After we take a step away from the hole, Kay inputs a little of his orange magic power into the ring. The inscriptions on the ring immediately light up, but nothing happened. Then, the light of the inscriptions dies down. A moment later, the inscriptions light up again. However, this time, a nearly invisible pale blue flame appears.
"The flame will last for an hour at a time. If the flame goes out, we just have to redo the process again. Of course, we can also put out the flame by injecting magic power into the ring again." Kay inputs his magic power into the ring, causing the inscriptions on it to flicker rapidly before dying out. Then, a few moments later, the flame extinguishes.
"Kay, how does this work? How can a flame appear suddenly out of nowhere?" Shiro asks.
Kay ponders for a few moments before he answers, "When I inject magic power for the first time, the magic power travels along the inscriptions, causing them to light up. Because I am at an elite level, I cannot activate these magic inscriptions. My magic power will flow along the inscription to the inner part and activate the inscriptions that channel magic power into the hole. This process causes the inscription to die out and light up again. Unlike my magic power, the magic power that is channeled can activate the inscription."
We nod in understanding, and Kay continues, "To extinguish the flame, I input my magic power into the ring, which disrupts the flow of magic power across the inscriptions and magic power supply. With magic power no longer channeled into it, the flame naturally goes out. This is also the reason why the flame lasts for an hour at a time. After an hour, the magic power supply will automatically shut off. If you want to use the flame, you have to turn it on again."
"That is all I know about it. If you are keen to know more, you can ask Lord Rena or Her Highness. Lord Rena is the one who designed all these, while Her Highness is the inventor of magic inscriptions; they know a lot more than I do," Kay says. No wonder we never heard about magic inscriptions before or even anywhere else. It turns out to be recently invented by Alice.
"Speaking of which, how old are Kay, Alice, and Rena?" Shiro asks the question she has had for a long time.
"I am 16. Her Highness is 18. As for Lord Rena, despite how young she looked, she is 24." Kay answers.
"Sorry for the wait, little Kay, Kuro, Shiro," Rena's reverberating voice suddenly sounds from behind the door as she walks inside while holding Alice's hand. Well, Alice and Rena are back. Their 'shortly' has lasted almost an hour. Besides, why does Rena look like she just underwent strenuous exercise with such a red face and can't even walk steadily? How strange! What exactly have they been doing in this past hour?
"I haven't formally introduced myself yet. I am Rena, Rena Elara," Rena says. "You two will be under my care from now on." So we will not follow Alice around anymore? But that's fine; following Rena seems more interesting anyway.
"Alice, Rena, what have you been doing in this past hour?" Shiro asks. Well, at least Rena is no longer naked like before when she is in her fish tank. She wears a knee-length light blue dress of a string dress style similar to Shiro and Kuro's. Its color is in the same tone as Alice's ankle-length dress. Possibly, Alice suggests it to her after seeing how adorably cute we are in our dresses. Of course, it may also be a coincidence. She also has an extra inconspicuous human bite mark on her right shoulder, which Shiro remembers was not there before.
Hearing Shiro's question, Alice and Rena immediately appear quite embarrassed and guilty. "We... we just have normal magic discussions, nothing more, really. You will understand when you grow up." The same evasive answer as Aunt Phyllis', just barely changing from a discussion about life to magic.
"Then, what about that bite mark?" Shiro points at the bite mark on Rena's right shoulder.
"A bite mark?" Rena's gaze follows Shiro's finger. She looks a little confused. Alice also looks in the direction Shiro is pointing, her expression shifting from confusion to one of realization and then an 'oops' look.
Upon seeing the bite mark on her right shoulder, the red color directly explodes onto Rena's face and gills. She immediately pulls Alice's hand that she is holding and rushes toward her. Then, she buries her face in Alice's chest, hugging her, while Alice skillfully strokes her back. Their movements are quite fluid.
