Chapter 14: Maid's Cold Scare

During that time, the only person that Camille openly confided about her therapies was Rosalina, her personal maid.

"Today's fun as well," Camille giggled. "I could slowly open up my feelings now and it really feels like people are listening to me. We don't know each other much, but I find it really beautiful that we could connect with each other because of our pains."

"Are they your schoolmates, Lady?" Rosalina asked, brushing her lady's pretty hair.

"Uh, yeah. Some of them are in their senior years, while some are still in high school. It's quite a diverse group, but it's enough."

"What did you talk about with them?"

"Just… many things. Like how I felt really sad and heavy almost every day, unsure why. And that I've been anxious for no reason at all."

"And that you feel inferior to your brother?"

Camille hesitated, stammering, "Hmm… yeah, something like that."

"You know, Lady Camille, if you could just tell me what you want to do, I can do it."

Camille stared at Rosalina, wondering, through the mirror. "Huh? What exactly do you mean?"

"I can take care of your brother if he makes you so insecure."

"O-Oh? You mean, take care of my brother as well? Like helping him with his studies and other stuff?"

Rosalina exhaled, "You aren't this dense, Lady," She looked back at Camille through the mirror as well. "You should know what I mean. If it bothers you that much, I can just remove Arthur. It isn't uncommon for us to get dirtied for those we serve."

Camille froze, utterly shocked.

She looked away, aghast from what she heard.

Camille faked a laugh, "Oh, come on, Rosalina! Stop joking about that! Let's just forget this. I want to go to bed now."

In the attempt to lighten the mood, Camille felt genuinely frightened of her maid, Rosalina who didn't even flinch or respond as if it really is just a joke.

The fact that she didn't acknowledge it as such meant that she might be serious about it.

Since that day, Camille couldn't look at Rosalina the same way despite growing up with her.

To Camille's eyes, her maid became a frightening threat, just idly lingering with her.

--

"Alright, one more ruby to go," Haru eagerly nodded, looking at the almost-completed pentagon stone. "We're almost done. I wonder what will happen…"

"Good thing you told us about this pentagon stone thing," Alicia smiled. "I thought we'd be stuck at a dead end without clues in this world!"

"Thank you, Mr. Wang, for that ruby," Camille told the old man. "I didn't expect it to be in that room filled with smoke. Wasn't it suffocating there?"

"It's nothing," Mr. Wang groaned. "The room was quite ashen, so finding the ruby there wasn't a trouble. It stood out bright red more than anything."

"But shouldn't we discuss this more?" Haru asked. "I mean, it's good we're on to something, but what if completing this pentagon stone is actually dangerous?"

"Hmm, that's true," Alicia agreed. "We should be more careful about this. Our sense of danger just got off after a day, but that doesn't mean we're really safe."

"I feel like this isn't a trap, though," Camille said. "We've been thinking about that since the first time we got here. About the food, the castle, and its rooms. But nothing bad really happened to us so far, right?"

After discussing the pentagon stone a bit more, they decided to split up again and thoroughly go around the uncharted places in the huge castle this time.

They have relaxed a bit about the place, so Camille, Mr. Wang, and Alicia separated and went alone with their own inspections.

Ali went with Haru again.

As they walked together, Ali suddenly keeled, grabbing his head, and moaning in pain.

Panicking, Haru went to him and asked what was wrong.

"Hey, are you alright? What's going on? Your head hurts?"

Haru was racking his brains, thinking of what may have caused this.

He's not experiencing a headache, so none of them are having any triggers or bad memories.

There wasn't anything wrong with him since earlier either.

'What should I do?'