Chapter 1341: Garden of Seclusion (2)

Although the contrast between the two Shiras was ridiculous, after experiencing the mental world of four holy sword card spirits, Rhode considered himself to be immune to such absurdity. Even though he criticized inwardly how illogical Shira was to be so quiet and elegant, on the surface, he accepted her invitation to walk up the steps and arrived at the garden, sitting down and across from her. The young lady seemed to be having tea (or a late-night snack?) as the table was full of delicious cakes and piping-hot black tea. For some reason, Rhode felt like something was wrong with this ordinary scene. Or was it because the Shira in front of him seemed so abnormal? No, maybe it was that Shira appeared too normal.

"Would you like to have some?"

Upon sensing Rhode's gaze, Shira asked with a smile. And when he heard her question, he waved his hand hurriedly.

"It's fine, Miss Shira, I don't particularly enjoy desserts."

Rhode wasn't speaking nonsense because after suffering from 'trauma' in Celia's mental world, the sight of sweets and desserts made him nauseous. So despite the cake looking delicious, he couldn't take a single bite out of it. Honestly, he doubted he would have any interest in desserts for the rest of his life even after leaving the mental world. Come to think of it, it was also somewhat hilarious. He survived the mental worlds of Celestina, Gracier, and Madaras, but it was Celia's that left the deepest psychological scar on him. He was completely speechless at this thought.

"I see..."

Upon hearing his reply, Shira smiled and didn't say anything more. She stretched out and turned her hand over elegantly, only to have a teacup appearing out of nowhere in front of him on the table. Soon after, she picked up the teapot and poured a cup of aromatic black tea for him. Facing her kind gesture, Rhode no longer refused. He accepted her gesture, lifted the teacup in front of him, and took a sip.

The tea wasn't as delicious as the ones he normally drank. Among the black teas he had, the best was the one that Lydia served. Of course, even though Agatha and Marlene were also experienced in the art of tea, only Lydia's black tea was so tasty that Rhode felt like he almost ascended to heaven after taking a sip. On the other hand, this black tea prepared by Shira felt odd. It was neither good nor bad, but had a sour aroma as if it were brewed from expired tea leaves. Not only that, but he also smelled a weird scent. In short... It was really hard to describe.

Despite that, Rhode didn't say much, but took a sip and put down the teacup in front of him instead, before gazing at the young lady. Facing his gaze, the smile on Shira's face didn't change the slightest. On the contrary, she blinked and gazed at him with curiosity.

"It's the first time I've met a traveler from the outside world, Mr. Rhode. I'm sure you've been traveling and had a lot of wonderful encounters. I'm wondering if it's convenient for you to share them with me?"

"I..."

Looking at the quiet and courteous Shira who gazed at him with curious eyes, Rhode didn't know what to say. Ever since he had gotten her, he never had a good conversation with her. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but she was always spouting nonsense and he couldn't get any valuable information from her. This was why when he met such a 'reasonable' version of her, he was stunned and didn't know how to communicate with her. Meanwhile, after noticing the slight hesitation on his face, Shira smiled in response.

"Right, I forgot about that; you must be tired from your long journey. You can rest here for the night and we can talk about it again tomorrow. What do you think?"

"Sure."

Upon hearing her words, Rhode nodded without hesitation. In fact, he was considering exactly how he should respond to her. After all, he was rather flustered after meeting this side of her. If he could have a good rest, it would also help him collect his thoughts to consider how he should go about dealing with Shira. Also... according to his previous experiences, perhaps more than one Shira would show up. After all, she wasn't a Carlesdine, so there was no way that she would only have a broken and incomplete core personality like Gracier and Madaras.

Clap. Clap.

After hearing his reply, the corners of Shira's mouth lifted into a smile. She extended her hands, clapped twice, and soon after, a ghost-like figure in a maid's outfit drifted toward them. As expected by Rhode, the maid was also Shira, though completely different from her original self in terms of personality. She was calm and expressionless as if she were dead. She arrived at the side of the noble young lady and bowed respectfully.

