The Queen's Lost Daughter (Twice) ✔️

Chapter 22: Simplicity

Y/n POV

"At least we made it out of there alive," I optimistically stated.

"You're welcome," Tzuyu flipped her hair behind her shoulder.

"Aren't you the reason why we could've died in there in the first place?" Dahyun mentioned.

Tzuyu blushed, "I didn't know we weren't supposed to touch anything!"

All of us laughed.

"This palace has so many rooms," Chaeyoung groaned, "How're we going to find the artifact?"

"Dumb luck?" Tzuyu shrugged.

"If one of you has luck as your power, please mention it now," I side eyed Dahyun who got the hidden meaning and blushed.

"It's still new. I forgot that I was a fire mage," Dahyun rubbed her neck.

Chaeyoung chuckled, "Maybe one of the other teams found it already."

"Maybe. I have a feeling Mr. TOP is going to be the one to find it," Tzuyu stated.

"I wouldn't doubt it," I agreed.

"Does this place seem familiar to you?" Dahyun questioned.

We all stopped and realized that we were in a completely different section of the castle. That's weird, we just exited the treasure room the same way we came in.

"There were no stories about this," Chaeyoung muttered under her breath.

"So what do we do now that we don't know where we are?" Dahyun asked.

Everyone looked at me.

"Why are you all staring at me?" I frowned.

"You are kind of the leader of our group," Chaeyoung shrugged.

"I thought Tzuyu was the leader," I motioned, "She was leading us before."

"Yes," Chaeyoung nodded her head, "And then she led us right into a trap."

Tzuyu crossed her arms and scoffed, "I already said I was sorry."

"We have no hard feelings about it," Chaeyoung quickly added, "Just trying to prove a point."

I sighed, "Okay fine. Let's just look for a place up so we can find the other groups."

"I found some steps," Dahyun called out.

We rushed towards her and saw that there were in fact steps leading upwards. I hummed in approval, "Let's go."

Going up the stairs, we found ourselves on the ground level again. Sana and her group were sitting down near the dining room in sadness. We exchanged looks with each other and went to approach Sana and them.

"Hey guys," I called out.

Sana and her group looked at us in shock before a grin spread on their faces. They all came running towards us in glee.

All of us were tackled into a hug.

Sana had tears in her eyes as she threw herself on me, "You're okay!"

I laughed, "Of course we're okay. Why wouldn't we be?"

Sana pulled away in surprise, "You don't know?"

"Know what?" Chaeyoung questioned as she got up from being tackled by Mina.

"Mr. TOP found the artifact already. We all regrouped in the main room but we couldn't find you guys," Jihyo explained.

"Yeah. You guys have been missing for the whole day. Look," Momo pointed at the window which clearly showed how dark it was outside.

"It can't be night already," Dahyun cried, "We were in the basement for only an hour."

"An hour?" Mina questioned, "You've been gone for about 14 hours."

"That's impossible," Tzuyu muttered.

"Anything is possible," An authoritative voice sounded.

We all looked to our left to see Mr. TOP and everyone else who wasn't in Sana's group. They looked happy to see us.

"And where were you four? We've searched the whole castle and then we find you near the dining room?" Mr. TOP narrowed his eyes at us.

"We were in the basement," I answered.

"The basement? I checked the basement personally about three times," Mr. TOP muttered.

"Maybe you didn't look hard enough?" Tzuyu cocked her eyebrow.

I tried hard to hold in my laugh.

"In all seriousness, we were in the basement," Dahyun quickly added.

"Yeah. We got trapped in this one room where we were forced to solve a riddle," Tzuyu shrugged.

"And then when we did solve the riddle, we were in a different section of the castle. It was both weird and fascinating," Chaeyoung scratched her chin thoughtfully.

"Interesting," Mr. TOP whispered, "Very interesting indeed."

"So you found the relic, huh?" Dahyun sighed.

Mr. TOP, Nayeon, and Jeongyeon grinned in unison.

"Of course!" Nayeon smirked.

Tzuyu scoffed, "I bet Mr. TOP found it himself."

"Actually," Mr. TOP interjected, "Jeongyeon found it."

"Yeah. It was in the library," Jeongyeon laughed.

The rest of us just stared at the three of them laughing.

"It was that simple to find?" Jihyo crossed her arms.

"I mean the artifact is a book," Nayeon giggled, "Why wouldn't a book be in the library?"

"Because it's an artifact!" Chaeyoung yelled, "Why would an artifact be in the most simple place ever?"

"That's the exact reason why," Jeongyeon smirked, "No one would think anyone with any brains would put an artifact book in the library but someone did."

"That's so stupid," Tzuyu frowned.

"Is it?" Mr. TOP cocked his eyebrow, "Because you two groups went to look for some extravagant, locked up book. It's smart because no one would think so simply to look for the book in the library."

"Except me," Jeongyeon cheered, "I'm smart."

"Pfft," Momo rolled her eyes.

"You guys are just upset that you have to buy the three of us food," Nayeon laughed.

I chuckled, "You got that right. Can we leave this place now?"

"Yeah. How do we get back up to our ship?" Mina questioned.

"Huh," Mr. TOP scratched his head, "I didn't think of how to get back on the ship."

"Well our pets are outside the castle right now. Let's just set up camp outside with them?" I suggested.

"Can't we stay in here for the night?" Nayeon groaned.

"I don't think we should," Jihyo shivered, "This place is much more creepier at night."

"I agree with Jihyo," Momo nodded her head.

"Y-Yeah. Let's go sleep outside with our pets," Sana grabbed my hand and started pulling us outside.

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Pretty short but just wanted to update something :)

This so unedited~

Stay safe everyone