The door closed. Meiandra Arvis was alone in her new room. The first thing she did was run past a bed to the window on the other side of the room. It was a real window. It had no bars and could be opened. Directly in front of the window was a lawn. The room was on the first floor. If the gate was really always open, Meia could sneak out. She had no intention of doing so. She was just imagining it. The view sadly wasn't that great. There was only the fence and the artificial forest in the distance.

The bed was a four-poster bed. Meia concluded that she would either have a maid or that at least there would be someone cleaning the room without asking. The term room wasn't really correct. This room was a bedroom and living area, but had two extra doors. After Meia had tilted the window, she went through both doors one by one.

Behind door number one was... unfortunately just an empty storage room. Maybe it was a walk-in closet? There were shelves on the wall.

Behind door number two was... a bathroom with a shower and a bathtub under the window. It wasn't just a full bathroom. It was a dream bathroom.

Meia almost jumped for joy. The first thing she did here was to run hot water. She didn't have much time until half past three, but it would be enough to take a bath.

The second thing she did in the bathroom was to go to the toilet. The last time had been last night and since then she had drunk a whole bottle of apple juice. If you wanted to know where exactly she'd been to the toilet last night when there hadn't been one, you'd better not ask. It had been behind a bush... Even worse: the masked woman had watched and eavesdropped on her. Meia hadn't gone behind the first bush right away, but she had stalked her. Meia hadn't been allowed to move away from the convoy at any time during the journey, but normally no one had followed her anyway. That had been the only time, but thankfully it had also been the last.

While the bathtub was filling up, Meia unpacked a few important things from her backpack.

The first was her ivy, which she watered and placed by the window. Meia had bought the ivy in Kira's after she got the tower room to make it prettier.

Next was her plushie, which she placed on the pillow against the blanket. It wasn't the deer. The deer had to hold the fort in Wiestahl. It was a horror owl. There was no better way to describe it. It was a strange owl-like creature with a hacking beak and pitch-black googly eyes. It looked like a mythical creature from a horror story. It was the kind of owl you would expect to find in a crooked tree under a crescent moon. It actually didn't quite belong to Meia. When she had been given the tower room, it had already been lying under the bed. It had been covered in dust and completely filthy. It had probably been there forever, waiting for a new victim, but Meia had been able to domesticate it. Of course, Meia had only kept her at first, but nobody had picked her up for a month. Last week, Meia had found out from one of the beauties of the queen's personal guard that her room had previously been empty. No one had owned it before Meia got it. It was spooky. Even the origin of the horror owl was a mystery.

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Next was a book for the bath and her wash bag. With these things, she went into the bathroom and locked the door behind her.

Meia undressed down to her trousers and bra. She put her shoes in the shower. She hung her cape in the shower. She threw her shirt and her socks into a laundry basket. The bath was not full yet and the water was too hot. Meia changed the temperature, then sat down on the edge of the bath. After dozing for a while, she decided to pass the waiting time by reading.

The book she had chosen was one of the series: 'Tin, the heroine'. It was the first part of the series. Meia had read all the parts, but she only owned this one.

Tin was a daydreamy girl with bright blue eyes and silver hair. Despite her weak body, she could overcome any adversity with skill and wits. No matter how many times she was knocked down, she always got back on her feet. She always fought on. In the end, she always emerged victorious. After all, she was a heroine.

The author of the series did not invent Tin himself. Originally, she was a figure of the 'metal lore'. Metalworkers were all professions that had a lot to do with metal, such as blacksmiths and locksmiths. Among the metalworkers, each metal had a gender, a character and often a story. The metal lore was the sum of everything. Where did it come from? Perhaps the work as a metalworker was simply too boring and they came up with such things to pass the time. It wasn't exactly known.

A few of the metal lore figures had made it into the wider public eye. Tin was not one of them. She was never seen apart from the book series and the book series had long since ended. Meia knew the series because old books were cheap, but it was rare for children of today to know the series. Perhaps the children she had seen today were poor as well?

Meia closed the book, but stuck a finger between the pages. With the book in her lap, she looked thoughtfully at the ceiling.

Tin was an adventurer and explorer. Perhaps Meia had been influenced by her stories...

.../ End Part