Chương 117: Chapter 115 - Strange encounters

After dealing with Abelard and his dolls in the conservatory, Scarlett and the others soon located the room that held the boss loot. It was a storage room of sorts, housing trunks and shelves that held different magical tools and equipment on them, similar to some of what they found in the laboratory. It had all been put into the [Bag of Juham] for future sorting. As for what items they found, there were five of them.

[Tiara of Lost Benediction (Legendary)] {A tiara made for a forgotten muse, it holds the prayers that were lost to the world} [Ring of the Soul Harvest (Epic)] {Sustaining the life of one always sacrifices the life of another. Be it wheat from the field or animal for the slaughter, all eat from the reaper's platter} [Death's Shadow (Epic)] {This black garnet amulet hungers for dark magic, devouring any that approaches it into depths unknown} [Alchemist's Potion Belt (Epic)] {An enchanted belt for an experienced alchemist, with advanced magic woven into it} [Charm of Expeditious Change (Unique)] {An artisan's work requires dexterous fingers and sharp eyes, yet even they like to save time on occasion} Scarlett looked over all of them one by one before placing them into the [Bag of Juham] along with the rest of the loot.

She was going to have to tally everything together when she returned to Freybrook anyhow, so she would decide what to do with it all then. The legendary item interested her, of course, along with the [Charm of Expeditious Change], but she wasn't in a hurry at the moment. After they finished gathering all that, they returned to the boss room and removed the [Obedience's Solitude Loci] from where it was affixed to the top of the glass dome at the center of the room.

They would still need it for what Allyssa was planning. They then left the conservatory behind in order to clear the rest of the mansion. Scarlett was a bit surprised that she had gotten no quest completion messages yet, but the trigger for those things was far from predictable to begin with. She was expecting it to show up eventually.

Of the three sections that Abelard's Doll Mansion was divided into, the last section—which ostensibly comprised the higher floors—was large enough that it took them a good amount of time to search it through. Since they had defeated Abelard and taken the Loci, they didn't run into any opposition at least. They passed by several dolls that were standing frozen in the hallways and rooms, and the maze-like qualities that had been present before were now mostly gone.

There were no more occasions where they walked down a hallway, only to turn around and see that things had changed behind them, or that opening a door would lead to different rooms each time. Scarlett wasn't entirely sure if this particular fact was because of the removal of the Loci or because they'd defeated Abelard's ghost. She was hoping it was the first. That would mean the Loci held even more potential than one might expect.

As they passed through the last section, they collected a few more valuable items in some of the rooms, but there was nothing that stood out too much compared to what had already been found. Most of it would just be sold off later. After finishing there, they moved on to the middle section of the mansion, which was where they had originally started.

Much of that area had already been explored, but they still spent a decent amount of time there—with all the ghosts and dolls now either missing or completely docile—before proceeding to the first section of the mansion. Unlike the two later sections, the first section actually still held some enemies that were up and about.

They were simpler undead and skeletons—presumably people who had walked into and died in this place and the surrounding forest over the years—who weren't 'powered' by the magic suffusing and spread throughout the mansion by the Loci. Leon had suggested that the nature of this place had collected enough negative energy that natural ghosts and undead—which were apparently different from the kind they had mostly run into in the other parts of the mansion—popping up was to be expected.

He also said that Abelard's magic had probably, in fact, kept their numbers relatively low and 'harmless'. But this implied that more of them would emerge now that Abelard's magic was removed, which wasn't exactly part of Scarlett's plan. However, Leon had assured her that Lord Withersworth could now employ priests and mages who could deal with this before things grew too bad, and would hopefully be able to clear the entire area from the negative influence eventually.

Considering the relative weakness of the undead they ran into on the first floors, she didn't doubt that he was right. None in their group had much issue taking care of the enemies they faced there, and searching through the section to find all the loot and valuables was effortless enough, if you discounted all the walking about they had to do. There was a slight issue when the [Bag of Juham] apparently reached full capacity.

That had annoyed Scarlett somewhat, since there were still more things she wanted to bring with her. But what could she do? She ended up replacing the more useless items, as well as putting some of the more valuable-looking stuff that they found from thereon in her [Pouch of Holding]. Other than that, there wasn't much more to do. Things were what they were. If she had the time in the future, she could probably return to get what was left, though she doubted it would be worth it.

After having cleaned out most of the lower floors, they finally exited onto the grounds outside the mansion. There, more of the undead were walking around among neglected gardens and hedge bushes. Dealing with them was easy enough. From there, Allyssa guided them down an old pathway leading away from the central parts of the estate to an old meadow, nestled into a section of the grounds that was surrounded by a dense thicket of trees that loomed over them.

