Chương 573: Chapter 564: Failure

Shortly after Vanessa led us into the dining room, we were joined by two other people. Both of them were richly dressed guests, and they seemed to be outsiders who had come to visit Vanessa for her birthday, just like us. One of them was an older gentleman, with silver hair, a slightly pudgy belly, and a slightly creased forehead. He had a slightly haughty expression, and looked down his nose at the servants in the house - literally. He was probably 'uncle Morton'.

The woman who stood beside him, who I presumed to be his wife, Jamira, looked notably younger. Morton was probably around fifty years old, while Jamira was probably thirty. She had rich, brown hair, and an even more haughty expression than her husband. Both of them had dark green eyes flecked with little bits of red and gold - which somewhat reminded me of the way I had customized my own eyes, but also looked very different. I decided that I didn't like them.

The way they looked down their nose at the servants didn't exactly sit right with me. Then, I remembered that this was some kind of strange, artificially created 'adventure' that was sold by a company to members of the Market.

I still had no idea how the Market had accomplished this, but I had a sneaking suspicion that the people in front of us were either artificially created on-demand, or might have been implanted with a bunch of memories to make them follow the script that the company had added for this adventure. Either way, Morton and Jamira probably weren't this way by choice. The trace of disapproval vanished from my heart before it had a chance to finish forming.

These two were poor souls trapped here in a role they might not want, and they might not even know it. If I could, I would see if there was a way to free them. Vanessa smiled brightly at the two of them.

"Everyone is here!" She said.

"The chefs have been working all day to get the food ready, so you have to eat every bite, okay?" At Vanessa's words, four people emerged from the hallway, each carrying a tray of food. Two of them held pots of soup, while the other two held salad. They set the trays in the middle of the table, before they pulled out a row of plates and bowls from a cabinet and began serving us. I hesitated, before I sampled a bite of the food.

It was surprisingly delicious - but as I slowly nibbled away at my plate of food, I continued to observe our surroundings. There was just too much that I didn't know about this situation. To be cautious, I also healed myself, to handle any poison. After all, I knew that something was off about this scenario - otherwise, the decorations outside wouldn't occasionally change from a peaceful, beautiful mansion to a grotesque horror movie.

My companions quietly started to eat as well, while I tossed some healing magic their way. The soup was close enough to water for me to use it as a medium to heal them, so I didn't need to splash them to keep the healing going. Meanwhile, Morton and Jamira made small talk with Vanessa.

"Vanessa, it's a pleasure to see you again. I don't think I've seen you since you turned nine," said Morton. He gave her a greasy smile.

"It has been a long time, uncle Morton. I don't think I've seen you since my parents died," said Vanessa, as she gave him a slightly more bitter smile. Even though it was subtle, I caught an edge to her voice that hadn't been there before.

"I was busy at the border. You know how it goes. Business calls, and that nasty war with the country to the east," said Morton. My eyelids twitched. I was pretty sure that this was all backstory for this 'adventure', so the hostile country probably didn't exist. However, even if it was made up, for the creators of this adventure to literally call it ' the country to the east' felt a bit perfunctory. Couldn't they have put in a little more effort into naming it?

"I suppose." Vanessa's voice was a little colder than before, before she sighed.

"Forget it. At least you came this time. That must mean that all of you still hold me in your heart, at least a little bit, right?" She gave us a wide, beaming smile that set my nerves on edge. I was starting to get the distinct impression that something was a little off about Vanessa's facial expressions. I wasn't sure what to make of it, though, because we still had no idea what we were supposed to be doing here.

Vanessa and Morton continued to chat for about fifteen minutes, while Jamira and my companions focused more on the meal. After fifteen minutes of chatter, the cooks returned to the kitchen, before they entered the dining room again. This time, they all bore large trays of roasted chicken, paired with some kind of vegetable I had never seen before, but tasted kind of like rice. During the meal, I kept getting the feeling that something was just a little bit off about Vanessa. Finally, I couldn't take it anymore.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The situation was strange. I didn't know exactly what we were supposed to do, or what our goal was - but at the very least, someone in front of me seemed to be hurting. I might not know how to fix the overall situation, but I could do something about that, at least. I notified the others about what I was going to do. Then, I pulled Vanessa aside after the main course, and redirected her into the hall.