"Woo... Alice, I won't let you bite me anymore..." Rena murmurs her complaint; because she is burying her face, her voice is quite muffled but still pleasant nonetheless.
"Sorry, sorry," Alice says as she continues to stroke Rena's back. Kay does not show any expression of surprise at all; perhaps he is already used to a scene like this. Is that why their movements are so skilled?
After a while, Rena finally calms down. "No more next time," she murmurs to Alice. At this point, the bite mark is completely healed. Her regeneration speed is quite fast.
"Lord Rena, how many times have you said that already? Why do I remember you appearing with bite marks every once in a while?" Kay teases Rena.
Rena leaves Alice's embrace. Then, she says to Kay in her gentle, reverberating tone, "Kay, you better think first before you speak; otherwise, I might accidentally slip your interesting moments." Kay immediately freezes solid. Rena also reholds Alice's hand, which she released when she hugged Alice just now.
"So Alice, Rena, what exactly have you two been doing in the past hour?" Shiro asks.
"This..." Alice struggles to answer, but Rena interjects in her gentle, echoing voice filled with a motherly vibe. "You will understand when you grow older, dear. Please do not ask any further. Knowing too much will not do good to any of us. You just need to know that Alice and I are very close friends, nothing more." A hint of sadness flashes in Rena's eyes as she tightens her grip on Alice's hand. Although Alice does not show any expression on her face, her hand trembles a little just now.
After a short silence, Shiro replies, "Alright. We will not ask anymore." Pushing further now is pointless, as Alice and Rena will not say a word about it anyway. Judging from their reactions, they must have a reason they can't tell us about. Alice has been so good to us; we can't make things difficult for her... without sufficient reasons.
"Good. Thank you, dear." Rena releases Alice's hand and pats our heads with both her hands. It's actually quite comfortable! She is very skilled! Even if her skill isn't as good as Aunt Phyllis, she is a lot better than Alice! We will grant her the exceptional right to pat our heads!
"Rena, when can we start learning how to read and write?" Shiro asks while enjoying Rena's headpat. No matter what we will do next, reading and writing skills are obviously a necessity. Speaking skill can be learned using dragon language. Although we can also learn how to read and write Alice's language by ourselves, obviously, if there is a more efficient method, why bother to use a less efficient one?
"Are you two so eager to learn already?" Rena continues, "Good. We can start tomorrow, if I still have energy to teach, of course; if not, we will start the day after tomorrow." Then, Rena glances at Alice, but Alice avoids her sight. She sighs and concludes, "It seems we will start the day after tomorrow." What is this? Do they communicate with their sight or something?
Shortly after, Rena retracts her hands from our heads. "Kay, how long are you and Alice going to stay this time?" Rena asks Kay, while Alice is also looking at him with hopeful eyes. Now, Kay has recovered from his frozen state.
"Her Highness can stay for two nights, but she will have to leave by the morning of the day after tomorrow. As for me, I take my leave tomorrow. We will be back in about two weeks," Kay says after he ponders for a while. Two nights is quite short, but it doesn't matter since we will see Alice and Kay in two weeks anyway. But Kuro seems to be planning to bleed Kay's skills dry before he leaves. Shiro can only wish Kay good luck.
Alice seems to be quite happy upon learning that she can stay for two nights; in contrast, Rena's expression is noticeably dimmer. She immediately moves closer to Alice and holds her tightly with a reluctant expression. It seems the time Alice can stay is shorter than her expectation.
"It's alright, Rena; I will return in two weeks, won't I? Not to mention, we still have two days together." Alice gently pats Rena's head to soothe her. Rena displays a satisfactory expression; even her fluffy gills fully extend and turn a little redder. Why don't we know Alice's headpats feel that good?
Then, Alice accidentally bumps her finger against one of Rena's gills. Rena's melty expression and even her entire body almost instantaneously freeze, which causes Alice's hand to pause too. After a moment, Rena recovers. "Alice, be careful; they—my gills are very sensitive." Her voice is still soft and gentle; she clearly does not blame Alice.
