[ Somewhere Inside The House of Mistresses ]
“Let's start... by doing... some tests."
Under the dark red lights, the dimly lit corridor seems to stretch out to infinity.
The wooden lamps glow faintly, hanging along the walls as the scarlet flames inside them sway in perfect synchronicity. With the two rows of countless sliding doors on either side of the walls closed so tightly there’s no way to tell what they’re trying to hide.
—It's a feeling I can't get used to no matter how long I continue to stand here…
The golden-haired girl holding a black-furred puppy in front of me, however, seems to feel as comfortable within this darkness as the morning sun.
So to catch up to what’s going on. After I, Eden, and the three-headed dog Bery entered the House of Mistresses—a massive red pagoda standing at the center of the Undercity Domain—we immediately realized we were trapped inside without a means to escape along with 13 of my sisters.
But when I thought that all hope was lost, after saying something like ‘there is a way…’, Eden proceeded to open the door of the theater room that we were in and led us into the corridor.
I’m not sure what she meant by that, or how she knew, but here we are anyway, all 15 of us, standing in the dimly lit space once again.
—Except not really.
“Why are you guys… Not coming out of the room?”
“Because it’s scary…”
Hiding behind First Sister Roxxi and Second Sister Rinne, Fifth Sister Kitsuha casually pokes her head out while putting her hands on their shoulders. Aside from her, everyone else is also hiding behind the two of them.
Even First Sister Roxxi and Second Sister Rinne who are standing in front of the door, smile silently without showing any intention of moving whatsoever.
"..."
—And you call yourselves big sisters? My family is full of unreliable people...
“It’s fine… Miw…”
“Look! Little Eden is braver than all of you!”
“Yeah! Go, Little Eden!”
“Yes, we cheer you on with all our hearts.”
“But we still don’t want to step out of this room, please understand.”
“Just. Come Out. Already,” I speak while gritting my teeth and glaring at them threateningly.
Eventually, they all slowly, slowly step out of the theater room one by one, starting with First Sister Roxxi and ending with Kanna and Frul.
—Um, maybe that wasn’t the right call… it’s getting kind of crowded. Ah, whatever.
“So, Little Eden, what kind of test are we doing exactly?”
I separate myself from the gathered crowd and bend down slightly in front of Eden before asking her a question.
“First… Can you remember… the basic layout… of this place?” Eden says, turning to the other angels who are standing behind me also.
First Sister Roxxi—the most composed out of all of us—touches her chin briefly, furrowing her brows.
Then, she starts to explain the basic layout of the House of Mistresses in detail:
“There are about 500 rooms in total, divided across 5 floors.
“The first floor is the recreation and reception area: theater, spa, bath, game, cafeteria. If I have to say how many rooms there are dedicated to those areas, it’s probably around 200.
“The second floor consists entirely of about 150 guest rooms, while the third floor has 50 of a mix of VIP dining rooms, kitchens, and private recreational rooms like a library.
“The fourth floor is where the 80 VIP rooms are located. And finally, the fifth floor belongs to us angels, so basically the other 20 rooms.”
Eden walks to the sliding door on the opposite side of the theater room while holding the quietly breathing dog in her arms.
“So based on that… what should be on the other side… of the theater room… right now?” Eden asks.
This time, Eleventh Sister Hyong-Ran, our House of Mistresses’ lead performer, chirps up to answer.
“Considering that this theater room is the largest theater room on the first floor, there shouldn’t be any room opposite of it at all.”
“Is that… so?”
Eden nods slightly, shifts the position of Bery in her arms, and reaches toward one of the sliding door's handles in front of her with one hand.
Then, with nothing more than a gentle push, the door slides open, revealing the room inside.
“It’s a… normal guest room.”
I mutter after peering into the similarly dimly lit chamber.
A normal guest room within the House of Mistresses comprises a small living area, another area with beds separated by folding screens, and another separate bathroom area.
The decors are also mostly identical across all the guest rooms on the second floor. Therefore just by looking at the small wooden table and chairs at the front that are being illuminated by the lanterns on the walls, we can immediately tell what kind of room it is.
—Still doesn’t explain why it suddenly appeared behind this door at all though.
While us angels are looking at the inside of the room curiously, Eden takes the first step inside.
Then after looking at the room a bit, she turns around, grabs both sides of the door, and slowly brings them to a close.
