Leon walked down a dimly lit hallway, with Allyssa and Rosa following close behind. Keeping a close watch on their surroundings, he eyed the different corridors and doors leading deeper into the mansion that they passed by. Occasionally, he glanced back at the other two to make sure everything was fine.

Both of his companions had turned a lot quieter ever since they separated from Scarlett and the rest of the group. Most of Allyssa’s attention appeared to be focused on their surroundings as well, a pair of brown leather goggles pulled over her eyes as she held up a strange hand crossbow made of metal with decals running up its side.

From Leon’s own experience, he knew it wasn’t uncommon for Shielders to be laxer than most others in dangerous environments such as this. This quality had both its good and its bad sides. Allyssa seemed to know there was a time and place for casual nonchalance, though.

The same couldn’t be said for the woman walking next to the girl.

Or at least, that was Leon’s original impression. From what he’d seen of Rosa up till now, he would have expected her to make jokes and other odd statements as they proceeded with their job. And she had, to a certain degree. But—and this was something he wasn’t even completely sure of himself—it felt like something in the woman’s demeanor had changed since splitting with Scarlett’s group. And unlike Allyssa, she seemed to consciously avoid paying attention to their surroundings.

Leon paused, turning his head as he sensed a presence nearby. A low whisper emanated from the wall to his right, next to a derelict chiffonier where an empty painting was. He narrowed his eyes.

A ghostly hand exited the frame. It was followed by a woman’s face, partly hidden by a mound of rippling black hair. The figure tried crawling out of the painting with two slender arms, but Leon didn’t let it. He gathered his aura and struck with his sword the second enough of its body was visible, cleaving the woman in two.

A wail left her throat as the ghost was torn apart by the brilliant glow of the sword’s edge and dissipated into nothingness.

He turned to look at the other paintings that covered the walls of the hallway. It was impossible to tell which ones were hiding something inside them. For some reason, he couldn’t detect anything until whatever was present inside tried to exit as well. It didn’t help that all the paintings were supernatural in some way and appeared empty until one got closer to take a look.

“That one looked almost normal compared to the last one,” Allyssa muttered.

He looked back at the girl as she gave another painting a wide berth, crossbow raised in one hand as the other clasped the bandolier hanging across her chest.

She glanced at him. “Are all ghosts always this varied?”

“It depends,” he said. “Some ghosts are the product of real events. Echoes of the creatures and people who were once alive, you could say. Others are just a natural consequence of places like these, where the boundaries between life and death are thinner. The latter can take the shape of almost anything you can imagine, while the former usually looks more normal, as long as the inciting incident wasn’t something too terrible.”

“So the ghost we ran into before this one was an example of the latter?”

“…It could have been, yes.”

The one before this had appeared as a person with sewing marks all across their body, as if their limbs had been reattached posthumously. It could definitely have been a natural result of a convergence of negative energies in the area, but Leon doubted it. Echoes of people were almost always a result of something that had happened in real life.

He started moving down the hallway again, returning his attention to keeping watch for any other threats.

They’d been roaming around this part of the mansion for almost an hour now, and they still hadn’t found any signs of the ‘Custodian’ Scarlett wanted them to find. These hallways were also strange in that they never seemed to end. Yet, at the same time, they’d passed by several stairs and other corridors that clearly led to other sections and wings of the mansion. More than should have been possible, at least, no matter how large of a mansion this was.

At first, he thought the cause was some sort of spatial magic. But he was growing more and more skeptical of that as time passed.

Whatever the underlying reason, though, it proved annoying enough. Scarlett had told them to leave the Custodian alone for the first hour and a half or so if they found it within that timeframe, so that she and her group could make it to the west wing first. But with how large this place was, and how few traces they’d found this far, he was starting to doubt whether they would even find their target to begin with.

More time passed as they moved throughout the mansion, and eventually, Allyssa spoke again. “What do you think happened here, for this place to become like this?”

Leon looked back at her. “I only heard about this place the first time earlier today, so I don’t think I know much more than you.”

Allyssa blinked at him. “Scarlett didn’t tell you anything?”

“No.”

“Oh.”

“I’m not sure what kind of relationship you thought I had with her, but our previous interactions should have made it clear that us being betrothed isn’t due to any fondness on either of our ends.”

