Aradia stealthily rolled away as a figure fell from who knows where, the figure in question was someone she knew very well, a certain work freak blonde to be exact
Issac fell right on his butt, groaning in the process
Astolfo too was there, however instead of falling face or ass first, he had used the little knowledge he had of magic and put it to good use, by using flight magic, he landed softly on his feet
"Could you have not used magic on both of us?!"
The blonde with vibrant green eyes, exclaimed, he was pissed off, how could his friend betray him like this?
"Whoops"
Astolfo shrugged, it was obvious he was being playful but even so it made, Clara, being the overprotective sister she is, frown
Noticing the death glare coming his way, the sage haired guy put up his hands in defence
"I'm sorry, alright? Don't look at me like that, it happened all too soon and you know better than anyone that magic users tend to save themselves subconsciously if anything"
Astolfo spoke so fast it seemed as though he was rapping, he had a point though, magic users save themselves in any situation even if they didn't want to, it was like a reflex
This would also explain why Aradia had automatically created a protective bubble around herself on the night faced with the criminal gang
The pink haired girl, who had received his response shut up, as a magic wilder herself, she could not say anything against that, but that does not mean she will stop nagging him about the whole situation, truly, today was quite hectic
"That is true, however, you fell from the third floor, no? With your fast reflexes, you could've easily-"
Before Clara could finish, Mei spoke up, cutting her sentence short
"Enough, we'll deal with this once we get out, for the time being, try to get along and finish the task in hand"
The raven said stepping forward, this was not the time to act like this, they still had many mysteries to uncover and meet with a certain witch
"And, why aren't you getting up from the floor?"
Mei commented looking at the red head, who was still using the wooden floor as her bed
"It's soft like my bed, that's why"
Aradia replied, she knew this could probably land her in trouble and that she had absolutely no reason to be sarcastic right now, but at this point this is her second nature
Clara glared at her while Mei looked unamused, finding everything tiring, she just wanted to get this over with now..
"Pfft-"
Astolfo, being horrible at reading the room, tried to suppress a giggle which resulted in Issac glaring at him, like sister like brother, so what if they are technically not blood related? They are more alike than many actual siblings
"Forget it, since we are all here anyway, how was your experience thus far and what did you all find?"
The raven asked in a series tone, this made everyone else serious as well and Aradia got up, standing leaning back against the wall between the two rooms
"Clara and I were in-charge of the second floor and got stuck in an endless hallway"
Mei said and Clara nodded in confirmation, seeing as they were all going to share what they had come across so far the red head decided to go next, there was no point in beating around the bush anyway
"I went into this room and had to escape an illusion that took me to an unknown cave"
Aradia spoke with nonchalance, of course she kept Lir's presence a secret and the fact that she almost drowned..
Clara frowned yet once again, could her siblings stop worrying her so much?
"A cave?"
She voiced out but Mei once again cut in
"Which room?"
The red head pointed to the room on her left closer to the stairs behind the group
"I see.. and the other one?"
"Dunno, didn't go in it yet"
Mei nodded and turned towards Issac and Astolfo
"We were given the task to deal with the third floor, but to our surprise there were no rooms or anything at all, it was just an empty hallway.. however"
Issac paused and let Astolfo say the rest, great teamwork honestly
"Just as we were about to leave, random shadows, that were not ours, started to unmerge and started getting bigger, obviously being suspicious of it, the two of us started to deal damage to it by sword but they just didn't stop.. "
The sage haired boy paused for the dramatic effect before starting once again, this time around finishing his story
"While in this heated "fight" I guess you could say, I ended up accidentally stepping on a small shadow just staring to take place, after that I fell backwards, getting sucked into it and Issac reached out to stop me from going to who knows where and then the two of us fell and I realised we were falling towards the bottom floor"
Mei was deep in thought for a little while before speaking warily
"That is a lot to take in.., I say we change positions and deal with the two things we still need to figure out"
"Two?"
Issac questioned, although great at swordsmanship, he could be slow to catch onto things or dense as they say
"Yes, two, the third floor, as it seems there is more to it than we originally thought and.. this room"
The raven pointed at the only room left untouched on the first floor, everyone looked towards it in unison
"So.. who wants to go where?"
Mei said, letting them decide instead
Aradia had no interest in going into the other room present on the first floor, the red head knew very well what she'll experience if she goes in
«oi, I found something..»
Lir suddenly said in her mind, causing her to flinch slightly, luckily no one seemed to notice
'what do you mean?'
«...Quit speaking in that weird language, I can't understand anything»
The albino said annoyed, he had mentioned this before, how Yeon Haa thinks in a strange language, which was obviously Korean but the red head didn't tell him, she had just brushed it off saying it was her worlds language
Although the red head spoke this fantasy world's language with ease it would seem her mind still thought in Korean
'quit complaining, what did you find?'
Aradia asked while thinking in this worlds language, it was actually never mentioned what the name of the language was
«i found a basement»
'a what-?'
The red head began to frown slightly, she knew the mansion had an attic but now a basement as well..?
«your thoughts are so distracting-, but yeah, I was wandering around and found a secret door behind the stairs that led downwards»
Aradia feigned ignorance at his comment, she knew how to control her experience, body language and of course her speech but her thoughts were not something she could control, at least not with ease and willingly
'where did you find the said door?'
«behind the left staircase at the very corner, it is barely noticeable in the darkness»
The red head's eyes instantly darted towards the left staircase on her side
'behind that?'
«yeah, that's what I just said»
'that was supposed to be thought, not a response'
Aradia commented unamused, it was both annoying and scary having someone be able to hear all her thoughts
'get out of my mind'
«rude much? And it's not like I want to be here anyway»
Saying that, Lir left her mind, it wasn't overly noticeable but every time he entered her mind or left she could feel the slightest bit of sensation
'if the basement is on the first floor then.. oh- damn it'
She would have to willingly choose to stay on the first floor and agree to explore the other room as well, great!
Aradia raised her hand halfway like she was in class and spoke with a sigh, trying hard not to let her exhaustion show
"I will take care of the first floor"
Mei watched her, the raven could not feel but be a little suspicious though she nodded anyway
"Very well then, anyone else?"
"I'll do it as well"
Astolfo spoke up, although the red head did not want company in the slightest, it would make her suspicious if she got defensive, it was better to lay low
"Alright, and the three of us will go to the third floor"
The raven announced, leaving no room for arguments
And now the new plan was set into progress, find out what is in this newly found basement and deal with a overlay energetic protagonist
Wonderful
Bonus:
*Og!Aradia and KYH best friends au*
Cooking:
Yeon Haa: have I ever told you, you cook well?
Aradia: aww no! You haven't
Yeon Haa: then why do you keep cooking??
To be continued...
Hello people! It is I, Yan
Firstly, sorry this chapter is late, secondly, only a few days left before Durga Puja! I'm super excited, mostly because of school break but also because it'll be fun!
Not to mention Halloween is coming up~ do you all want me to make a special chapter for the occasion or no? If I have the time and motivation I'll try to make a Halloween special, no promises though
Once again, please forgive this lowly author for any grammatical errors
Hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I liked writing it
Have a good day, afternoon, evening or night
And I shall see you all in the next chapter
Bye~
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