A Tale of One Deviant (Book One)

Chapter 27: Walk Through the Ancient Backyard

I got lost. I got lost so easily that it was ridiculous.

This mansion already looked big on the outside, but on the inside it was like another dimension.

I passed so many maids, a few I recognized from my "bath" this morning. They had malicious grins and cooed gently as I went by, making me bolt like a frightened deer.

Eventually, I ended up in a basement. Don't ask me how I got there, why (running from avid maids), or when, since it's been a few hours. Just know I was in a deep, dark basement.

I cast a light spell and looked around, afraid that the old and priggish house would have death traps down below I might stumble upon and die an unfortunate death with, leaving contracts unfulfilled. Well, I bet Teria would be happy for me with her pessimistic self since she wanted me to move on to another world anyway. But that's not how the contracts worked, so it was all bad anyway.

The balls of light fizzled and popped when I put them in their places, burning away what was left of the previous lights. I had used light magic, not holy magic which would never harm people, to create the light source. They were so similar that I didn't realize I had casted one and not the other, so it was a given I jumped up and shouted "Don't shoot!" in Japanese when it sounded like gunfire (utanaide kudasai).

The ceiling was tall, making domed roofs that made it seem like I was inside a Starbucks cup, the type they used for frappuccinos or whatever the heck those whip cream covered things were. There were four posts on the sides, leading up to the ceiling in the middle. There was a dripping sound coming from somewhere farther in, making me wonder how deep and far it was. It already spread out to my sides like there was no end, the stairs I had come down being a stand alone set with nothing behind it or around. It was more like foldable stairs since they popped out when I stumbled down, trying to hide in a closet from the maids-

Please forget that. No such thing happened. I didn't fall through some hole in the middle of nowhere and plop on my hard buttocks on some cold stone floor, having traveled at least a few hundred feet down a slide underground...and bumped down the last few steps.

Of course everything was made of brick, further adding to the idea that I was going to find a mound of bodies somewhere along the line. The room was huge, like a chapel in Italy. I wouldn't be surprised if the floors flipped down to show a long row of pews used for Demon summoning with the "holy" feeling it gave off. It wasn't a good or bad type of religious feeling, it just felt like something was very off.

I find something very wrong with that thought, the one about the church. Churches aren't supposed to remind you of massacred bodies in a pile, or vice versa.

Well, the religion of this world did.

Inside, there were only old suits from long ago ballroom parties, crates of wine, and campaign supplies for the war stacked in the corner. I was really surprised to see that, guessing that Grandfather is not a supply hoarder for the apocalypse when it rolls around...on the wrong planet, and presumably in another dimension. I didn't know if he or his old friends, who acted like spry teens, were participating in the war, but they sure loved to talk about it like old coots.

I walked around with my little light, adding Subs to it so they became multiple lights that I placed in the sconces. I had to spread them so thin that they went into the long distance away from me, so far I couldn't see them anymore in any direction and it faded into darkness. I had the feeling that if I yelled, the walls would not bounce anything back. That gave me another odd feeling.

The room illuminated even more, making me think this would be a very nice place to host a party.

No, I was not goth. I just thought, for Halloween, you know...