Vanessa seemed a bit puzzled when I gently asked her to talk with me outside of the dining room - but she still obliged.

"Vanessa, are you okay? You seem… upset," I said. Vanessa looked at me, as if she were truly surprised by my behavior.

"Aunt Guest Name, I really wish you'd talked to me about this a year or two ago," she said.

"It's never too late. I might not have been there for you in the past, but I want to be here for you now." Vanessa looked at me. For a moment, the expression on her face flickered. Her eyes softened for a moment, and she took a step towards me, as if she was about to reach for a hug. I opened my arms wide. Vanessa hesitated, and then shook her head. She stepped back.

"I'll think about it. Tomorrow." She said. I wasn't quite sure what she meant by the word 'tomorrow.' I had a sinking feeling that Vanessa had been about to open up to me - and then something had intervened to get the 'plot' back on course. Or perhaps I was overthinking it. After all, I had no idea how this adventure worked, or how it had been created. Still, it left a rotten taste in my mouth. Vanessa sighed.

"Let's go back," she said. She turned around and walked back into the dining room. <Any luck? > asked Sallia. <I don't think so, > I said. <Sorry, Mir. You tried your best, > she said. I felt my shoulders slump as I walked back into the dining room, took my seat, and went back to eating my unidentified dish. I wasn't sure what the point of this celebration was anymore. At first, I thought we were just here to watch Vanessa's birthday and try to interfere with the plot.

Now, it seemed like Vanessa wouldn't open up to me. That would probably remain true no matter what I tried, since I suspected that this adventure was designed to have a 'plot'. Derailing it might just make the adventure try to correct itself, and I didn't even know what the script was or how I might try to change things. Finally, after an hour of eating, Vanessa clapped her hands together, gave us all a prim, slightly empty smile, and then nodded towards a maid in the corner of the room.

"I had a lot of fun, and I hope all of you enjoyed the meal. It's about time to retire, so how about all of you go to sleep for the night? I'll see you again tomorrow morning, and we can discuss my follow-up arrangements for my actual birthday," said Vanessa. She gave us one last empty smile, before one of the maids helped my companions and me out of our seats and began leading us into the hallway. I sighed, before I stood up and followed the maid.

We soon arrived at another set of rooms, which clearly looked like guest rooms. The maid didn't give us one guest room per person, though - for some reason, she just tried to herd us all into one room. Which was quite strange, but I didn't say anything as we piled into the room. Once we were inside, I caught a faint whiff of an unusual odor. It smelled faintly of medicine, although I couldn't pinpoint what the smell was. Was it some kind of herb or scent that was popular here? I didn't like it very much.

I wrinkled my nose, before I sighed, and sat down on the bed.

"What do you think we're supposed to -" before I could finish my thought, another screen made of light appeared in the middle of the room. I stared at it in bewilderment. The first two rooms had at least had obvious objectives inside of them. Now, the third room was allowing us to leave without doing anything besides eating a meal and talking for a few hours? Something felt wrong here.

I tried moving back towards the doors to the room we had settled in, but when I tried to open the doors and return to the dining hall, I found that the door was locked. I frowned, and tried using spatial magic to peek outside - but it was blocked.

"Let me try," said Sallia. She pushed all of her physical stats up to the limit, and then tried to rip the door open - and nothing happened. Felix spent a few minutes tinkering with the lock, before he shook his head.

"I think the door was somehow swapped out with… I'm not quite sure," he said.

"It's almost as if the wall turned into a painting or something? The doorway still looks like it's there, but from an enchanting perspective, it's just a decorated part of the wall. Also, I've noticed that there's a clock in the corner of this room - and it hasn't moved since the portal to the next room appeared. I think the adventure isn't giving us an option. We have to move on." I sighed, but I thought Felix was right. Whatever we were supposed to get out of this room, we had missed it.

All we could do now was go forward. I sighed, and then stepped into the door of light.