The first thing I sensed was the musky smell that filled the room along with that metallic and rustic smell. The room was really dark and I could barely see. Heck, where was the small amount of light coming from?

*click

The lights came on and I was now able to see clearly. There were a couple tables scattered around the room with small things like gears, screws, screwdrivers, and a lot of other unknown metal parts. The floor was littered with other metal scraps and strange sparkly stones that were too large and heavy to put on the tables. Although it felt like it was dusty, the room was rather clean showing that it was cleaned often. It also gave off a secluded feel—like a basement.

The nonexistent windows paired with the trapped musky air also served as reasons for my thought.

Scarlet took her hands off the light switch and said, "Alright, I'll send you guys home," she made a pulling motion with her fingers, "come."

"Wait, I thought you said we were going to go in a week." I said looking at her.

"That's the appointment time but I can just send you guys whenever I want so you guys should just go. I don't want to be responsible for you guys." She continued to walk and Rachel followed along.

Now that I thought of it, she easily teleported to this place—wherever it was—in an instant without the usage of a portal or drawing any sort of formation.

"If you can just teleport, then where are we going?" I raised the question and she stopped walking.

She turned to me. "That isn't how teleportation works kid. This is my permanent domain so I can return whenever I want but the same does not go the other way around. Unless it's my domain, I can't just go there in a snap. What I just did is called Retrieval," she looked at me hesitantly and then sighed, "You aren't even in the same league as me so you wouldn't understand even if I explained it to you. Just know that teleportation requires a portal formation and any other type of transport is not to be confused with teleportation."

As she was about to head up the stairs, someone was blocking her way.

With her back faced toward me, I couldn't tell what expression she had on but I could tell by the sudden halt that it was an unwelcome presence.

"Ahhhh!!!!" She immediately ran to the opposite direction and tripped on some metal part before diving behind Rachel.

She hid behind Rachel and held her shoulders shivering like a mouse.

"Sooooo...." The person let out a deep breath from her nose like a horse would.

"You left me behind to clean up the mess you made there." With another resounding click coming from her high heels, the person was now standing face-to-face with Rachel and Scarlet.

She had on a black pantsuit and black high heels. Her hair was also tied back into a ponytail like Scarlet with the only difference being that it was brown. Her lips were the exact same color as tomato paste and her brows were furrowed. Accompanied by the glaring, her intimidation factor was boosted even further. It was like all females in this world were born with a naturally intimidating glare. Of course, it was all aimed at Scarlet.

"How many times does this make now? Forty? Fifty? Don't think for a second that having Rachel here will save you." The woman continued walking closer and closer followed by the imminent clacking of her heels as she took every step.

"GET OVER HERE!!!" She suddenly struck out like a praying mantis and caught Scarlet by the ears.

"AHHH!! I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Please spare me!!!" Scarlet started pleading as the mysterious woman started pulling apart her ears.

"Oh? You're sorry? What are you sorry for?" The woman said slyly.

"I'm sorry I left you there to do the rest of the work. I'm sorry okay. Please let me go venerable one. I'll give you a raise too if you let me off just this once."

"Once? What horsesh*t is that? You better repent for a thousand years!!!"

As for what happened next, the woman pulled out a dagger out of nowhere and [Beep!]

[Gorey text has been censored]

—a couple minutes later—

Scarlet was laid on the ground in a mess as if she had just been pummeled to death by a horde of bison. Luckily, there was no scarlet blood flowing out of Scarlet...

...scarlet flowing out of Scarlet...

...sorry, I had to.

"Oh? There's someone else?" She said as if she was going to silence me next.

She patted the dirt off her pants before giving me a polite smile which was a complete 360 turn from her previous attitude.

"Sorry about that. You can call me Florence. I am this pitiful person's secretary. Daniel, right?"

'She knew my name?'

"Oy, how am I pitiful? I would seriously fire you if you weren't so good at your job." Scarlet got up perfectly fine as if the farce that occurred before had never happened.

"Pfft. Fire? I'd like to see you do something without me." She smirked in disdain.

"Jokes aside, Duke Ross has sent a message." Florence said in a monotone fashion.

I saw visible confusion in Scarlet's eyes.

"Let's, hear it?" She said with a question mark for some reason.

Florence switched to professional mode which was what I imagined a secretary to act like and said, "Duke Ross has said to keep the two here until the summer ends."

"What?!?" Scarlet said with one eyebrow stretching to the ceiling in disbelief.

But yeah, I felt the exact same thing as she did.

'Why does Rachel's father want us to stay here?' Unknowingly, my gaze fell on Rachel who was looking the same as ever. She seemed to notice my gaze and gave me a wink which I thought was funny coming from an adolescent.

"I'm not too sure what Duke Ross meant, but he said word-for-word, 'the vestiges of peace... Turmoil will soon envelope the Kingdom of Art. Tell my daughter that I am sorry. We won't be able to go on any vacations for a while so try to treat your time in the Kingdom of Wizardry as a vacation. If there's anything, ask Miss Scarlet for it and I will pay her back.'" Recited Florence in perfect robot language. It was like she voiced Siri or something.