I could see the way through the labyrinth rather easily from up above, but walking through it like this was a whole different thing. The hedge was taller than any of us, at least two and a half meters high. I guessed if we had planned to go through here alone we could have managed, since we could see the way from above before, but I appreciated the lord leading us. Obviously, he knew the way. It didn't take long for us to arrive at the wooden hut.
Seeing it from up close, it gave off an interesting vibe. Like an old heritage that holds countless of memories. It was small, which only added to its charm. There was no window at the front, only the door leading inside. Lord Trafalgar opened it and stepped inside. He switched on the lights, flooding the cramped space with light. The work bench stood right under the only window, but despite it being bright outside, there wasn't much light coming in. The hedge outside blocked most of it. There was an extra desk lamp on the bench, as well as multiple carving tools lying around an unfinished figure of a person. Next to the work bench lay many different sized, wooden blocks on the floor. Shelves containing the carved works stood on both sides of the room.
The whole room held the fragrance of wood. I thought it a pleasant scent. I looked at the small and medium sized figures in awe. There were many different kinds. Animals, objects, buildings. Some of them, like the roman colosseum or a detailed carriage with a horse in front, must have taken forever to make.
"May I?", I asked the lord while pointing to a bear, standing on it's rear legs. He nodded, permitting me to take it from the shelve to take a closer look.
"This is amazing.", I mumbled. I was easily amazed by handiwork. This was so detailed! The figure was about as big as an adult man's hand, but I could clearly make out the bear's eyes and the fur was also well indicated. Even teeth and the tounge could be seen clearly.
While I was still amazed by the animal figures, the lord spoke up. "So you said you walked out of here?", he asked the both of us. I suddenly realized, that with my excited reaction, it was pretty obvious we hadn't been here before. But Law nodded, stoically keeping to what he had told the man.
"Well, you see there's nothing unusual here.", Lord Trafalgar said, gesturing around. He was right, there was nothing unusual in this hut. There were only the shelves and the work bench and the pile of wooden blocks lying on the ground. I started nodding in agreement. There was nothing hinting to the portal here. We were wrong.
Law looked his father deep into his eyes, before finally sighing and seemingly giving up. "Guess it was a false lead.", he said and turned towards the door.
I apologized for the trouble, but Lord Trafalgar shook his head. "Don't worry about it."
"May I ask you something about the carvings?", I asked the lord with curiosity on our way back.
"What is it, young lady?", he replied politely. I had gotten used to the maids calling me 'milady', but being called 'young lady' by the lord was still a bit weird.
"What are you doing with your carvings? Are you selling them? Or giving them away for free?"
"No I'm not selling them. I send them to the hospital in Barnstaple to give them to the children there. They are always happy to receive gifts.", he said, smiling delightfully. "Though not all of them. Some I keep for myself or as birthday presents."
"That's nice.", the lord was quite a nice man, I thought.
Back in front of our rooms, Law wanted to meet on the balcony again. I thought he wanted to talk about any other ways to find the portal or other places where it could be, but I was wrong.
"[It's definitely there.]", he said as soon as he stepped on the balcony.
"[But, there was nothing besides the- uhm... the works of Lord Trafalgar.]", I argued.
"[There was a hatch under the blocks of wood.]", he explained, "[If he really wanted to help us in our search, he would have mentioned it to take a look there as well.]"
"[Or he just doesn't want us to know what's down there. I mean it could be anything. It's his private haven after all.]", I replied. It's not like I didn't believe it was down there. Law had made a good point, I just wanted to bring up the possibility of the portal not being there. Though Law most likely had that in mind already.
"[Still, we need to get inside without him watching us.]", he declared.
"[I think we should get inside the library first. It's likely that there is some information there.]", Law nodded in agreement.
"[So, do you have any idea how to get inside?]", I asked him. He gazed into the distance, thinking about it. Just a moment though, before he pushed the answer back onto me, arguing that I was the one who walked by the building in question. Now looking at the scenery myself, I thought about it. I couldn't take a closer look at the library since Carmilla was with me.
The front door of the library was a large wooden double door. The handle looked rather old, thus containing a simple lock, from afar, but that could only be a facade. If Law had any experience in picking locks, he might be able to do just that. But just as I wanted to ask him, I saw his balcony empty and the door leading inside his room closed. I hadn't noticed him going back inside. "Did I really think about it that hard? Wow.", surprised by myself, I leaned against the handrail. The main problem was still to get out the mansion unnoticed. That was when a thought struck me.