“No, well… I could tell that much, I guess. I just thought that…” The girl’s words trailed off. She shook her head. “Well, whatever. It doesn’t matter.”

He eyed her for a moment before returning his attention forward. “I noticed earlier that all of you were used to working with Scarlett in this fashion. Does she usually ignore telling you what’s going on when you’re in situations like this?”

“I wouldn’t say she ignores it.” Allyssa’s voice came from behind Leon. “It’s just that… I think she only tells us what she thinks is necessary? Usually, that’s more along the lines of what kind of monsters we can expect, or where traps and such might be. Sometimes she skips even those, though, if she’s confident that we can deal with things as they are.”

To him, that sounded like a terrible way of leading. If he were to command his knights into the field while only sharing the most essential of intel with them, how could he expect them to react properly if uncertain situations arose? How could he even expect them to trust him if they knew he was hiding things related to their missions?

Honestly, he doubted any Solar Knight would accept those sorts of conditions unless directly ordered to by the captain or His Majesty.

But perhaps the circumstances weren’t comparable. The Imperial Solar Knights were some of the most elite and disciplined knights in the empire. At least when it came to their work. Each and every one could be trusted to keep what they learned secret, no matter the circumstances, and he didn’t have to worry about them not properly understanding what information was shared with them. They were a prideful bunch as well; a lesson he had learned the hard way when he originally became a member. But like many things in life, one only started to appreciate that fact after spending some time with them.

In comparison, Scarlett was relying on Shielders and people hired to work for her.

For as long as Leon had known her, the noblewoman had never placed all of her trust in another person. Not to his knowledge, at least. Being paranoid about other people’s motivations was probably par for the course for someone like her. In her mind, it probably made perfect sense to only share what was absolutely necessary. And there was probably some truth to that, in some way.

Nevertheless, he doubted it was the best way of going about things.

He was pulled out of his thoughts when he realized one set of steps had disappeared from behind him.

Spinning around, Allyssa met his eyes with a confused look before looking to her own side and then further back in the hallway.

Rosa had frozen on the spot a dozen steps behind, transfixed in front of one of the paintings.

Bulwark of the Egis.

A pool of light spread out from Leon’s sword and formed a shimmering barrier around Allyssa and him. When it had finished forming, he shot up the hallway with eyes locked on to Rosa and the frame in front of her. It took him two seconds to reach the woman and pull her back, placing himself between her and the painting. He readied his aura to deal with whatever might come out.

…Yet nothing came.

As he blinked, the empty canvas changed into a drawing of an abandoned village landscape with dilapidated dirt trails running through it. But there was nothing in particular that stood out about the picture, nor could he sense anything off about it.

Behind him, Rosa seemed to rouse from whatever daze had afflicted her. He glanced back at her with one eye still on the painting. “Are you okay?”

She stared at him for a second, then sent a look at the painting. “Y-Yeah, I’m fine. Perfectly fine, thank you very much. Must have been something…strange with that painting.” A small smile formed on her face. “Funny. I thought those potions we drank would stop mental thingies like this, but guess it got through anyway. Thank Ittar we’ve got a tall and dependable knight right here, ready to save damsels like me when we need it, right?”

The woman reached up a hand to adjust some of her hair, then looked down the hallway to where Allyssa was half-hidden by the barrier of light. “Think you might have scared the youngling, though.”

“I didn’t have time to explain things.” Leon examined her for a few more seconds, then returned his attention fully to the painting. Still no signs of a specter or anything of the sort hiding inside. He also couldn’t detect any sort of bewitchment or charm coming from it. It was just a picture of an abandoned village.

But the look he’d seen on Rosa’s face, for just a brief moment… That wasn’t the look of someone seeing a simple village.

He would have to be more alert from now on. It was clear that things in this mansion weren’t as simple as they appeared.

The two of them returned to Allyssa, who hadn’t seemed especially happy about being stuck inside the barrier of light.

“Are you okay?” she asked Rosa as the barrier fell around her.

“Just dandy,” the woman replied. “Might have to take a few more safety measures from here on, though.”

She held up the instrument in her hands and played a few notes. Leon felt a strange clarity enter his mind as a sense of tranquil peace came over him.

