Chapter 12
“Enough sightseeing around the dormitory hall! Now I’ll show you your bedrooms!”
The winged sparkle pointed toward the entrance as it spoke.
The shabby entrance, which had only had a crooked nameplate attached to it, had somehow transformed into a heavy, antique-looking door decorated with gorgeous gold plating.
Of course, the inside was still a labyrinth.
But unlike the labyrinth where they had wandered around like mad, the path was fairly simple.
Mr. Gregor was nowhere to be seen, and the damp, gloomy air had changed into clean, cool air.
It was still dark, though.
As Daisy looked at the crystal lights placed at intervals along the corridor, the soft carpets, and the exotic decorations positioned at every corner, she wondered.
What on earth… had they sold?
Eventually, after peacefully crossing the same corridor where they had been chased by all kinds of monsters, they came across a gigantic door.
“This is the dormitory common lounge!”
The winged sparkle proudly opened the door.
And at the sight that unfolded before them, Daisy and the others…
“……”
“……”
“It’s really wonderful!”
The dormitory common lounge was just as lavish as the dormitory hall.
Dazzling chandeliers.
Antique leather sofas.
Marble tables so shiny that even a fly would slip on them.
Even a black fireplace where purple flames crackled and leaped.
Rather than being a place where teenagers could relax comfortably, the atmosphere was more suited to a mafia boss from an underground organization drinking whiskey.
Well, that much was fine.
It was a grim sight, but it was beautiful.
However, when Daisy saw the enormous tapestry hanging in place of the windows that naturally couldn’t exist underground, she closed her eyes for a moment.
She felt slightly dizzy.
The tapestry depicted Ursus and his companions defeating the monsters of the underground labyrinth.
Monsters from the underground labyrinth.
That was right.
A life-sized Mr. Gregor was being sliced in half by Ursus’s sword.
“What a magnificent tapestry! A craftsman made it stitch by stitch!”
So why did you stitch a 180-centimeter cockroach together stitch by stitch?
“All right, now it’s time for bed!”
“……”
“……”
The winged sparkle smiled brightly at the children, who had gone pale after looking at the tapestry.
“The bedrooms are on both sides. The boys’ bedrooms are on the left, and the girls’ bedrooms are on the right.”
“Can I go visit them?”
Milo Everett raised his hand and asked.
The winged sparkle answered with a friendly smile.
“I’m afraid I have some sad news to share. One student who ‘mistook’ the boys’ bedroom for the girls’ bedroom has been trapped in the dungeon for twenty-eight years.”
“……”
“……”
“The girls’ bedroom is on the right?”
Daisy calmly double-checked.
“That’s right. There should be nameplates on the bedroom doors. Two people per room.”
The winged sparkle answered kindly, then clapped its hands.
“You’ve all done so wonderfully, and I’m so proud of you! Get plenty of rest.”
Clap, clap, clap, clap.
With the winged sparkle applauding them, Daisy and Monica headed right, while Milo and Stroud headed left.
“Ugh, I’m so sleepy I could die……”
The closer they got to the beds, the heavier the sleepiness became.
Daisy’s room was directly next to Monica’s.
“……Hmm.”
As though remembering the final confrontation in the dormitory hall, Monica hesitated in front of her room with a slightly awkward expression.
Daisy didn’t pay much attention and opened the door.
Whatever. Now that she had found her bed, she just needed to sleep…
“Seableheart.”
“Ha, what?”
At the voice calling her, Daisy turned around, unable to hide her annoyed expression.
“……How did you know?”
“Know what?”
“That you had to stay there… in the collapsing dormitory hall.”
Daisy looked at Monica.
There wasn’t a trace of sleepiness in Monica’s black eyes. They held a little awkwardness, but even more curiosity.
It was a little burdensome, but there was no reason she couldn’t tell her.
“There was no poker.”
“A poker?”
“Yeah. I dropped it when it collapsed the first time. But it wasn’t there this time, so I figured there must be something underneath the collapsing dormitory hall.”
“That’s all?”
“That’s all.”
“What if there hadn’t been anything?”
Monica asked with a frown.
“What if you had just been crushed underneath it?”
Daisy looked at Monica, whose hair was disheveled and whose uniform had been reduced to something resembling rags.
“You get crushed. What else?”
“Us too?”
“……”
Daisy fell silent for a moment.
Come to think of it.
She hadn’t considered it at the time, but Monica’s question hit surprisingly close to the mark.
Why had she tried to bring them along, too?
It wasn’t her concern whether they went through the labyrinth again or not. She could have simply thrown herself into the collapsing dormitory hall alone…
“Well, that’s enough of an answer.”
Perhaps thinking Daisy was intentionally refusing to answer, Monica shrugged.
“At least, thanks to you, we made it to the dormitory.”
After looking at Daisy for a moment, she continued.
“You’re kind of strange.”
“Are you picking a fight with me all of a sudden?”
“You’re different from the information I have. Why?”
“Maybe you collected the wrong information.”
Daisy answered curtly.
But Monica stubbornly shook her head.
“No. According to the information I had, Daisy Seableheart wasn’t like this. You’re almost… like a different person.”
You’re pretty sharp, aren’t you…
“But you can’t be a different person. If that were the case, then the information would have to be wrong. But where exactly did it……”
Monica questioned herself and came to her own conclusion, then soon fell into deep thought, muttering something under her breath.
Watching the endless stream of incomprehensible words like information, contamination, and disposal, Daisy yawned widely and turned away.
“Well, whatever.”
It was over anyway.
They had happened to meet in the labyrinth and traveled together, but she had absolutely no intention of continuing that relationship.
Don’t forget.
‘Live a quiet, ordinary life, alone.’
Resolving that from now on, she would always jump into collapsing dormitory halls alone, Daisy entered her bedroom.
“Wow, I’m really going to die.”
The seemingly endless stamina of a teenager had long since run out.
Daisy scraped together what little energy she had left, washed herself, shoved her uniform into the wardrobe, then went straight to the nearest bed and collapsed face-first onto it.
Ah, come to think of it, I wonder if he made it through safely…
As she buried her face in the soft blanket, she suddenly remembered a firm chest.
Large hands.
Pale gray eyes.
A beautiful yet stern face.
“Felix Arderon……”
With those quiet words, murmuring the name of the boy who still felt somewhat unfamiliar, a sleep as deep as death descended upon her.