At the center of the meadow, there was a dilapidated old gazebo. Once, it had probably been an idyllic white, but now it was flaking and overgrown with vines and the surrounding underbrush. As they neared, Scarlett stopped in front of it and noted that the inside of the gazebo's ceiling was covered in an intricate framework of bronze and mirrors with incomprehensible symbols etched into them. She wasn't one hundred percent sure, but she couldn't recall any of this being in the game.

Although one possibility was that she just hadn't found it.

"This is where you claim Abelard captured the fey whose souls he used to create his dolls?" She turned to look at Allyssa.

"I think so, yes," the girl answered.

"It stands out enough that it has to be something special at least, right?" She pointed up at the ceiling. Scarlett observed the gazebo for a moment.

"And what is it that you suggest we do now?" The girl paused, blinking a few times as she looked between her and the structure.

"I-I'm not sure? Aren't you more familiar with fey and the…interstitial spaces? Whatever they're called. Do you have any idea what we could do from here?" Scarlett focused her attention on the complex workings of metal and mirrors.

"I am afraid this is outside my expertise. I myself do not understand what it is Abelard has created here. Especially not if it involved forcefully creating a connection to the Wandering Realm, which I suspect is the case." The likelihood that the Withersworth's ancestral mansion would just so happen to be right next to a permanent portal to the Wandering Realm wasn't exactly high. Her forehead knitted together in thought.

She supposed she could just try whatever might have stood a chance of working in the game when faced with a situation like this. Stepping up on the gazebo's aged wooden floorboards, she walked to its center and pulled out the small blue crystal that she had been gifted by the [Eupherbia Wildshimmer] in Temisbrook Glade. [Mark of the Fey (Rare)] {A mark of gratitude from a being of the Wandering Realm} Holding it up in the air, she looked up at a circular mirror that was placed directly above her.

It reflected the light given off from the lanterns that Fynn and Shin were carrying to stave off the constant darkness that engulfed the forest around Abelard's Doll Mansion. She squinted her eyes as what she thought was a small mote of light appeared to escape from the center of the crystal, but nothing happened. Waiting for a while, she eventually lowered her hand. Well, that wasn't too surprising. Whatever mechanism Abelard had created here probably wasn't designed to work with just any random item.

She pulled out the [Obedience's Solitude Loci] instead. Palming the large emerald, she eyed it for a moment. Holding it in just one hand like this was almost unwieldy. That fact alone probably meant it would have been worth a fortune back in her old world. Add on the fact that it was magical and she wouldn't be surprised if she could buy a whole mansion with the money she could get from selling it. But, while money was nice, it wasn't exactly where her priorities lay. Not always, at least.

Turning the hefty gemstone around, she gazed at its uncut surface. There was a pale green light emanating from it. While she wasn't certain, she half-suspected that the Loci had some form of sentience to it. Not to the degree where it could think, but at least to a level where it could probably sense intent of some sort. The Loci had also likely been part of what originally powered this gazebo, which was why it was her second choice for things to try.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. She concentrated on it, focusing her thoughts and wishing for whatever this mechanism around them was to work. Several seconds passed with nothing happening.

"Going well for you, over there?" Rosa's voice rang out from behind her. Suddenly, a flicker of light flashed into existence in the air before Scarlett. A moment later, the light widened into a portal narrowly larger than her midriff, though pushing her way through might have proven difficult. On the other side was a glade filled with blue-tinted grass and ringed by an ethereal forest beneath an endless blue sky.

She watched the sight with raptness for a few seconds as the treetops seemed to move according to some hidden pattern. Eventually, she caught herself and stepped back from the portal. She was honestly surprised that it had worked exactly as she'd wanted it to.

"Wait, what did you do?" Allyssa asked, and Scarlett heard the others move up behind her. She looked back at them.

"I opened the gateway, just as you wished." Allyssa stepped closer to the portal, staring at the view on the other side.

"It's…empty."

"That it is."

"I was thinking, hoping …that there would be something there."

"We do not know how this device works," Scarlett said.

"It could be that it simply creates a portal to a random location in the Wandering Realm, or perhaps to an interstitial space like the one in Temisbrook. If so, the likelihood is higher that it would be empty, considering the vastness of realms such as these. If I were to make a conjecture, it is probable that Abelard himself used some method to lure beings here, rather than enter through the portal himself."

