The next day, when the sky finally became dark, Tsuyoi and Pablo came out of the trees.
"It's weird." Pablo points out as he cleans the dirt on him.
"What's weird?" Tsuyoi does the same, looking at Pablo. Because he is shirtless, bugs have bitten into his skin. He quickly brushes them off.
"I haven't seen Artz anywhere. We've been scouting for days. No sign of him inside or outside. Isn't that weird?" Pablo looks at Tsuyoi, he helps him remove the bugs on his back, where Tsuyoi can't reach.
"Now that you've pointed it out… that is weird. What do we know about that guy anyway?" Tsuyoi is now fully clean. He brushes his hands together.
"That he got arrested for human trafficking in 492 but somehow got out in a day?" Pablo raises an eyebrow.
"No, not that." Tsuyoi puts on his mask to conceal his identity, he is still insisting on not wearing something to cover his upper body.
Tsuyoi takes a good look at the house before handing Pablo his gear.
"Ever since you pointed out how weird everything about this house is, I can't help but think maybe this guy is weirder than we thought."
Pablo wears his mask and dark robe, he takes a look at Room 15 again to make sure no one is in; just one last time.
"We're good to go." Pablo gets on Tsuyoi's back. He then takes out the thermometer from his pocket. He notices the air has grown just a bit colder, precisely 1 Degrees Celcius.
"That's the signal." Tsuyoi notices and activates his treasure. Blue wings made of fire emerge from his back and Tsuyoi takes flight.
"Hold on tight!" Tsuyoi flies through the open window, Pablo barely holds on as the two crash in.
Somehow and somewhy, the entrance wasn't that loud.
"Alright… let's check if he has anything here." Tsuyoi checks the drawers for anything valuable, he just finds a golden tooth brush.
"Yoink. Give me that shit." He pockets it, then looks at Pablo.
"Room 14 now, yeah?" He asks.
Pablo checks the layout again, and nods.
"Yep. Follow if you're done."
Pablo opens the door and what he sees shocks him. He freezes.
Tsuyoi raises an eyebrow and asks.
"What's the matter?"
"This is another bathroom." Pablo mutters. Not believing what he just saw, he checks the map.
"I thought Room 14 was the guest room. Why does a bathroom connect to another bathroom?" Pablo looks at Tsuyoi.
Tsuyoi loses his cool a little.
"I don't know man! It was a guest room the last time I checked!"
"Oh right, the house changed rooms." Pablo rolls his eyes and looks around.
"Weird. It's a bathroom connected to a bathroom. But this only has 1 door. So we can't get out of here? We gotta try another room."
Tsuyoi checks out the room, touching everything.
"This house is fuckin' trippy dawg."
When he touches the mirror, he realises it's loose.
"Why would a mirror..?"
He tries to grab the mirror, but it opens like a hatch. Leading to another room.
Pablo immediately looks at what Tsuyoi just opened.
"I guess there is another exit."
The two enter the tunnel behind the mirror and crawl through. Due to the dust, Pablo starts coughing violently.
Tsuyoi also coughs, but is less violent.
"What the hell is Kori doing right now?"
Pablo keeps crawling forward.
"I told her to hide until we confront Arzt."
Suddenly, Pablo feels a hand on his butt.
"Dude, knock it off."
"What are you talking about?" Tsuyoi is confused, he keeps crawling behind Pablo.
Pablo feels a hand again. He gets angry and looks back.
"I said knock it off. That's not cool!"
"I'm not even doing anything!" Tsuyoi shouts.
"Whatever, just be quiet and stop touching me. Should've known when you said 'not interested' to Kori trying to seduce us." Pablo tries to ignore Tsuyoi and keeps going.
"Shut up." Tsuyoi spits back, also trying to ignore Pablo's claims.
When they reach the end of the tunnel, they find themselves in room 4. When Pablo gets his head out, he realises that this tunnel is under the dinner table. The room looks extremely fancy. Straight out of royalty. On the table, there are golden plates, golden forks and golden knives. The spoons are normal though. The room smells like new furniture and a mix of wood. Nothing else interesting.
But more importantly…
"Wait… how did we go downstairs if we just entered a linear tunnel?"
Tsuyoi also gets his head out, right next to Pablo.
"That's weird."
"Nice work on the map, genius." Pablo sighs, and gets out.
"Thanks! Actually, Haisha helped me with the coloring." Tsuyoi smiles and gets out with him.
"So. We're in Room 4." Pablo pulls out the map and points to Tsuyoi.
Tsuyoi looks at the map while putting the golden items into his bag.
"Isn't that good, since we can just move to room 5 now?"
Pablo puts the map in his pockets.
"No. We can't trust your map anymore. Something fishy is going on and I'm going to figure out what that is."
Pablo walks around discreetly, Tsuyoi just follows casually.
"And how do you plan on doing that?"
Pablo stops upon hearing that and just turns to Tsuyoi.
"I'll figure that out too."
Tsuyoi is even more confused.
"What? I didn't even say anything."
Pablo raises an eyebrow. He turns back and keeps walking.
"You- ugh, i can't deal with you right now."
Tsuyoi grins upon hearing this.
"...you know, Pablo. You remind me of my brother Oleg."
Pablo doesn't respond at first. Then curiosity gets the better of him.
"How so?"
Tsuyoi follows him, the room grows quiet as their voices echo.
"You're like him. You don't hold back what's on your mind, do you? Whenever I did something stupid, he'd be there to roast my ass."
Pablo subtly smiles.
"If I did that every time you did something stupid, I'd lose my voice."
