Book 2} Chapter 16
The Secret Room and William Minerva, Part 1
秘密の部屋とウィリアム・ミネルバ パート1
"The house has a secret room?" I asked uneasily.
"Yeah. And it's located here," Emma said, circling a spot on the map next to Mom's bedroom.
"Next to Mom's bedroom. Mom's bedroom… has the bathroom and washroom next to it… And next to that is Mom's office. But this probably isn't a wall," Emma said.
“I noticed that every time Mom disappears… She always goes into her office or the washroom,” Gilda added.
“And so I measured the distance of the inside and hallway side of the room,” Emma said after her.
“And?” I asked, Don leaning forward as he also wanted to know.
“They didn’t match. There’s about ten steps’ worth of space. One side is a wall and the other side is covered in bookshelves. But I think there are hidden doors on both sides. And beyond that, a secret room,” Emma replied.
“But what for?” Don asked her.
“Probably…” Emma paused.
“For regular check-ins,” Ray continued. “Mom checks in with the headquarters everyday. The room is most likely for that.”
I thought about it, my head on his shoulder in thought.
{ That’s probably it! }
“Headquarters?” Don said with confusion.
“The base that supplies babies and sister to the house,” Norman said clearly which made a shiver run down my spine.
“Ray, did you know? That there was a room here?” I asked him, lifting my head from his shoulder as I looked at the map.
"Nope. Although I suspected that there must be a room like that somewhere," he replied. I nodded and set my head on his shoulder again.
"Let's try to get in. There must be a way to communicate with the outside… and there might be a clue. To where Conny and the others were sent," Don said confidently.
I felt my heart sank. Conny was dead. It took me forever to actually believe it… but if I told Don…
"But what about the key? If it's a room that Mom keeps secret, then it's probably locked," Gilda cut in.
"Norman, Y/n, can you open it?" Emma asked us.
"D-Depends," I stuttered, not liking that I was suddenly in the spotlight as everyone turned to me.
"Yeah, it depends on what kind of lock," Norman said for me.
"Hold on. There's no advantage in doing all that. The communication device is most likely only connected to the headquarters. And Mom doesn't know where our siblings were sent. There won't be any records or clues. On the other hand, our tracking devices could give away our snooping. And we don't know what kind of security the room had. It's too dangerous," Ray explained.
"But…!" Don said.
"I'm saying that the risk is overwhelmingly outweighs the benefits. It's great that we know where it is. But there's no need to overextend ourselves at this point," Ray told him, more like us.
"You're right," Norman and I said in unison.
"I see," Emma said.
"Instead, we should be focused on something else," Ray said. I nodded and stood up straight, sitting on the small cabinet beside us.
"For now, we have to be really wary of Sister Krone," Norman said.
"Right," I muttered.
"Don't dig your grave with a foolish move," he continued.
"Exactly. We're doomed if Mom or even Sister Krone finds out about this. So make sure you keep that in mind before you act," Ray said.
"Don't worry… it'll be fine. We just have to act normal and all will be fine," I told them with a forced smile.
Don was gritting his teeth. He didn't like this.
"I'm going to prepare dinner," he said, leaving.
"We'll join you later," Emma said.
Gilda and Don left, making the door thump as they left.
"So…" I said as there was a silence among us after they left.
Emma turned to us and stuck out her pointer fi her, "The issue we need to investigate now is…"
We all copied her move.
"Outside," we said in unison.
"You know most of what we need to about the inside, due to my six years of probing," Ray said, sitting next to me.
{ Yes. The training is going well. We can attack Sister Krone from behind. The tracking devices can be broken. We have more allies. What's left is… }
"If we outmaneuver the adults here with our intel… we can clear the wall for sure," Ray continued as I thought.
"But that isn't enough. We have to think beyond the wall," he finished.
"Next is checking out the escape route," I said, relaxing on the bed.
"The escape has three steps. First, scaling the wall. Second, running away to safety. Third, becoming self-reliant. We need to establish a stable way of surviving. Currently we have the prospects to pass the first step. Now, the second step. We need to focus on the outside," Norman said.
