Chapter 67: It’s the engagement party, Miss Villainess (5)

Theo returned to the hall just at the right moment when Tizmilly entered. They looked at each other. Theo smiled and nodded, and while Tizmilly couldn’t smile as lightly as Theo, she showed her relaxed face. Finally, she was able to face her former brother properly. That alone was a big achievement.

"So you had really just met The World, Lord Muste Verbezze, Mister Roost?" She asked Theo while they were walking together.

"That’s right," Theo flashed a grin, determination flared inside his eyes. "I had rolled my own wild card on the table. The effect is still unknown, but according to my calculation, it will be able to give us some more time."

Theo caressed the back of his right hand, which had been covered by white gloves. He looked down at it and smiled mysteriously. "And I also have successfully secured an ultimate emergency plan."

Tizmilly tilted her head. "Emergency plan?"

Last night, Theo had told her about his plan to meet with Muste Verbezze, but he hadn’t mentioned anything about this emergency plan at that time. She knew that it should be something special, but she couldn’t guess the actual draft of everything.

Theo didn’t answer. Instead, he walked toward Sirry and the other maids. Tizmilly followed him, wanting to ask him raise the topic again, but then after Sirry noticed their approach, she immediately ran toward them.

Panting, she raised her voice, stammering. "S-sir! C-carole... Carole is...!"

"Carole is being recruited by Lord Ya, the strongest swordsman, as his disciple!" Marie finished what Sirry wanted to say.

Theo and Tizmilly exchanged comical glances, each of them trying to check whether they were dreaming or not, their minds stopped working for a moment. Then, after a blink, everything clicked. They digested the information. Yet, they couldn’t accept it.

""What!?"" They both exclaimed at the same time.

Instead of explaining, Marie and Sirry shifted their gazes to the other side of the hall, pointing their fingers at that direction. Following their gazes, Theo and Tizmilly petrified once they found Carole, who was now sitting before a table beside Ya. Her complexion was pale, almost looked like she was about to cry anytime soon.

Timmy, Karr, Ivandel, and Davina, even Gyllena were there, sitting around the same table, all with confused and pale faces.

Slowly, Theo raised his hand to massage his temples, his face still blank. "What in the world was going on while I was not here?" He muttered, squeezing the words out of his throat. Suddenly, his energy drained, almost depleted.

Tizmilly looked at him with a bewildered face. "Wh-what should we do now, Mister Roost?" She mumbled in panic.

Marie and Sirry also looked at him, seeking his help. ""Sir...""

Theo sighed. "Alright," he heavily said, raising his head to face reality that was being unfolded right before his eyes. "Let’s get Carole back!"

With that statement, they approached the table.

...

"The world has changed," Theo said.

However, these words alone couldn’t explain everything. They were far from enough to potray the actual complexity of the situation.

Some who found new realization today would ’move’ the world in their own ways. All differed in scales and types.

What could be seen in the surface was only the tip of the bark system, which had been branching over the whole layers of the civilization.

The one who started to see the truth.

The one who finally found the location of what was lost.

The one who was seeking clues with blindfolded eyes.

The one who began to question what the actual quality of a person was.

And there were also those who were creeping under the light, extending their claws to the throats of humanity.

The world was not only changing, even people were the same. They were moving.

Some are moving straight to the pit of desperation. While the others are moving toward the door of salvation. Or toward a series of tragic missteps. Even there are also those who are heading to the shadow.

Once the steps were taken, nothing could be undone.

The reality was written, continuously. Without any erasers.

Theo Roost.

Tizmilly.

Calary Roost.

Carole.

Timmy.

Roygerd Fotavich.

Sirry.

Yona.

Gerena.

Rasa.

Marie.

Trevina.

Davina.

Wendy.

Karr.

Ivandel.

Gyllena Layver.

Dorita.

Jahreon Qua Tarram.

Magbeen.

Lideon Fallburn.

Ya.

Muste Verbezze.

Marta Farcass.

Raffassa Hamiula.

The casts were set.

The developments were waiting.

Nothing could go wrong.

Only the result.

The inevitable.

And the wild, out of the rule one.

...

At a dark place, which had only four big lamps as its light sources.