While Scarlett might be able to force her way through the portal, that certainly wasn't true for those with wider builds like Leon and Shin. It's possible that Abelard could make it larger than this, since he would have been more familiar with the workings of this mechanism, but there was no way to know for sure.

"What do we do now?" Allyssa turned to look at her. She met the girl's eyes. How would she know?

"This was your suggestion, so I suggest you think of the answer."

"Then…" Allyssa held an uncertain expression as she looked back at the portal.

"We wait?"

"…We wait?" Shin asked.

"Yeah. Something might pass by eventually."

"… If that is what you think we should do, then very well," Scarlett said. She sent one last look at the glade on the other side of the portal, then turned around and walked over to the edge of the gazebo. She placed the [Mark of the Fey] and the [Obedience's Solitude Loci] aside for now and leaned against the wooden railing. The others looked around at each other for a moment, then went and did the same. And so they waited. The portal remained open even as half an hour had passed with nothing happening.

Allyssa's expression was growing more anxious as time went by, but they weren't pressed for time, so Scarlett decided to continue waiting. At one point, as Rosa suppressed a yawn nearby, Scarlett turned her attention to the dark sky. Some of the stars were peeking through the heavy canopy above, though there weren't any constellations that she recognized. What time would it be outside right now? It was hard to know since it was always dark here.

They had left the Withersworth estate in Autumnwell around noon, and since then, a pretty good chunk of time had passed. She wasn't sure exactly how much, but it wouldn't surprise her if it was morning in the outside world at the moment. She felt spent enough for that to be true, at least. The [Mark of the Staunch] was enough to stave off some of that weariness, and it wasn't as if she couldn't go without sleep for a day—even without magical assistance—but they had also fought several battles.

She wouldn't be running any marathons right about now, that much was for sure. Even more time passed as they waited, enough that Rosa had dozed off, lying with her back against the railings. Scarlett was thinking of giving it maybe half an hour more before giving up on this approach. A gasp left Allyssa. Everyone—excluding Rosa—turned their attention towards the center of the gazebo. Scarlett froze. Where there previously had been the scene of a magical glade with otherworldly sights, there was now just an eye.

One. Eye. Its deep blue iris was great enough to take up the entire opening and more, with small lustres spread throughout it as if it was hiding the stars of the night sky. The large, elongated pupil at the center of the eye had strands of white like lightning that flowed through the black viscera, and it moved around slowly as it peered through the portal and at them. Several seconds had passed when Scarlett remembered to move. Leon was the first to step forward, a golden light surging up around him like armor.

Fynn growled as he glared at the eye, moving closer to Scarlett. She simply continued staring at this being. She had no idea what this was.

"E-Ehm, hello," Allyssa's thin voice sounded out from beside her. The pupil shifted to the girl.

"Can you understand me?" she asked. Silence followed as it observed her for a short while, then turned to Scarlett. Or rather, what was behind her. She looked back at the [Mark of the Fey] and the [Obedience's Solitude Loci], both of which were placed on the railing. Then she turned back to the giant eye, searching for any sign of hostility. Even though they were separated by a gateway between realms, there was a weight to its gaze that unnerved her.

She didn't know whether it could reach them through the small portal; was it dangerous, or perhaps just curious? But it might be best if she didn't risk finding out. The Loci was what opened the portal to begin with, so it should be possible to close it as well. Taking a small step back, she watched as Allyssa moved closer to the portal.

"We wanted to talk with someone from your…realm," the girl said, the hesitance clear in her voice.

"There's something we wanted help with, and we thought someone from where you are might know what to do about it." The words yielded no response as the eye examined the young Shielder.

"I don't know if you're aware, but the magic that formed this portal was created by a very bad man who used it to capture many fey a long time ago. He hurt them, as well as a lot of people. That's…I mean, people are humans like us." Allyssa pointed at herself and the rest of them.

"We wanted to help all of them move on." The eye blinked. A slow, deliberate movement, where several thick, incandescent tendrils that might have been eyelashes briefly showed. Allyssa seemed to swallow at the sight.

"That's, uh…" She pointed back behind Scarlett.

"That large emerald over there is what's keeping those people and fey from moving on, and we don't know how we can help them other than to destroy it, and that's not something we can do because we really need it. I-Is this something you could help with? Or maybe you know someone who can do something about it and you can help us contact them?" Once again, there was no response. The girl squirmed on the spot for a moment, then seemed to remember something.

This time, she gestured towards Scarlett and the [Mark of the Fey].