"Sorry, sorry. I will pay more attention next time," Alice says in a somewhat apologetic tone, but not much. Then, she whispers softly into Rena's ear at an almost imperceptible volume; if not for our sensitive ears, we might miss it: "Then, does Rena like it?"
Rena only gives a barely noticeable nod, with her face and gills turning a little redder. "But not here, at least, not in front of little ones. Also, be gentler; they are very delicate, you know..." Rena whispers back in the same volume. Her response causes Alice to smile even happier. Is this really how close friends interact? Shiro highly doubts that.
"Ahem, let us guide you two to your room, shall we?" Rena changes the topic. Her face and gills have now returned to their initial pink color.
We nod. Let's ask her about the unknown rooms. "Rena, what are these two rooms for?" Shiro asks as she points at the unknown room on the right wing's side. The room has two doors at the opposite ends of the wall, so it should be divided into two rooms. Like most doors of this place we've seen so far, the push side is handleless.
"It's the bathroom and the garderobe." Rena replies as she pushes the right door inward. The door can be opened at almost a right angle before its handle on the opposite side hits the wall. Inside, the room is 2 meters in width and length. There is about a meter of open space with two hangers sticking out from the right wall. Only we, Rena and Alice, walk in; Kay waits for us outside.
On the left, there is a built-in stone tub about 2 meters long, a meter wide, and half a meter deep. Like everything else here, except for a few pieces of mobile furniture, the built-in stone tub perfectly integrates with the floor. Wall-mounted lamps are also presented on every wall.
The bathroom also has a lever and a disk, but they are not directly above the tube; they are next to it, opposite the door. The disk is similar to the one between the pipes, but it only has 4 symbols on it. On that wall is also a window on the upper part, somewhat similar to the wings' areas.
"The disk controls which holes the water flows from, while the lever controls how much the water will flow." Rena turns the disk to make the red line point at the leftmost symbol, then she pushes the lever up. As the lever goes up, more and more water flows out from the horizontal hole on the front wall (opposite the door) in the same manner as a waterfall.
Then, she turns the disk right. The more right she turns the disk, the more water spills out of the hole on the left wall, while the water flowing out of the hole on the back wall lessens. Until the line reaches the second symbol, the water from the back hole completely stops. The same happens to the left hole and front hole (the one on the same side as the door) as the line moves toward the third symbol.
After the third symbol, however, there is a difference; when the line moves past the third symbol, the water starts to flow out from the back hole and left hole, while the water flowing from the front hole has not lessened. When the disk turns to the fourth symbol, the water flows from the three holes at their maximum.
Rena pulls down the lever. "I often sleep here, so if you can't find me in the bedroom at night, I am most likely here," she says as she pulls up the stopper to let the water flow into the hole at the bottom of the tub.
When all of us prepare to leave the bathroom, we see the inner side of the door (the side that faces the bathroom). Unlike other doors in this place, it has a lock on it and is inscribed with magic inscriptions. Its handle is also inscribed with magic inscriptions. How strange—why does only this bathroom have a lock and even have magic inscriptions on its door?
"Rena, what are these magic inscriptions and the lock for?" Shiro asks as she points at the door.
Rena hesitates for a few moments before she answers, "The magic inscriptions on the door panel are to isolate noises; those on the handle are to store magic power to supply those on the door. When the lock is engaged, the magic power will be able to flow from the handle to the door panel, so the inscriptions will be activated." Strange, why does Rena hesitate? And why does the bathroom need to isolate noise?
"Why does the bathroom need to isolate noise?" Shiro asks.
Rena's face and gills turn a little red before she answers, "You see, sometimes, Alice and I will have magic discussions here, just a normal magic discussion; we need to isolate the noise so that you all will not be disturbed. It also prevents us from being disturbed." Sounds reasonable enough. But Shiro feels something is off about Rena's reaction and answer, but she can't point out exactly what is wrong.