As they entered the inn, they were greeted by the friendly innkeeper.

"Welcome, welcome," the innkeeper said. "What can I do for you?"

"Do you have an empty room?" Ruby asked.

The dwarf innkeeper nodded. "Fortunately, we had two empty rooms," she said. "But if you want to use one, you'll either need to exchange it for your stuff or solve this puzzle."

Lumi groaned in pain. "Another puzzle..."

"The puzzle, please!" Ruby said.

The innkeeper brought out a bunch of disks and three pegs. Aurora immediately recognized it. It was a puzzle called Tower of Hanoi. The disks started off stacked on one peg, with the biggest disk on the bottom and the smallest disk on top.

"Okay, how do you play it?" Ruby asked.

"The goal was to move the entire stack of disks to another peg," the innkeeper said.

Aurora nodded. "But you could only move one disk at a time," she said, "and you could never put a bigger disk on top of a smaller one."

"Oh, okay. Let me try it for now," Ruby said.

Aurora watched with amusement as Ruby eagerly tackled the puzzle, her mind working feverishly to find a solution. Like before, Rita sometimes offered her help. Aurora just smiled, while Lumi didn't even want to look at it.

After some time, Ruby finally solved the puzzle. As promised, the innkeeper gave them their rooms. Ruby and Aurora shared a room, while Lumi and Rita shared another.

As soon as they entered their room, Ruby flopped onto the bed. "Ah, this feels nice," she sighed.

Aurora chuckled. "You like to laze around on the bed, don't you?"

"Hey, don't judge me," Ruby said, hugging a pillow. "I like the bed."

Suddenly, Ruby noticed that it had been a while since she was alone with Aurora. Her face started to blush.

"Is something wrong?" Aurora asked as she noticed that Ruby had suddenly become quiet.

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"No, nothing," Ruby replied, trying to remain calm.

"Really now?" Aurora said, sitting on the bed too. "I was sure you would ask me to kiss you again."

"Wha--" Ruby blushed even harder.

"Just joking," Aurora giggled.

"That wasn't funny," Ruby said, pouting.

"Sorry, sorry," Aurora said. "If you really wanted though, I would do it. Or did you have something else in mind?"

"A hug then," Ruby said, a little embarrassed. "A hug is enough. For now."

"Okay," Aurora said.

She hugged Ruby, and both of them laughed. They spent the rest of the evening resting, side by side, and chatting. Ruby's tiredness bested her, because without her noticing it, she fell asleep. But Aurora was not ready to sleep yet. As the night drew on, Aurora got out of the room.

She found that Rita was also awake, standing in the corridor and looking out of the windows.

"Are they still following us?" Aurora asked.

"Oh, good night miss Aurora," Rita said. "And no, after they saw us enter this inn, they seemed to have stopped following us."

"Any idea who they are?" Aurora asked.

"Unfortunately, I didn't know yet," Rita said. "But I could feel from their movement that they were dwarves. I couldn't tell yet what their intention was, but we better be careful. They might be a criminal group targeting tourists."

Aurora nodded. "But it's also possible they were specifically aiming for us."

"That's true, but don't worry," Rita said, smiling reassuringly. "Trust me, I kept watching. Why don't you just rest for now, miss Aurora? I'm sure tomorrow will be a long day."

"Alright," Aurora said. "Anyway, I know you're strong, but don't overdo it, okay?"

"I know," Rita said with a chuckle.

Aurora thanked Rita and went back to her room. She found Ruby sleeping soundly, snuggled up with her pillow. Aurora smiled and gently covered her with a blanket before settling in for the night.

The next morning, they had breakfast at the inn's dining hall. Again, they needed to solve a puzzle to get the food. This time, Aurora did it to not waste time.

"But I want to do it," protested Ruby.

Aurora smiled apologetically. "Sorry," she said.

Lumi seemed more relaxed now that they were safe in the inn and even joined in on the conversation. They discussed their plans for the day and decided to explore the town and visit some of the local shops before continuing to the next layer.

As they walked through the town, Aurora could feel that they were being watched again. Aurora glanced at Rita, and she nodded.

"Should we just confront them?" Aurora whispered.

"Let's just wait for a bit more," Rita replied. "They're familiar with this town. I'm worried they will run away before we find out anything."

Aurora nodded.

They then entered one of the shops. Like before, they were given a choice; they could trade stuff for anything in the shop or solve a puzzle. Ruby, of course, asked for a puzzle.

While in theory, they could take everything inside that shop for free as long as they solved more puzzles, they didn't have time for that. Not to mention Aurora felt bad for the shop owner if she did that. So while Ruby was busy working on the puzzle, she traded some food and stuff she had purposely brought inside Serena's bag for things like materials that Serena would be able to use.

"I'm done!" Ruby said.

"You're still so excited about this?" Lumi said. "I don't get it at all."

Ruby ignored her and picked her prize and put it in Serena's bag that Aurora held.

They got out of the shop, and Aurora asked Rita, "Are they still following us?"

"Yes," Rita said.

"Probably, they won't make a move until we get to a quiet place," Aurora mumbled. "Alright, let's just go to the next layer. They will most likely make a move in the labyrinth. Or is that too dangerous?"

Rita shook her head. "I'm confident I can deal with them no matter how much they come. So it's fine."

"Okay," Aurora said.

They then went north until they reached another giant door protected by a couple of dwarves.

"This is the way to the next layer," one of them said. "If you want to pass this door, you must solve a puzzle."

"Yes, yes," Aurora said. "Give us the puzzle, please."

One of the dwarves picked up something from their pocket. It was a small box of matches. The other brought a table to them, and they arranged the matchsticks into 9 minus 5 equals 8.

"It's a Matchstick Puzzle. Move one match to fix the equation," the dwarf guard said.

That was easy enough, but solving puzzles was the least of Aurora's worries. While Ruby was busy messing with the matchsticks, Aurora and Rita noticed that they were still being watched.

As planned, they will most likely follow them into the labyrinth.

***