房客(糙汉)何璐程曜坤

"We will get in so much trouble if you will get caught on snooping around the Efemare\'s mansion..."

Rokiana breathed out and worried while watching Zoemi peek through the crack in the door.

"No. We will get in trouble. My son and I, you, young lady Perserios, will simply have to push the blame onto us. I am willing to rough up a few guards to show them that there was nothing you could do about me."

"Eeehhhh...?!

Mizoe shook his head and cleared out – but for some reason, despite having the best of intentions, he made the teenager let out a shocked and disappointed voice before pouting.

"We\'ve traveled together and neither of you seems to be wary of me or anything...! I would even say that we are quite a good match! Why are you suddenly acting as if I\'m not a part of this group?!"

The blue-haired girl complained, scowling at the light-blue-haired man.

"Because you a..."

"I\'m going. Dad, girls remember stuff you tell them, so maybe just explain the reasoning behind your words instead of just being stubborn. Lady Rokiana, on the other hand, you should think about what my father has told you – the answer to your question is in there if you think about it without getting defensive."

Mizoe opened his mouth to drive his point in, but Zoemi interrupted him mid-sentence while opening the door wide enough so just him could pass.

"See you later."

The black-haired boy added, not waiting for the response, and left the room, closing the door behind him and stealthing his way down the hallway.

The Eemare\'s mansion was big for the commoner standards, but it could not compare to the Benemor mansion in the slightest.

Zoemi was moving around, pleased that the actual interior matched the one he pieced together in his mind after listening in to the daily noises of the building\'s inhabitants.

After going through two flights of stairs and a couple of doors, and having a few close encounters with the tardiest servants who were barely finishing up their tasks, the black-haired child arrived at his destination.

A wine cellar where the ruby liquid was resting in large barrels, waiting for the right occasion to be drunk.

Not all barrels were full, some were waiting to be refilled – still, one of them would never fulfill that purpose.

Why?

Because it was actually a secret door to a hidden room.

|I heard the faucet\'s squeak, but what exactly was done to it...?|

Zoemi wondered playing around with the part, testing the possible movements it was capable of.

He certainly didn\'t want to touse the law of Taurus and break it apart, that would cause his actions to be discovered way sooner than he hoped for.

It took him a while, but after fidgeting with the part for a few excruciatingly long minutes, the blakc-ahired boy discovered that after opening the fucet at the three-quarters of its capacity, the entire part could be twisted counterclockwise.

*click*

As he was exploring that movement, a metallic sound – exactly like the ones he heard while listening in – announced his patience has paid off.

The barrel opened up on the perfectly hidden hinges and revealed another – much sturdier – door.

Zoemi\'s sense of hearing didn\'t betray him this time either.

The black-haired boy was sure that there was no key necessary for gaining access to the hidden room, and he was correct – the only thing separating him from whatever was hidden in there was a heavy slab of metal.

"Law of Aries. Law of Taurus."

Zoemi muttered and despite being a seven-year-old child, he easily moved the piece of metal that required two adult servants of the Efemare family to remove.

"Huh... I wonder..."

Zoemi muttered, taking a step back and taking a magic stone lamp from the wine cellar with him before opening the door and stepping inside the secret chamber.

In the previous timeline, he never actually met Roiso – not in the actual physical sense, that is.

He was only talking to her through the proxy of Mirienne\'s body.

...Mirienne the mage from the previous timeline, not Mirienne the demon lord who showed up in a pearly portal in the current one...

If things were to be the same – and they seemed to be that way – Roiso should be a darkness magician whom the Efemare family was deeply ashamed of.

So deeply, in fact, that in the previous timeline they ended up selling her off as an ingredient.

Not even a debt slave or human collateral like it was with Mirienne.

A mere thing.

Anyway, since Roiso should be able to see in the darkness as clearly as during the day, the black-haired boy couldn\'t help but to have a look at her too.

That\'s why...

*creaaak*

The heavy door let out a moan just like they were supposed to and the black-haired boy stepped in, carrying the lamp in the front to illuminate the chamber.

"...!"

...he wavered taken aback.

The room was basically empty if not for a single chair.

Of course, the chair was taken – but the girl around the age of Zoemi, who was tied up to it while wearing cheap-looking clothes didn\'t have black hair as darkness and shadow magicians should.

Her hair and eyes were both neon pink.

The color of the poison attribute... no... the color of the Roiso attribute!

That certainly wasn\'t right! Back then, Mirienne only received the attribute after she and Roiso got experimented on – for the current Roiso to simply wield the extremely corrosive attribute was just...

"... outrageous..."

Zoemi gasped, stepping in further and approaching the neon-pink-haired girl.

Despite the late hour, she was still awake – or maybe she just woke up because of the noises Zoemi made while getting to her.

Her face was...

Pretty, but in a common way. A cute kid with a slightly unusual hair color.

But that wasn\'t all, unfortunately...

The bonds tying her to the chair were also neon pink, and it made the boy realize that they were literally made of the girl\'s hair – the unevenly cut hair of hers was also confirming it.

But by far the most disturbing part of it all was that...

Roiso\'s mouth was sewn shut with her own hair too.

That\'s right.

Sewn shut.

Someone actually took a needle, attached the little girl\'s hair to it, and then pierced her lips repeatedly to stop her from opening them.

What kind of cruelty and degeneracy was that?

"Do you know who I am?"

No matter how shaken he was, Zoemi didn\'t rush into things and asked, raising his hand with the magic stone lamp to illuminate his face properly.

Since Roiso attribute was the same as it was in the previous timeline already after meeting him, there was a big chance that her memories were intact too.

It would definitely make things a lot easier.

"...nn-nn..."

But to Zoemi\'s shock and disappointment, the neon-pink-haired girl merely shook her head from side to side and let out as much of a noise as she could just through her nose.

"My name is Zoemi Benevei Banemor... doesn\'t that ring a bell?"

"...? Nn-nn..."

Zoemi introduced himself and asked, but the neon-pink girl only raised one of her brows in confusion before letting out the same sound of denial.

That was... problematic...

but not to the point where the black-haired boy\'s plans would have changed.

"Do you want me to get you away from here?"

"Mm-hmm!"

Zoemi barely managed to utter the question and the neon-pink-haired girl perked up and nodded her head vigorously while nodding her head as fast as she could.