Warning: mention of vomit
Castle instance world
Tian Xihua opened his eyes to a strange view.
There was a dark shadow to his left, one that obscured the faint moonlight coming from the narrow window on the wall. He could feel the cold floor against his back, and several layers of rough cloth wrapped around himself.
He resisted the urge to sneeze from the cold, as he listened for any noises around himself as he tapped along his clothes, only to find.. Fuck?
He froze as he heard the snoring nearby get louder. Someone turned to their other side next to him. He held his breath as he sat up slowly.
Thankfully, everyone else in the room seemed to be deeply asleep. He stood up slowly, and inched towards the small door at the end of the room.
He opened it slightly, and the door creaked loudly. He stopped his hand and stood frozen in the darkness, waiting for any possible reaction.
No one moved inside the room. He moved the door again, a lot slower this time. He slipped outside through the small opening, and almost stepped on a leg.
Tian Xihua, ‘……..!!’
He jumped over the lower half of the body lying in front of the door.
The lighting here was somewhat better. There was a torch right outside the door, and it illuminated the dark and narrow stone-corridor. A guard dressed in medieval western attire was snoring underneath it.
Tian Xihua tried his best to not make any sound as he hurried along the corridor, holding the hem of his skirt. He finally found an opening without any guards present, and leaned on the wall as he cursed the Bureau soundlessly.
He pulled his clothes tighter in the cold of the night, and felt something uncomfortably pressing against his chest. He reached inside the dress and found..
A small, handwritten book. The title of the book was written with beautiful calligraphy just to spell ‘the script’.
He looked around himself before walking over under the nearest torch. An unfathomable emotion appeared on his face as he read the first couple of pages.
He shut the book quickly, putting it back among the upper folds of his clothes, and walked towards the hall at the end of the passage.
Luckily, the script described the route he needed to take to the kitchen in extreme detail. Every guard he needed to sneak past was mentioned as well as dark corridors, stairways or halls he could take to have a better chance at arriving while staying undiscovered.
The castle itself wasn’t too big to begin with, but it had a web of small passages that were difficult to remember.
After pushing open the heavy door of the kitchen, what greeted him wasn’t the tranquility of the other halls and rooms of the castle.
The dim lighting in the chamber was achieved by the usage of the same kind of torches and candles he had seen all over the castle. There were five or even more candlesticks on the roughly crafted table in the middle of the room, and the embers in the hearth were glowing orange.
He wasn’t alone in the kitchen. There were people inside already, a young man and two women. The man seemed somewhat familiar.
They looked over as they heard the door open, and their conversation halted. Tian Xihua nodded to them in response, but none of them reacted. They stared at him until he coughed loudly, ‘Could we concentrate on the task at hand instead? All of us are here, right?’
One of the women, an old lady, came back to herself first. ‘Young man, I have to tell you that I have seen a lot of things in this life..’ She blinked. ‘But this, don’t you feel that it’s a bit too much?’
Tian Xihua gave her a smile that wasn’t a smile. ‘It wasn’t my decision, I think it’s a character setting.’ He urged the group, ‘Can we focus on what’s going on here?’
The man with a small goatee didn’t even try to hide his amusement. He laughed as he covered his mouth with the back of his hand until he calmed down enough to speak. ‘I.. No, we..’ He had to stop to laugh as he looked at Tian Xihua again.
He was dressed in clothes made of rough materials, and his attire was specifically that of a female servant. All of them were dressed as servants, but Tian Xihua was slightly different.
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
The man finally calmed down a bit. He pursed his lips as he tried to withhold his laughter, ‘He’s right, let’s… Let’s concentrate, on what’s really, important here.’ He had to stop several times as he said that, and only managed to finish his sentence after averting his gaze to a darker corner of the room.
Ktf rfmbcv ulgi kjr sbecufg, jgbecv rlzaffc sfjgr bo juf. Vtf vlvc’a tjnf atf gfragjlca bo atf batfg akb, jcv rtf vlgfmais jrxfv ktlif rafqqlcu mibrfg, ‘Cgf atbrf gfji?’