"What may I do for you, my lady?"

"Prepare a fine room for our guest, and let him have a good rest."

"Yes, my lady."

Upon hearing the noble lady's instruction, the maid nodded, turned around, and looked with emotionless, glass bead-like eyes that reflected an image of Rhode. She looked at him and spoke softly.

"Our guest, please follow me."

Led by the maid, Rhode sauntered into the three-story building located in the center of the lake. But to his surprise, not only was the small building gorgeous and beautiful on the outside, but its inside was also decorated luxuriously with crimson carpets, velvet curtains over windows, and statues and plants in the corners. Matched with the bright lights on the ceiling, everything looked soft, comfortable, and graceful. It was simply a model of an ancient noblewoman's manor house.

This surprised him quite a bit. He thought this small building had a gilded exterior, but was shabby and ruined on the inside, where broken limbs and bones were scattered across the floor or cobwebs and dusty junk piled up like a haunted house. He didn't expect it to look so decent in the slightest.

The maid didn't say a word or have the decency to look back and check on him. She was like a robot with instructions inputted, walking straight to a guest room located on the left side of the second floor. She opened the door of the guest room, made an inviting gesture to him, and right after he entered the room, she bent over for a bow and took her leave quickly. Along the way to the guest room, she didn't even utter a single word. Her expressionless face lacked a single hint of smile. Rhode was certain that she would surely be unqualified for a job as a hotel waitress...

"Whew..."

Collapsing onto the soft bed, Rhode breathed a sigh of relief. After going through four mental worlds, he was finally able to rest and relax a little. Technically, although he wouldn't be physically fatigued from the mental worlds and could have gone all the way without sleeping, eating, or drinking, he would still be mentally exhausted. Not to mention that previously in Celestina's and Gracier's and Madaras's bizarre mental worlds, he had already been dog-tired. And now that he was here, although he was certain that Shira's mental world wasn't that safe either, at least he felt relaxed in this current environment...

Alright, I shall get some rest then...

At this thought, Rhode closed his eyes and quickly fell into a deep sleep.

Clang. Clang. Clang.

After a while, the deep ringing of a bell woke him up. He opened his eyes and found his room illuminated by warm, soft lights, while he still lay comfortably on the soft bed. Nothing changed. Honestly, he was prepared to wake up and find himself lying in a cemetery or even buried in a coffin, or that everything around him was just an illusion and the whole house reverted to a haunted house or something. But now, everything seemed normal and nothing seemed to be different. He guessed that he might have been thinking too much... Maybe this was how Shira's mental world was supposed to be all along?

Anyway, it's a good thing that no accidents happened.

At this thought, Rhode got up from the bed, strolled to the window, and looked outside. It was still the same deep and dark night. The only difference was that the moon that hung in the sky earlier had disappeared. He used the indistinct shadows in the distance to determine where the lake, land, and forest were. He had no idea exactly how long he slept for, but could feel that his mind was very clear and refreshed...

So then...

At that thought, he turned around and sized up his surroundings. He didn't know how long he had slept for or what time it was now. But he guessed that perhaps there was no such thing as 'daytime' here because Shira was a native of the Country of Darkness, where eternal night loomed over the nation and the sun was non-existent. Perhaps ever since she was born, she didn't have any impression of what 'daytime' was at all.

Well, gonna head out for a while.

With that in mind, Rhode turned around and left the room.

Everything seemed perfectly normal. The moment he left the room, there was no incident like back then, where Celestina locked him in the room and didn't let him out. Instead, he left the guest room effortlessly and proceeded to wander around the manor house. He also decided to use this time to properly investigate Shira's inner world. After all, there was no way for him to decipher the thoughts of that insane undead puppet. That was why he could only try his best to dig up any clues like a detective who lost contact with the outside world and tried to find out the murderer and motive through deduction in a secret room.