“Little… Eden?”
“What are you doing?”
The door on the opposite side of the theater room's now shut completely off, and Second Sister Rinne and I—along with the rest of the angels—can only voice our concern while looking on curiously.
Soon, a quiet but pleasant voice comes out from behind the door.
“Can you now… open the door?”
“Um… okay.”
I raise my eyebrows perplexingly at Little Eden’s strange request, but reach my hands toward the door regardless.
But when I slide the door open…
—There is no one on the other side.
“Eeeeeeeh? Where did she go?” Frul asks, widening her eyes in surprise.
Rather than Eden’s being missing, there’s something else arguably more surprising.
“Is this… one of the first floor’s onsen?” says Third Sister Yue.
“It would seem like it,” says Fourth Sister Xue.
—Yes, the room that used to be a normal guest is now changed to, or at least switches place with, another room inside the House of Mistresses, specifically one of the indoor baths.
The steam and vapor start pouring out of the room. The wet stone floors are still shining under the lanterns’ lights. Inside, the large pool of hot water can be seen behind a few folding screens.
“But where did Little Eden go?” Asks Fifth Sister Kitsuha.
Swish~!
All of us turn around at the sound of a door being opened. And there, Eden's standing in the doorway beside the door that leads back to the theater room.
Behind her, the same guest room from before can still be seen.
“Aaaaah~! How did you get over there?” Frul yells and points at Eden.
“Eden just… opened the door again?”
I look at the golden-haired little girl's expressionless face, then back at the door to the onsen behind me.
—Right, this doesn't make any sense at all.
While all sorts of questions are going through my head, Eden steps out of the guest room and turns to me and the angels of House Lucianna.
“Let’s try… another door.”
…..
After we repeated the experiment a couple more times—opening and closing every door in the vicinity—the results became clear.
—Every time a door is opened, any room could appear on the other side regardless of where they're supposed to be on the original layout of the House of Mistresses; floors and sizes also don’t matter.
—Rooms that have multiple entrances will only have one that works—which is usually the one connected to the corridor—while the rest are locked completely.
—Rooms that currently have someone inside can not appear behind another door. Which means that there's no way for someone to follow someone else into a room they'd just entered without them opening the door from the inside.
—When a room is opened from the inside, it would always leads to the corridor. But depending on whether the door that originally led to it was being used by someone else, which door exactly in the corridor you opened to is random.
—Additionally, if you try to keep the doors slightly ajar in order to avoid the whole weirdness, they would always snap shut on their own after some time.
“Except for the door to the theater room, every other door seems to work the same way.”
I conclude as I close the door to one of the normal guest rooms from the second floor. Right now, in the dimly lit corridor, Eden and all of my sisters who seem to have finished their own explorations are standing around.
“One of you said that… if you keep walking… you’ll eventually be teleported back here.” Looking at the 14 angels of House Lucianna, Eden tilts her head slightly. “Can you… do that…. again?”
“Well, of course we can, but…” Second Sister Rinne frowns uncomfortably.
“Who’s going to do it?” Fifth Sister Kitsuha glances around.
Eventually, her eyes land on me.
“W-why are you looking at me?”
“Out of all of us, shouldn’t you have the most experience in this?” Fifth Sister Kitsuha touches her chin.
“Experience in what?”
“Walking away in the dark, leaving everyone behind.”
“...”
“Rarely ever contacting, letting people worry.”
“Aaaaaaahhh, I get it, fine, I’ll go!”
I grab my head and groan in frustration. Seriously, are you really putting me on the spot simply because you don’t want to walk into a dark corridor?
“Kitsuha, don’t tease Miwari so much,” First Sister Roxxi says with a frown.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
“Ahahahah~ Sorry, I couldn’t help it.” Fifth Sister Kitsuha laughs sheepishly.
“If you make her angry, she might just decide to never come home ever again out of spite.”
“...”
“Do you want Eden… to come along?”
From the side, Eden looks at me cutely, but I quickly dismiss her with a wave.
“Ah, I would rather not risk getting you in danger, Little Eden.”
“Don’t worry Miwari, I’ll go with you!”
“Me too.”
Frul jumps forward and grabs my arms, and Kanna follows behind her.
—At least I won’t have to go alone… I guess?
“Good luck, we’ll miss you…” Ninth Sister Miho says while patting my shoulder.
