After we leave the bathroom, Rena leads us to the other room next. After she pushes open the door, we walk inside. The door is quite similar to the one in the bathroom, but without magic inscriptions. It has a lock, though. The room is 2 meters in length and width.
Its layout is quite basic: a tub the same size as Rena's fish tank in front of the door, a bowl-shaped extension and a pipe like the one in the right wing next to the tub, and a weird-looking seat with a hole half filled with water in the middle of it. Next to the weird-looking seat, there is a lever on the left and an L-shaped rod with countless tiny holes on the circular surface of the shorter end on the right. This solid rod is inscribed with magic inscriptions and is connected to the wall on the circular surface of the longer end. On the ceiling above the tub, there are also extremely fine holes like those on the rod, but a lot more in number. In this room, there are two levers in total. The first is on the wall opposite the door, slightly above the tub. The second lever is located next to the pipe and has the same disk as the one in the right wing.
"This garderobe is Kay's, but things inside are mostly the same. Although it is called a garderobe, it also has a tub for bathing," Rena says as she pushes the lever at the tub up. "The lever here is used to make water fall from the ceiling just like the rain." The water flows from the holes in the ceiling. It indeed looks much like the water is raining down from the ceiling.
Then, Rena pulls the lever back down and walks toward the weird-looking seat. She picks up the L-shaped solid rod and points its shorter end at the tub and injects her magic power into it. Her magic power is yellow in color. Rena is actually at the yellow level!
After a whooshing sound from the air, water rushes out of the holes in the rod and straight into the tub. Then, she stops injecting her magic power, and the water stops shooting out. "As you can see, injecting magic power causes the water to shoot out from the sprayer's head. The more magic power you inject into it, the stronger the water that comes out will be," Rena explains.
"Rena, what is it used for? And that weird-looking seat too," Shiro asks.
"Weird-looking seat?" Rena appears to be confused for a moment before a sudden realization flashes across her face. "You mean this wet stool. It's for releasing your waste. The sprayer is used for cleaning up afterward. Would you like me to explain it in simpler terms?"
Shiro shakes her head. "No need, we understand. Then, what about that thing?" Shiro points at the grille with a relatively small gap between each horizontal and vertical bar on the ceiling above the wet stool.
"That grille is for air ventilation so that the room will not be too damp and also to prevent it from becoming smelly," Rina explains. "It works by pulling the old air out of the room and letting the new air flow in through the windows."
Speaking of the windows, this room's windows are the same as those in the bathroom. In terms of lighting, the wall-mounted lamps are scattered across the walls and between windows, like in all other rooms.
"Do you still have any questions?" Rina asks. We shake our heads. We can already guess what the functions of the things in this room are, so there is no need to ask any further.
Rina nods. "Good, then let's move on. It's almost dinner time now," she says before leading us and Alice out of the room.
Rina leads the way to the room on the opposite side. Unlike the one on the right wing's side, there is only one door in the middle on the left wing's side. "This is Kay's room," she says as she pushes open the door.
Kay's room is quite plain. It is 2 meters wide and 4.5 meters long. There are no very unusual things like magic inscriptions visible in the room. His room only has a bed on the right end, a large wardrobe in the middle facing the door, and a table and chair at the left end. All of them are touching the back wall.
For the lighting, there are two windows in this room; they are on the back wall. One is at the bed; the other is at the table. There are three wall-mounted lamps in this room. The first two are between the door and the right and left walls, respectively. The third lamp is above the table, below the window.
There isn't much to look at here, so we quickly leave Kay's room. Before continuing exploring, Shiro decides to ask Rena about the fire that Kay fails to fully explain. "Rena, Kay explained to us about why the fire appears when magic power is injected into the ring, but he can't tell how. He said we can ask you," Shiro says to Rena while pointing at the kitchen area.
Rena replies, "Yes. You should already know that it is the channeled magic power that powers the flame, right?" We nod, so she continues, "Basically, the channeled magic power activates the inscriptions, which will create two types of air at different locations and inject them out of the hole. The mixture of these two airs is then heated to the point where it catches fire. The rest is simply to maintain a stable supply of these two types of air."
Before we can continue our exploration, the door that connects to the stair room suddenly bursts open, and 3 girls about the same size as Shiro and Kuro rush inside. Two of them, with obvious pairs of wolf ears and wagging tails, rush in front, while the remaining one, with a pair of small bat wings extended from behind her back and a pair of large bat ears on her head, follows closely behind.
The wolf girls have a snow-white hair color, which appears moonlight-white under the light. The bat girl has black hair, but unlike Kuro, the bat girl's hair isn't bottomless-abyss black; instead, it looks like a sky in a moonless night, exuding a mysterious aura. For their hairstyles, the wolf girls have thigh-length, fluffy, wavy hair, which looks extremely full and thick, radiating a wild and untamed vibe. The same goes for their tails. As for the bat girl, she has a simple and elegant mid-back-length sleek, straight hairstyle, which appears to be carefully combed.
The bat girl's eyes are blood-red, quite like Kuro's; however, instead of dark-red, they are bright-red. The wolf girls have a pair of heterochromatic blue and yellow eyes. They (the bat girl and wolf girls) are actually quite cute. Of course, their adorableness is completely incomparable to Kuro and Shiro; our cuteness is off the charts!
