A moment of silence enveloped us, as we didn't know what to do now. The reports to the queen did not include a hint of the location of the portal. We had a strong suspicion of where it was, but this was still a bummer somehow. I guessed our expectations were just a tad too high, once we found these folders.
Feeling restless, I wanted to break the silence, but I couldn't think of anything. All I could think about was the portal. We had learned a lot. About the pledged item system and the things needed to activate the portal. There was a theory needing to fulfill certain criteria to travel to another world. But since a lot of knowledge was lost during the wars, the portal couldn't be opened anymore. There was no way to prove that theory, until Law and I came back through that portal to get me back home. In that moment, I remembered Law intending to accompany me. I haven't talked to him about that yet.
"So you really want to come with me the day after tomorrow?", I asked, finally breaking the silence. Law raised an eyebrow, but nodded.
"Don't want me to?", he asked. Shaking my head, I told him that was not what I wanted to say.
"It was just a bit unexpected, is all.", I explained. This was awkward.
"Was it? I told you I'd bring you home."
"Well, technically, you just wanted to help me get back home.", Law frowned upon hearing that. I realized it did sound like I didn't want him to come with me. "Not that I don't appreciate it, I do. It's just, uhm…", I didn't know how to continue. It felt like whatever I said, it would make things worse. This was so awkward!
"Just spit it out. That's not what you wanted to talk about, right?", he said, after leaning back into the chair. Thank goodness, he was so good at reading other people.
"Well, this will sound strange, but you'll need to disguise yourself if you want to tag along.", I told him bluntly. I wasn't sure whether I wanted it to be that blunt.
"Why would I need to disguise myself?", he asked with a new frown on his face.
"Remember when I arrived on your submarine? I thought you were a fictional character, right?", he nodded, seemingly still not understanding what I was getting at.
"Well, in this world, there is a work of fiction with a popular character that… well, let's say resembles you. A lot. At least change your clothes.", I explained. I guessed a disguise was too much to ask for, but changing clothes was the minimum. At least his trade marks needed to go, though I knew it wouldn't be easy to convince him to do that. They weren't his trade marks for nothing.
After he thought about my request for a bit, he asked for the title. "It's… called One Piece.", I hesitated a bit. It wasn't just a work of fiction with one character that resembled Law. It was about the world he was coming from, with the characters being real people he knows about. I was a bit scared of the moment he'd find out his past was revealed to millions of people, just like that.
"One Piece?", he asked in surprise. Of course he'd be surprised. This must have been so suspicious to him. I nodded.
"I'd like to read that.", he demanded, while standing up.
"Right now?"
"Right now.", he took the two folders and made his way to put them back into the shelve he had taken them from, leaving me at the table.
I just sat there, stunned. Panic rose up inside me. "What have I done?"
"Why didn't I think of anything else? God I'm so stupid!", blaming myself internally, Law returned to the table. "Let's go."
Reluctantly, I stood up while taking a deep breath, preparing myself for what was to come.
"I have to tell him the truth about One Piece. When would be the best moment? Now? When he's about to read it? I hope the internet connection just broke down. Please let something have destroyed the wire.", I begged for an 'unfortunate accident'. But thinking about the internet connection reminded me of a crucial tool to read the manga. A PC.
"What time is it?", I asked Law, who I knew wore a wristwatch.
"Around half past nine p.m..", he said after looking at the clock. Quite late already.
"I might be lucky.", I thought. Since there weren't any PCs in the guest rooms, we'd had to ask for one we could use. But it would be rude to visit the lord or Mr. Sheffield at this hour.
Communicating my thoughts about the time to Law, he stopped suddenly and seemed to think about something. Not wanting to disrupt him in his thoughts, I silently waited.
"Then let's see if we can go through the back door of the mansion to the hut in the labyrinth.", he said.
"What? Why?", how did he get that idea now?
"It seems that no one is looking for us, otherwise they would have checked the library already. So they haven't noticed our absence yet or they simply don't care. Either way, we first have to see what the situation is like inside the mansion. If it's quiet, we should use this chance to search the hut again.", he explained his plan. I agreed that if they really searched for us, they would have checked the library already. But thinking about it, it was weird they weren't looking for us. I didn't think it probable that they haven't noticed our absence yet. After all, they have surveillance cameras spread throughout the mansion. I imagined it to be very easy to check if we had gone to our rooms after dinner.
