 'Wanderer's Path'. Katrina wanted to give you all a map of the passage tonight. It seems she only managed to start making the first copy."
"That would be great, like a little secret just for us," Leira smiled sweetly and leaned against the sleeping princess.
"Wow, it would be so cool to move around the Academy like this," Ragni studied the plan, and her mouth watered a little, "Hehe, there's even a passage to the pantry of our kitchen."
"Ragni, you only think about food," Seleria tapped the dragon girl's forehead, "but I wonder who convinced her to do this?"
The girls all turned to look at me.
"Well, okay, I came up with the idea, but I didn't know she would be so zealous, and are you just going to stand there or help finish the maps?"
The girls exchanged glances and smiled, then got to work. We laid Katrina down to sleep in the bed and took our seats at the tables. Ragni's handwriting was quite clumsy, so we assigned her to sketch the plans since she could draw the symbols on the doors flawlessly. We added all the information Katrina had written - not only the names of the places she visited but also some details about nearby attractions, what food could be found nearby, and what to be wary of. Katrina took this task very seriously, and the world map contained all the locations of the exits, along with small maps of the cities to which the passage led. It took us a lot of time, but by eight o'clock, we managed to finish.
"Girls, I think it's time for you to leave. It'll be better if this remains a surprise for you. Gather everyone in the guild, including Asura. They were supposed to prepare a festive dinner for us, as I requested. Let them pack everything to take with us; we'll have a picnic in the most unusual place."
"Booo, do you want to take all the credit for our efforts?" Ragni frowned disapprovingly.
"I want Katrina's gift to be successful. You don't want to disappoint her, do you?"
"Mmm, fine! But pray that the dinner turns out great."
The girls left, and I sat next to Katrina, hoping she would wake up soon.
"Wow, I had a nice little nap, but I still need to finish things!" The sleepy princess yawned deeply as she got up from the bed. "When did I manage to lie down on the bed?"
And only now did the princess notice the guy who had been following her.
"AAA!! What are you doing here, Krito!?!"
"I came to help a very responsible princess finish her gift. Don't you know that today is the 22nd, eight in the evening?"
"AAA!! I won't finish in time!"
Tears welled up in Katrina's eyes.
"Oh, oh, princess, don't worry, I've already finished everything. You did quite a lot of work. And I understand you marked the exit locations on the map?"
"Yes, surprisingly, the passages led much farther than I had expected."
"Get ready; everyone is waiting for us in the guild, and don't forget the gift."
"Thank you for your help. We need to hurry if we want to see the fireworks," Katrina hesitated a bit, "but give me a little more time."
At nine, the princess finally finished the preparations, and we looked out of the window. The students were getting ready for the holiday. Although it was customary to celebrate the holiday with family or friends, many chose to have picnics outdoors, often limited to couples - boy-girl pairs. It was not hard to guess that on this night, many were eager to make a romantic confession. Moreover, the best fire mages of the Academy planned to arrange a colorful fireworks display, which promised to be very beautiful.
"Through the streets or through the passage?" I asked Katrina.
"Well, I don't know..."
"There are so many lovey-dovey couples out there..."
Katrina noticeably blushed at my remark.
"Then let's go through the passage."
"You really embarrassed the princess."
"Za-za-zamolchi and go already!" Katrina got angry and pushed me toward the passage.
A couple of minutes later, we found ourselves in the guild's basement. To avoid a repeat of the previous situation, we left the basement open and hung a couple of lamps there. When we went upstairs, everyone was already assembled.
"Katrina, Krito, you took so long! I almost ate everything without you!" Ragni was the first to protest.
"Well, I never doubted your impatience, let alone your appetite."
Ragni snorted, but she wasn't angry with me.
"Katrina, we were so worried about you. Sorry for leaving you behind when everyone went to help at the café," Asura worried again about the princess.
"It's okay; I had time to prepare a gift for you all!" Katrina happily handed out rolled-up sheets with the plan and gestured for me to hang a large map of the continent on the wall.
"What's this?" Asura started examining the plan, reading the inscriptions.
