C159: Can I go back?
Arnold walked out of the snug and into the narrow alley that connected to the back of the pub. The heavy wooden door clicked shut behind him, sealing away the stale reek of ale and fried beef.
He stepped into the empty street, his boots crunching against the dirt path. The sun was slowly setting, casting long shadows across the cobblestones. Orange light seeped through the branches of the surrounding trees, painting the ground in hues of amber. A cold wind blew across the open field nearby, bending the grass in whispering waves.
Back in the mansion, Arriet had already met Erin. Isa, acting as a stern young lady, had begun reprimanding the maid fiercely.
"Hey, err… Izzy—wait, no, Arnold! Arnold says you can’t approach this!"
Looking at the scene unfold through her shared vision, another sudden worry rose within Izzy's chest.
'It is fine, right?'
—
Inside the mansion, as Erin walked up the stairs toward the upper floor and the attic beyond, her footsteps suddenly stopped.
"Hey!"
"U-uh? Who might you be, miss?" Erin looked up at the small girl who had widened her arms across the staircase leading to the attic. Her eyes carried a strange mix of confusion and curiosity.
"Isa… eluh, Addiet," The girl bit her tongue, stumbling over the name.
While trying her best to look fierce and commanding, she continued. "Arri, Arriet says you must not approach the attic!" Her face turned beet red, one finger pointing accusingly at Erin.
Erin looked at the girl and gasped.
'So... so adorable!'
She felt as though another strange resident had just appeared within the mansion. But unlike Arnold, whose bandaged face and cold demeanor inspired unease, Erin found this one far more approachable.
"What are you staring at! Where is Erin's answer!" Arriet pouted, pointing harder at the maid with her finger.
"M-my apologies, miss," Erin immediately bowed her head. She glanced up briefly, studying the girl's features. "Uhh? Miss Arriet?"
"Fufu, you may call me Ari!" Arriet, satisfied with the respectful address, puffed out her chest and stood with her hands on her hips.
Erin's eyes grew warmer, a gentle smile touching her lips.
"Anyway, do not approach the attic again, understood? You can manage that much, can you not?" Arriet asked again.
"Of course I can manage that, miss! I shall never set foot upon these stairs again!" Erin bowed once more, her blonde bun bobbing up and down with the motion.
"Good!"
Inside the mindscape, Isa practically bounced with excitement.
'Izzy! Look! She is frightened of me!'
“...”
Izzy observed the interaction in silence.
'I succeeded! Ehehe, am I the best?!'
‘Yea, right.’
Izzy did not know what to say.
—
"Isa... Arriet stays in this room!" Arriet pointed excitedly at her bedchamber door, her earlier sternness dissolving into childlike enthusiasm.
The moment she pushed the door open—
*Gasp!*
Erin gasped.
The room was cluttered with a chaotic avalanche of stuffed animals, lying haphazardly across every available surface. The bed's blanket had been dragged onto the floorboards, tangled among an assortment of other small oddments: ceramic garden gnomes, wooden blocks, half-assembled puzzles, and stray ribbons of fabric.
The whole room looked less like a noble young lady’s bedroom and more like a battlefield after a toy rebellion.
"..."
Arriet immediately slammed the door shut.
She hesitated, then turned around and spoke in a small voice.
“Ari… is hungry! Let’s eat together!”
“...”
Erin silently looked at Arriet with a complicated gaze, then shook her head.
She gently pushed Arriet aside and reached for the door handle.
"Wait!" Arriet tried to stop her, grabbing at Erin's hand and attempting to pry it away from the brass handle. But a flicker of surprise flashed through her eyes.
She had not expected Erin to be this strong. The maid did not budge the slightest bit under her resistance, instead opening the door with calm grace.
"Miss Arriet, we should tidy your room."
“Ari can do it later! Let’s—”
"Miss. We may dine together later, after I have finished with the cleaning."
Erin smiled gently down at Arriet, refusing to yield an inch. "Furthermore, we ought to share our meal together, along with Master Arnold."
"Em... urr," Arriet hesitated, her face scrunching in conflict.
What could she even reply? That Arnold would pounce upon her the instant they stood face to face? Not a chance in heaven or earth.
But, unbeknownst to the frantic calculations running through Arriet's mind, Erin had already stepped inside the cluttered chamber and begun tidying up the room with practiced efficiency.
Arriet followed sheepishly in Erin's wake, her face burning beet red from embarrassment as she stepped into her own room.
Of course, it was natural that she had never thought about cleaning the room up.
After all, this was Arriet's own private room within the mansion. More often than not, Izzy would simply leave the girl to her own devices without ever reminding her to maintain basic order in her quarters.
In Izzy's defense, she did not wish to be overly strict with Isa. The two also needed their own private time, allowing Isa to play and explore without the constant supervision bearing down upon her.
And even if Isa realized the room was messy, after being confined in the mindscape for so long, where she could pop things in and out of existence with a mere wave of her hand, it was natural that cleaning up her little battlefield did not occur in her mind.
As Erin worked through the chaos, folding linens and stacking scattered toys, she could not help but steal repeated glances at the doll that sat neatly upon the table in the corner.
Its navy, glass eyes stared silently and eerily back at her from beneath the dim candlelight.
Erin knew, rationally, that the doll was not alive. It had remained in that exact posture from the moment she had first laid eyes upon it. Yet despite its inanimate nature, a creeping unease coiled in her stomach every time her gaze happened to cross its placid face.
“...”