I went back inside and looked around the room. My attention mainly on the corners of the ceiling. A bit of relief marked my face as I couldn't find surveillance cameras in my room. "Well, that much privacy is the minimum.", I thought, now feeling a tad stupid for checking. But curiosity still got the better of me, so I opened the door leading to the hallway and looked in both directions. I found two cameras monitoring the hallway promptly. They weren't hidden. Closing the door behind me again, I now pondered how to get out the room. There was surely someone watching the footage of the surveillance cameras all the time. Watching our every movement. The idea of us climbing down the balcony crossed my mind, but it would be a miracle if no one saw us from inside. Besides, we'd have to go through the mansion to get to the front. Entering from the backdoor might leave them in a state of confusion, but they would notice either way. I threw that idea out of consideration.
After thinking about it for a while, I gave up for the time being. Several ideas had crossed my mind and were discarded once thought through. Those damn surveillance cameras! If only Law could use his devil fruit abilities. It would be so easy that way. Lying on my bed, I gazed at the ceiling.
"Why am I even doing this?", I wondered for a brief moment. I would be home in two days. Why bother?
"No. I said I'll help him in return. He helped me out a lot, after all.", I returned to the problem at hand with new motivation. The main problem was the hallway being monitored and Rose and Carmilla intercepting us every time we head out.
"Rose and Carmilla... Wait, why didn't I think of that sooner?", in high spirits, I jumped off the bed and headed to the balcony. The door to Law's room was closed. It was too far away for me to knock. Looking around, there was nothing long enough to help.
I went out my room and stopped right in front of the next one, knocking on the door. Tilting my head a little, I listened for an answer. I took a step back in surprise when the door suddenly opened. It was a bad habit of mine to stand too close to the door. For a moment I forgot why I came over, as I saw Law half naked in front of me. He had obviously just taken a shower. His hair was still wet and only a towel covered his lower half. Why didn't he put on some clothes first?!
"[What is it?]", he asked, pulling my attention back at his face. I felt a little embarrassed, realizing I had stared at his bare chest.
"Ah, uh-", I shook my head a tiny bit to gain focus, "Sorry, bad timing. I just had an idea about- what we talked about before.", still flustered, I unintentionally spoke in english and nearly mentioned the library, but caught myself just in time.
"Alright, come in.", he replied, leaving the door open as he went back inside. Dumbfounded, I blinked several times before following behind hesitantly. Closing the door behind me, I told him I could have waited outside so he could get dressed, but Law just silently grabbed some clothes and went into the bathroom again.
Not feeling as uncomfortable anymore, I sat down on a chair. Still, the shirtless body did not leave my mind. It wasn't that I was not used to seeing a man half naked. Both my parents did not care being seen naked by their children. But Law was just by far hotter than my dad. There was no arguing that. And I couldn't understand why men were fine with just a towel covering their intimate parts. I mean, it could just fall off any moment, resulting in a very awkward moment.
"Well, maybe I can't understand since I can't do it myself.", I had tried a few times but it always fell off when I moved around.
Law returned out the bathroom, now wearing pants. He was still topless, much to my frustration. I saw him tossing his pullover onto his bed. Why didn't he put it on? How the hell was I supposed to focus like that?
He put two glasses of water on the table, before sitting down. "Oh, thanks."
"[So?]", he began. The switched language a subtle hint for me to follow suit. I was sure there'd be no one listening in on us here, but I was fine either way.
"[Yeah, like I said I came up with an idea to get to the library. The main problem is that Rose and Carmilla accompany us everywhere, right?]", he nodded.
"[So we just need to distract them. Or to be precise, one of us. The other one could go to the library all the while.]", I explained. I tried my best to focus on his face, but I couldn't help but glance at his bare chest every now and then. He sat lazily on the chair, leaning against the back of it. His upper body was well presented that way, though he most likely didn't do it on purpose, because he didn't care. I couldn't imagine him not noticing my swifting gaze though, which only made me feel ashamed.
"Those tattoos are just too eye catchy!", I thought, trying to push the blame off me.
I was used to see my dad naked, but I wasn't used to see a well trained body like this presented right in front of me. I just wished he picked up on my discomfort and put on his pullover, since for some reason, I couldn't bring myself to ask him to. It would mean openly admitting that it distracted me to this extend. Though I knew appreciation for the view was part of me holding back the request as well.
Forcing myself to continue, I asked him whether he had any experience in lockpicking. He confirmed my assumption, followed by his question of how I would distract the two maids.
"[I don't know yet.]", I admitted. I had no experience in distracting someone for some time purposefully. And I didn't have tattoos like he had to do the job.
