"Ahhh!" a scream came from the upper floor.
Kento jumped to the side eyes darting across the ceiling trying to understand where the screams came from. His heart paced rapidly thanks to the sudden scream. His eyes went flat when he finally realized the cause of it.
"Cilia?" he said now not surprised it was her.
"Guess she's already found something scary… I should go help her." He thought.
But then a thought came into mind.
This was supposed to be a test, and in as much Mr Kisharu was a looney, he knew what best to test them for them to grow. Thus, he made a swear.
"I won't help her even if she cries." He said then turned to his destination. He too had a story piece to find.
"The kitchen." He remembered.
Of the three destinations his was the only one in the lower floor. Cilia had the upper floor, which was currently shaking and dropping a lot of dust and cobwebs on him, and Karin was outside, which was just a show off.
Kento walked into the main hall of the lower floor. It was carefully segmented in the right and left wind each with its own series of functions. The fire place and the kitchen, among others, were each on the left side of the floor so finding his way to the kitchen was easy.
The night was quiet and still. The nocturnes outside all seemed to cherish the silence since Kento couldn't hear a single sound. Even the creeks under his feet seemed to grow silent as drew closer to the kitchen. His eyes crossed from wall to wall noticing claw like marks stretched across the old wallpaper on them. Kento assumed this to be from old age and would be expected for the house itself didn't seem to have regular maintenance. Yet that did stop the claw mark from growing. As he got to the kitchen the marks had grown from mere scars to punctures to the house's integrity.
The kitchen was large and expansive, mere evidence of the status the former residence used to have. A row of shelves was aligned across the walls almost circling the entire kitchen. At the center of the room a polished large marble surface stood where most of the ingredients would be prepared before being set out to the various stoves and ovens for cooking. To Kento it was a perfect kitchen worthy to prepare meals for a baron or even a duke.
In normal days it would have been the perfect kitchen but for today it could only be described as an aftermath of what would happen if a bunch of raccoons finally realized that the best food was not in the trash but what was in the kitchen and in unison raided the kitchen… with a grizzly as their bodyguard.
Kento ran his fingers across the dusty and broken marble table at the center of the kitchen. Half of it had gone and the other half only remained in shambles. By the door he could see scratch marks and evidence of struggle as though someone was trying to carry something heavy out of the kitchen. On the floor a long streak ran across to the door confirming his suspicions.
"In some parts marble is quite rare and pays a good price." He said as he continued his search.
He walked around what used to be the foundation of the marble table just aweing at the destruction that had fell on the room. Above him those rows of shelves were just wooden boxes with their doors hanging out shaking in the slightest of wind. The window by the sink was cracked letting the cold night air into the room and blowing what looked like a brown piece of paper up and about the string it was tied to.
'Wait a minute—' Kento thought squinting as he looked at the paper.
"The story piece." He said as he reached for it. He yanked it from the string it hung by and reached for his glasses.
"Congratulations…" it read." You have chosen the easiest of the four pieces. The path you are now in is like a treasure hunt. Once done with the kitchen move to the Loom at far end of the right hall on the floor, you're in. There you next clue awaits." The note ended with a drawing of a chest that was filled with gold and treasure.
'The next clue, huh.' Kento thought.
As his thoughts drifted to what the message was about, he felt a scorching burn in his finger. The fingers that were currently holding the piece of paper with the message on it. The he realized a sudden smoke rise from.
Realizing what is meant he quickly threw the piece of paper into the sink where it flared up from a spark to a flame and within minutes its black remains were picked up and scattered across the room by the breeze from the window.
His fingers stung from the burn as he watched the paper disperse across the room.
"Seems like the time limit is almost up, I better hurry." He said before making his way to the door. The paper had said that the next clue was in the loom at the end of the right side of the building. Kento wasted no time and rushed towards it.
***
The earlier noise from the upper floor had died down. Even the fast footsteps that were rushing across it had stopped. Kento looked up glad.
"I'm glad she's finally calm." He said.
He was currently standing at the front of a large door with wave like patterns. None like the kitchen, its door stood tall and unharmed by whatever forces were responsible for the damage in the kitchen. He placed his hands on the door knob and pushed.
The first thing to meet his eyes was nothing but dust. It was thick resulting him to cover his eyes and nose trying to escape its sting. He coughed a little as he walked into the Loom swatting away the dust bombarding his face with his hands. The room was stuffy with dust bunnies hoping all around.
Kento chuckled. The thought of dust bunnies was funny to him especially since he knew that it would spark up a heated conversation with Cilia. but with every chuckle more dust entered his throat causing him cough more which intern would lead to him to tear up. Ironic how she still won even without being there.
The coughing finally stopped and so did the dust. It cleared revealing the strings filled room and a wonder contraption that Kento had never seen before.
The loom was a simple, four-post frame, built from smooth, dark wood that had seemingly polished by countless hands. It stood quiet in a moonlit corner of the room. There were small stools close to it and were all ridden with webs. There was series of simple old unbleached cotton strings stretched and ready but never used, wrapped around into a warp of threads by the loom. The contraption was beautifully maintained except for the dust on it.
As his eyes gazed in wonder, he noticed something. Seated on one of the stools another brown piece of paper sat next to the open window. its edges had a hint of a dark char but most of it was intact. A smirk naturally grew on his face.
"This is more like it." He said as moved towards the paper.
As he walked towards it, he couldn't help but notice how everything was still in top condition. From whatever the machine in front of him was to even the windows. Nothing was broken or misaligned. The more he looked around, the more the idea of racoons invading the place became more plausible.
He took the paper and opened to read its text.
"The treasure hunt has three steps. You are in two. One more and you are home free. The last of the piece is in the library. In one of its books lies your final piece. But be careful because in a library information is all around you yet most come out with none." That was what the folded paper read.
After reading it Kento placed the paper back on the stool where just like the other one, blazed up and burned to a crisp.
'There's a… library in this place' Kento thought his hands clapping for joy like a little girl.
In the next second Kento had dashed of the giant mahogany door, exhilarated, to find the library.