chapter 25

“Ahhh!”

It was then that the fire, which had been burning at knee-level, suddenly increased in size, it was now blazing fiercely. Turns out, the situation was not at its worst yet, and it did get even more devastating. I felt like life was pulling a huge prank on me.

We were supposed to go outside, but the flare-up fire had completely blocked the exit. With Heidi screaming in horror, I spotted the exit from afar.

We are doomed.

“Uh, what do I do? What should I do now…”

Having seen the fire obstructed our only way out, it would not be that strange if Heidi were to faint on the spot. Her pupils were shaking violently.

I was stuck too, not only physically but mentally as well. The me from earlier would never have seen this coming, things had gotten way out of hand and it was no longer at a state which I could solve on my own.

If only I knew Heidi was in this room right away!

But what was the use of this regret? I hurriedly pulled the blanket wrapped around Heidi up to cover half of my face. I gave Heidi the wet handkerchief I brought, so I thought I could somewhat stop the smoke from coming inside my respiratory system this way.

Subsequently, I turned to reassure her.

“It will be fine. Now people are on their way to the rescue.”

“R-really? Can we live?”

“Of course, please stand as close to the wall as possible.”

It was best to say this, her quivering heart needed to be appeased.

I bent over and looked at the door over the flames. I left the door of the interior room open, so I could hear people when they came… It was strangely quiet.

When will they come? My forehead crumbled. I had told Daisy to call someone, so she must have asked for help, but it was relatively late.

Then, the small chandelier hanging from the ceiling thumped. It fell and shattered.

“Ahhh!”

Heidi screamed frantically again. It was startling. At the horrifying sound, I clasped my chest and backed away until my back bumped against the wall. The shattered chandelier quickly disappeared into the flames.

I could not…I could not bring myself to wait idly in this deadly trap. I would probably turn into a corpse before those damn people arrived, not to mention Heidi was with me. Let’s find a way out. I looked around, seeking another resolution.

Now the height of the flames was close to my height. It was not at a level that could be blown out by throwing a blanket. If it continued to grow at this rate, it might reach the ceiling after a while…

At that moment I noticed a trace on the ceiling.

“Lady Coventry, look at that!”

I pointed at the ceiling.

Did they expand the room’s space? As if two areas were merged into one, a long seam-like line cut through the ceiling.

Heidi looked alternately between me and the direction my finger was pointing at, she asked in a teary voice.

“Wh-what is that?”

“I don’t know, but I think there is something there, it might be of use.”

I moved my gaze to the right along the trail. On the right side of the room, a cabinet taller than my height was installed, covering a part of the wall. The bulging thing looked like the trace of a door frame being removed behind there.

The cabinet, which had natural stones — some sort of fossil displayed on its surface, was situated exactly at the ceiling joint. It was just the right width as if it was located there on purpose.

That bothered me, could it be that they put it there to cover something up?

But there was no time to agonise over it, I acted immediately. There was a gap of about two fingers length between the wall and the cabinet, so I applied force to pull it aside.

“Urgh…!”

But the cabinet full of heavy stones did not budge.

I opened the cabinet and swept all the stones inside to the floor. If they were to be broken, I would compensate for it afterward, it was much more important to make it out of here first.

I called out to Heidi.

“Help me with this!”

“Oh, sure!”

It was definitely better than doing it alone. After dropping all the natural stones out, the cabinet was quickly pushed aside with Heidi’s help.

There was a plain white wall. As I put my hand against the wall, Heidi asked, side-glancing at the flames.

“What is it?”

“Well…it looks just like any other wall to me?”

I tried knocking on the wall. Then, a light sound was heard.

At that moment, Heidi and I turned to look at each other, it was as if there was a brief sense of telepathy between us.

“I think it sounds weird.”

I said, knocking on the wall again. A normal wall would not make a sound like this. There was definitely something about this wall.

Without much thought, I picked up the largest stone of all the ones I had dropped to the floor earlier.

“What are you going to do?”

Heidi, with her nose covered, asked in a nasal voice.

I also covered my nose with the blanket and hit the wall with the stone I held in my right hand.

“I’m going to break through it!”

Thump-!