Chapter 40: Realization

  A square consisted of 4 boxes combined, they had no interjections to hold them up. It looked like a square, which had 4 blocks organized in order, was floating. There were no stairs leading up to them, meaning that I couldn't reach them but having to fly. The only possible ways to reach the blocks were climbing stairs or flying, the architecture was kinda warding some difficulties for novices I assumed. However, there was a pedestal made of unknown material that had 4 buttons. I guessed that it would accompany me to one of the blocks.

  Katze: “It’s time to choose one section to explore. There will be many rooms and places in one section. It’s a randomizer that each section contains a variety of rooms with different purposes.”

  Four blocks had a total of 12 doors, so each door would lead to another room. Having no clue about what may lay behind those doors, I just have to explore them all to know. According to Katze, he said that each section would have a room to rest, so it wasn’t too bad of an experience after all. But wait…

  “Except the owner, how did we teleport here earlier?”

  Katze: “Before you came, this mansion hadn't been owned by anyone yet. Also, the teleportation was set here if the mansion on its own hasn't been taken by anyone yet. To be fair, every mansion has this mechanic. When I first came here, I had been doing similar things as you.”

  “How many days did it take you to explore all the corners of your mansion?”

  Katze: “The estimated time to explore all corners of a mansion is dependent on the structure inside of the mansion itself. My mansion is well-organized, so it took me one day to explore them all.”

  So if my mansion is messy, it would take more time than that? The gods’ architecture ideas were complicated and sophisticated to be honest. Katze said it was for security, so I thought that it would be logical. Because building this with no motives was just insane. However, the gods’ power could be said to be almighty, so I wondered why they did this.

  “Do you think the gods are hiding something from us? Because why would they be so careful when they’re literally the monarchs of this domain?”

  Katze: “No, it’s just as if you learned something new, and it automatically becomes your skill without your realization. You may remember where you started to learn the skill, but as time goes, your memory of the time you learned that skill fades faster than the memory where you started.”

  What he was trying to convey was that the quintuplets learned those things, and they started to become their core skills. The memories when they learned those skills faded, because it was like the obvious in their terms of muscle memory. I could relate to that, when I learn something that turns into my core skills, I would just use it like obviously without thinking much. Thus, the quintuplets used what they had already as core skills, which are their architecture skills, to build such a complex such as this accommodation. This was the result of learning from someone else. I would say that the quintuplets, with their god’s title, explored the universe and saw many civilizations. They learned and used them practically.

  I was an individual from Earth, a being in the solar system. I was the only mysterious being to ever wander outside Earth with no much effort. The peak of the universe that humans had achieved was just setting foot on the moon, otherwise, humans used satellites to take a look outside of the universe. I didn’t remember much about how I knew about the pledging system and the authority that I was having. My thoughts came to halt when I thought of this.

  No.

  No. No.

  No. No. No.

  Haahhhhhhhh

  A shadow figure? I can’t remember much about it, the only thing I heard was its roar. My memories suddenly think about a blurry image of a shadow figure. What were they?

  Because you’re my monarch…

  What did it mean? I was its monarch? How ridiculous. I realized that my memories of having information about the pledging system and acquired systematic probability were my core skills. My memories about how I had them were unknown, I can’t remember.

  You don’t need to remember…

  Because you were also involved with the pledging system…

  It didn’t say anything more. I shifted back to exploring the mansion as the number one thing I wanted to do. I wasn’t sure if that flashback was the recall about the origin of my authority and the information about the pledging system, but I think I might just keep being the bystander of it. I had come to this place without knowing anything, if I tried to escape, I only took calamity sprawling on my head. The figure’s appearance was similar to me, but it reflected nothing but the darkness of its appearance. It was like I was confronting myself…If I connected the dark figure was the main reason that I was sent here. One theory was that the figure chose me to be a contestant for Osparious’s experiment, but about what?

  Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

  Factors

  Need

  To be

  Removed…

  ***

  Katze: “Choose a section Julia, why are you still standing there?”

  …I was having an inner conversation, if it wasn’t for Katze calling me, I would have been caught in that loop.

  “I…I’ll choose one now.”

  Katze: “...”

  You want to activate your ability?

  Yes

  No

  No.

  …

  I needed to get off the rope, this was affecting my emotions too much. I needed to break out, I knew that I had a lot of predictions already made. Whether it was automatically correct by some means. Generally, I didn’t want to use my authority at this time, why would I? Four buttons were displayed on the pedestal. I chose the upper left one that was connected with the top left block, suddenly, stairs started to form from nowhere with no interjection. At least, this time it was constructed with two handrails to embrace to not be descended.

  “I don’t know how it was constructed, something like a mixture of telekinesis and connecting magic I think.”

  Katze: “Yeah.”

  “We should move on.”