"What if it's a trap? Not that they would really want to harm us, but use maybe. I mean we came through the portal. So even if the lord's theory about the criteria is right, we must fulfill those criteria and be able to activate the portal. What if they want us to find and activate the portal?", I shared my suspicion. Though I wasn't sure yet if that would affect us in any negative way, even if I was right.
Walking on, Law answered: "Doesn't matter. I don't intend to activate the portal now. I'll still get you home before that. I just want to make sure I can leave when I come back."
Following behind him, I had to smile upon hearing that. Somehow, it made me happy that he was so keen on bringing me home.
We had just walked up the stairs to the first lower floor, when our movement stopped simultaneously. The lights had been put on. We had left them off intentionally, using flashlights to read. Someone had entered the library. The thought of Law picking the lock struck me. I didn't remember whether he had closed the door afterwards, but whoever entered must have noticed the door to be unlocked.
We were lucky the stairs were located in the corners at the back of each floor, so they weren't visible from the upper floors. The carpet laid out in the entire building muffled both parties steps, making it impossible to try to identify the other person by that. We still tried walking with softer steps as we carefully moved forward. Law led the way. The next staircase leading upwards was in the corner to our right. We didn't know whoever's intentions, but we could assume they were looking for us, going straight down to the lowest floor. Therefor, we went straight ahead, taking the long way around the square in the middle.
Rushing from one cover behind the bookshelves to the next, I closely watched the stairs whenever they were in sight. The bookshelves were too thin for both of us to hide behind them, so I followed after Law always staying one shelve behind. We had already made our way halfway to the stairs, but no one had descended them yet, which I thought strange. What was taking them so long?
I wanted to share my suspicion with Law, but couldn't shout out to him, so I simply waited for him to notice I wouldn't follow behind anymore. I didn't have to wait for long. After he turned around and put on a questioning look, I raised my hand and signaled for him to wait for me. I went to him, still seeking cover behind the shelves, after he nodded in understanding.
Law tilted his head, to ask what the matter was, once I rushed over to the shelve he was hiding behind. "They're taking too long.", I whispered to him, while pointing in the direction of the stairs.
"I know.", he whispered back. I answered with a nod to signal an 'alright'. If he was aware of it, then that's fine. We continued our way until Law stood behind the last shelve we could hide behind. Since the bookshelves had no rear panel, one could look through them. There was no hiding spot for us on the long way straight to the stairs leading up.
Now we were just waiting for something to happen, while listening closely to any sound. But there was nothing to be heard. I wondered what they were doing upstairs. Did they just take a book and sit down to read? Or did they go upstairs first and that's why it's taking them so long to come down? Was there even still a person inside the library? What if they just forget to shut off the lights?
All those thoughts crossed my mind while I was waiting around. My beating heart from when the lights suddenly lit up had calmed down with nothing else happening.
I carefully checked if the shelve was wide enough for me to hide behind it with my back against it. It wasn't. I couldn't sit down behind it. "Damn it.", I had hoped to sit down whilst waiting. A compromise was leaning against the shelve with my shoulder. I let my head unintentionally fall against the shelve as I leaned against it. The unexpected sound made Law turn around in a hurry.
I mouthed an apology. But he just smiled for an instant, put his hands into his pockets and also leaned against the shelve he was hiding behind. Then he closed his eyes.
I hadn't expected this behaviour of him, but that was better than the frown I thought would appear. I had a feeling we had both gotten more comfortable around each other. The thought made me smile.
We had already waited for some time. Having nothing to do, I began to yawn at some point. Law was amused by that, giving me a teasing smirk. I just smirked back with a raised brow, since I was not the first one of us to hold back a yawn. Our interaction made Law chuckle lowly, before he shifted his body so that he was leaning against the shelve with his back. He pulled out his hands and signaled me to follow him.
I tilted my head with a puzzled look, but Law was already with his back to me, not being able to see my question. Carefully, I followed up behind him, while keeping a close eye on the stairs.
I guessed Law intended to just take the chance to go for the staircase, since we would see the unknown's feet coming down before they would see us.
We reached the staircase without an incident. Law signaled me to wait downstairs before he carefully went up. Crouching, he looked around on each step before going up the next. I noticed him looking at something more intently and guessed he had found the one who entered the library. I was curious as to who it was, but kept waiting as I was told until Law signaled me with his finger again to follow up.