"This is the map of the 'Wanderer's Path', which stretches under the entire continent and the Academy. I marked all the exits on this map; you can take a look. I want it to be something that unites us as a guild and as friends."
Everyone looked with interest at the plan and compared it with the large map, except for Asura, who looked displeased.
"Katrina, I'm sorry, but I can't accept your gift. We're not one guild, and I don't want to unite. So take this back."
Asura wasn't angry, but this gift seemed to offend her for some reason.
"No! This is my gift to you and your comrades, even if we're not one guild, I still hope we are friends!" Katrina looked straight into Asura's eyes. "I made this personally for each of you, and no one will take away your map!"
Katrina flipped the map and pointed to a small drawing in the corner of the parchment. The drawing looked more like a child's artwork, a bit disproportionate, but one could recognize the outlines of a girl with long hair in a kimono. Her eyes were closed, and she had a slight smile as she reached for the katana at her waist. Apparently, it was a miniature version of Asura.
Everyone immediately looked at the back sides of their plans. Each one featured an image of its owner, drawn through Katrina's eyes. All the drawings had disproportionately large heads and small bodies, but they looked quite amusing. Ragni was depicted, directing a large cookie towards her open mouth. Seleria winked playfully, crossing her arms under her ample bosom. Rizel... looked one hundred percent identical, holding a scythe of the same shape instead of a staff. Algo waved his hand with a wide smile, while Leyra shyly smiled and looked away. I stood alone with two blades stuck into the ground next to me, and according to the drawn snoring above my head, I was asleep.
"So that's what you were doing for the past hour?"
"Yes!" Katrina beamed with joy. "I wanted to make a personalized map for each of you!"
"Well, you did great," and my remark couldn't help but bring smiles to everyone present. "Asura, are you still going to refuse?"
For a second, tears of joy gleamed in the warrior's eyes.
"No, I'll accept the gift, but it doesn't mean I'm joining your guild."
Asura looked a bit flustered, but she accepted the map from Katrina.
"I want to hang this large map in our guild, and everyone will now have a small plan of the passage with my notes. Let's go inside, and I'll explain what they mean."
We descended to the basement and found ourselves in the familiar corridor.
"This is our door in the center of the map; I named it 'home', as Krito mentioned."
"So our home is right in the middle of the passage, how convenient."
"Hmm... Not that it's in the middle. In fact, there is no middle of the passage. If you keep going in one direction, you'll just end up back here."
Everyone looked surprised and turned to the one standing behind them – Rumy.
"Okay-okay, I'll explain, even though I don't fully understand it myself. Brother created a closed space here; the entrance and exit are directly connected through spatial distortion, so a person won't notice the transition, no matter how hard they try. At the same time, the passage remains completely straight without any curves," and only after saying all this, Rumy let out a sigh, "phew, I think I said it all."
"In short, the corridor is just closed at both ends, so you won't get lost here. The main thing is to know where to exit; there are doors here leading to very hot or cold places, so you need to be prepared for that. Although next to our door, there are only passages within the academy. I noticed that each door has symbols on it, probably in the same language Krito spoke about, and I redrew them on the plan, so you won't confuse them."
"Katrina, you've done so much, thank you so much."
"Oh, no, you guys, I still couldn't figure out how to open three doors with the family crests of my family, the ruling houses of Nordrune and Leran."
"Well, that's simple; they lead to the basement of the royal palace of each country, and they lock from the other side, so, of course, you couldn't open them," Rumy chimed in again, "these passages were created as emergency exits for the king in case of an attack on the castle, though they were never used."
"It's truly a wonderful gift; thank you," Asura blushed a little.
"So, you guys take a look around the passage, and I'll set the table with Katrina in one interesting place you'll definitely like. Don't enter the same door we do. Let it be a surprise," I took Katrina's hand and disappeared into one of the rooms, where Asura and Levris had prepared everything for us.
"Ho-hoo, decided to have some alone time..." Seleria smirked, "Well, let's give them some time. In the meantime, how about visiting my place? Or maybe we'll look at the tops of the icy peaks?"