“Your sacrifice won’t be in vain.” Tenth Sister Tsukiyo wipes her tears.
“Please don’t start talking as if we’re not going to survive!”
After all that’s said and done, Kanna, Frul, and I start walking along the corridor in the opposite direction of where everyone's standing.
At first, we’re reluctant to walk too far away. But when I turn around to see Fifth Sister Kitsuha and Ninth Sister Miho waving at me with a smile, my feet automatically quicken for some reason.
As we continue to walk, our footsteps eventually become the only sounds that accompany our breathing.
There seems to be no ending to this corridor. An infinite passage of identical sliding doors and scarlet flames. I glance at Kanna and Frul, suppress the fear in my heart, and continue to walk forward.
Eventually, when I look back around, the figures of my sisters and Eden are no longer visible, only a dark shadow where the light doesn't reach.
“How long have we been walking already?”
I wonder aloud, a little afraid that my voice might attract something from the darkness. Although I know that that’s rather unlikely.
“Too long,” Frul answers, unenthusiastically.
“I, huuuuu~... Agree.” Kanna’s breathing is already getting heavy.
Kanna has always been the most reclusive of all of us. I remember Second Sister Rinne reminding her to at least exercise a little.
But just then, something causes the three of us to stop in our tracks.
—The dark scarlet flames contained within each of the lamps hanging from the wall, start to flicker.
I look behind me, and sure enough, the corridor far behind us is no longer visible.
Poof~!
“Kanna, Frul, grab my hands.” I say to the two of them, trying to stay calm.
They both grab my hands and hold on tightly. We stand our ground as one by one, the lamps begin to go out, and the darkness begins to encroach until eventually—
Poof~!
—Darkness surrounds us.
“Iyaaa!”
“F-Frul!”
“Uuu!”
Despite being ready for it, Frul still screams and clings to me with her whole body, causing me to lose balance and begin to fall to the floor, dragging Kanna along with the two of us.
But in the pitch-black darkness, instead of the sensation of falling onto a hard wooden floor, my momentum is cut short, and I feel something soft below me.
In the next seconds, the darkness surrounding the three of us disperses.
I blink. My eyes eventually adjust to the dim red lights, allowing me to see my surroundings.
A large hall filled with luxurious seats. A grand stage with folded wooden screens, illuminated by the scarlet lamps. And sure enough, we’re sitting in the front row. Kanna and Frul are sitting on the seats beside me with bewildered expressions.
It seems like we’re back in the theater room. Just like my sisters said would happen.
—And it also seems like we’re not the only ones.
“Does that mean that you can’t go too far from the theater room or…?”
—A mature and gentle voice resounds.
“If that’s the case… then why... were we also teleported here too?”
—A monotonous but pleasant voice echoes.
“That’s true. We were only standing outside.”
—Another voice, lighter than the rest.
Roxxi, Rinne, and even Eden. To my left and right, past the seats belonging to Kanna and Frul, all 11 of my other sisters appear to be looking around with curious expressions.
So when the darkness descended they were also teleported here, huh? Every single one of us is now filling the front row seats of the theater room, facing the empty stage.
“How long… were we standing out there… for?”
While I’m still taking a moment to process the situation, and breathe out a sigh of relief that nothing went wrong, Little Eden and the rest of my sisters are still preoccupied with the House of Mistresses’ current state of mysteries.
“About 15 minutes, maybe?” Sixth Sister Nana says, absentmindedly.
“Hmmm…”
“Do you think it has something to do with how long we were standing out there for Little Eden?” Second Sister Rinne leans over and asks.
“It’s… possible.”
"Should we try doing another test?” Fifth Sister Kitsuha looks over in my direction and tilts her head slightly. “Nothing strange happened when you three were out there, right, Miwari?"
“Not really. But I’m not going out there again!”
“I’ll go.” First Sister Roxxi stands up from her seat and calmly says. “Yue, Xue, come with me.”
““Ehhh?””
“If anything happens. You two will help me yell really loudly.”
Quick and decisive, as expected of First Sister Roxxi.
Despite their disgruntled looks, Third Sister Yue and Forth Sister Xue still follow behind First Sister Roxxi without complaining. The three of them walk up the layer of the theater room seating area, open the door, and disappear outside.
I guess now we just have to sit and wait just in case we hear a cry for help from the three of them? Although I hope nothing of the sort actually happens.
And sometime later just as Eden suspected.