I went up the stairs carefully, while looking for the person in question. Once I reached a step higher than Law was when he found them, I saw Rose sitting at a table and seemingly reading a book. She sat with her back to us, not moving. It must have been a good book, I thought.
Either way, that was good for us. We silently walked over to the doors, aware not to give in to the urge to rush out. Once we reached the door, I carefully opened it as silently as I could. It wasn't very hard, since the handle and lock were cared for so they didn't squeak and I was used to open and close doors silently. I just didn't like it when they closed loudly. One trick was to pull or push the door into the frame before operating the handle.
Finally outside the library, I let out a relieved sigh. "We could have waited there forever with Rose reading a book.", I laughed slightly and shook my head at the thought of that ridiculous scenario.
"I wouldn't have expected Rose to read this late in the library.", Law admitted. I guessed she was too busy during the day.
The cold air outside gave me goosebumps. I was still only wearing the summer dress with the cardigan on top. It didn't feel as cold when we went to the library after dinner, but now night had set in. It was much colder now.
We had walked a few feet away from the library towards the mansion before Law stopped once more. His hands rested in his pockets again. "What do you say? Still want to go to the hut?"
The way he put it made me laugh. "You know this just sounded like we were at an amusement park and you asked which attraction to go to next.", this little visit to the library was indeed exciting at the end. I remembered my heart beating first, but feeling quite safe after we had waited for a while. Law and I even fooled around just a little bit before finally deciding to not wait around any longer. Yep, looking back at it, it felt like an amusement park attraction.
"Sure, why not?", I answered his question. With this little adventure being so harmless, I was in the mood for another one. Law responded to my answer with a smile of his own, as we continued to the mansion.
"Do you know the way from the lobby?", Law suddenly asked in a quiet tone as he grabbed the door handle of the main entrance to the mansion. I thought for a short moment, but shook my head. I realized what that meant. We didn't know where to go. The mansion itself was big and the corridors like a maze. The way from the guest rooms to the lobby was easy. But since the lord has led us to the back door from our guest rooms, we had no idea how to get there starting from the main entrance.
"That's a bit of a shame.", I mumbled.
"I'm not entirely sure of it, but I do have an idea of where to go.", he said and opened the door silently. I smiled at him in excitement. Letting me in first, Law closed the door again just as silently as he had opened it.
We stood at the entrance for a brief moment, but there was nothing to be heard. Everyone must have been in their own rooms. The lobby was a rather busy area in the mansion. It was the easiest way to get from one half of the mansion to the other, so it was safe to assume no one was left running around the house, when it was silent here.
Law led the way again through a door on the left. Instantly, I was glad he had an idea of where the door was. Considering it was the back door of the house, my first guess would have been to go straight to the back. Of course, we could have just gone to our rooms and tried to follow the way from thereon, but without talking about it, we agreed that this was not the best method. It was easy to see the corridor where the guest rooms were located in was a busy street for the employees. They were probably not working anymore, but we didn't want to take the chance. I would have liked to change into warmer clothes, but the temperature was still manageable like this and I didn't want to risk this good chance.
As I followed behind Law, I curiously looked around the rooms and hallways we went through. It was clearly a way guests were not supposed to take, as we went through a lot of economic rooms, like a laundry or storage room.
We didn't talk much on our way. While it was a rather comfortable atmosphere we had around us, we didn't want to get caught, so we tried to stay as silent as possible. Though the comfortable atmosphere did let us chitchat every now and then about something we saw or just remembered.
"That's a nice tea pot.", I said, while inspecting the porcelain pot. We were inside a small kitchen, definitely not the main kitchen used to prepare the meals.
The shape was like any other ordinary tea pot, but it was beautifully painted. The art style looked like a traditional asian one and depicted asian workers in a rice field. They were even emphasized with a 3D-effect.
"Must be a private one of one of the employees, considering it was never used for tea on the table.", Law mentioned, standing behind me. I nodded. The pot seemed to be used regularly, yet we hadn't seen it until now.
That was when I thought about the room we were inside again. This must be a kitchen for the employees to use. So someone might walk in any time.
"We should continue on.", Law said, seemingly having had the same thought. We walked out the kitchen. Just in time, as I noticed. Right after we had closed the door behind us, I heard the other one opening. That tea pot was dangerous, I concluded.
My first thought was to signal to Law we should be extra quiet now, but then I remembered that was not necessary, as he was much more aware of his surroundings than I was. Simply out of habit.186Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFW1HLZ72do
