Novel Full Chapter 1233: They Tamed One Of Them
Chapter 1233: They Tamed One Of Them
I led the charge towards the left path, sniffing the air and trying to smell the sweet scent that Katsuki had allegedly detected.
Thankfully, it seems like there were no divergences on this path so we just needed to follow the corridor without stopping~
Despite running for a while, the sweet smell that she mentioned was nowhere to be found.
But of course, I trusted Katsuki so I knew that it should be a matter of time before I smelled it myself!
Sure enough, after running a little bit more, the faint smell of something sweet wafted to my nose.
Ahhh! I knew it! I’m getting close!!
Sniff, sniff… Hmm… This smells like… Cookies! Definitely chocolate chip cookies! Ahhhhh!! I’m already salivating at the thought of munching on those cookies!!
“I can smell it! It’s close!!” I told my girls that were running after me.
I sped up and the corridor turned up ahead, the smell clearly coming from right around the corner.
I leapt towards the wall and I landed with my feet planted on the wall to redirect my momentum to execute a high speed turn.
But as I was about to leap off the wall, I quickly stopped myself as I realised there was another turn up ahead and if I leapt off right now, I would have just crashed into the wall.
Good thing I reacted fast eno– Hmmm?
I’m hearing voices from around that corner…
I flipped myself off the wall and landed on my feet silently, my girls finally catching up to me as I leaned against the corner to eavesdrop on whoever was speaking.
“–fucking stupid… Better walk faster or else… I’ll stab you through the eye this time…”
“Are you… Like this…”
“Only when… Sometimes I just… It’s better if I…”
It was a little difficult to make out everything they were saying but I recognised those voices immediately.
I quickly ran around the corner and jumped out, fully expecting to be embraced by two specific people but only to come face to face with some kind of black, faceless creature with elongated limbs and a mouth full of sharp teeth.
I was just about to punch it when Delmare and Minnera peeked out from behind the monster.
“”Aster!!”” They cried together, running past the monster to try and hug me.
I quickly raised my hand, “Wait… Are you two really who I think you are and not a trick made by this place?”
Both of them paused and looked at each other.
Obviously I intend to use the rings to check but I believe that if they already fail at considering why I would be worried about this, then it would be concrete proof that they were fakes.
“Umm… We have to prove that we are who we say we are… Maybe something that Aster will know? Oh! You can just do a painting right now! Surely Aster will know it’s you just from that!”
“You can just sing to her, can’t you? I don’t think anyone else is able to mimic your singing and that will be easier to prove than have me paint something right now.”
Mmm~ I like the fact that both of them seemed to have bonded quite well over their respect for each other’s art~
Anyway…
’Ahem, testing, testing~ Can the both of you hear me?’ I asked through our telepathic connection.
Delmare jumped a little in surprise before she nodded enthusiastically, “Yes! Yes! I can hear you, Aster!”
She chose to speak rather than use the telepathy I see.
Minnera opted to activate her ring instead to speak directly through her thoughts, ’I can hear you as well, Aster. I assume this is good enough to prove we are real?’
I spread my arms out towards them, just like what I did with the others when I met them.
Both of them leapt into my arms and I cuddled with them for a good while and kissed them both before I finally remembered there was something behind them.
“Umm… Delmare… Minnera… What is that thing?”
They turned to see me pointing at the creature that was still standing in front of me, its faceless head somehow giving the feeling of watching me despite not having any eyes.
Minnera sighed, “We found ourselves at the end of this maze and we couldn’t find a way out. Then this thing appeared and tried to attack us so we beat it and made it guide us to the exit.”
I blinked at her, “Wait… Did you… Domesticate this thing?”
“Domesticate? No… More like force it to obey under torture I would say.”
“Huh… I never knew you were into that kind of stuff…”
“I’m not, Aster…”
Hmm… I guess she means that she didn’t torture the creature to get it to obey because she wanted to but because she had no choice. Because I highly doubt what she meant was that Delmare was the one who tortured this creature into obedience.
“So I guess we can still get it to guide us? We only just came in here ourselves and… Wait!! I almost forgot!! Where’s the cookie?! I smelt cookie just now!! That’s why I rushed here!”
Delmare quickly stepped back and pulled out a paper bag from beside her waist, giving Minnera a look of triumph.
“Ehehe… I told you Aster would find us if I were to bring this out~” She giggled before handing the bag to me.
Are these the cookies? Gimme gimme gimme!
I took the bag and peered inside it. Sure enough, two chocolate chip cookies stared back at me, affirming that I was right all along!
I immediately fished one out and started munching on it, enjoying the sweetness that filled my mouth as I let myself melt in the pleasure of the treat.
I was dimly aware of the others also approaching them and talking to them but I was too engrossed in my cookie to pay attention to what they were saying.
Hmm? I think Odeta and Lisa also started pulling me along with them so I guess we’re heading somewhere?
Well, whatever~ I just have to concentrate on this cookie first! Om nom nom nom~
By the time I was done eating the cookies, I found that we had moved to a completely different location.
Huh… Seems like we had already walked back to the intersection that we had come across earlier.
The creature seemed to hesitate here and Minnera looked up to scowl at it.
“Well? Which way do we have to go to get out of here? Just a reminder that it won’t be good for you if you lie or hesitate here, if you remember what happened to you earlier.”
That threat seemed to be enough as the creature turned towards the path that Katsuki mentioned had the metallic banging sounds, slowly trudging through the corridor like some kind of depressed animal.
Geez… Just how badly did you torture it, Minnera?
We continued forward until we eventually reached the source of the clanging and hissing sound.
It was some kind of steam machine or something that had a gear turning outside of it with steam hissing out periodically.
Aside from that machine, this path was a dead end.
What’s this?
Minnera turned towards the creature, “What’s this supposed to be? Aren’t you supposed to lead us to the exit? I don’t see an exit here at all. Do you want to get beaten again?”
The creature made some clicking noises in a panic and pointed one of its abnormally long fingers at the machine.
I’m guessing this machine was supposed to open the way out or something?
I guess this was the kind of scenario where you have to activate something for an exit to appear.
I went over to the machine and… Well… It wasn’t that difficult to figure it out because there was literally just a lever that was pointed towards the ’off’ sign so I just pushed it up to the ’on’ position.
The machine whirred even louder and something loud crashed somewhere.
Right then, a loud roar reverberated through the corridor, clearly an indication that something had been released.
Interestingly, I saw Delmare turn back to the creature and raised her hand, which made the creature immediately flinch back and throw its arms up as though to protect itself.
She then scowled at it before lowering her hand and looking away.
Even without a face, I could somehow feel that the creature was relieved.
Putting that odd sight aside… I’m going to guess that this machine activated the exit which would allow us to leave this place… But it also unleashed some kind of monster that is supposed to hunt us down while we are trying to escape.
I’m not sure what role this creature that we have here was supposed to play but maybe it was also supposed to be unleashed alongside the other one but Delmare and Minnera ended up finding it first and beating it into submission…
Whatever, at least we know where we need to go to leave now.