Chapter 172

It was a high-pitched, sharp voice.

Maybe because the memory of being completely wrecked by that attitude was still so vivid, I immediately recognized who it belonged to.

“Anna Winslet.”

“Brother?”

“Yeah, it’s me. Open the door.”

“Is it really you?”

Unsure of how to answer, I looked to the side.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Even at that very moment, the walls on either side of the corridor were clapping together like hands, narrowing the isolated area.

“Open up. It’s urgent.”

“Wait a second. This is weird. You said you went back to the capital…so why are you here?”

“I came back.”

“Hmm… This really feels like one of those scary stories. You know, the ones where someone opens the door because they hear a familiar voice, but it turns out to be a ghost impersonating them…”

Crash!

The closing walls were just two steps away now.

At times like this, the best way to prove your identity is to recall a shared memory.

“It’s only been a week since I said I was going back to the capital, and you were clinging to me, bawling your eyes out, begging me to come back soon. And now, here you are…clearly a ghost pretending to be my sister.”

“Wh-What! I wasn’t crying!”

Clack.

With that angry voice, the door’s lock disengaged.

The moment I heard that sound, I grabbed the handle and pulled, slipping through the opening.

Just before the wall could slam into me from behind.

Thud!

The wall crashed into the door.

But it couldn’t get past this point.

Inside the room was safe.

“What the…. It really is you?”

I turned around to see Anna Winslet standing with both hands raised above her head.

Naturally, in her hands was a bronze vase. Just the right size for smashing someone’s skull.

“Can we talk after you put down that deadly weapon?”

“Did you get captured too?”

“No. I came to rescue you.”

“…Really?”

Anna set the vase down and smiled softly.

“I thought I’d find you in tears or something. I’m glad you’re holding up.”

“I did all my crying on the first day I got locked up here. While scolding myself for being dumb enough to get caught wandering around without a hint of caution.”

“Do you know what’s going on right now?”

“Father’s been captured by that bastard.”

Anna’s expression darkened as she added,

“…He was trying to save me.”

“Joseph told me.”

“Joseph? Sir Joseph is still alive?”

“He’s the one who turned me around when I was on horseback heading back to the capital from Maronford.”

“The last time I saw him, he was horribly injured.”

“He was on the brink of death, but we managed to save him somehow.”

“Well done. Sir Joseph is practically family to us.”

After saying that, Anna glanced at me.

It was a subtle gesture, as if trying to gauge whether I still thought of them as family too.

“First, let’s get outside and regroup with Sir Joseph. He should be in the middle of rescuing the other hostages.”

“That mage bastard scattered us all over the place. Said if he kept us together, we might plot an escape.”

“Then it’ll take time to find everyone. Let’s move.”

Anna nodded and pointed to one side with her finger.

“Then let’s start by checking that room.”

“What’s in there?”

“The Winslet family’s mages. I saw the mage who took over the castle lead them through that door.”

It was a thick oak door, plain and undecorated.

When we opened it and stepped inside, we found a small meeting room.

And it was completely empty.

“…No one’s here.”

“What? But I clearly saw them go into this room.”

“Anna, what floor was the room you were imprisoned in?”

“The second-floor guest suite.”

“Joseph and I entered through the third-floor gallery of the keep.”

Since we hadn’t used any stairs afterward, Anna’s room should also have been on the third floor.

But if that wasn’t the case…

“…Then the castle’s structure has changed.”

The mage who took over the castle was manipulating the count’s keep as if it were his own body, using the secret magic of Venizelos.

If that was true, then altering the internal structure and room arrangements at will wouldn’t be too difficult.

Which meant… he placed an important hostage like Anna somewhere I could find her easily, on purpose?

I recalled the proposal he had made to me at the beginning.

He said that if I joined the Knowledge Liberation Front, he’d help me take over the Winslet County.

If I had accepted that offer, he might’ve killed Anna right in front of me.

Not that it was ever worth considering. After all, Winter Winslet had already left the family because of a terminal illness.

“Brother, look at this.”

Anna who had returned to the previous room called out to me.

She had opened the door I’d first entered the guest suite through and was peering beyond it.

It should’ve been blocked off by the wall that tried to crush me, or at the very least, led back to the third-floor gallery.

But now, a completely different room lay beyond it.

“How is this possible?”

“It’s like a maze.”

If he could alter the structure of the castle at will, then naturally, he could use that to hinder the hostages’ escape.

The fact that Anna hadn’t been tied up must’ve meant he had already taken precautions against her escaping.

“So, how do we get outside?”

“No magic.”

If I used magic, I could probably blast a new path open right now. But the moment I did, the hound of Venizelos would locate me.

