"All right, we made it to HQ. Get out and follow me. Make it snappy!"
"Okay okay, you've got it Officer Cilia."
It took us a little while to get here since we had to ride Endori's arteries to get to her heart, then transfer to the veins to get to her brain. I'm just glad to be free from that cramped vehicle.
Endori's brain looks almost exactly how you'd imagine a brain to be, but it is structured like a skyscraper. I assume that this place is equivalent to the head of operations of Endori's body.
After traveling up the brainstem via an elevator, we arrive at an office.
Is this an interrogation room?
"Okay sir, have a seat over there. First things first, what's your name?"
"Vex."
"Vex, when did you arrive in Endori?"
"Today. Perhaps a couple of hours ago at this point."
"How did you get here?"
"Heck if I know. Last thing I remember before mysteriously arriving inside Endori's mouth is her sneezing on me."
"Do you know anyone else who also teleported inside Endori?"
"The only one I know is a cat demi-human girl that I'm babysitting."
"Are you sure that you don't know anyone else?"
Why is she insisting on this? I hardly know anyone in Avarice in the first place!
Though this officer did mention that there were other foreigners like me who appeared. Endori also told me about people like her father mysteriously disappearing…
No way, don't tell me…
"Aha, I see that by the look on your face that you know something! Spill it!"
"I don't know much about it myself, but Endori told me her concern about some people who came in contact with her have vanished without a trace."
"Hmm, then perhaps those missing people are now inside Endori."
Cilia halts our one-sided conversation and takes out a communicator device.
"This is officer Cilia; I've finished the interrogation of the suspicious foreigner. I'm sending you a transcript of our conversation–make sure to cross-reference his testimony with Endori's memories. Cilia, out."
"Wait, you had access to Endori's memories the entire time? Then what was the point of questioning me?!"
"Hey, shut up and leave the questions to me! We have to make sure that you are trustworthy, because you certainly don't look like it."
If something "misfortunate" were to happen to one of Endori's cells, she would still be fine, right? She'd still have thousands of them, so one fewer shouldn't matter.
"One of my officers is on her way to escort you to the cell room with the others, until we can validate your testimony. If we know that Endori trusts you, then maybe we can."
"Maybe"? Just "maybe"? The nerve of this woman!
"Before that though, I have one more question. Do you know about a shiny green mineral?"
"A shiny green mineral? Like some sort of crystal? Never heard of it."
Knowledge of treasures and valuable minerals is Crawley's forte–not mine.
"Somehow, Endori ingested it. Ever since then, some strange things have been going on inside her intestines. It appears as though some of her food vanishes before being fully digested, at least according to some reports from the gut bacteria."
Yeah, I'd imagine that'd happen when you eat weird objects.
"We extracted it here in HQ, but saw no nutritional value, so we placed it in the nose's mucus membranes, ready to be released during the next sneeze."
"Sounds like that's the source of your problem, and not foreigners like me?"
"Oh don't be ridiculous–the explanation won't be that simple. It's more likely to be a conspiracy involving the mineral and you foreigners. We'll get to the bottom of this, but in the meantime, enjoy your cellmates!"
________________________________________________________________________
THUD!
KA-CHING!
"Okay everyone, be sure to welcome your newest member, Vex. Make some room for him!"
Whelp, as promised, I have been brought to my "cellmates". Including myself, there are eight of us crammed into this cell. There was nothing particularly noteworthy about them…
…until I looked closer at five of the seven prisoners.
"Finally, another normal-looking person. We're saved, Yami!"
"Mr. Reoni, I think that it's still too early to say such things."
A guy who appears to be Endori's age and a slightly older woman in a maid uniform set their gazes on me, taking note of my presence. For some reason, my arrival has sparked hope in Reoni.
"Wow, I've never seen you before, Vex. I'm Reoni and this is Yami, one of Endori's maids. You are from Avarice too, right?"
"Yes I am. I am nobody worth mentioning, so don't get your hopes high about me."
"Nonsense! You must have been sent as a sign from the goddess to free us from our shackles."
"How can I free you all when I have also been locked up?"
"I dunno, don't you have a curse that can get us out of here?"
"Use your own curses–there are seven of you!"
"There were seven of us, but now it's pretty much only us two. Unfortunately, Yami and my curse aren't suitable for this kind of task."
"What's the deal with the others back there? I thought that all of us here were foreigners from outside of Endori."
Why would they lock up their fellow cells?
"If I may Mr. Vex, I will try to explain the situation. They are members of the noble household, just like I am, except that they did not always look this way. The other maids are concubines to the man you see over there."
Looking closer at the cell people, they are just sitting still with blank expressions on their faces. The sole man in particular has a familiar imperial mustache and jeweled insignia of a yellow rose.
"I may be misremembering, but that man over there wouldn't happen to be–"
"My future father-in-law!"
"Mr. Reoni, please don't be rude. Sorry about that, Mr. Vex, but yes–that man over there is indeed the noble leader of Avarice, Lord Olan."
This is one of the most bizarre things I have ever seen. The missing lord was inside his daughter's body this entire time.
This entire situation hurts to think about.
"How did Lord Olan and the others become like that?"
"We're not sure, Mr. Vex. Actually, I was the last person before you to arrive here inside Lady Endori. When I arrived, the lord and my sisters were already in this state. Mr. Reoni came a day before me."
"I know this sounds crazy, but I swear that they were normal the first day when I arrived. I woke up the next morning and suddenly, they were no longer themselves! Sounds creepy, right?"
"So all of us were transported inside Endori at different times it seems. She sneezed on me, then I showed up here…"
"I shared an indirect kiss with her just before waking up here!"
"I was on the receiving end of a raspberry that was a little too close for comfort."
A sneeze, an indirect kiss and a raspberry, which the latter two involve saliva…
"...Body fluids. We were all transported inside of Endori's body when directly exposed to her body fluids! That must be her curse's activation clause."
"That does seem very plausible, Mr. Vex."
"See? I knew you would save us–you solved a big mystery!"
Reoni abruptly slaps my back and places his arm over me. I "kindly" put some space between us.
"There's still no reason to celebrate. We know how we got here, but we don't know how to get out or how Lord Olan ended up as a cell."
"That's true, but one step at a t–!!!!"
"Mr. Reoni, what's wrong?! Why are you suddenly–EEEK!"
In an instant, Reoni's body rapidly lost all color, making him translucent. It's as if an exact clone of himself replaced him.
"Now we know how Lord Olan and the others became cells at least. The reason still eludes me."
"Mr. Vex, is this the effect of Lady Endori's curse?! Will we all become her cells?! What are we going to do?!!!"
"Calm down lady. Nothing will get accomplished if you keep panicking like that."
"EEEEKK!"
Now I am the only one who is sane! Though Yami did make a reasonable point–Endori's curse seems to eventually cause humans to transform into cell-people.
That means we need to get out of Endori before it's too late. Staying in this jail cell is game over.
"Hey, what's with all the ruckus in there? Keep the noise down!"
The lady officer who dumped me in here is now standing in front of our cell door, scolding us. She has a cell key on her waist belt.
I know just what to do.