While Aradia was dealing with the contents of the first floor, Clara was assigned the second floor, but Mei too was there
Both were on mutual terms with one another, Clara decided to check out the right side while Mei took the duty of the left side, only, there was a problem... which was the second or third? Who knows, test, which was held there
There were a total of five rooms on the second floor, but none of them were suspicious, each room was neat but dust covered the rooms from the bottom to the top but that was it, there was nothing else, was there..?
There in fact was something else, at first neither of the two noticed but after going in an endless loop for the third time, they caught on
Clara, who was walking on the right side, continued walking forward in a straight line and circled before standing in the left side in front of Mei who had a similar experience just now
"So.."
Clara started, an obvious frown etched onto her face, this was frustrating, very frustrating
"We keep going in an endless loop, yes?"
Mei spoke up, her voice was slightly harsh but there was some sweetness to it as well albeit no one would know about it
Having seen the disgusting things that happen on this land, the place where she lives, Mei has made it her mission to fix the land she lives on to the best of her capabilities and because of that she had to grow strong and not show any signs of weakness, if she did, she is dead meat
And so, even her voice is harsh, even though she doesn't need to talk harshly to Clara, it's just something that she can't control, especially not when the person standing in front of her is very powerful and has great potential, so much so, with proper training, she could beat Mei in a blink
Clara nodded to Mei's comment, that was in fact what was happening right now
The second floor, which was a narrow hallway with five individual rooms and a window on the opposite wall
There was no physical way to walk around in a loop, or in other words, keep walking around and round in a circle if they continued to walk straight but that was exactly what was happening and the test was finding a way out of this trap
The two individuals searched the five rooms for any clues but it was all a useless waste of time
In the end Mei, being a rather short tempered person, decided she was going to jump out the window, to her, that was the only way out
As the raven prepared to rush to the window the pink haired girl, sensing her intention, ran to her and hugged her from behind, stopping her to take any further steps
"Ma'am.. please, think it through first..!"
Clara knew this was quite disrespectful as Mei was not only her superior in terms of age but also her teacher but desperate times call for desperate measures
Thankfully she had managed to stop the raven, with much trouble, the pink haired girl knew for a fact that was not the solution, there has to be something else, something they are missing, they just have to figure out what it is
Clara breathed a sigh of relief and sat down on the old black wooden floor, Mei was really strong, it was a real struggle to hold her back
Mei on the other hand, stayed quiet and leaned against the wall, looking out of the window at nothingness
Everything outside was covered in a thick blanket of mist, not only that but it was also pretty dim
"Do you have any ideas?"
The raven asked Clara, not bothering to look at her
"I'm afraid not..-"
Clara stopped, Mei didn't give it any thought and started to think about any possible solutions not knowing the pink haired girl was hit with a brilliant idea
She remembered what Ellen, her teacher had told her before her departure "the violet witch is the reason behind everything "
At that time Clara didn't think much about it but now.. it seems these simple words have a lot more to them
The solution that came to her mind was a rather.. illogical one? But then again, nothing here, in this place was logical to being with
Well she had come up with two solutions, one from a book she had read back at the Duchy library and another that had come to her mind just now
"I think I have an idea for how we can escape.."
Mei perked up at her words, she pushed herself off the wall and stood up straight
"What is it?"
"Well.. we have two options, I suppose.."
"Two? What are they?"
"The first is, the violet witch is said to be the one behind the illusions, yes? And the illusions are said to follow the person inside, so what if we out run it? Not only that but go in different directions as well.. won't the violet witch have a hard time then?"
Clara explained the idea she had gotten, as much as it seem like something out of a novel, it could work, given the situation
Mei was deep in thought, Clara's words did have value but she needed to know all her options before picking the one to act upon
"And the other?"
Clara looked at her sheepishly, a little embarrassed, after all this option was the one she had seen in a book she had read
""the violet witch is the reason behind everything", no? Then why don't we look "behind"?"
Clara said, even though she was slightly embarrassed, she still said it confidence, she was the heir, of course she had be confident, even in situations such as this
"Behind..?"
Mei mumbled obviously taken aback, what did that mean?
The pink haired girl pointed at the three ruined paintings on the left opposite wall, they were pretty far away from the window
At first Clara didn't even notice them, once she did however, she didn't spare them any thought, but now.. they seem rather interesting
"Ah.. sure thing"
Mei said without a second thought, grabbing the hilt of her sword tightly
The raven knew about the violet witch and her tactics, while Mei does think the witch wouldn't resort to something like that, because she is known for thinking "outside of the box" it's still worth a try
Bonus:
*Astolfo and Issac on their way to the illusion mansion*
Astolfo: this is my third month with no days
Issac: ... What the actual f-
To be continued...
Hello people, it's me, Yan, how are you all? Hope you all are doing well
Don't get mad at me, alright, we will finally see some action aka solving the tests in the next chapter or at least at the end of the next chapter but after that the real fun will start, 'kay?
I honestly don't have much to say, my life is alright, I'm not depressed anymore, it's kinda boring and mom's sick, yeah- that's about everything going on with me right now
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter as much as I liked writing it
Have a good day, afternoon, evening or night
Once again please forgive this lowly author for any grammatical mistakes and I'll see you all in the next chapter
Bye~.
Words: 1,273