I closed my eyes for a moment and sighed. There was no use in me trying to shake those thoughts off with the source right in front of me. I saw Law smirking a little as I opened my eyes again. That was annoying!
Finally giving in to the situation I stopped holding back that request. "Would you please put on some more clothes?!", I half-shouted. For a few seconds, I had no problem focusing on his face, due to my irritation. But Law wouldn't do me this favour. He seemed quite amused by my reaction.
"[Well, you are in my room here.]", he said with a smirk. He didn't say it aloud, but what he actually meant was 'deal with it'. I crossed my arms in defiance.
"[Nevertheless, I don't think that's the best course of action. It would take too much time for one person to look through the library alone.]", he had a good point. With the library being a seperate building, there must be a ton of books. Who knew how many with information about the portal.
"[Besides,]", he continued, "[the cameras in the hallway would give us away immediately.]"
"[But we have to get out the rooms in some way.]", I argued.
"[What about the balcony?]", he asked. Yeah I had thought about that too. Which was why I could deny that thought quickly.
"[We'd still need to pass through the house to get to the front yard. Or did you see an entrance at the back of the library?]", I didn't actually want to climb down the balcony, but if that was the only choice I would play along. Luckily, Law shook his head and finally stood up to grab his pullover.
A minute of silence later, he seemed to have a good idea. In a resolute tone, he uttered but a single word: "[Dinner.]"
"[Dinner?]", I asked in confusion. It was just about time for lunch, not dinner.
"[Dinner.]", he repeated himself, nodding with a confident smirk. He explained that most employees were occupied after the meals, Rose and Carmilla being no exception. The lobby was on the direct way from the dining hall to our guest rooms on top of that. We could simply walk out the door pretending to go back to our rooms.
"[Why dinner though? We could just as well go after lunch today.]"
"[They would look for us after a few hours at dinner time. But they won't look for us until breakfast next morning.]", he explained.
"True.", I thought, while nodding in agreement.
"This is delicious.", I smiled at the chef standing at the back of the dining hall. He returned the smile proudly. It was a pumpkin soup. I was vary of it at first, since I never had it before, but it was really tasty. The taste was well balanced with the different ingredients and seasoning. Though I had no idea what else besides pumpkin was part of it, since everything was mashed to one consistent mash. Still, it was delicious, that was all that mattered really.
The lord asked Law and me how we planned to continue our search for the portal. I was just about to say we hadn't come up with anything yet, but Law beat me to it.
"The portal site must be in the area. We'll just have to continue our search.", he said. I didn't know what I expected to hear, but for some reason, that was not it. How would the lord react to that, considering he indirectly forbid us from doing so at the very beginning?
"But, you see, the area is very large. You can't possibly search everything as closely as needed within, well, one day.", the lord said. I was confused by that. Sure, I would depart on the day after tomorrow, but Law wouldn't. He had all the time he needed, didn't he?
"Excuse me, what do you mean by only one day?", I interrupted their conversation. Law sighed, whereas Lord Trafalgar looked at me a little confused.
"Didn't he tell you?", he asked back. I raised a brow and looked at Law.
"What did you not tell me?", I pressed.
"I intend to accompany you on your way home. I said I'll get you home, didn't I?", he leaned back into his chair with a smirk now on his face.
"Uhm, sure.", was all I said, still a bit surprised. I hadn't considered that anymore, since we were already back in my world. But now that I thought about it, of course, originally he just planned to bring me to the portal and help me getting it to work. But now he was with me in my world. He could accompany me right until in front of my house. I looked at my plate and smiled without noticing. He was actually that serious about it when he told me.
After everyone finished eating, we departed into seperate directions. The employees where busy taking care of the dishes and cleaning. It was just like Law had anticipated. As the dining room was at the back of the lobby, it was easy to walk out the front door unnoticed. We took the turn up the staircase and then turned around again to make our way quickly to the entrance. Law opened the door as silently as possible, though that wasn't even necessary, as the staff made enough noise themselves to not hear us.
I led the way to the library. The sun had already started to set. It's dawning light hid the variety of the flowers' colours.
As we stood in front of the library, I looked at the wooden double door. It was beautifully decorated. I grabbed the handle and tried opening it. Unsurprisingly, it was locked. Law pulled out a toothpick and a knife meant for cutting steak, both souvenirs from the table we just sat on. I imagined the staff wondering where the knife went or thinking they might have forgotten to put one there. It made me smile a little. In the meantime, Law had picked the lock skillfully with the improvised picklock.
"That was an easy one.", he claimed and opened the door.196Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡpqkyDRzD1Y