Vtf kjr gfofgglcu ab atf akb iewqr lcrlvf Kljc Wltej’r abq. Lf qegrfv tlr ilqr yfobgf rtjxlcu tlr tfjv ribkis. Qlat atf tfjvrmjgo tf tjv bc, tf ageis ibbxfv ilxf jc biv rfgnjca.
‘It’s feathers.’ He didn’t intend to elaborate on the topic.
The man asked, ‘So, do you have a backstory for all of this or are we just supposed to..’
Tian Xihua really couldn’t bear it anymore, and interrupted him. ‘My character is a confidant of the lord who is about to marry the daughter of the owner of this castle. He wants the lady of his heart to be safe at all times, and he doesn’t trust her father to be able to protect her properly.’
‘The young lady is in ownership of something precious he also wants to protect. There wasn’t any more explanation regarding what this might be in my script, but I reckon it isn’t something insignificant.’
‘The Lord trusted my character to dress up as.. As an old servant and protect the Lady in secret.’
The man nodded, as if he finally understood something. The old lady patted Tian Xihua’s arm reassuringly as she spoke, ‘That’s fine, nothing to get so embarrassed about. My character is also someone serving the little lady, and the others are the same.’
She pulled out her own script to open it again. ‘This young man here said that it is possible that there won’t be a rule plaque this time around, since it is a high ranking world. I think the tasks might even appear in our scripts, what’s your opinion?’
Tian Xihua shook his head to signal that he had no idea. ‘This is only my second world. Should we introduce ourselves, or have you all already done that?’
The young girl replied to him, ‘We’ve been here for like an hour already. We know each other’s names but you only arrived now.. I’m Shen Qiu.’ She gestured towards the young man, ‘He’s called Chu Anzhi, and..’
The lady interrupted her before she could have introduced her too, ‘I’m Lan Kejia. Let’s not waste any more time, shall we?’
Tian Xihua agreed, ‘Alright, my name is Tian Xihua. Let’s get to this.’ He sat down to the table and the others followed his example.
Chu Anzhi was the first to speak. He looked over at Lan Kejia, ‘Just now, you might have misunderstood me. I only said that the plaque might not be here, or it might not be here yet, not that it doesn’t exist in this instance. There’ll probably be one once the investigation begins.’
Shen Qiu frowned, ‘Are you saying that we can’t yet begin to solve the task?’
Lan Kejia tapped the table. ‘That’s only better for us. If that really is the case, it can only mean that we’ll be able to see things for ourselves as the events progress..’
Tian Xihua looked at Chu Anzhi, ‘Do you think the genre of this instance will be a mystery?’
Chu Anzhi thought for a moment. ‘It’ll most likely be a thriller, after all that’s what most of them are. Mainly because of this, it is extremely important at the moment that we pay attention to everything that’s happening around us.’
‘For example, where did you all wake up? It might be a small detail, but it also might be important.’
Shen Qiu was quick to reply. ‘I was in the servants’ quarters. It’s in the northern side of the castle, not that far from here.’
‘I was already here when I woke up.’ Lan Kejia spoke up next. She laughed heartily, ‘My character was on nightwatch in case anyone sneaked in for a midnight snack..’
Tian Xihua thought for a moment. ‘The place I woke up in was probably the young lady’s room. There were others sleeping on the floor. Also her servants, I’m guessing.’
Chu Anzhi hummed before he spoke again, ‘I was outside, near the horse stalls. How are all of these places connected? What’s the catch?’
Lan Kejia closed her script, and put it away before she spoke. ‘They aren’t necessarily connected. After all, they might just be part of our characters’ introductions.’
‘Are there any other details in your scripts that might be important?’ Tian Xihua looked through his, but it still only described Servant4’s route to the kitchen, as well as a bit of his backstory.
Chu Anzhi shook his head slowly as he pulled his own script out. ‘Nothing of the sorts, only the way over here. It seems that the most valuable information we have so far is what yours said about the young Lady. She might become an important character later on.’
