Chapter 19: The Castellia Fort

When they completed the pentagon stone with the five teardrop-shaped rubies, the circle in the middle glowed and shot a light blue-colored portal above.

And above it was a system text "You may leave the Castellia Fort in 168 hours."

The five of them looked at it with awe and astonishment.

Haru tried going in, but he couldn't pass through. It's as if the portal was just a hard wall blocking them.

They knocked on it, clicked on the system text, and even talked to it, but nothing happened.

They looked at each other and shook their heads, as if to resign.

"Should we just really wait for it?" Camille asked. "It's 168 hours. That's about a whole week."

Alicia glanced at it wistfully, "Well… I guess it's all gonna be over in a week, eh? It said that we could leave then. I'm assuming this place is called Castellia Fort, right?"

"Hmm? Yeah, I thought we already knew and were sure that this is Castellia Fort, though?"

"Huh? What are you talking about, Haru?" Camille asked, clearly confused.

Alicia wore the same look.

Haru was a bit confused, but then turned to the old man who spoke.

Mr. Wang sighed, "I'm not interested. Since it has a portal, I just have to not go through it, right? I'd like to just stay here until I die."

As he walked off on his own, the four stared at his back pensively.

For the next few days, the five of them kept doing what they wanted and enjoyed the world as if it's their last days in it, because they felt that it was.

"We'll get back to our worlds in a week," They mutually thought. "I might as well enjoy this place and leave without regrets!"

Haru ended up almost babysitting Ali.

The little boy wasn't too tiring to take care of, so Haru was fine with it.

He'd always accompany Ali in the confectionary room and they would play a lot of times.

Alicia and Camille would occasionally stay at the wine cellar, talking about dresses, accessories, love, fictions, and dreams.

Meanwhile, Mr. Wang would spend most of his hours locking himself in the smoke room, consuming the unknown substances there.

He just knew it was addicting and so, he kept at it.

On another day, Alicia would often visit the treasure room, basking and showering herself with the jewels.

"I feel so rich!" She would shout at the top of her lungs. "I'm the queen of the world! I can buy anything with these! I can do anything I want! I can…! I can…"

She stopped, reminiscing about a certain boy in her memory.

She immediately shook her head, afraid of connecting memories with others.

She heard someone knock and on the other side, she saw Camille looking so worried.

"I know it's none of my business but, shouldn't we be keeping an eye on Mr. Wang?"

"The old man? Why? What's wrong with him?"

"Well, I think it's yesterday since I last saw him and he's still inside the smoke room. That room didn't have ventilation or anything, right? Isn't that troubling?"

Alicia breathed heavily, upset. "That old geezer's really giving us a headache!"

Alicia and Camille silently went to the smoke room and knocked on the door, calling out to Mr. Wang.

After just a few knocks, he opened it and looked annoyed, as if he already knew what they came there for.