Between Your Letter and My Reply

Chapter 124

They lined up in front of the door, with Damian, the only one with a weapon, in the lead.

Annette inserted her own room key, not the front door key, into the keyhole. Despite it being the wrong key, the door opened with a click when she turned it.

Inside, as Soliel had said, was a maze.

It was a maze of narrow passages and high stone walls that blocked out the sky. Damian, hearing Lilliana gulp behind him, remained vigilant and scanned their surroundings.

“So what’s inside the maze?”

“If it’s a maze, aren’t there just endless forks in the road that make it hard to get out?”

Lilliana responded casually to Annette’s question.

“But why did Asher scream?”

At that point, silence fell among them.

“Why didn’t anyone ask Ms. Soliel what was inside the maze?”

Damian lamented. It seemed they had been too complacent about this magic.

As Damian stepped into the maze, the others followed closely behind him. He asked them with a puzzled look, “Why are you all coming in? Wouldn’t it be enough for just me to go in?”

“Because we’re curious.”

“What if you’re in danger?”

“Wouldn’t two be better than one?”

“But if we all get lost in the maze, it’ll be a big problem…”

As Damian started to lecture them, they heard a creaking sound behind them, and the door slammed shut. Then, the door disappeared!

“This is why I was trying to come in alone…”

Damian clicked his tongue and gave the others a reproachful look. Casey, completely unconcerned, touched the wall of the maze with a curious look. And then, a front door appeared on the wall with a pop!

“Huh?”

Casey’s eyes widened as he pointed at the door. When he opened it, the scenery outside the front door unfolded normally.

When Casey closed the door again, it disappeared after a short while.

“Ooh…”

Everyone exclaimed in admiration at the same time. It seemed like the front door was designed to appear anywhere on the wall if someone with a magic key touched it, allowing them to exit.

“This is really amazing.”

Lilliana and Annette touched the wall with their hands, making the front door appear and disappear several times, their eyes sparkling.

“More importantly, we need to find Mr. Asher first…”

Damian reminded them of their objective, and the others snapped back to attention.

“So what do we do now?” They looked like children waiting for their teacher’s instructions.

“Do I have to decide?” Damian asked, and the others responded as if he had asked something obvious.

“You were a soldier, weren’t you? You’d know better than us how to deal with this kind of situation.”

“That’s right. And you have a weapon.”

Lilliana nodded rapidly at Annette’s words.

“You two can go back home.”

Casey tried to send the two who weren’t much help back, but they pouted.

“You want us to miss out on this fun event?”

“This is a golden opportunity to see Asher’s distressed face!”

Lilliana and Annette grumbled amongst themselves, clearly disappointed.

“If anything happens, we can just escape through the door, and Damian and brother will protect us anyway, so what’s there to worry about?”

Lilliana had a point, and Damian couldn’t find another excuse to leave her behind.

“Then if it gets dangerous, we leave the maze immediately. Understood?”

“Aye, aye, sir.”

Lilliana saluted with a cheerful smile. Damian narrowed his eyes at her, then sighed and walked ahead.

“For now, everyone, stay close behind me.”

Damian started walking with the three trailing behind him.

After some time, a large wooden door appeared before them. It looked like the gate of an old castle.

Damian eyed it suspiciously and looked back. He hesitated, unsure whether to open it, and Casey nodded.

At his response, Damian opened the door. They had come this far with no other paths to take, so they had no choice.

“This place looks like a banquet hall.”

As Lilliana said, there were three long tables in the large hall. And between them, suits of knight’s armor were placed as if guarding the hall.

While Lilliana and Annette were looking around, Casey suddenly examined a wooden chair and then struck one of the suits of armor with it.

Clang! Crash!

The armor fell with a loud crash, and everyone stared at Casey’s bizarre act with wide eyes. Casey, the culprit, scratched his head and tilted it.

“Was that not it?”

He nudged the scattered pieces of armor with his foot and muttered to himself.

“Brother, what did you do?!”

At Lilliana’s question, Casey blinked and said,

“Well, in old stories, empty suits of armor like this move on their own and endanger adventurers. I thought this might be the same kind, so I attacked first…”

“That makes sense, but seeing as nothing happened, it doesn’t seem to be that kind.”

Damian checked the other suits of armor and confirmed that none of them reacted before returning to the others.

“It seems like there’s nothing special in this room, so let’s quickly move on…”

As Damian was speaking, the other three suddenly pointed behind him, their mouths agape.

Puzzled, Damian turned around, and there, an enormous snake was staring at them, flicking its tongue. It was so large that it seemed like it could easily swallow everyone there in one bite.

A strange crest adorned the snake’s head, and its scales looked tougher than those of any other creature.

“Basilisk…” Casey muttered, scanning their surroundings. The problem was that wasn’t all.

The banquet hall wasn’t decorated with just the empty armor Casey had knocked down. There were also statues modeled after mythical creatures, and those statues were starting to move.

A griffin with the head of an eagle and the body of a lion, a wendigo with the head of a deer and an emaciated human body, an abraxas with the head of a rooster and the legs of a dragon, a chimera with the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and the tail of a snake.

Damian couldn’t identify all of them, but there were at least four more.

“Kyaaa!”

Lilliana and Annette screamed at the same time. The basilisk, reacting to the loud noise, turned its head towards them.

Damian’s body moved before he could think. He just started shooting. The target was large, so the bullets all hit the snake’s body without missing. But the basilisk only let out an annoyed hiss and still held its head high.

“Hissss!”

It seemed angry. He had succeeded in diverting the basilisk’s attention, but the problem wasn’t solved. Damian clicked his tongue, looking at Annette and Lilliana, who were still surrounded by monsters.

“Casey, Lilliana and Ms. Annette!”

Damian said as he moved away from the snake, which was now angrily swinging its tail at him. As instructed, Casey shielded Lilliana and Annette and shot fire from his hands.

The monsters, intimidated by the fire, hesitated and backed away instead of approaching them. But they hadn’t given up on their prey.

The chimera lunged at Casey, and at the same time, the wendigo, which enjoyed human flesh, approached Annette. Lilliana, dodging the charging wendigo, pulled Annette into her arms and rolled to the side.

Meanwhile, Casey shot fire from his hands towards the wendigo. It let out a strange cry and burst into flames.

Damian, blocking the basilisk’s fangs with his gun barrel, shouted, “Lilliana! Escape through the door with Ms. Annette!”

Lilliana frowned at his words and retorted, “What?! No way!”

“Don’t be stubborn and just run! You’re only getting in the way!”

Lilliana’s face hardened, seemingly shocked at being called a burden. But Annette also didn’t want to leave, and she said to Damian, “You want us to run away and leave you two here in this situation?!”

“We’ll manage somehow.”

Damian barely dodged the basilisk, but then the griffin swooped down from the sky. Damian took cover under one of the banquet tables.

He caught his breath for a moment, then leaned out and fired at the griffin and the basilisk in turn. The griffin, hit by the bullets, fell to the ground bleeding, but the basilisk’s scales seemed to deflect the bullets, and the snake remained unharmed.

Damian ran, dodging the snake again, and put a bullet in the head of the still-breathing griffin. Its skull exploded, and it stopped moving.

“Damian! Move!”

Meanwhile, Casey, who had finished burning the chimera and the wendigo, stepped between Damian and the snake, creating several fireballs in the air.

He shot them at the basilisk and then clapped his hands. The fireballs exploded around the basilisk, diverting its attention.

“I’ll roast you!”

But the basilisk’s scales were so tough that they even blocked the heat of the explosions.

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