Lan Kejia agreed, ‘We’ll pay attention to her. If there is nothing else.. I recommend you all go back to your places before someone realises you’re not where you’re supposed to be. I’m fine, after all I’m in my position but you children..’
Tian Xihua thought her words were reasonable. ‘Should we plan a meeting then? Or will the script do it for us?’
Chu Anzhi thought about it. ‘We probably don’t have to worry about planning. Let’s see what the story is first, we’ll have time to think about the rest afterwards.’
They left the room one by one after this, and only Lan Kejia remained in the room. The others all followed the routes they took to reach the kitchen, and sneaked back to their rooms to sleep, or at least keep guard for the night.
Tian Xihua walked alone in a corridor shrouded in darkness. He counted the knocks of his steps to maintain a sense of the passing of time. He felt somewhat complicated at the moment, since he remembered that when he was heading towards the kitchen, this passageway was neither empty, nor dark.
There had been a guard snoring at its entrance, as well as a torch on the wall, but the small corridor was completely dark at the moment. For a moment he thought he had taken the wrong passage, but then a sudden noise came from behind himself.
He froze as he quickly stuck his back against the cold wall, closing his eyes tightly as an unpleasant expression appeared on his features.
There was someone else in the passage, and they were very much awake. They had seen him enter, but didn’t hear him leave. That could only mean one thing.
Tian Xihua wasn’t stupid. He lifted his skirt as quickly and quietly as he could, and pulled the hard slippers off his feet. He then took a couple of steps towards the end of the corridor, listening for any noises in the background..
He was only a few steps away from safety when two arms grabbed his waist from behind, and lifted him up.
Tian Xihua, ‘….!!!’ Fuck? It seemed that he really didn’t have any luck tonight.
The other let him down quickly. He had only catched him to stop him from running away in the first place.
Tian Xihua stared at this person without any emotion in his expression. He waited for the other to start speaking.
The man coughed lightly before asking, ‘Did something happen? Why have you left your place?’
Tian Xihua nodded slowly as he thought of an excuse. ‘The Lady was feeling thirsty, and she sent me out for water. Nothing happened.’
The man let out a breath. ‘That’s good, really good. Say, are you sure nothing is wrong? Nothing happened, not last morning or tonight?’
Tian Xihua gave him a puzzled expression. ‘No, nothing.’
‘That’s good then. Tell me if anything goes wrong.’
Tian Xihua already had a vague idea about who this man could be. He called out, ‘My Lord?’
The man looked at him at once. ‘Yes?’
Tian Xihua smiled. ‘I hope you can excuse me now.’
The man appeared somewhat distracted as he nodded quickly. ‘Of course, of course. Go quickly, don’t make her wait. Right, the water.. Where is it?’
‘….’ Tian Xihua’s smile became even stiffer in an instant. ‘I’ve.. already sent someone with it. I had to check something, but didn’t want to make the Lady wait.’
‘You let her drink what others have touched? What if the servant you gave it to poisons it? Can you think?!’ The man’s complexion became extremely pale at once.
‘I..’ Tian Xihua shook his head slightly as he took a step backwards, but he couldn’t stop the man from running towards the Lady’s chamber like a headless chicken.
He could only follow behind while trying to calm the other. ‘No, you misunderstood. I gave it to another person because I noticed that the water wasn’t clear. I was just about to fetch some more..’
The Lord slowed down for a moment. ‘So she didn’t drink anything you didn’t inspect?’
Tian Xihua nodded quickly.
The Lord let out a sigh. ‘That’s good then. Pay attention to things like this more from now on..’
A scream interrupted him. A young servant girl ran past them in the corridor, hurrying towards the sounds. It was the direction of the Lady’s chamber.
The Lord couldn’t hide his nervousness anymore. He ran with the girl, and quickly overtook her. In less than a minute, not even his shadow could be seen under the dim lights.
Tian Xihua held his palm to his forehead before heading over himself.