The dark mana had condensed into a very unimaginable degree. Even becoming purplish mists that filled the place.

Two pillars stood in a colosal blood-red magic circle, splitting the space itself as they opened the ’eye’ of the abyss. The door to the sealed, dark land.

Looking into the ’eye’ itself was a torture, but for the man who was currently admiring it, the soul-piercing pain he was feeling at the moment might be a blessing instead.

His robe stirred slightly as he turned his head a little to his back.

"Magbeen?" He called out, speaking to no one.

But then, answering his call, shadow figure rose from the ground. It was wiggling before it completely could manifest its form, becoming a faceless figure made of shadow. Once fully formed, it immediately bowed down at the man.

"Yes, Grandmaster?" He answered.

The man raised his hand, extending it toward the eye. The gesture looked like he was reaching toward it, but in actuality, he was trying to ’read’ it.

After a long, heavy silence, the man finally spoke again.

"Something big has been moved. The arrival of the light is near. The Abyss is seeking our power. It says ’slay the light, return the shadow to dormant, and bring back the supreme law of darkness.’"

The shadow figure, Magbeen, had to think for a whole hour before he finally able to decipher the meaning behind these instructions given by the Abyss.

"I’ll convey the Abyss’s sacred decree to the Apostles, Grandmaster. Surely, by the end of the next year, we would have already eliminate the light and put the shadow back to dormant."

Magbeen bowed at the man once more before he dissipated back to shadow, returning the eerie silence back to the place.

The Grandmaster stood there, smiling like he had the very world in his grasp. His pupils reflected what he could see from the ’eye’.

A man who was born with distorted air appeared before the towering ancient shade of the great Cathedral, his fury reverberated through the air, burning everything.

A monster of a man.

Great power of space.

"Leaving you alone will be too dangerous," the man muttered. "But eliminating you is also not favorable."

"Truly, a bothersome child."

...

Meanwhile, back in the Layver Family mansion.

Walking through an empty corridor, a maid with black bob hair, Yona, was frantically looking around, her eyes dilated at every detail her vision able to detect.

The ornaments? Luxurious. It was made of pure gold, carved by a famous artisan.

The paintings? All rare specimens. Not a single one priced lower than a hundred gold coins.

The statues? No cheap copy. Only the original made by its creator. Through their creation, hours of history could be read without ever reaching the end.

Not to mention about the dust, because there weren’t even any.

Yona halted her steps.

Her eyes teared up.

"I am lost," she muttered, her voice cracked, almost crying.

"Where even the hall is located again?" Yona looked around, but what she could see were corridors and more corridors.

’How can this possible?’ she thought while trying not to break down to start crying.

The mansion might be big, but it shouldn’t be enough to make her lost her sense of direction. She had tried every path and direction, yet instead of moving, she felt more like she was trapped inside a loop.

"Is the mansion enchanted?" She thought of that idea, but immediately shook her head. The idea wouldn’t be feasible.

If the mansion really was enchanted, then she would have already sensed it since before she entered the building. She didn’t feel it before meant that the mansion itself is normal. So what caused it? Who was bullying her?

Yona took a deep breath to calm herself down. She held her rising frustration and kept moving forward. Her eyes began to scan her surrounding again.

But again, she found nothing. Nothing, except the ornaments and other redundant things that were already there from the start. She didn’t notice any anomaly or some sort.

"There should be a core for this space, or something that caused it... Hmm... But where?"

Time ticked. She continued to circle around the place.

Again.

And again.

Checking everything, leaving no corners, no speck of dust. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Twentieth times.

Fiftieth times.

One hundred times.

Yona began to feel desperate.

She wanted to meet with her friends again. She didn’t want to be trapped in this space forever. But other than kept moving, she didn’t see any other way to get out of this place, so she could only keep moving forward.

Then,

At her three hundred and thirty-third time circling around the space,

She found a bluish, abstract box. In literal sense of form, it was actually not a box, but something that was resembling box. It could be deformed, and changed from time to time.

Something of higher dimension.

Yona looked at it, gulped. She frowned. Her ’special’ eyes could see the box’s true identity.

It is...

A Dungeon.