Between Your Letter and My Reply

Chapter 127

Lilliana was horrified at the sight of the two.

“Annette! Mr. Asher!”

Damian calmly cut the spider webs with his knife and pulled them out.

Asher seemed to have been through a rough time; his whole body was filthy, and his glasses were barely hanging onto his ears. However, there were no visible external injuries, and he seemed to be breathing fine, so it didn’t appear to be a major problem.

Soon after, both of them regained consciousness almost simultaneously, their faces creased in discomfort. Annette, who woke up first, blinked slowly and asked Lilliana, who was looking at her with concern, “What happened?”

“Don’t ask. It’s better not to know.”

Lilliana shook her head with a hollow laugh, and Annette looked around with a puzzled expression.

“Where are we…?”

Since she had fainted and hadn’t seen the spider herself, Annette had no grasp of the situation. But she soon spotted the giant spider’s carcass lying under the flowering tree and wanted to faint again.

“Don’t tell me I was almost eaten by that thing… Asher!”

She spotted Asher lying on the ground, crawled over to him on all fours, grabbed his shoulders, and shook him.

Asher groaned and opened his eyes slightly. He rubbed his face with his hand, took off his glasses that were bothering him, and grumbled irritably, “I’m sleepy as hell, why…”

Seeing his usual hysterical behavior when tired, Damian quickly helped him up.

“You shouldn’t sleep in a place like this. At least go back to bed.”

“Where are we?”

Asher put his glasses back on properly and looked around. He looked bewildered in this strange space surrounded by tree branches and asked the others, “What am I doing here?”

Then, as if he suddenly remembered something, his eyes widened, and his face turned pale.

“I… I… I mean, I had a dream…”

Asher stammered, struggling to explain the fragments of memories he had recovered. The others looked at him with pity.

“A giant snake was chasing me, and I ran away, but I smelled a strange floral scent and lost consciousness… Anyway, I had a strange dream… but why am I not in my bedroom after waking up?”

The four, excluding Asher, exchanged glances. It seemed like they were trying to figure out who could explain this situation to Asher in the most understandable and detailed way.

However, feeling that this wasn’t the place for such a conversation, Damian sighed deeply and helped Asher up.

“That’s not the issue right now. The problem is that we have to get down from here, and there’s no clear way to do so.”

“Wait, where are we, and what’s going on? You look familiar…”

Damian pushed aside the branches, stuck his head out, and looked down. It was a dizzying height. Asher and Annette followed, looked down, and recoiled in horror.

“Ack! What is this! How did I get up here?!”

“Don’t tell me we have to climb down from here?”

The two were terrified, but Lilliana and Casey said with nonchalant expressions, “There are plenty of branches, so it’s not that difficult to climb up and down.”

“That’s right. If you’re careful where you step, you’ll be down in no time.”

“Are you monkeys?”

The four, excluding Asher, who still didn’t grasp the situation, whispered among themselves.

“How about I carry Annette on my back, and the rest of you climb down on your own?”

“That seems like the best option right now.”

“I think that’s a good idea too.”

At Casey’s suggestion, Annette nodded, and Damian agreed as well. Lilliana, pointing at Asher who was anxiously pacing, said, “Then what about Mr. Asher?”

Damian asked Asher, “Mr. Asher, would it be alright if I carried you down on my back?”

Asher’s face contorted into a strange expression.

“I have my pride, you know?”

Damian offered again, but Asher stubbornly refused. The others looked at him with doubt, but Asher rolled up his sleeves and stepped forward.

“I can climb down on my own!”

And he really started climbing down the tree by himself. With him in the lead, Casey, carrying Annette, started climbing down, followed by Lilliana and Damian.

Although his hands and feet were trembling, and his face was pale, Asher succeeded in climbing down to the ground as he had declared.

As soon as Damian’s feet touched the ground, Lilliana quickly ran to the maze wall and summoned the door. Asher let out a surprised yelp when the door appeared on the empty wall.

But seeing the others open the door and cross to the other side, he followed them.

They found themselves in front of the elevator on the 9th floor, where the front door of the boarding house was located. Asher couldn’t understand how they had arrived in front of the house after exiting through a door in the maze.

It seemed like smoke was coming out of Asher’s ears as he tried to process the situation. Damian opened the front door with his key and said to Asher, “Mr. Asher.”

“Huh? Yeah?”

“What do you think about the mythical age? Mythical creatures and such…?”

“What?”

Asher looked dumbfounded, and the others patted his shoulder in turn as they entered the house. Asher hurriedly followed them, asking, “What are you talking about? You know something about this situation, don’t you? What is it? What’s going on?”

Damian, the last to enter the house, secured the door, thinking it would be a long night for Asher.

***

The next morning, Asher sat at the dining table with a haggard look, as if he hadn’t slept a wink, gulping down coffee from a beer mug.

Damian handed him his house key.

“Let’s switch keys. You use mine, Mr. Asher. I’ll go see the wizard today and have this key enchanted.”

Asher stared at the key Damian offered with wary eyes, then quickly snatched it. He handed Damian his own key and asked, trying to appear calm, “S-so… it wasn’t a dream after all?”

“I told you it wasn’t.”

“And everything you said yesterday was true?”

“You saw it with your own eyes.”

“It still feels like a dream!”

“It’s okay. It wasn’t easy for me to accept at first either.”

“Wait, you said the same thing to me just now, and now it’s Damian’s turn?” Annette, spreading jam on her toast, interjected.

“He asked me the same thing. You don’t have to answer him anymore.”

Just then, Casey came down the stairs with a long yawn, and Asher was even more flustered than when he saw Damian. It seemed like he was still shaken by seeing Casey shoot fire from his hands yesterday.

“Mr. Asher, did you sleep well?”

Casey greeted him cheerfully, and Asher raised his hand with a hesitant look.

Casey was about to lie down on the sofa with toast in his mouth when Annette scolded him for potentially getting crumbs on the sofa. Eventually, he sat down on a chair at the dining table across from Asher.

Asher, seemingly uncomfortable being in the same space as Casey, quickly got up and asked Damian again, “Nothing like yesterday will happen if I use this key, right?”

“Right.”

“Okay…”

Before Casey could say anything more, Asher dashed back to his room. Damian, watching his retreating figure, said to Casey, who was munching on toast, “I’ll go to Ms. Soliel’s because of the key issue. Please look after Lilliana while I’m gone.”

“Hmm… about that…”

As Casey was nodding, light footsteps approached from behind Damian. Lilliana, who had woken up unusually early today, plopped down next to him.

“Bye, everyone.”

Lilliana said cheerfully, taking a bite of her apple. Then, she said to Damian, “If you’re going to Soliel’s, I’m coming too.”

“There’s no need for you to go.”

“No, I have some personal business to take care of.”

“You have personal business with Ms. Soliel?”

“Yes.”

“What is it?”

Damian looked puzzled, but Lilliana just shrugged.

“If Lily is going, should I go too?” Casey chimed in.

Lilliana wagged her index finger from side to side.

“Why would you need to come too? I said it’s personal business. Per. Son. Al.”

At her message to stop asking, Casey and Damian obediently nodded and closed their mouths. Lilliana checked the time and started to quickly munch on her apple.

“I have afternoon classes today, so we still have time, but it’s not that much, so let’s hurry and get back.”

“Okay.”

Damian stuffed a bite of fried egg into his mouth, matching Lilliana’s pace of eating the apple.

For some reason, Lilliana had a determined look on her face as she ate the apple, but no one noticed.

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