But it was a shame that after he strolled around half of the manor house, he hadn't gotten any particularly helpful clues. Everything here was simple and very ordinary. On the surface, it looked like a noblewoman's manor house. Be it the furniture, placements of plants, or paintings hanging on those walls, he didn't find anything abnormal or out of place. This left him somewhat frustrated. But it wasn't too surprising since in reality, which detective could solve cases so easily?

Come to think of it... No one has died yet, so there's no case to begin with!

But it wasn't like he didn't find any odd occurrence at all. For instance, he searched for a long time but hadn't seen any sign of that noble lady or earlier maid. He initially thought that they were also resting in their respective rooms, but after opening all the unlocked doors, there was no trace of them. As for the locked doors, he knocked on them one by one but didn't get any response. Rhode, with the belief that 'there must be some hidden mystery in all stories', went to rummage through the basement of this western-style manor house. But he found nothing. All he saw was a hill of wine barrels, a kitchen, and a room where food was stored. Everything else was normal. There were no secret rooms, hidden white bones, or strange presences.

Except for the fact that there was no sign of the noble lady and maid.

But as Rhode returned to the living room, his doubt was resolved. At that moment, the noble lady sat elegantly on the sofa, sipping the black tea, while the maid stood behind her as quietly as ever. Upon seeing Rhode's arrival, a gentle smile appeared across the face of the noble lady. She stood up and smiled at him.

"Hello, Mr. Rhode. Seems like you had a good dream; you look refreshed now. Where have you been? I got my maid to look for you and you weren't in your room..."

"I was just taking a stroll."

Rhode responded quickly to her words. Then, he stared and surveyed the two of them, before pretending to speak in a casual tone.

"By the way, I was looking for both of you, but I didn't manage to..."

"Maybe it's because the time wasn't right."

In response to his words, the noble lady seemed as if she hadn't noticed at all and spoke with a gentle smile. And after hearing her reply, Rhode raised his eyebrows, instinctively sensing that something seemed to be wrong. But before he pondered, Shira continued speaking.

"And it's a good thing you didn't head out, Mr. Rhode, since it's raining now. If you had gone for a walk in the garden, you would have been drenched."

"Raining?"

Upon hearing her words, Rhode's heart skipped a beat. He turned around to look outside the window instinctively. Sure enough, he heard the sound of falling rain.

What's going on?

He was sure that it wasn't raining when he woke up earlier. Otherwise, he would have realized it. But now, it was clearly raining, and it was a downpour at that.

Why didn't I notice it before?

It was only a small episode. Afterward, Rhode began chatting with Shira. Of course, he told her some of the things he did in the past, which the noble lady was interested in hearing. Both sides could be said to have had a lively and enjoyable day. Not only that, but Shira also invited him for dinner, which he eventually accepted.

But just like the black tea before, although the food looked appetizing, he had a strange sourness in his stomach after taking a bite as if the food had passed its shelf life. That was why he had little interest in the food and only took a few bites out of courtesy. Meanwhile, Shira didn't seem to mind. And so another day passed, and once again, Rhode was sent back to his room by the maid to rest. This time, however, he didn't stay put to have his rest.

"It's about time."

Once Rhode confirmed that the maid left the corridor, he reached out to open the door before tiptoeing out of the room. He didn't come here for a vacation. If he didn't figure out what was going on and find clues in Shira's mental world to communicate with her, everything would be for naught. He searched for clues and found nothing earlier, so this time, he decided to stalk them and hoped to find something unexpected.

After all, the oddest place seemed to be where that big sister and maid were before. If his memory didn't fail him, he had knocked on every door in this manor house in the morning, but there was no sign of the two of them at all. And they seemed to know nothing about him either. Judging from this point, perhaps that was the only place that was questionable. Either they had another secret room, or there was something else that was wrong that he hadn't found out yet.

"Alright, let's begin then."

Gazing at the maid who turned the corner ahead, Rhode blended into the shadows and followed her stealthily.