"Evading the pursuers and getting far away from the farm safely we need to examine and prepare for that. First, we need to get information about the area surrounding the farm. The escape route. And how to secure food. For example, is this farm in a forest or a desert? Depending on that, what we take outside might change," Ray told us.
I nodded, putting my hand on my chin in thought.
Emma raised her hand, "Oh! I don't think it's a desert. When I climbed up a tree, I saw a forest beyond the wall," Emma told him.
Ray bonked Emma's head with some binoculars.
"But we need to make sure of these things," he told her. I looked at them in awe as did Emma. She took it into her hands.
"One of the rewards I got for working as a sheepdog," he said.
"Climb the wall and look outside. If we're going to do something reckless in secret, it needs to be this," Ray says, getting back in his spot.
I nodded in agreement.
"Let's go back to the wall! We should look into it as soon as we can. Starting tomorrow," I said, unsure but saying it confidently.
"Okay!" Emma agreed which made me sigh in relief.
"Hey, can I talk about something else regarding what to do once we're outside? I have someone I want to introduce!" Emma exclaimed.
I started at her, dumbfounded.
Time Skip
We followed Emma into the library. I looked around as she told us to wait there.
She plopped several books on the table. She took one and flipped the pages. Once she got to the end, she stopped and pointed at an owl.
"This person!"
I looked closer. "William Minerva?" I said. I liked his last name. Goddess Athena's Roman name. And there was an owl to symbolize her!
"Who's he?" I asked Emma.
"I don't know! All we know is that he's the previous owner of these books. Where is he? Who is he? Is he still alive? We don't know any of this… but he could be someone who's on our side!" Emma said excitedly.
"What do you mean?" Norman asked.
"He's been hiding a message in the books. And not in just one book. Many of them. This Mr. Minerva will be the key to surviving the outside, beyond the wall," she said.
I looked at the owl and tried to see something more to it.
"We can't just run away. We need to find… a way for us to survive in this world," Emma said with a smile.
I felt someone hold my hand as Norman and I said, "Yeah."
I smiled and turned to the person, who was Norman himself. My heart skipped a beat faster but I kept smiling.
{ Let's escape. Let's live. All of us. No matter how the world is outside. It'll be fine. Don and Gilda are doing well. We have eight days until we execute the plan. As long as everything goes smoothly… }
Sooo, just to add some fluff moments...
Here's some Emma x Y/n moments
"Emma!" I called out as I ran over to her. I hid behind her and buried my face his her shoulder.
"Y/n? What's wrong?" She asked.
"Ray!" I told her as Ray walked over to us and put a hand on my shoulder.
"Y/n, it's alright. There's no snakes in the house," he says with an eye roll.
Emma stepped in between us.
"Rayyyy, don't say stuff like that," she tells him as I hold onto her.
"It was just a joke," he says, probably rolling his eyes as he leaves.
"Thank you, Emma," I told her with an accomplished smile.
"I didn't do anything," she said, dumbfounded.
"But he's gone! I don't gotta worry 'bout snakes," I say with a smile.
She chuckled with a smile.
"Ray is the only snake we'll get around here," she joked. I continued to laugh.
Moment 2
I closed my eyes as I drifted to sleep on the soft mattress.
Gilda, Emma, and I had a 'sleepover' so we were all huddled onto Emma's bed.
Emma had read us a story to sleep. Then she fell asleep after us.
When we woke up, we were still huddled together.
I was cuddled up to Emma while Gilda was cuddled up to me.
"Sleepover success!" Emma exclaimed.
I let out a yawn and nodded to her.
She grabbed both of us and gave us a hug.
"Let's go get breakfast!"
Moment 3
"Emma, are we friends?" I asked her as I was about to tag her.
"Yup! Of course," she said with a smile.
"Best friends?"
"Yup!"
"Then I'm sorry," I told her as I tagged her, getting her out.
She groaned in frustration.
"You got me good!" She muttered.
We had played a tag with an unknown tagger.
I chuckled and was about to head to my next victim before Emma gave me a hug.
"Best friends," she said simply.
"Best friends," I agreed, hugging back.
11/7/19
Word Count- 1679