Tsuyoi upon hearing this, laughs.
"Exactly like that!"
After that, Tsuyoi's smile drops a little.
"Let's just hope the similarities stop there."
Pablo doesn't ask further, and just makes a 'hm' sound in agreement.
They leave through the left-side door of Room 4. This time, the map seems correct.
"Huh, finally."
Pablo looks around to see if Arzt is around. No sign of him except for the steam coming out from Room 7, bathroom.
"So he is here. Or he recently left after taking a shower."
Tsuyoi nods.
"Great observation. But if he is here, where the hell is he?"
Pablo moves through the left-side door of Room 1. He checks the map and realises they entered Room 3.
"Again. What's up with this map?" Pablo asks.
In the study room, Pablo looks around for anything interesting.
Tsuyoi also helps him search.
"This is your stuff, yeah? I'm sure you'll find something useful."
Pablo scrolls through basically everything, but no use.
"I doubt he'd leave something extremely classified in this library."
After more looking around, he hears one of the books talk.
"It's those sounds again!" He thinks to himself, and looks for the sound.
Eventually, he finds a dusty book. The book is massive and looks very old.
He picks it up and inspects it. The book is titled "The Poison of Power."
"Interesting." He opens the book to read it, but it's in a language he doesn't understand. He frowns and gives it to Tsuyoi.
"Do you know that language?" He asks.
Tsuyoi looks around the book.
"Dude, I don't even know how to read. But I can count to 15."
Pablo sighs, his shoulders slump.
"Is that why you named one of the rooms XXX? Because you didn't know what was past 15?"
"Shut up." He almost throws the book at Pablo.
After he shakes the book even more, Tsuyoi finds something interesting. A 6 digit number.
"Wait, is this it?" He takes a look at it.
"What is?" Pablo is intrigued and looks at the book.
"The code for the locked room." Tsuyoi puts the book in the bag.
Pablo inspects the number.
"Looks like it. But can't we just enter the open path through this door?"
He points at the door that leads up to the locked room. Pablo hesitates because the map is shown to be unreliable.
"I'll go in first, I'll tell you if it's safe to come." Tsuyoi says as he opens the door but not fully. He takes a look inside. Pablo can't see the interior from where he is at.
"Alright. Let's check out this kitchen. Wait for my signal." Tsuyoi goes in and closes the door behind him.
While waiting Tsuyoi's signal, Pablo is bored and starts to look around the room for anything he might've missed.
Under one of the chairs, he finds underwear. Before picking it up, he changes his mind and grabs a broom next to him to pick it up using the broom's handle.
"That's unusual."
Pablo notices the underwear looks like something a woman would wear.
"It's too small though. Maybe a daughter? Why is it here then?"
Horrible implications fill Pablo's mind as he gives up on investigating.
"That's not why I'm here. That's none of my concern."
Even saying that feels wrong. But he'd rather feel comfortable than find out the unsettling truth.
Even more time passes, with no signal from Tsuyoi. Pablo grows suspicious and slowly opens the door, worried that something got Tsuyoi.
"You there?" He shouts inside the room while opening it.
As he opens it, steam comes out. He notices from the golden toilet that this is Room 7.
"Where are you dude?" Pablo looks around the bathroom, checks the mirrors for any other tunnels.
Tsuyoi was nowhere to be found.
"...this is not good."
As confusion grows, Pablo tries to think of something. Anything.
If Tsuyoi entered the tunnel or went somewhere, anywhere, he'd tell Pablo, right?
Right?
Just how much he knows about Tsuyoi anyway?
"No, this can't be. Can it?" Pablo thinks even more. Pulling the puzzle pieces together. The confusing rooms… tunnels…
It's like he is missing a piece.
Suddenly, he remembers what Tsuyoi said before going in.
"Alright. Let's check out this kitchen. Wait for my signal."
Pablo's eyes widen.
"...I understand." Pablo realises what's going on, the final piece.
"It can't be the rooms switching. Room 7 and 5 can't switch places because it would crash against other rooms due to the size difference. This means… the doors of this house can be connected to other doors."
Finally understanding it, an anxious smile grows on Pablo's face.
"Arzt may be here.. He is intentionally separating me and Tsuyoi. Is this his treasure? How do I even prove this isn't random? What can I even do without Tsuyoi?!" Countless thoughts run through Pablo's mind as he panics.
Pablo turns to face the mirror. Seeing his own face. He looks at it for a good amount of time.
His purple eyes glow off the mirror. Reminding him how little time he has left.
"...What can I even do?"
Pablo feels something in his throat, and holds it back. He looks at the floor.
"Tsuyoi can do just fine without me."
"He doesn't need me, right?" Pablo gulps.
Pablo clenches his fists. The idea of Tsuyoi doing just fine without Pablo is...
very scary for him, to say the least.
"Like i'll allow that!"
Pablo gets an idea.
He suddenly turns around and charges at the door for a surprise attack.
Upon entering the door, the smile on Pablo's face grows even more. He baited Arzt to make a move.
"Knew he'd react to that. He is here. He didn't want me in Room 3 for some reason."
"What does that mean?" He inspects his surroundings.
He realised the door led up to Room 13. The room was filled with dusty weights and training equipment.
"Room 13 is the furthest to room 3 because 15 sends you to 12, which can send you to 4."
"...he didn't want me in room 3." Pablo's eyes widened as he repeated.
"This isn't stealth anymore, is it?" An unknown determination arose within Pablo, from a source he didn't understand yet.
"I'll beat Arzt myself. And then I'll find a cure."