The scarlet flames start to flicker.
Poof~! Poof~! Poof~!
Bang—!
The lamps on the walls go out one by one. We hear the sound of the theater room’s door slamming shut. And the surrounding is consumed by darkness.
After a few seconds pass.
“So it seems that you can only be in the corridor for a little more than 10 minutes.”
—Within the darkness, a voice resounds.
When I look to my right when the light comes back on, I see that First Sister Roxxi, Third Sister Yue, and Fourth Sister Xue have reappeared on the seats they have previously left.
I don’t know what this phenomenon actually means in the context of the current state of the House of Mistresses but...
“With this… the rules of this place… can be understood.”
—It seems like I won't have to.
From the seat somewhere to my right, the golden-haired little girl holding a black-furred puppy silently stands up.
“Little Eden, have you figured it out?” I ask.
“Sort of.”
Eden walks in front of the seating area, before the theater room's stage. Then she places Bery the Cerberus before climbing onto it as well.
After patting her clothes and adjusting her hat and bag, Eden picks Bery back up and turns to address us.
“The keyword… that explains everything is... ‘hidden’,” saying so, Eden proceeds to bring up Bery the Cerberus to hide her face.
"Hhgghh~"
The black-furred puppy, by the way, is currently looking quite miserable—probably due to it still being hungry.
“Hidden? What does that word have to do with how we’re trapped inside, Little Eden?” Second Sister Rinne voices her confusion, though the tone of her question might make you think that she's just playing along with a child.
Eden slowly takes a step to the side, and turns around 90 degrees.
“Once a door is closed… the inside of the room is hidden.”
Then, she holds out Bery the Cerberus, and slowly swings him from one side to another, mimicking the action of opening a door.
“Once the light goes out… the surroundings are hidden.”
After that, she brings up Bery to hide her face again, this time bobbing the black-furred puppy up and down while she continues to speak, making it seem like her soft voice is coming out of the stupid Cerberus’s head.
"—Once something is consumed by darkness... it is hidden from the eye…
"—And if something… is hidden completely from the eye… does it even exist… at all?"
Finally, she finishes it off with a small head tilt. Inexplicably, from the corner of my eyes, I see Ninth Sister Miho and Eleventh Sister Hyong-ran try to bring up their hands to give applause before ultimately deciding not to after looking around at the others.
—Did they… think that was some sort of dance?
“Um, Little Eden, what are you currently doing with that dog’s head right now?” Tenth Sister Tsukiyo raises her hand timidly and asks.
“Eden suddenly realizes… that being on stage… is quite embarrassing,” Eden continues to bop Bery’s head up and down like a mask.
“..."
—Didn’t you walk up there on your own though?
“Little Eden, why are you saying that the doors—when they’re closed—actually have nothing behind them at all?” From my right, the voice of First Sister Roxxi resounds, keeping everyone from straying too far off topic.
“To be precise… It should probably be said that the doors… when they’re closed… hide the states of the rooms... A room that’s in a hidden state… is simultaneously not any single room… and every room that exists within this place.”
“But how could that be possible?” I wonder aloud.
“Because it is hidden… which gives it a special property… of being undetermined.”
Eden lowers Bery from her face and looks from the stage with her bright, golden irises.
“If a room could be anywhere…”
—She tilts her head to the left.
“Then it is anywhere.”
—Then swing it back to the right.
“Is that why when we went around opening the doors earlier, any room could appear behind them except for the room that had someone inside?” I follow the voice somewhere to my left to see Second Sister Rinne propping up her chin with her index finger.
Back on the stage, Eden simply nods her head. Then with her usual inexpressive tone, she concludes:
“Therefore the rule… for how the corridor works should be… When a room is ‘observed’... its location is fixed…. When a room is ‘hidden’... its location is flux…
“Constantly… changing… there and not there at the same time.
“It feels like there should be a word for that… but Eden… forgot.”
"""..."""
After listening to Eden’s explanation, the entire room falls into complete silence for a brief moment, while everyone's trying to grasp the meaning of what was said.
Eventually, Sixth Sister Nana speaks up, “So Little Eden is basically saying that the doors outside are all a constantly spinning wheel that would only stop when we take a look inside?”
Back on the stage, Eden’s golden eyes widened a little bit, before bowing her head a little at Sixth Sister Nana.