"We're not here to hurt anyone. We've met others like you before. Or, well, not exactly like you, but fairies who were in danger. And the woman over there helped them." The eye shifted to Scarlett again, and she could feel the pressure bearing down on her. She didn't know if the being completely understood Allyssa's words, but it appeared to be probing her in some manner at least. After a while, it blinked once more, and the pressure faded.

Suddenly, the Loci and the [Mark of the Fey] floated through the air and past her, towards the portal. She didn't have the time to speak before the two items stopped before the being, its tall pupil focusing on them. Scarlett's eyes widened as a light burst forth from both, followed by a symphony of shattering glass and gleeful chittering that echoed out around the clearing. A moment later, both items fell to the ground. The being turned to Allyssa and Scarlett, and then it blinked.

The portal closed without warning. [Quest completed: Cleared Abelard's Doll Mansion] {Skill points awarded: 8} [Side-Quest completed: Help Lady Orelia and the other souls of Abelard's Doll Mansion move on] {Skill points awarded: 6} The messages appeared in front of Scarlett at the same time as sounds of surprise left the others. She cursorily read the words over before turning to the gems lying on the floorboards, walking over to pick them up.

The Loci was emitting a faint, almost serene green light, and the blue crystal beside it had tiny, almost imperceptible sparks of lightning running through sections of it now. [Obedience's Solitude Loci (Unique)] {Strange powers of an itinerant realm dwell within this stone, creating something more than what was there before. The souls that were once tied to it have been severed and freed from their torment} [Mark of the Fey (Epic)] {Originally a mark of gratitude from a being of the Wandering Realms, it has now been touched by the powers of an idol, remembering a debt owed and a debt due} She stared at the descriptions. An idol. That had been an idol?! Her throat tightened at the implications. Idols were like the deities of the Wandering Realm.

Not quite gods in the normal sense, and vastly more numerous, but some of them were on par with beings like the Viles in how powerful they were in their domains. The [Bag of Juham] was supposedly connected to one such idol, for example. But that wasn't what frightened her. What scared her was whatever this 'a debt owed and a debt due' meant. Did the idol expect her to owe it a favor now, and vice versa? She had no idea what a being like this would ask of her.

And since she didn't actually know what idol it had been—if it even had been present in the game, which she couldn't be sure of since she didn't recognize the eye—she also had no idea what she could even ask of it. What was even the point of them owing each other debts? Couldn't it just have been satisfied with neither of them owing the other one anything at all, then? She let out a tired sigh. This could either be a massive boon, a terrible curse, or anything in between. The problem was that she didn't know which.

The six skill points she got from completing the side-quest didn't quite make up for that uncertainty.

"—arlett." She looked up as Leon called her name. All the others were giving her worried looks. Was her expression that bad? Schooling her face as much as she could, she turned back to Allyssa, who held an uneasy look.

"Did it work?" she asked the girl. Some of the worry on Allyssa's face faded at the question, and she showed a weak smile.

"Yes, I think it did. She's gone now, the spirit. And I have a feeling the same goes for the rest of the people and fey who were stuck here." Scarlett gave a slow nod.

"That is good. If so, we are finished here. It is time that we make our return."

"To Autumnwell?" Rosa asked. The bard had woken up at some point during the previous proceedings.

"Yes," Scarlett said, though she paused for a moment and turned to Leon as the man seemed to study her.

"Is there something you wish to say, Sir Leon?" He frowned.

"Are you alright, Scarlett?" She gave him a long look.

"I am perfectly fine, thank you."

"…Do you know what that was?"

"A being of the Wandering Realm," she replied in a dry tone, arching a brow at the man.

"Although I supposed you were expecting more of an answer than that. Unfortunately, there is not much more that I know, other than that it might have had the power to effortlessly erase all of our existences if it so desired." His expression darkened at that.

"It didn't appear to be hostile towards us, at least. But you didn't look happy even after it seemed to help with exactly what you asked."

"Quite the opposite, actually. I am very pleased with the aid it provided. I am simply uncertain about the price it might ask," she said.

"The price?" A worried look entered Allyssa's eyes.

"We were asking for it to help us save other fey. Would it really ask a price for that?" Scarlett turned to the girl. Was there a point in placing the responsibility on her, when Scarlett had been the one who chose to go through with things in the end?

"…No, I suppose it would not. It did not provide a proper response, so perhaps it is only me being overly apprehensive." That didn't seem to relax the girl any. Scarlett turned away from the others, peering down the path leading from the gazebo.

"There is no point in continuing to waste time thinking about it at the moment. We can discuss things further on a later occasion. For now, I think we should return to Autumnwell and rest. It has been an eventful day."