The Land of LD

Chapter 41-Sorry, our clown is dead

--Meanwhile...

Emily had asked for several hints to Kyle, and she had somehow solved puzzles one by one.
So she ended up opening a brown box, and using a color hint from that box to solve a next lock, and then to find a next code to help her find a right code through tableware holders with erased numbers on that, and then to find a key for the small trapdoor in that room.
When she opened a trapdoor and somehow entered through, she found herself in a narrow maze painted red all over, excluding black numbers and trump symbols written on wall.
First puzzle was about a statue of flamingo with a locked box next to it, and the puzzle was something about Heart Queen turning Heart Jack's heart into stone.
This time, she didn't need to ask for hint to Kyle, for she could easily solve "heart" as Trump heart(♥), and "stone" as Trump diamond(♦).
So she found a code through numbers written on wall right next to exact Trump symbols, and she found another hint from the box.
"There...."
there was a card with a drawing of Trump soldier, with spade, clover and heart drawn on soldier's front in a vertical line, but only question mark on soldier's face part.

Just then,

'POP!'

"Woah!! Kyle!!"
In front of surprised and panicked Emily, a flamingo statue suddenly disappeared, and a skull was in a place where a statue used to be.
"....Eh..?"
In confusion, Emily reached out and touched a skull.
It felt cold, and hard.
And slightly dusty on the surface.
Realizing that it's an actual skull, Emily exclaimed and quickly left that place after gathering her things up.

At the place where she arrived next, she saw the wall full of drawings of trump soldiers, with various trump symbols as faces, and some with holes on their heads, and some with no holes.
And different numbers were written on each soldiers' front, although they were mostly from 0 to 2.
When she turned around, she could see a drawer with locks on all three drawers, and another trapdoor was on the wall between drawer and a wall full of soldier drawings.
With queer alphabet letters written on top of that trapdoor.
Emily turned to face the next puzzle, then she asked for hint to Kyle this time again.

"Hello, Kyle?
I need a hint about opening a drawer..."
".........soldier card and wall soldiers' faces...."
"Thank you..."
Now used to having only brief conversations for a hint, Emily comprehended the code by numbers written on soldiers with holes on their faces with same trump symbols as the drawing of soldier on her card, and she managed to open the first lock of the drawer.
And inside the drawer, was the magnet chess pawn.
"...?"
Emily looked around to find a way how to use this, but then she found it right away.
There was a toy maze with key stuck in it...and Emily used the magnet pawn to drag the key out of the toy maze.
Then she opened a next drawer, to find another queer card with button on it.
"....?"
On a card, a heart Queen was drawn on it.
Emily pressed a button, and suddenly Queen's eyeballs began to move around.
"Eh?!"
Emily dropped a card onto floor in panic, but she managed to pick it up again, and then stared at the movement of Queen's eyeballs.
Like a brief video, after certain moments, Queen's eyeballs would stop to move and return to the place where it was.
Then Emily checked the last lock, realizing that lock had to be opened by moving buttons in certain directions in order.
So she wrote the way Queen's eyeballs moved onto the notepad, then tried to open it as her eyeballs had moved.
The third drawer finally opened, and then there was another card in it.
There was a letter written in it, with drawing of Red Queen again.
"..............??"
It was saying, 'queeN'.
"?????"
Emily looked at the trapdoor with no doorknob, for her eyes to head back to the letter 'Queen' written on top of that door once again.
"..........."
It was hard to understand at first, but then it was pretty obvious.
She touched the letter 'N' from the word 'Queen', only to wonder how should she open this door.
".................."

- - - 🌹 - - -

"...How can we trust you....?"
Kyle was saying to the clown.
"Ohoho~? what's that supposed to mean, cowboy boy?♪"
"I mean, you're our enemies, your purpose is only to destroy me and my sister, and our friends as well! what is your purpose of playing this game with us?!💢"
"Aww, don't be mad~
you see? I'm not the only one, you know...
Some of us are really bored here, being stuck here over decades or hundreds~
So it's sometimes funny to play with intruders or preys who comes in here for treasure, who were reckless and naive enough to go through that dead girl~♪"
"Dead....girl...?"
"Oh why yes~ have you not seen her~?
Our white queen with pretty violet eyes~♪"
"White...queen..? don't you mean Agatha..?"
"Oh ho~ so you know her~"
".....!!"
"Ah~don't be like that~
Well, she's our white queen, since she always gets in red queen's way and always be like, 'I want to protect everyone!' but always fails to do that, and even gets forgotten by everyone~♪
you know, after all, the one who always gets remembered was Red Queen, rather than that boring old white queen~"
". . . . . . . . . . . . ."
"That's why~ so scared to tell anyone who really killed her, so ends up killing them herself-"
"Shut up!"
Kyle shot his gun at clown, and his light bullet pierced through one of his balls which he was juggling with, letting out glitter powders onto the floor.
"...........!!!"
"Tsk, tsk~"
Clown glided over to Kyle.
"What is that, cowboy boy~?"
Clown's stringy arm extended around to point at his own head, then at chest.
"You should have shot here, or here, don't you know?"
"............!!........!;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;"
"Ah, right~
...YOU NEVER ACTUALLY MANAGED TO KILL ANYONE IN YOUR LIFE, NO?"
".......!!"
With clown's laughter only being heard, Kyle fell on his knees.

- - - 🌹 - - -

Emily was about to ask a hint again, whether about how to open the door with card.
"..................💦"
Just then, someone snatched a card from her hand.
"?!"
Emily turned her head, to find a young man dressed in vivid clothes staring at the card with brilliant green eyes.
"Eh? wha-who?"
"............"
A young man glanced at Emily once, but then pressed a card hard onto the alphabet 'N' above the door.
"........."
"...?"
Then young man kicked a door open, revealing another small and white room inside.
"......!
Oh.....thank you-"
But, when Emily turned to face the man, there was no one standing there.
"...?
?
??"
Emily looked around in confusion, but she realized once again that she has no much time left.
If 1 hour passes, both herself and Kyle would get...
No, don't think about failure.
Just think about how to go forward....
Emily entered a white room, this time with less decoration or hint as ever.
This time, there was another number coded lock on this white door, with sentence written on the wall in huge black letters....

'Sorry, White Queen is dead.'