The prison was not too far away from the castle where the registration centre along with the entrance to the monster realm resided. In the end, they conducted regular searches in that area and the probability of smuggling or errors in documents was high, thus keeping the prison close would be convenient. However, since the main entrance to the prison was in chaos, we had to take a longer detour through the city block. This way we would have fewer eyes on us, yet we still had to be cautious as one of the guards had seen our faces back in the warden office. This meant that it was no place for magic as it would draw unnecessary attention, but luckily, the city was quite developed, and the dim street lights easily broke the darkness that befell with the night.
Lessened visibility made wonders for this place as the problems such as rubbish on the roads and an army of beggars were not as persistent as during the day, although there were still plenty of suspicious individuals strolling around and carefully observing our moves. In fact, their intense glare was directed at Nila's suitcase, it was like a beacon of wealth, something worth stealing should surely be inside.
I leaned towards Nila and whispered to her, "Would it be possible to make your suitcase disappear as you do with your staff?"
Nila slowly shook her head, then raised a brow, "I went through a lot to acquire this enchantment on my staff alone. This suitcase is not even a magical item, so it must be fine to carry it around, right?"
I sighed upon hearing her explanation, of course, not everyone would notice the gaze of a snatcher, especially during the night. But still, we were in the middle of the night wandering around the streets of the crime area, it should be natural to assume that some might want to rid us of our belongings! But, I guess, Nila was simply too confident in her combat ability to even consider the possibility of being mugged. And it seemed like people around were so keen on making an attempt as well, their hungry glares were following us or rather her, but never got closer.
"I have a question for you, Dusk." Suddenly Nila said, to which I returned my attention to her, "And what is it?"
"Have you seen a person who cut locks of the cells?"
This was a natural question, if she did not ask it, I would have brought up this topic anyway.
"I saw the silhouette, but it was too dark to see any details. They were tall and wore a wide hat of some sort, that's the most I saw, not even the tool that they used."
"The wide hat, huh…" whispered Nila and lowered her head while rubbing her chin. Perhaps, because of insufficient lighting, but it seemed like her face got slightly paler. As we were getting closer to the sharp turn, Nila suddenly changed her direction entirely and tried to go further away from the castle. I caught her by the shoulder, which made her twitch and she glanced at me with a displeased squint.
I pointed at the castle behind us, "We should go there, right?"
My question erased her doubt and irritation entirely, she dashed forward ahead of me and mumbled, "Uh oh."
"Did you actually not notice that you diverged from the road?"
She did not respond, instead her walking pace increased slightly. I narrowed my brows and exclaimed, "For goodness's sake, Nila, you can see the castle right there! How is it possible to be this bad at directions?"
Once again, no answer followed, only her footsteps were echoing lightly. In this awkward silence we reached the castle doors without issue, as Nila predicted, there were not any guards close by, judging by the light in the direction of the prison, they were still busy suppressing the riot, although it seemed like some were moving in our direction.
Nila summoned her staff and pointed it at the door, which made me gasp and I pushed her staff away from it while yelling in a half whisper, "What the hell are you doing!?"
Nila tilted her and wondered in an innocent tone, "I was trying to blow it up, how else would we open it?"
I lightly pushed her away from the door and came forward. After juggling a little of all the stuff I stole from the warden office in my pocket, I found a paper clip. Not the perfect tool to lock pick doors, but good enough for my skill. However, once I bent it and tried to push inside the keyhole, I noticed the gap between the door and the doorway. Thus, I pushed the door and it slowly opened without resistance.
Nila clapped at the sight of my unshown skill and said, "Impressive! How did you open it?"
"I did not do anything, it was already open." I peeked inside, but it was too dark to see anything. Without wasting any time, Nila bravely stepped into the darkness while saying, "Is that so? First, we were released from our cells, then we found the warden's dead body and now someone was generous enough to leave the door to our only escape open. Quite suspicious, isn't it?"
After her words, the entire premise was illuminated by her spell, now its interior was well visible. None of the decorations in the form of paintings and pot plants as well as black wooden furniture changed from the last time we had been here, as it was only yesterday. I stepped forward now with no need of being wary of the darkness and turned to Nila who already moved ahead.
"Do you think someone is helping us to escape?"
"Helping? I sure hope this is their actual goal."
I raised my brow at her words, since it seemed counterproductive to actively help us escape the Schöltum region while actually trying to harm us. Anyway, it all worked out just fine, thus I did not see a reason to be so stressed out, in the end, I had Nila by my side who is seemingly feared by many.
After we passed the main entrance and the registration area where we had been detained, we went through one long and wide hallway, it branched to the right and left at one point, but we did not turn. I was quite worried, since Nila was the one who led us ahead, but soon enough, my worries were overridden with curiosity upon the sight that opened up after the tunnel. We arrived at the huge room with the backwall missing entirely. I could feel the breeze from the outside as well as see dark forest further away from plains with various weeds and grass swaying melodically. Even though it was pitch-black ahead, Nila's orb of light illuminated just some parts of the outside, and it all seemed natural.
While I was gazing upon this weird design choice, Nila glanced at me and said, "Dusk, come closer."
I nodded and strolled towards her slowly, but before I stepped onto the grass outside the castle, she stopped me with her staff, "Listen closely, it must be your first time crossing the barrier. Whatever you do, do not diverge from the path. Even if you do, do not panic and just continue going forward as every nook and cranny inside the barrier leads to exit. Upon our arrival in the monster realm, you will be able to find me by the light of Polaris, but if you do not see it closeby, run as fast as you can, you got it?"
It was the first time I heard something about the barrier, or perhaps I did not remember her mentioning it? Anyway, her serious demeanour was quite eerie as she was calm all throughout our way here, so why would she be so stressed about something in this plain of all places? I didn't really want to waste even more time with my questions, thus I only nodded in confirmation. Then, she nodded back and stepped forward into the field. At that moment, I could not believe my eyes as she simply vanished before me. I was taken aback, but then stepped forward myself while clenching my fists in anticipation.
Since Nila departed first, the whole room was enveloped in darkness, but as soon as I escaped the stone floor of the castle, the light returned to my eyes and I witnessed something otherworldly. I was expecting to find myself in the field as it was right there, in front of me, but there was no grass to be seen, or any other vegetation. It was a room that looked like it was inside the building of some sort, however, there were no walls or ceiling, even the floor was in just a few places, it was riddled with holes. There were several hallways that were not connected to anywhere, along with the staircases that either went upwards or downwards, some were entirely reversed, making it impossible to use them. The design of this place was rather jarring, there was a lot of red and green, strange white patterns decorated the tunnels and stairs, but there was no furniture to speak of. But most importantly, in the darkest corners and deepenings in space, several pairs of eyes were glowing and observing my every move.
My legs were shaking, but at least they did not give in. It was not the first bizarre thing I witnessed ever since arriving to this world, but it sure was the most delirious one. Now it made more sense why there were places like the monster realm, human realm and fairy realm. Those divisions were made not by some imaginary borders, but rather by using these bizarre spots outside of normality, the barriers.