“Haven’t used this one much lately, but it always gives me the urge for a warm cup of coffee.”

Allyssa grimaced at that for some reason.

“Just make sure not to lose any arms, legs, or other precariously attached limbs,” Rosa continued. “This one is a pain to maintain, and it’d be even more of a pain if I ended up having to do it while reattaching errant body parts.”

Leon studied her curiously. He’d assumed the woman knew bardic charms from the fact that she was carrying around a klert all the time. That fact alone was rare enough in the empire. But the effect of this charm was what shocked him the most. It was surprisingly powerful for someone not a member of the Velvet Dancers of the Luicean Isles.

“Can you really reattach arms and legs?” Allyssa asked.

Rosa cocked her head to the side. “Who knows? I’ve never tried it.”

She pointed to a thin silver bracelet around her wrist. “With this, it might actually be possible. Maybe. Possibly. I’d prefer not to find out today, though. I can tell you that much.” Shooting the two of them a grin, she signaled down the hallway. “Well, we can’t be loitering around here forever, can we? I’m sure we have several closets full of ghosts and bed-monsters just waiting to meet us.”

Leon kept his eyes on her for a moment longer before finally turning around and resuming his position at the front of their formation, keeping a closer watch ahead and behind. They walked in silence for a while, until finally, a subdued rustling of metal sounded out around the corner.

They stopped.

“That sounded like chains, didn’t it?” Allyssa whispered from behind. “Is that our target?”

He looked back to make sure both of them were prepared, then gestured for them to follow him. Soon, they rounded the corner at the end of the hallway to find another hallway that ended in a single door with a painting hanging on either side of it. There were no signs of what had made the noise.

Looking back from where they’d come, Leon found that the hallway they had been walking down now looked slightly different; new furniture and paintings lined the walls, and the carpet on the floor had gone from an intense vermillion with gold trimmings to a dark green, lacking any decorations whatsoever.

Allyssa pointed past him. “Should we try the door?”

He turned back to examine it closer. Most rooms they’d tried up till now had either been locked or empty. But this was the first time they might have heard a sound from one.

“Stay behind me,” he told them in a low voice, then crept down the hallway. His eyes were locked onto the empty frames next to the door, which soon changed to display a pair of dark, empty forests where the night sky showed through the dense canopies.

Even after stopping and waiting for several seconds, there were no signs of anything trying to leave the paintings. Waiting for a while longer, just to be safe, he then stepped closer to the door. He tried the handle.

It crept open without making a noise.

He glanced back at the other two, who gave him short nods.

He opened the door fully, revealing a pitch-black room. It didn’t harbor the same magical illumination effect that much of the rest of the mansion seemed to have.

A touch came from his arm as Allyssa stepped up beside him and pulled out a thin vial from beneath her cloak, gesturing to cover their eyes.

He readied his sword and raised a hand to shield his eyes. The young Shielder threw the vial. A moment later, an explosion of light spread out. Leon moved in front of Allyssa as the light quickly subsided to a manageable level, a thin pool of illuminating liquid having gathered on the floor at the center of the room.

A gasp sounded out from behind his shoulder as they took in the now lit-up space.

It looked like a playroom, if that was the word to describe it. Miniature rocking horses and several other toys were spread about almost haphazardly. Wide, dull windows that looked out into a gloomy forest were half-hidden behind a set of heavy black curtains, the darkness from outside almost seeming to want to sneak into the room and not shying away from the light.

There was a group of six dolls leaning against the walls of the room. Yet, these weren’t the same dolls that they had seen in Lord Withersworth’s cellar. These were at least as large as a child, with the looks and clothes of children as well. Their pale marble faces gazed out into empty air—mouths, noses, and eyes painted on with impressive detail—and in their hands, they each held a pair of scissors. Scissors large enough to be mistaken for a short sword.

There was complete silence in the room as Leon observed the dolls. None of them showed any sign of reacting to either the light or the noise.

“That looks expensive,” Rosa’s voice came from behind him. A hand rested on his shoulder as the woman in question almost leaned over him and pointed at the other end of the room.

There, lying on a carved wooden chest, was a long, curved blade with a silver sheen to it. Hints of red ran along the metal of the blade, and at the base, there was a large hole, as if it attached to something.

“We’re not here for artifacts,” he whispered back at her.