The bat girl is wearing a black, almost floor-length, off-shoulder gown with a red lining, a pair of very, very long black gloves, and a ruby necklace. The pendant of this chain necklace is a transparent ruby carved into a bat shape. The gown is open-backed enough for her small wings to comfortably spread out and flap freely. The black fabric of her gown is also gradually getting more translucent as it moves down, revealing more red underneath. It isn't very transparent even at the lowest part; only a hint of red color is visible. They form a sharp contrast with her exceptionally pale skin. She also carries a black umbrella, which she opens even right now. What's the point of opening an umbrella indoors anyway? The umbrella has a reflective metallic silver luster on the inner canopy and a metal handle.
The wolf girls wear light gray, knee-length, above-elbow-sleeve shift mini-dresses. Their mini-dresses feature cutouts for their tails to fit into. Their furry tails completely fill these openings, obstructing any vision. They also wear bright-red leather dog collars with a soft, milky blue, transparent, bat-shaped gemstone (moonstone) pendant hanging from each of them. We are pretty sure they are dog collars, not chokers.
Their shift mini-dresses look more comfortable than our A-line version; maybe we should change from A-line to shift mini-dresses? Should we also cut out the holes? By the way, why are the wolf girls' pendants exactly the same bat shape as the bat girl's pendant? Shouldn't a bone or wolf head be more suitable for them? We will definitely find out why!
For the shoes, the wolf girls wear brown ankle boots and gray socks, barely visible from their boots. The boots are of the same color and style as Kay's, but Kay's are a little higher. The bat girl wears some kind of black shoes; because of how long her gown is, we can only get a glimpse of their tips when she walks. Speaking of which, everyone except Rena, who is barefoot like us, seems to wear their outdoor shoes indoors. Will that not dirty their floor?
The moment the two wolf girls see Kuro and Shiro, their eyes light up and they hurtle toward us at their full speed. Then, they miss us and run into the wall. Shiro feels that they seem a bit silly. The bat girl should also think the same way as us since she looks at them with a disdainful gaze. However, there seem to be hidden concern flashes in her eyes. How strange; why can such contradictory emotions exist at the same time?
Then, we turn to the bat girl. She merely greets us with a light nod, which achieves a perfect score on its gracefulness test; however, when our eyes are not on her, she gazes at us eagerly. But the moment we look at her, she immediately turns away and pretends nothing happened. How incomprehensible! She also gives a light nod to Alice, Rena, and Kay, too.
Looking at everything that is going on in front of her, Rena sighs helplessly and shows a pained expression while Alice looks at her sympathetically. Rena and Alice definitely think these girls are weird too! Though Rena's and Alice's gazes seem to linger on us for a bit, they should be looking at the wolf girls behind us; there is no way Shiro and Kuro are problematic!
"Nyx, you three are here for dinner? Are Arachne and Hecate coming too?" Rena asks in her melodious, soothing voice. It seems the bat girl's name is Nyx.
"I don't know. Arachne should be weaving things as always, and Hecate should be reading in the library right now. I will check on them," Nyx answers as she pulls open the door behind her, pokes her head across the wall, and makes an extremely high-pitched, shrill sound. Alice, Kay, and Rena show no reaction at all to the sound. This isn't abnormal, as this sound is outside humans' hearing range. However, the wolf girls' ears twist uncomfortably; it seems this sound is within their hearing range.
Then, the bat ears on Nyx's head twitch around as she listens to the echoes reflecting back to her. "Arachne is indeed still weaving her silks, but Hecate isn't in the library. I can't find her inside the manor. So she should be on her way here," Nyx reports to Rena as she closes the door behind her. Her tone is calm and composed but also quite cold and distant. However, if listening carefully, a hint of warmth can be found and, combined with her slightly childish voice, creates a contrasting feel to her tone.
Rena nods. "Thank you, Nyx," she says. Then, she turns to the wolf girls and says, "Selene, Luna, go change your dresses." So the wolf girls' names are Selene and Luna. Well, Shiro also thinks these two should change out their mud-stained mini-dresses and boots too.
Selene's and Luna's ears and tails drop, but then, they cheer up again almost instantaneously after seeing Kay. "Kay! You are back!" they say in perfect synchrony and wave excitedly to Kay. Their childish voices are full of cheerful energies ready to explode at any given moment. A pained expression immediately appears on Kay's face. What exactly did these two do to be able to make Kay show such an expression?
Speaking of voice, some people may say that Kuro and Shiro's voices are more childish than Selene and Luna's; they are wrong! When it comes to Kuro and Shiro, it isn't childish; it is cuteness! They are just a bunch of dummies who can't think of a better word to describe our sweet, silky, mellow, and pleasant voice!
The same is true for our appearances. Shiro is naturally the cutest in the universe! Of course, so does Kuro! Even if thousands of Selene, Luna, Nyx, and Rena pile together, they are nowhere near as adorable as us! Everyone who disagrees will be purified by fire for their heresy!
Let's go back to the present; Selene and Luna don't seem to notice Kay's expression at all and cheerfully rush out of the parlor. Suddenly, the double doors on the wall opposite where the Great Hall is are pushed open from the other side. This is unusual because the doors we have seen here so far are inward-opening. The use of inward-opening doors instead of outward-opening ones is likely for security reasons, as the hinges are concealed inside, making it more difficult for invaders to break through. Does this mean the rooms behind the door are easier to breach than the parlor?