  As I said so, Katze moved first to lead, I was moving behind him. We stood in the top left block, the yellowish light shone down the block from the lamp adhering to the ceiling. The walls were painted yellowish, matching with the light. A spacious room with nothing but three doors from the triple direction, I was looking for which one to go for first. Examining each door a bit, I finally picked the front door.

  Katze: “Let’s see what’s behind this door.”

  Katze gently opened the door like it was natural for him, the door made a screeching sound whilst it was opening from the other side. While the other side was unknown to us. He took a look around, I stood behind him waiting for his signals to move or not.

  Katze: “Come!”

  As I heard that, I moved through the door after he did. The room was brighter than before this time. However, it was gloomy and gothic somehow, the room was full of statues made from dirt or dust. The statues represented individuals, and they posed differently. Subsequently, this room was mysterious as it wasn’t probably in the construction manuscript I thought.

  “What is this room?”

  Katze: “This room might be the old room that was used by the quintuplets.”

  “The statues…did they carve them?”

  Katze: “I guessed.”

  This room was used, meaning that the quintuplets were the owner of this mansion. Thus, when new guests came, they left it behind or simply didn’t want to use it anymore due to the perplexing construction site. They carved statues with material that looked like dirt, because the statues were brown. This was the result from exploring and witnessing many individuals from different civilizations, probably, species like me and Katze was the most captivating species that was the motivation for these works. I felt like I was exploring a pyramid from Egypt.

  At the end of the tile, there was a pedestal placed inside a half-circle wall. They were attached to the wall, the bricks. From its left and right distant from the wall, there was simultaneously a door. Two grey doors had gnarls, this must be from the woods or something similar.

  “We should split up. You go for the right door, I’ll go for the left door.”

  Katze: “Wait, I’m your instructor. I think I should go with you for…”

  I know that you were anxious about me, but I had precautions. I also thought of situations where I would get attacked, so it wasn’t a problem.

  “Don’t worry, I would just roam about in that room, you can go for that room first. After I finish, I’ll go to your room.”

  Katze: “Alright, just don’t go without me, because I know where’s the entrance to the outside.”

  “Thanks.”

  We split up, I went for the left whilst Katze went for the right. The wooden-like door didn’t have a doorknob, so I gently pushed the door forward. As expected, the door moved forward, so I stepped through the line. The room was dazzling. There were countless stars and galaxies displaying randomly everywhere. That’s right, darkness was the background. I can see different colors of galaxies, universes and stars. Putting that aside, there was a counterfeit of the sun in my galaxy, which is the Milky Way. Circling around it was Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Saturn and Neptune. They were placed in order. If Osparious was the customizer of this domain, and the Milky Way was here, this meant that the gods already explored the galaxy. It was just that they didn’t know I was the being from Earth.

  Everything was moving in 3 dimensional, it looked gorgeous and beautiful. They were all shone brightly, universes are just so radiant.

  ***

  Katze: “AHHHHHHHH!!”

  “What happened!?”

  I rushed to the other room as fast as I could. The door was already opened, a baby blue light was leaking out. I made a pact to the door by using a little force from my palm, the door was pushed forward. The room’s environs were baby blue, I saw Katze laying down on the floor matching the color of the environs. In front of him was a black pedestal, something was placed upon it, but probably, Katze had taken it.

  He was shaking, his white hood covered his head, so I didn’t see his expression. I strolled slowly to him, being cautious of what might happen. And something really happened, dark trails probably from his hand were bursting out, and then, it was flowing around Katze. At that time, Katze was engulfed with dark trails, shrouded with dark aura. He slowly got himself up, but half way through, his knees couldn’t support his weight, he fell down. Katze lay side, his left hand hugged his trunk, whilst his right hand touched his right eye. It looked like he was suffering in agony from the artifact.

  Katze: “I…can…go…back in time!?”

  After a purified-like scene, Katze slowly stood back up. He slowly removed his right hand from his right eye. A color of light blue in his iris shone brightly and beautifully, he said that he could go back in time. Did that mean…

  As I was utterly trying to say my remarks, Katze fell down once again and lost his consciousness. He got into a slumber.

  “KATZE!”

  I rushed toward him, since his body was free from dark energy. Why was it like that? It seemed like he got awakened, and the awakening was his right eye? Forgot to mention, he had been closing his right eye since I met him at Osparious’s hall. He said he could go back in time, meaning his ability from his right eye was about reversing time. I felt wrong, something was very wrong. I felt like this was a setup for Katze to get here. Someone already foreseen this scenario, must be Osparious, no other than him. He picked this mansion for me, because he knew that Katze would be my instructor, and THAT I would tell him to go to that door.

  So, Osparious really planned something. I thought he was probably watching all the way through.

  “I’ll find out what your experiment is.”

  Then, I dragged Katze outside the room.

  ***