“Not sure Scarlett would agree.”

He held back a groan. She was right. Scarlett had said they should pick up ‘valuable’ things when they could.

That woman and her greed…

Turning back to the room, he let out a small sigh.

“Stay back,” he told the other two before taking one step inside.

All of the dolls’ heads spun to look at him.

“Is it time?” A symphony of chilling giggles filled the room. “It’s time to cut~”

In the blink of an eye, all of the dolls had stood up.

They were fast.

Divided Blade’s Quintessence.

He focused his aura in his sword as he stepped back and shut the door. Barely a second later, a cacophony of slashing noises tore through the door as it shook in front of him.

Rosa and Allyssa moved back even further, the Shielder raising her crossbow and the bard her instrument. Leon waited for a few seconds longer as the sounds of the door being broken down continued, ready to unleash his counterattack at the right time.

Without warning, the noises stopped.

A moment passed, and the rattling of chains rang out from the other side of the door.

He hurried to open it again and was once more met by a pitch-black room.

Sword held at the ready in case of an attack, he peered into the darkness, searching for movement. Nothing came at him.

He looked back at Allyssa, who pulled out another vial and stepped up to him. He covered his eyes once more as light filled the room, then scanned the space. The dolls were back in their original positions, but there was no sign of the origin of the rattling chains.

Another sigh left him.

Playing it safe here clearly wouldn’t work. Seemed like he would have to do it the hard way.

Bulwark of the Egis.

A barrier of light formed to cover the three of them near the entrance to the room.

“Let’s try this again,” he muttered to himself, then looked back at the other two. “Stay back for now. I’ll deal with this.”

Then he stepped inside the room and closed the door behind him.

All the dolls turned to stare at him.

“Is it time?” Giggles filled the room as they stood up. “It’s time to cut~”

A flare of light loomed across the blade of Leon’s sword as he raised it in the air in front of him.

Allyssa glanced at Sir Leon’s back as the man walked down the eerily lit hallway in front of her.

It still felt strange, being so close to and talking casually with a person she’d only heard of in rumors before.

Leon Delmon seemed to be exactly like he had been described, but at the same time, he wasn’t. Allyssa couldn’t count the times she’d heard Maggie and the others at the Guild Branch talk about how they’d seen him both fight a dragon and do a number of other impressive things you only heard in tales.

In many ways, she’d expected those impressions to have been exaggerated. But surprisingly, he lived up to the expectations, with his tall and handsome appearance, the friendly way he acted, and the way he seemed both able and wanting to protect those around him.

At the same time, though, he was also a person. This much had been made exceedingly clear to Allyssa. Not even in her wildest dreams had she been thinking that she would one day get to see the Solar Knight’s Vice-Captain in a squabble. With Scarlett, of all people. And more than once in the span of just a few hours.

Never had she been expecting Scarlett to squabble with anyone, for that matter. From what she’d learned of the woman, Scarlett didn’t as much argue as just roll over everybody around her until she got what she wanted. A fact that was about as impressive as it was somewhat worrying.

The way Allyssa had understood it, the woman just didn’t know any other way of going about things. It was almost cute, in an endearing, awkward kind of way. Probably not for the people on the receiving end of the noblewoman’s actions, though.

That said, Scarlett usually seemed to have good reasons for what she did, so Allyssa didn’t want to seem like the type of person that complained about a lot of things. She wanted to continue working with the woman for as long as she could. And it wasn’t only because it gave her so many opportunities to improve her alchemy.

When it came to Scarlett’s relationship with Sir Leon, however, things weren’t as simple. At the moment, Allyssa was oddly thankful for that, because it made the sudden meeting with the knight a much less jarring experience. She imagined this was similar to how many viewed her father at first, before witnessing how he acted around her. People were always at least slightly different from the stories.

Not that she was glad that Scarlett and Sir Leon seemed to dislike each other. Things like that were never good. Especially if you were supposed to get married.

But she also knew nobles were weird like that. She was curious about exactly what might have happened for their relationship to get to where it currently was, but it wasn’t like they were her affairs to pry into. She wasn’t like Rosa, who could say the most daring of things right to people’s faces. Or Fynn, who could seemingly fail to pick up on the most basic of social cues. Or Shin, who spent all day with his nose in his books and didn’t seem to care one bit about what everybody else thought about him.

