Full Crown

There was once a young lady with great intellect living in a secluded mansion. Since she was a child, she is not allowed to go out of the property. The only ones she can talk to are the servants and her personal butler. Her only way to past time is through reading books, and because new books are delivered every week, there’s always new for her to read. Days have passed with the same thing just repeating, waking up in the morning, reading, eating when it’s time to eat, and at the end of the day nothing special will happen. The only different thing will happen every end of the month, where her father will come and visit her, bringing not books but papers. Reports, plans and documents, these are the identities of the papers, using her intelligence she solved the problems, gave concrete solutions and planned the needed actions, so that her father will praise her and maybe one day, she can go outside the property.

Several years have passed of the same repeated events, and there’s no particular change except that she is now thirteen. She already read the latest book that was delivered a few days ago, and is now lying on the grass at the backyard. While lazily rolling at the grass, she suddenly noticed the ivies on the wall that grows differently. The moment she examined it, there was a hole in the wall that she can fit through. Because of her curiosity of the outside world, she decided to go through it and just come home before the night falls.

The moment she stepped foot outside, it felt like a brand new world. Plants different from the mansion garden, sceneries that’s refreshingly new to her, and air that doesn’t feel stagnant, that is how she described her first freedom. As she goes through the path that she stumbled upon, she saw that the mansion is in a forest somewhere. She followed the path going outside the forest and the moment she got out, she saw a wide pasture and a big lake at the middle, and just across the lake is a village.

She excitedly went to the village, but didn’t expect what she saw. Broken fences, run-down houses, and there are only few people living in it. She wandered around a little and tried to ask a person as to why the village is in that state. The person released a scream of terror while trying to grab something to throw at her. The other villagers heard this and started to panic, they grabbed some stones and broken objects and started to throw it at the young lady. With the sudden action of the people, she felt scared and started to run back to the forest then straight to the mansion. She goes back inside the property through the hole she saw at the backyard, and there she was caught by her personal butler. With a feeling of relief she started crying, and the butler escorted her inside the mansion. And since then, she never once again left the property.

“And then? What happened next?” (Lyra)

“It’s hard to tell, since some of the writings have faded.” (Crystallis)

“Maybe we can bring this to the academy and they can help us in deciphering it.” (Dolph)

“What do you think Miss Saintess? Can we borrow this book?” (Clare)

“Miss Clare, I told you that you can just call me by my name. Well if you will also share the results with us, we might lend it to you.” (Saintess)

We are now in what looks like a secret room, it looks more like a chamber than a room. After fighting, resting, and exploring the path from sixth through ninth stage, Rufus found something unusual at the center of the ninth stage hallway. Using his ‘Analysis’ skill he spotted an unusual dent in a wall, and the moment he touched it, a hidden mechanism activated, revealing this secret chamber.

Inside are some treasure chests, golds, and books. One particular book stands out, and that is the book they are reading right now. It might be an information about this particular labyrinth or about the past. But the only thing we know is that it is a story about a certain young lady.

Then Rufus, Flora, Cyan, and some of the mages of the church, returned after investigating and inspecting the whole room.

“We’re back!” (Flora)

“We’re done inspecting the whole room and it’s relatively safer here than our stop overs before.” (Rufus)

“It turns out that this specific room has a strong magic barrier against phantom and specters. So we can rest here with ease.” (Flora)

“And just to be safe, we will still keep our night watch routine. But at least this time, we will be watching the entrance since it’s still possible that there are dungeon monsters who can penetrate the barrier.” (Cyan)

“That’s good to hear. Then Miss Saintess, we need to have a meeting about the night watch and about the agreement for this book.” (Clare)

“We might as well. Arrange a meeting area and tell the clerics to assemble before dinner. We will also need to set up a safety barrier just to be sure.” (Saintess)

“Oh! And we actually saw two more doors and it looks like for bath and toilet use. So we should also set someone to guard those and also set up another barrier.” (Flora)

“Really?!” (Clare, Crystallis, Lyra, Saintess)

“Yeah! So we can finally wash our sweats away!” (Flora)

“Let’s all go together, but first, let’s make the boys clean it for us.” (Crystallis)

“Huh? Why should we?” (Dolph)

“Just because!” (Clare, Crystallis, Lyra, Saintess, Flora)

“Ugh…” (Dolph)

“By the way, where is Rosa?” (Clare)

“If you’re looking for our leader, she is right over there. I think she reached her limit and can’t even react right now.” (Frederick)

“I didn’t know that the leader is scared of ghosts. That’s really surprising to know.” (Lyra)

“She apparently scared of something she can’t hit.” (Frederick)

“Isn’t that a muscle brain reason?” (Dolph)

“Okay, so we will do something about Rosa, and you gentlemen should clean the bath.” (Saintess)

“Then we will leave our leader to you ladies. We will excuse ourselves now.” (Frederick)

After some reports about the room and making sure that it is really safe, we go on our own ways. Having a room to breathe to do the things we need, we surrendered ourselves to this brief moment for the continuation of our expedition tomorrow.