There was a commotion outside the Lady’s door. Servants and guards ran around without any sense of direction like ants, and someone was shouting loudly inside the room.
Tian Xihua made his way inside, only to see a young woman on the bed covered with patches of vomit. She cried faintly as she held her palms to cover her eyes. The Lord from before was kneeling next to her, holding onto her sleeve as he spoke soft words to her.
The Lady’s crying only got stronger. The man pulled her arm slightly, making her let go of her face. The Lady muttered as she cried, ‘I can’t see, I can’t see at all!’
The Lord froze as he stared at her. The arm in his hand felt particularly powerless, and somewhat limp. He shouted, ‘Physician, someone get the physician!’
He turned to the Lady, ‘My love, don’t panic. You’ll be fine..’ Apparently he noticed that his words didn’t have much of an effect. He pulled her into his arms as he tried to soothe her while asking, ‘Where does it hurt? Are you uncomfortable like this?’
The Lady only cried in reply as she rested her forehead on his chest. Her words sounded muffled as if she had to go through unspeakable pain to utter them, ‘I can’t.. I can’t feel my legs.. My stomach hurts..’ She cried harder, as if only the reassurance of her lover could save her of the unfathomable pain.
Of the players, Shen Qiu was the first to arrive. She put down the basin filled with water and the soft cloth next to the Lord, who got to wiping the Lady’s sparkling sweat at once.
Shen Qiu then went to stand next to Tian Xihua at the side, who had an ugly expression.
She asked him, ‘What happened here? Didn’t you..’
Tian Xihua interrupted her. ‘I only got back now. I ran into the Lord on the way over.’
Shen Qiu bit her finger anxiously, ‘But what happened to her?’
‘You heard what she said too, didn’t you? Abdominal pain, no feeling in the limbs, a loss of sight.’ Tian Xihua looked towards the door, just to see the serious expression of Chu Anzhi who had just stepped inside.
He walked over to them, not even sparing a look at the pair on the floor. ‘It’s poison. And I really thought we would have more time to explore before things got serious..’
Shen Qiu got into work mode instantly. ‘Poison.. That’s good, Lan Kejia said she knows a lot about those. Should we stay and wait for something to happen or go and see her?’
Chu Anzhi shook his head. ‘She’s not going to live for long, a couple of hours at most. There is nothing for us to see here.’
The three left the chamber behind. It felt like this room became the middle of the world for a night as the light of candles only got brighter as more of them were placed inside, and the footsteps just got louder as more people arrived to the corridor.
Lan Kejia was fast asleep as she leant on the table, her face completely obscured in her clothes. The room was filled with her faint snoring.
Shen Qiu nudged her arm, ‘Hey, Lan jie, it isn’t good to sleep so soundly in such a dangerous situation..’
Lan Kejia only turned her face to the other side as she murmured, ‘Child, and what do you want me to do, be vigilant at all times, every day of every week? Let me sleep for a little longer..’
Chu Anzhi spoke to her as he sat down on the other side of the table. ‘It is serious this time. The Lady has been poisoned.’
Lan Kejia opened her eyes slowly, and she seemed to have gotten some of her liveliness back. ‘Poisoned?’
She patted her face that still had the print of cloth on it. ‘Should we go see it?’
The author has something to say:
hey everyone, I just wanted to express how much I appreciate every single piece of feedback I get, as well as try to persuade you all to comment? It really does mean a lot to me and I feel much more motivated after seeing any comments. Of course it’s perfectly fine if you can’t, I just wanted to mention that I do definitely appreciate it. (or to try to guilt you guys into commenting..)
On another note! This is sort-of txh’s pov, in the sense that it follows his instance. For this second one, we’ll have the two povs sectioned in a 2-2, later a 1-1 ratio until the part ends.
I also made a character sheet, which can be found on the novel page, or accessed directly here.
I was wondering if we were gonna hear about TXH’s instance! He really got a difficult one this time 😐
Thanks for the chapter! <3
Thank you for the chapter 😊