In fact, was she the only normal person in this group?

The thought had never struck her before, but now that it had… What in Ittar’s name had Kat actually gotten her into? She was so going to give that woman an earful the next time they met.

Allyssa’s eyes shifted to her left, where Rosa was walking. The usually cheery woman had been quieter than normal lately. She was looking around the hallway as if she was prepared for something to pop out of the walls any second now. Which, fair, was an actual possibility. But Rosa often struck Allyssa as the sort of person who didn’t know what fear was, so this level of vigilance felt a bit out of character.

Maybe it was because she was scared of falling under the same kind of spell that she had earlier, back when Sir Leon had helped her. Allyssa wasn’t sure what had actually happened back then, but considering where they were, anything was possible. This creepy mansion had all kinds of strange things about it.

A shiver went down her back as her thoughts returned to some of the things they’d encountered up till now. The ghosts were bad enough, but the dolls were the worst if you asked her. She was almost glad that Sir Leon took care of those last ones by himself, even if it did make her feel a bit useless.

Unfortunately, they hadn’t found any traces of that Custodian ghost Scarlett wanted them to find. He hadn’t returned even after they exited the room with the dolls inside, it seemed. Not immediately, at least. The strange blade that had been there was the only thing they got out of it.

Allyssa was currently carrying it, wrapped in one of the curtains that had been in the room. None in their group had a spatial bag, so there weren’t many other alternatives. For some reason, Scarlett always wanted Fynn to carry the larger bag that they’d originally found in the fairy realm nowadays, and the woman never separated from her own spatial pouch.

Allyssa paused in her thoughts as her eyes fell on a door further down the hallway. It seemed different from the others. There was an odd feeling to it, one that she found hard to describe.

She looked at the others. “Wait,” she called out.

Both Sir Leon and Rosa stopped to look back at her. Neither of them appeared to have noticed anything in particular.

“I think there’s something behind that door. It’s different from the others.”

“Different?” Sir Leon’s forehead creased together. He eyed the door she was pointing at. “I can’t sense anything.”

“Neither can I,” Rosa said.

“…Really?” Allyssa looked back at the door. Wasn’t it obvious, though? It screamed ‘special’.

“Want to look inside?” Rosa asked, that small grin that the woman usually wore having returned to her face.

“It might be another trap.” Sir Leon stepped up to the door before they could. “I’ll check first.”

He tried to open it, but the door didn’t budge.

“You’re doing it wrong.” Allyssa moved up next to him and reached for the handle. He caught her hand before she could touch it.

She blinked, then looked down at her hand.

…What did she just try?

She looked up at Sir Leon. The tall man was studying her with a serious expression.

“I think we should leave this room alone.”

“No, but…” Allyssa turned back to the door.

“It’s clearly affecting you in some way. Remember what happened with Miss Rosa earlier.”

“I get that, but…” Allyssa eyed the door’s handle, a twisting set of bronze threads in the shape of a wing.

She could tell that there was something off about this feeling, but at the same time, she didn’t think it was bad. Not necessarily. It was something…familiar? No, not familiar. But not something new.

“I think we should still try it,” she said.

Sir Leon watched her for a few seconds longer, then turned to look at Rosa. “Can you try that charm you used earlier?”

“It’s called a melody, but sure. Can do.” The bard placed both hands on her instrument. “I’ve been using it quite a bit now, though, so don’t go expecting too much of me if there’s action later and I haven’t had the time to rest.”

A short tune sounded out from the klert. A sense of clarity filled Allyssa, along with the same tranquil peace that she had gotten used to from the previous times Rosa used the same magic. Still, it didn’t affect the feeling the door gave off to her.

Sir Leon looked back at her. “Is there any difference?”

She shook her head. “I still think we should try it. I can tell that there’s something different about this one. Something I should see.”

He gave her another long look before finally nodding his head. “Alright. But I’ll be going first. You’ll stay close to me unless I say otherwise.”

“Yes, of course.” Allyssa reached out for the door handle again. For some reason, she knew exactly what to do. She began by pulling it outwards. At the same time, she placed her other hand on the door and pushed inwards. Then she pulled the handle downwards. Something clicked, and the door swung open.