If I were alone, maybe. But now that Anna was with me, combat had to be avoided.

Besides, I wanted to conserve my mana until I regrouped with Sir Joseph, especially after the toll of casting the Millennium Prison.

“For now, we have no choice but to keep moving.”

Nodding, I took the lead.

Our search for an exit started in the guest room where Anna had been held. It led us through a small breakfast room and on to a grand banquet hall, a basement storage room, an instrument vault, a sewing room and even a bathroom in no particular order.

Walking through this chaotic jumble of spaces with no logic or continuity felt like being inside a dream.

Anna, following behind, kept twitching her lips nervously. But perhaps thinking complaints wouldn’t help, she just sighed deeply and stayed silent.

How long had we walked like that?

This time, we really did stumble into a room that seemed like something out of a dream.

A circular space, lined along the perimeter with identical doors.

I counted them….thirty-two in total.

“We’re probably close to the exit now.”

“How do you know that?”

“I can feel magic in this room.”

Specifically, illusion-type magic.

“It’s a kind of maze barrier. Among these, one door will be the correct one.”

Saying that, I gestured at Anna with my chin.

“You want me to choose?”

“Yes.”

“And if I pick the wrong one?”

“Then we’ll be wandering around again.”

“Then this is important, isn’t it? Why are you making me do something like that? Are you just pushing the burden onto me because you don’t want to deal with it?”

“The best way to break a barrier like this is to find inconsistencies. You have to spot the unfamiliar within the familiar, and the familiar within the unfamiliar. Since you’ve spent more time in this castle than I have, you’re more likely to succeed.”

“Alright. I’ll give it a try.”

Anna, seriously chewing on her thumbnail, thought hard before finally pointing to the door at the eleven o’clock position.

“That one’s the right exit.”

“How do you know?”

“The shape of the door is different. I’ve never seen any of the other ones during my time living in this castle, but that one…I recognize it. It’s the door to a room I know.”

“I see. Then let’s go through it.”

Creeeak.

Unlike the doors we’d passed so far, this one let out an unpleasant sound.

The hinges were old and rusted.

Anna clicked her tongue.

“Tsk. I specifically told them to take special care of this area and look at it now. I’m going to have a word with the servant who was in charge.”

The room beyond was someone’s personal living space.

A luxurious bed with four tall posts, an elegant oak desk, and a worn rug came into view.

It was clean, but strangely desolate.

Probably because it lacked any trace of human presence.

Not metaphorically…literally. If someone had lived here, their scent would have naturally seeped into the space.

“This place is…”

“Remember? It’s big brother’s room. I haven’t touched it since ten years ago. I’ve had the dust cleaned occasionally, but that’s it.”

“I see.”

Anna Winslet looked at my face, as if expecting more of a reaction, but I had nothing to say. It was my first time seeing this place.

Is the exit that way?

I guessed randomly, but I was right.

When we stepped through the door, it led us into a corridor of the White Castle.

“The second floor.”

Anna said,

“Where’s Joseph?”

“I don’t know.”

Anna’s eyebrows twitched.

But seriously, how could I know?

Venizelos’s hound could twist the castle’s layout however it wanted, and Joseph and I had entered at different times.

All because I couldn’t run, thanks to Winter Winslet’s “trait”.

So it wouldn’t be surprising if we were on opposite sides of the castle by now.

I was trying to think of a way to signal Sir Joseph without using magic when a metallic sound came from around the corner of the hallway.

It didn’t sound like someone fighting. It was more like the faint noise you’d expect from marching soldiers.

Worried it might be a patrolling living armor, I reached out to stop Anna.

“Get back in the room.”

“What? We just got out!”

“I mean hide somewhere…anywhere.”

“Don’t leave me alone. I’m scared!”

She’s getting mad, but is she really scared?

“If I use magic, the enemy will know where I am and start attacking. You’ll get caught up in it too.”

So staying away from me is the safest option.

I tried explaining that, but Anna insisted.

“Can’t you just… handle it somehow?”

“……”

I gave her a speechless look, and Anna quickly added almost defensively,

“I just don’t want to be alone anymore.”

Her voice trembled slightly as she said it.

Come to think of it, no one could stay calm after being held hostage by a mage for a week.

Her mind must be completely worn down.

She had been locked up all alone, too without even anyone nearby.

I gave a reluctant nod.

The room we’d just exited was at the end of the second-floor corridor, and to escape, we’d have to pass the direction the sound had come from.

After warning Anna to be ready to run at any moment, I peeked around the corner to identify the source of the metallic noise.

And soon, both Anna and I let out a sigh of relief.

“Luck is on our side.”

“Young master! Young lady!”

What appeared was Sir Joseph and the soldiers following him.