“Ah… That’s a much… simpler explanation… Thank you… very much.”
“Ha-ahahaha~ I-it’s nothing, it's nothing. Don’t mention it.”
“Why are you blushing… Nana?”
As Seventh Sister Linlin is casting a suspicious glance at Sixth Sister Nana, someone else raises their hand and speaks up.
“Yes, yes, I have a question.”
—It was Fifth Sister Kitsuha.
“If the reason behind the changing of our surroundings is really tied to our observation like you said, Little Eden, then why is it that nothing happens when we blink or close our eyes inside a room? I’m sure that should also count, no?”
At the question of Fifth Sister Kitsuha, Eden simply tilts her head and answers with another question:
“Then doesn’t that just mean… whether or not… your eyes are open… doesn’t change your state of awareness?”
“Then what does?” Fifth Sister Kitsuha asks again.
“The lights.”
—Slowly, silently, the flames inside the lamps on the walls continue to sway.
“The teleportation due to the flickering lamps… can be interpreted either way… but the biggest possible evidence is… the fact that you can’t open the door into a room that has someone inside.”
That is... one of the weirdest things about the doors, yes. When we tested it earlier, even though you could hear the voices of the person inside the room, when we tried to open the door, the location of the room changed anyway. What’s weirder is that when the person inside actually opens the door themselves, they would always come out the same door.
"Yes, why is that?" I ask, pinching my chin.
“If our theory for how the corridor works is correct… when a room has someone inside… it should be considered ‘observed’... and its location should be ‘fixed.’"
“Then why does the room change anyway?”
“One possibility is that… the theory is wrong... Another possibility is that… there's another condition… unrelated to sight… something that the person inside the room is exposed to… but a person standing outside isn’t… which creates a difference in perspective.”
“Ah, I see what you mean, Little Eden,” Fifth Sister Kitsuha seems to have understood something and exclaims out loud.
On the stage, Eden nods slightly.
“To a person who’s standing in the corridor… the room itself is ‘hidden’… because when the door is closed… the lights inside the room are contained.”
“Hnnng~”
Then, Eden holds Bery the Cerberus above her head and plays with it by gently rocking it side to side.
“The fact that it does that could only mean… that the main trigger for something to be considered ‘hidden’… isn’t specifically sight... But light and shadow... And lastly… the fact that you would always… come out to the corridor… must also be another rule.”
Finally, Eden turns back to look at us and says:
“So a way to cycle through the rooms would be… to have someone be inside so… that the room won’t appear… behind another door… And then open another door from the outside.
“Even the same one should work.
“Then, in order to avoid having to be separated… we can agree on a timing beforehand… to open the door again and let the people standing in the corridor… in.”
From my left and right, the voices of my sisters begin asking questions.
“What if we put out the lights inside the room? Would that mean that it wouldn’t be accessible again?”
“But usually when we’re surrounded by darkness, we reappear in the theater room, so there should be some kind of safety mechanism.”
When I turn to look, I see Third Sister Yue and Fourth Sister Xue currently exhibiting the exact same perplexed expressions.
“Eden thinks… it’s best we don’t… risk it.”
While saying that, Eden adjusts the position of Bery the Cerberus in her arms and walks toward the end of the stage.
“Of course… there’s a possibility… that there are some other rules that we’re not aware of… but we should have figured out… the main ones.
“Which means… we can finally start exploring.”
Eden directly jumps down from the stage, then continues walking toward the door on the other end of the room.
"If we can somehow… know the location of every other room except for one... Then that room has to be the only room we're looking for… right?
"Every time the light flickers... the rooms change... Every time the door closes... the room changes… Every time someone is not aware of the state of the room… The room changes.
"So all we have to do... is to be aware of it.”
Passing by the seated angels, all of us turn our heads to follow Eden as she ascends the layers of the seating area.
“More than 500 rooms in total.
“15 people... 5 groups of 3… we can go through 5 rooms at a time… before coming back to the theater room…. To share our findings.”
—Since technically, we’ll be able to cross out 10 rooms at a time using the previously mentioned method. Even if we spend five minutes looking through each room, we’ll still be able to explore every room within around 3 hours, assuming I'm not missing anything.
“If there’s an exit… then that’s good… If there’s not…”
Reaching the other end of the room, Eden turns around; the flawless features of her face not expressing any emotions.
“Then at least it will be… very interesting.”
—————……….