The mansion's compound was as spooky as the stories about it described. There had been an old folklore that even before the three had made it into the forest had heard quite enough to build a visual description from it.
The mansions gate opened with a screeching creek from its rusted hinges. The sound made Cilia's ears hurt throwing her into a new tantrum.
"Can't you open the gate more gently, Kento?" she asked angrily covering her ears from the pain.
"I'm sorry, but the gate is really and I need to use more strength." Kento said pushing more in the gate.
"Yeah, well my ears are sensitive so be gentler."
"Quite your crying Cilia…" Karin snapped at Cilia still angry from her previous fault.
Cilia grew quiet not wanting to feel Karin's wrath again.
In as much as Cilia hated it, the gates opened slowly each screech less bearable than the last. As they opened a gust of salty ocean water air rushed by the three assaulting each of their nostrils. They covered their noses shielding them from the mild sting from the saline air. The smell stuck in the air for a while but gradually softened as they stepped deeper into the compound.
The mansion's compound into two halves with respect to the mansion main door. On the right a dry cracked tired fountain stood.
Its white color had faded over the years revealing its inner stone it was curved from. The fountain itself was a structure with stone like pillars etched at the bottom each with a water hole. The on the next layer above it the same stone pillars where curved only their number had lessened and their width had increased. At the top stood a headless figure whose distorted hands where in unison as though they were praying. Together the fountain was like a three-layered cake with scaling pillars at the bottom and a headless figure at the top. Along the surface area of the fountain there were empty slots of what looked like shaped jewel.
On the left side a well stood in the middle of dried scrubs. The well itself was in good shape, well for a well that is, with it rope and wooden backet dangling over at the side. The scrubs around it seemed like remnants of a flora that was planted there. They spaced in a pattern around the well almost making it seem like a huge maze only now one could see through the dried-up maze.
The Fountain and maze surrounded well were the two main feature of the expansive compound.
"What happened here?" Kento asked as his eyes scoped the surrounding.
He walked forwards trying not to trip on the cracked flintstone on the path. The path to the mansion door was filled with similar potholes. Some looked like footsteps other like a huge sledge hammer had been repeated slammed on the ground just to unearth the tiles.
"A fight?" Karin wondered too looking amazement at the destruction portrayed.
"Maybe but who would such a thing?" Kento asked.
"Who cares? Let's just hurry and get out of this place." Cilia said hurriedly as she walked past through the path.
"Wait Cilia. Remember this is a test. We need to wait for our instructions from the fief." Karin called out to the weary Cilia.
"Let's wait inside…" she said as she alighted the flight of stairs that headed into the mansion door.
Karin sighed as she watched Cilia step into the mansion.
"Let's go inside." Kento said ushering Karin towards the door.
Things are scary when the brain doesn't know enough of the thing. That mystery sets of the brain to try and guess what's happening what that thing is. As for haunted houses the setting builds that mystery. The room is dark or dimly lit except maybe one or two windows letting in moonlight. The house itself is in tatters with its old furniture lying around broken and splinter ridden and a thin layer of dust on almost everything. A giant picture frame on the wall above the fireplace with the picture torn removing all the nice bits and remaining with the dark scary parts. There is also a distant creak usually the wooden stairs that lead to the second floor finally giving in to their old age.
Well that what the three would describe the inside of the mansion.
"Hey Karin… you have those instructions yet?" Cilia asked her voice wobbly.
"No that's why I told you we should wait outside." Karin answered.
"What were we even supposed to be doing here?" Cilia asked her fear slowly erasing her memory.
Karin sighed but she expected as much. "The teacher said we are supposed to learn something about… Awakenings."
"Awakenings… why do we need to learn about those… the three of us are already Harmatia?" she asked.
In the middle of her complains Kento had left the two and started wandering across the first floors rooms.
"Hey guys I think I found the first instructions." He called out from the fire place room.
Karin followed the sound into the fire place with Cilia behind her. "Hey don't live me behind." Cilia said following Karin.
In the Fire place room Kento stood below the giant picture frame. The fire place was full of ashes and half burnt wood. Above it the picture frame stood describing the family that used to live in the mansion.
It featured a family of three with the couple too old for one to even try to age. The third was a child another caveat to the family. Most of the image had survived the years of solitude keeping the original idea of a happy family painted in front of their large white mansion.
"A book?" Karin asked on seeing the book in Kento's hands.
"Yeah. There's a message inside." Kento said opening the leather cover book.
"Well read it." Karin ordered.
"Okay…" Kento's face fell flat on seeing the first page.
On the first page a vivid manga like drawing of their teacher, Mr Kisharu, greeted Kento's eyes with an eye sore smile and a peace sign. It got his face in detail even his terrace like scar that ran down on the left side of his fore head.
"Its master Kisharu. "He said in a blunt and disappointed tone.
"What! Lemme see." Karin asked pulling the book from Kento.
"Yeah, it's him. But wait…" she said flipping the page." There's more on the other side of the page." She said readying to read the text. Suddenly Cilia stopped her. She took the book from her hand and gave it back to Kento. Then said…
"Let Kento read… he has a better reading voice than you."
"What did you just say…!"
Another fight was immanent; Karin finger's just inches from Cilia's neck. As such Kento hurriedly pulled out his reading glasses and flipped to the page with the text.
"This is what the teacher says…" he shouted halting the fight. The two's attention shifted to from their quarrel to Kento's majestic voice.
"Hi there you three, if you are reading this it means that the book hasn't burned up and Cilia finally noticed that she had seen the building you are looking for before the test began. If so congratulations!! You have completed the first phase of the test… confetti! … confetti! Now for the second part it's going to be in the form of a story. Lucky for you, you three decided to do this test as a team as such the test had to be changed to suit your number."
"The story is broken up into four parts, one for each and the last one for the three of you. You three are to decide who is to do what and at the end you bring back what each of you found and complete the story. Simple right. The hopes of the fief are that you three learn about awakenings and pass the test. Here are the rooms where the story pieces are located… That's it for now. Good luck…" Kento finished reading.
He pulled back his glasses and placed them in their sockets and back to his bag.
"Is that all?" Karin asked surprised because she had seen more than two pages of the note book filled with text.
"Yeah. Most of the other characters there were just drawing of him describing to everything he wrote… except for the confetti part." Kento answered.
"Those were the instructions, hmm. Makes sense since the previous times they were administered to one student at a time." Karin observed.
"Mr Kisharu wants us to split up to test each of our abilities separately."
"Seems like it," Kento concurred." Now the only problem is… who's taking which part of the story?" Kento asked as their eyes rolled from one person to the other.