I Woke Up In A Completely Different World!

I"ve been finding myself in the Linden District more and more often. It"s a nice little district that"s a lot more open than the Historic, but I wouldn"t come out here unless I have a reason to. However, today Rayna wants to show an estate that"s in the area.

Steven: "A lot of that area is parks and residential. Where is this place exactly?"

Lilith: "Oh no…"

Rayna: "I don"t know where exactly, but I know the way."

She takes the lead, guiding us into the district and a few familiar turns later, we end up at our destination.

Rayna: "This is my first choice. Brewer Estate."

G.o.dd.a.m.nit.

A dreaded destination.

Of all the places in the world, it has to be the one where Lilith and I first fought.

Lilith: "Why here?"

She groaned.

Steven: "How about we go for the second choice?"

Rayna: "Why?"

Steven: "Brewer Estate… is kinda… y"know?"

Rayna: "No, I don"t know. What"s going on with you?"

I sigh heavily.

I was about to ask for Lilith"s input, but even she"s uncomfortable about being near here. Maybe it"s not too late to just leave and go elsewhere. It"s not like the estate was necessary, to begin with.

Steven: "It"s the spot where Lilith and I tried killing each other."

Rayna: "Oh my—I didn"t know this was that place!"

The look of shock was enough for me to convince me that she was ignorant about the estate"s history. It makes even more sense because it"s something I don"t want to talk about.

Madelyn: "Why would this be your first choice?"

Rayna: "I mean—There are 7 bedrooms. It was built for an extended family to live in… I seriously didn"t know this was that same place!"

Madelyn: "If it"s just the bedrooms, we can just build our own house, right? There has to be more to it."

Rayna: "The fences can be replaced with ones for privacy which would let Dai-tai walk around outside without having to use illusion spells."

Steven: "She"s not a dog, Rayna."

Madelyn: "Sure, it"s big on the outside, but what if the inside is all closed up and suffocating?"

Rayna: "It"s not like the townhouse you live in. The entire first floor should be wide open."

She"s not wrong, but I"m pretty sure Lilith and I wrecked the inside of the place.

Madelyn: "Can we have a look inside?"

Rayna: "Yeah, the owner should be nearby. I"ll go get him, stay here."

I haven"t even thought about the estate in so long and I"m worried old memories will start flooding in.

Madelyn: "So, uh… what do you guys think of this estate?"

Steven: "I guess it looks nice…"

Lilith: "I don"t want to live in Everhand."

Madelyn: "What? Why not?"

Lilith: "I"ve done some terrible things to the people that live here. I don"t want to hurt anyone any further with my presence."

Madelyn: "That"s bulls.h.i.t, you have as much—"

Lilith: "You"re not changing my mind, Madelyn."

Madelyn crosses her arms.

Madelyn: "What are you going to do then?"

Lilith: "I took residence inside a tower at the castle. I"ve already moved my things from the palace in Hei"an."

Steven: "…You could have one of the castle rooms, Lilith. I told you that you"re one of us…"

Lilith: "There won"t be enough s.p.a.ce. The tower I chose is almost the same as the one I had which had 3 roomy floors."

Rayna returns, sooner than expected, twirling a key around her finger. She finally raises the key and smiles.

Rayna: "The owner"s wife lent us a key to the place."

Madelyn: "Let"s check it out."

Steven: "Try not to be too long."

Rayna: "Aren"t you coming?"

Steven: "No, I don"t really want to go in there…"

Lilith: "Me neither."

Rayna: "Steven…"

Steven: "Rayna…"

Rayna: "Look… we"re all here. You"re not going to be alone again…"

Madelyn: "Nothing will happen if we"re together."

Well… if they insist so much.

I held Rayna"s hand as we all walked into the estate and noticed that the interior was renovated. I guess the place was damaged enough for this to happen.

Rayna: "See, the entire first floor is wide open."

The walls in here were taken out and now there are decorated columns where they once stood.

Steven: "They tore down the walls."

Madelyn: "I think it was to let more light in."

Rayna: "It"s very well lit without any lights. We could set up a dining and lounge in here and still have plenty of s.p.a.ce and light."

Curious, I walked into the kitchen to see if the secret door was still there and when I pressed on the wall and heard it click, everyone came to see the door open slowly.

