An Eerie Place

"The flower scent is sickeningly sweet. All I can say is the taste is absolutely dreadful."

Finn surveyed her surroundings and declared as much.

"Every one of them is poisonous, of course, but these aren't ordinary poisons. They're all deadly. The kind that make you suffer before you die."

Her experience handling poisons gave her deep knowledge.

The smell was certainly overpowering.

And despite the obvious signs of cultivation, the excessively strong fragrance was clearly intentional.

There was no consideration for guests whatsoever.

The scent itself might be poisonous. Just being there was starting to make my chest feel queasy.

"Let me check my bag…"

I opened the bag and rummaged through its contents.

I was sure I'd packed some.

Found it.

Ramiza-brand Antitoxin Potion.

An excellent product that doubled as an antidote, neutralizing most poisons.

The drawback was that while it was highly effective against fast-acting toxins, it didn't work as well on slow-acting, addictive substances like narcotics.

So I also swallowed one of the blue candies we'd developed to treat narcotics.

Between them, I should be able to nullify most plant toxins in the air or pollen.

Eating anything here would still be disastrous, though.

Best to avoid consuming anything on this floor. If it came to it, I'd have to rely on Elza's detoxification.

As for unknown plants… I'd just have to trust in Ramiza-san's skills.

We all drank the Antitoxin Potion and popped candy into our mouths.

Very sweet. It eased a bit of the tension.

Standing around here wouldn't accomplish anything.

We proceeded down a path paved with quartz.

I glanced down. Quartz wasn't a particularly rare mineral.

But what was used here was pure white, without a single impurity.

Using something like this for road paving… in the Kingdom, only royalty or someone as wealthy as Duke Baroba would do such a thing.

When Azu's team had explored the Crystal Village, their spoils had included high-quality quartz, but nothing of this caliber.

This was the level used for commemorative statues and ornaments.

… Thinking about it reminded me of the Sun God statue, which soured my mood.

"It's a bit hot, isn't it."

"Must be all the plants."

Finn took off her outer garment, exposing her fair skin.

Perhaps the environment was suited to the plants, because the humidity was very high.

The temperature wasn't that high, but sweat was slowly forming.

We kept walking with only the sound of our shoes striking the quartz echoing around us, and finally found a mansion.

It looked impressive, but the dark wood used in its construction gave it an eerie impression.

The entrance opened by itself.

"I suppose that means 'come in'?"

"So it seems."

Alexia went in first.

The interior was dark.

There were candelabras, but no candles in them; the only illumination came from outside.

And even that was blocked by the plants.

"Dreadfully dreary…"

Alexia raised her right hand and cast a light spell, illuminating the area.

Immediately, a massive skeleton loomed before her.

"Eek!"

Shrieking, Alexia kicked at the skeleton with her right foot.

But her kick cut through empty air.

"Calm down. Look, it's because of that."

"What is this?!"

Elza grabbed Alexia's shoulder to stop her as she fumbled for her battle-axe, and pointed.

There was a small skeleton figurine.

Its shadow was being projected onto the wall right in front of Alexia.

"What a nasty personality, or whatever you'd call it. There are setups like that all over the place."

"You're kidding."

Alexia increased the light from her spell to illuminate further, and skeleton shadows wielding weapons appeared everywhere.

The figurines had been meticulously placed in calculated positions to create these effects.

"Why… you…"

"Easy now. Whoa there."

"I'm not a cow!"

Feeling mocked, Alexia's fist trembled, but she managed to restrain herself.

We had no idea what might happen if she started smashing things.

For all we knew, it could be a trap designed to provoke exactly that.

"Heh, heh heh. I'd love to see the face of whoever set this up."

She laughed, but the corners of her lips were quivering.

She was absolutely furious.

Azu and Orleans appeared unaffected, but both were clinging to my legs.

"Every door is locked. No keyholes either, so there's no normal way to open them."

"In these situations, whoever's waiting usually has one spot open for us, right?"

"If so, they've got lovely taste indeed."

Finn, who'd been checking the doors, chatted with Elza.

Looking at the furnishings gave a vague sense of the master's personality.

"They must like roses."

It slipped out.

The vases and paintings all featured roses as a motif.

On closer inspection, the skeletons weren't holding weapons but briars.

"This is creeping me out…"

"I wouldn't want to work in this mansion. I'd probably get abducted somewhere by the next day."

Azu kept glancing around, startling every time her eyes met a skeleton.

She wouldn't flinch against a monster, but this atmosphere unnerved her.

Orleans seemed frightened for a slightly different reason.

We walked a while longer and emerged into an open atrium.

There were stairs and multiple doors.

"Isn't that from before?"

"… Yes."

A large painting stood propped up.

Two figures were depicted.

One was the beautiful boy who had appeared when we entered the tower.

The other was a woman with long hair as red as a red rose.

She wore a black dress and was painted standing behind the boy.

There didn't seem to be anything else here.

The stairs were blocked off, filled with skeleton figurines.

All the doors except one that had been open when we arrived were locked without keyholes.

"She's telling us to go through here, I suppose?"