“...”
They spent some time in Arriet’s room, cleaning up the stuffed animals scattered everywhere and piling them neatly into a designated space along the wall.
After a while, once the last toy had been stuffed neatly into its place among the others, Isa, speaking through Arriet, suddenly posed a question.
“Erin. Before Erin came to this mansion, did you happen to encounter anyone else besides the band Erin followed?”
“Yes?”
“Someone who called himself the Kind Neighbor.”
“!”
Erin widened her eyes.
"Yes, Miss Arriet. I know him well! He is the very one who secured me this position in the mansion!"
"..." Arriet closed her eyes slowly.
In the next instant, deep within their shared mindscape, Izzy switched places with Isa, seizing direct control of Arriet's expression and posture.
The atmosphere around the black-haired girl with green eyes changed. The bubbling, childish feeling disappeared, replaced by a sharp, penetrating seriousness.
Arriet opened her eyes, stood upright in front of Erin, and asked in a cold tone.
“Elaborate.”
The air in the room turned oppressive that pressed down upon Erin's shoulders.
"!" Erin jolted, involuntarily stepping backward until her shoulder blades met the wall.
The girl in front of her right now suddenly reminded her of Arnold.
The transformation had occurred so suddenly that it felt deeply uncanny to her senses, as though an entirely different person had taken up residence within the small girl's body in the span of a breath.
“That man, he is the one who has been aiding our family for some years now," Erin said, looking down at her own hands, her voice small and uncertain under that piercing stare.
"Our family is poor. We have constantly received his generous assistance. At one point, he inquired of me whether I might wish to take up employment as a maid in a noble household."
She glanced nervously around the chamber.
"That is how Mr. Kind Neighbor guided us to the village, and Mr.Rindell’s band brought me here."
Arriet narrowed her eyes, pacing back and forth across the small space.
'Hmm? Now that I hear it, he does not sound so terrible. Did I misjudge him? Although they are all greedy merchants by nature, perhaps there exists genuine kindness within some members of the Golden Land?'
“P-pray my excuse, miss.” Erin stammered. She looked up, then down again at her feet, her mouth opening and closing several times as if she wished to say something more, but could not quite summon the courage.
“Hmm? You’re still here?”
Izzy had momentarily forgotten about the girl’s existence.
Erin fiddled nervously with the hem of her dress, her blonde bonnet bouncing up and down with each motion, as she murmured in a small voice.
"I... I miss my family, miss. I am not certain whether I ought to... return home. Would Master Arnold permit it?"
Arriet frowned at the question.
The sudden shift in her expression caused Erin's heart to skip a beat.
“I’m so sorrie! Please forgie my intrusion!" She bowed hastily and exited the room with quick, panicked steps.
Meanwhile, watching the maid’s retreating figure through her Field Vision, a certain emotion stirred inside Izzy’s chest.
'Family.'
Erin's simple word had struck a chord somewhere deep within Izzy.
‘Right, I forgot this girl has a family in the village.’
It was not that she had been entirely ignorant of the fact. She had simply not paid much attention.
The mansion would become extremely dangerous if the Herald crawled his way here. But the village itself was also a death trap.
Looking at it now, it seemed Erin’s fate would be the same no matter where she went.
Death.
‘You only worked here for one day, and you already want to go back?’ Izzy smiled bitterly.
Although Erin had only worked here for a single day, Izzy had already grown fond of her. It was a strange feeling, yet not out of place. Who would not appreciate an obedient, hardworking subordinate?
Asking the girl to clean the entire mansion by herself was a little excessive. Izzy also did not have anything to pay the girl with, so she felt a little guilty.
I didn’t think she would work so hard for a job without a paycheck.’ Izzy tapped her chin thoughtfully.
“What do you think, Isa?”
“Isa will listen to Izzy's arrangements!”
“That’s not helping.”
Isa looked around at her now-clean room. The stuffed animals had been gathered, the blanket had been placed back on the bed, and the little furniture was no longer scattered across the floor like ruins after war.
“It won’t hurt to send Erin back for a while, Isa thinks?”
“Hmm.”
The mansion would become dangerous when the Herald arrived. The secret space in the dining room was exclusive to Arriet, so there would not be anywhere else for Erin to hide.
However, the village was different. Although it was also dangerous, it was still safer than here.
Furthermore, the Inspectors were stationed there, and now, with Baroness Amanda finally awakened, there existed a chance to defend against Victor when the Rite arrived.
"Very well. We can send her back by tomorrow," Izzy made up her mind.
She would also advise Erin and her family to remain indoors throughout the coming day, to maximize their odds of survival.
If the Kind Neighbor was indeed whom she suspected him to be, then that man would most likely extend his protection over Erin.
'Oh.'
But if that man contacted Erin, then Izzy needed to keep her distance from the maid entirely, lest she inadvertently draw his attention.
‘Hopefully, she can bypass the storm that will swell tomorrow.’
Erin was an innocent girl who was unfortunate enough to be drawn into this place.
Izzy could only silently hope that the girl survived. They possessed neither the strength nor the time to extend their protection over her.
—
Meanwhile, on Arnold’s side.
“Junior…”
Arnold stood stunned, staring at Davis's tattered, bloodied form. He lay desperately beside the tree.
The man's face was ashen, smeared with dirt and sweat, his clothes torn and stained dark. His exhausted eyes gazed up at Arnold with a pleading intensity.
"Please... save him, our boss—"
An unexpected emergency had arrived.