Rayna: "Good eye, how"d you spot that?"

Steven: "Livia was the one that found it before."

Madelyn: "Wow, she has amazing eyes."

Rayna: "Do you know what"s inside?"

Steven: "We were both too scared to go inside at the time."

Rayna took the first step down and we followed right behind her. It was pitch dark until Candlelight was cast letting us see the short flight of stairs and the hidden bas.e.m.e.nt room.

It was an empty, freezing cold storage area. Since it"s in the kitchen, I could imagine this was where food would be stored, but why was the door so hidden?

Rayna: "It"s a root cellar! And extremely cold!"

Madelyn: "Ooh~ let"s get out of here!"

Something we all agreed with.

Madelyn: "I guess there really was nothing to worry about."

Rayna: "Yeah, let"s go upstairs."

We continued our tour to the second floor where all the bedrooms were located. The rooms were redecorated to be uniform. The gold trims and unique walls were now off-white.

Madelyn: "Oh, there"s some room in here. The paint looks fresh too."

Steven: "Each room was different."

Rayna: "I guess they made it uniform to let future residents add their own touch to it."

And at the end of the hallway was the master suite through a set of double doors. The biggest of the rooms, it may as well be split into 2 as it is that big.

Madelyn: "Who would get this room?"

Rayna: "Whoever puts the most money into buying this place."

Madelyn: "That would be you."

Rayna: "Oh yeah? I guess that"s settled."

I sighed in relief.

This place really isn"t as bad as I remembered it but I can"t shake the memories of what happened here. As long as these memories linger I don"t want to be here, let alone live here.

Steven: "Well…"

Lilith: "Well…"

Madelyn: "So, what do you think? 7 bedrooms are more than enough for us to each have our own room."

Steven: "Me, Kanna, Yuuna, Joan… Young Mi, Dai-tai, Niroja… Lilith, Rayna, Madelyn…That"s 10 of us. We"re a few rooms short."

Madelyn: "You could share a room with Kanna. That makes 9 rooms minimum."

Rayna: "If we put Dai-tai and Niroja together, it makes 8. And if someone shares a room with Joan, it"ll be 7."

Lilith: "Joan should get a room to herself. I already said I wasn"t planning on living in Everhand."

Steven: "That"d be what I"d try to do, but…"

Madelyn: "Joan is afraid of sleeping by herself. That"s one of the reasons why she shares a room with Steven."

Steven: "…Yeah."

Lilith: "Oh."

Rayna: " Alright, what does everyone think? Can we actually move here?"

Steven: "No—"

Madelyn: "I don"t mind, but I think Yuuna might be reluctant to move. She looks pretty attached to her shop."

I got cut off!

At least give me some time to think before we make a decision!

Rayna: "We might convince her with the ma.s.sive garden in the backyard. A place like that will woo any Alchemist."

Madelyn: "That"s a good idea. Her and Young Mi could make a beautiful garden back there. There"s plenty of s.p.a.ce to expand as well."

This is going to keep going until they get called out on it…

Steven: "Guys, I"m seriously feeling like my emotions are being downplayed just because you both want to live in a mansion."

Madelyn: "Steven… It"s not like that!"

Steven: "Then what"s it like? Because that"s how it feels."

Lilith: "I"m with Steven on this. It"s like there"s a wall that keeps our problems from reaching you."

Rayna: "…"

Both Madelyn and Rayna looked at each other before lowering their heads and looking at their feet.

Madelyn: "I"m sorry, Steven, Lilith."

Rayna: "Well, I"m only learning how this place affects you, but this place is my first choice because it takes everything into account for everyone"s schedule and routines."

Steven: "And I appreciate the work you"ve done, but I seriously can"t see myself living here soon without hating myself."

Rayna: "We can build good memories here that"ll outweigh the bad ones."

Steven: "…you"re doing it again…"

Madelyn: "Okay, pause! We"re not going to get anywhere if we start arguing. If you"re serious about this, I say give Steven and Lilith the time they need to talk to each other and think. It won"t be the end of the world if they say no, that"s why you have your second option, right Rayna?"

Rayna: "Yes."

Madelyn: "Good, then I believe we should at least give them a week to come to a decision."

This group is lucky to have someone as rational as Madelyn.

Steven: "Thank you…"