The Side Where No Stars Shine

Continuing the Search

Erza's POV

I continued to check my quarter of the room.

Everyone was hard at work, trying to find the safe.

"Any luck?" I call out.

I only hear groans from Natsu and Gray in response.

Where could that safe be?

At the moment, there'd been no sign of it.

"We've checked out this floor for a while now. I don't think it's here, Lior." Gray claims.

"Do you want to move on to the second floor then?" The green and silver eyed boy yells from his respective corner.

I glance around my corner one last time, checking to see if I missed anything.

"I'm all good over here. We can move up if you want."

We begin our way up the stairs, a set of large doors coming to view at the end of the corridor.

"This floor holds Lilith's office. I'd suggest being on the lookout for any useful information. You never know what she's hiding in there."

As I walked toward the large doors, I could feel the sense of a palace.

I then remembered the referral to Lilith as "queen," and how Lilith had told Lucy they could rule together.

Lior turns the handle of the large door, opening it to reveal what appeared like a throne room.

"Wow... she really took that whole queen thing seriously..." Gray notes.

"Let's check the bookcases on the walls for anything." I say, getting straight to work.

I look up and down the sides of the room, which were covered in dark oak bookcases.

They were filled to the brim with books and clutter.

I had a feeling we'd be looking in this one room in particular for quite a while.

I sigh, beginning by pulling out a book, flipping quickly through all the pages.

Lilith might've hidden some important documents within them... somewhere.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

All I was holding was a simple book.

I slid the book back onto the shelf, moving on to the next one.

I notice Natsu was only looking around for a safe.

"Natsu, look in the books too! There may be something important inside!"

He looks over to me.

"What?! That's going to take forever!"

"Just do it. You may end up regretting it if you don't."

He groans.

"Fine, I'll check the pages of the books..."

I hear him mumble something after that.

"What was that, Natsu?" I ask, giving him a wide smile.

"N-nothing, Erza. It was nothing."

I'd wasted too much time on correcting him.

It was time to get back to searching.