Alice misA--白色城堡桌

Chapter 10, Five Dust Escape Room★Part 9

Part 9. Open Your Heart

Only ten minutes had passed since they entered the topsy-turvy house, but it had left everyone mentally drained. Amisa had placed Mochi on her shoulder, and the three of them sat on the couch in silence for a while. No one blamed each other for getting stuck; they all understood that without great courage, those three doors couldn't be easily opened.

"This level is quite a prank... Hahaha..." Toto broke the silence with a half-joking, weak tone.

"...It's not just a prank, it's intentional murder. What's with the 'scented key,' where's the scent..." Jasky complained discontentedly.

Looking at Jasky 's still reddened face, Amisa felt guilty. After finding the right words, she asked, "Um, is your face still hurting?"

"What do you think?" Jasky furrowed his brows in response. Amisa quickly lowered her head again, gripping her skirt tightly: "I'm really sorry, I'm not usually like this... I don't know what came over me... why did I..."

"This matter can be discussed later...," Toto forced a smile, a weariness on his face that hadn't been seen before.

"Yeah, time is running short," Jasky pretended nothing was wrong and took out his notebook, but the pen accidentally fell to the ground.

Between the eyes—see to unlock the heart.

Between the ears—hear to unlock the sound.

Between the nose—scented key.

"I wrote down the room names and level descriptions in advance. The common point in all three levels is to escape the room within a time limit. This is very similar to the real-world game 'Escape Room.' Have you played it before?"

Toto responded, "I've gone to an amusement park with friends to experience it. They also have a topsy-turvy house there, but I'm not good at using my brain, so I end up being the tool for others, hahaha~~~"

"I've played mobile games, but they were just virtual games. None of them had rooms like these," Amisa recalled the classroom from earlier, shivering involuntarily.

Jasky surveyed the structure of the Toosb house around them. "Honestly, at first, I thought it was just simple riddles, but it seems more like it's asking us to explore something deeper."

"Oh, I just saw that the room names mentioned body parts, so I thought we had to use those specific body parts to pass each level, hahaha..." Toosb scratched his head embarrassedly.

"What do you mean by exploring something deeper?" Amisa slowly raised her head to look at Jasky.

"Like... the first level is about exploring things that seem invisible but exist, the second level is about hearing the hidden meaning behind negative criticism. I think the third level might be..."

"Finding... the tulip that blooms anew after bathing in the flames of trauma?" Amisa closed her eyes. She seemed to be grasping the purpose of this level, and she made up her mind, lifting her head and saying, "In the room I was in earlier, I saw my elementary school classroom. There were desks and chairs for different grade levels, and each one had a drawer filled with trash, the table covered in obscenities and curses... and they were all my former seats."

"Memories of bullying?" Toosb said when he spoke up, Jasky 's expression also taking on a shadow.

"It's kind of like that, but I probably deserved it. I used to be a child star who was always acting cute at school, perhaps arousing jealousy. Sometimes I'd find trash and threatening letters in my drawer, later, as my fame grew, I started looking down on everyone, even being arrogant with teachers. But then... due to a slip of the tongue, my acting career was ruined."