Chapter 6,
Best not to Take a Bath
Third Person's POV
Waking up, Eljeric rubbed his eyes and felt himself in Zephyr's lap and Zephyr was smiling at him as he got up.
"Sorry, I kinda dozed off," Eljeric apologizes as he scratched the back of his head.
"I don't really mind," Zephyr forgave him and pulled him closer to his chest and hugged him tightly.
"Won't you feel embarrassed if somebody sees us here?" Eljeric's face has some blush faintly visible in him.
"What are you saying, were in our room." Zephyr's words made Eljeric's mind go blank.
"This is definitely not the room I'm familiar with!" He complained.
"Haven't you slept in such rooms before?" Zephyr curiously asked.
"Well, how do you put it? This is just half of my room, if I estimate," Eljeric's words gave a heavy shock in Zephyr making him stop in his spot.
Jolting back to reality he asked, "Reizin family was more rich than this?"
"Reizin? Who's that? It sounds exactly like my second name, HAHAHAHA," Eljeric laughed.
"Huh? Did you hit yourself or something? Isn't you last name—" He paused realizing what Eljeric said.
"Second name?!" Zephyr's personality was more unbelievable right now, like, 'wow'.
"Heh? Isn't my name, 'Eljeric Reizin'?" he asked in confusion.
"That's exactly why!" Zephyr desperately explained as he was our of his character, "your last name is Reizin!"
"What are you saying? Reizin is just my second name given by the oldest guy in our family," He explained, baffled, but Zephyr was more how he is.
"Well, then what's you full name?" Zephyr asked, enlightened by his words.
"My full name is Eljeric Reizin Feiguil, if I'm not wrong. Is there something more?" His baffled expression never faded out of his face.
Shocked by his words, Zephyr spoke, "Bu-but the family is only known by average and elite families and it's said that their family only consists of six."
"I asked the same thing to my brother, but he just changed the topic everytime I did. A day came, some shady people came in our house and father and mother said they'll come to talk to them about something and told us to wait in our rooms. My sister came in my room while carrying a lot of stuffs that everyone owned and shoved it into my bag, then told me to leave after pushing me in the window. After I woke up, I realized I was in another city which is the Sen, the central city where this labyrinth is located." Eljeric told his story shyly as he has his hand on his other.
Zephyr hugged him tightly, "I didn't know I have a boyfriend of the royal blood. Well, whatever," he chuckled slightly.
Eljeric will never be able to see if Zephyr was acting or being true in his words for Eljeric only sees a good side of a person he's close with, overlooking the fact that they might be fake people using him for their own benefits. Zephyr was now his boyfriend, so doubting him was never an option in his eyes.
Zephyr said as he caresses Eljeric, "I wish things was this easygoing," he sighed making Eljeric chuckle.
Zephyr slowly pushed Eljeric in the bed and claimed on top of him, "Don't you want to?" He asked flustering Eljeric.
"D-don't want what?" He still remained red.
"You really think of dirty things from time to time, don't you?" He teased.
Eljeric flinched in fear, "y-you got it wrong! I-It's not it!" Zephyr just chuckled faintly.
"Ahem, Ahem, Gella-San here! Mic test, mic test!" The two stood up and diverted their gaze or gella who popped up on the screen of the tv.
"Can't we rest a bit more?" Zephyr complained, sighing.
"Uhmm, dear players, we have an urgent emergency. We wish you to come to the Meeting Hall for something." Gella seemed to be a talking in an awkward tone the she didn't had before.
"That's weird. I wonder why?" Eljeric spoke with a questioning look.
***
The Hall that was empty, was soon filled with different races that falls in pairs, groups and some strong-looking beings that are alone, as always. Tj and Lyka met up with the two and there they are standing a bit close to the center of the crowd while keeping their distance with the other groups chatting and mumbling to each other.
"What could it been?" A voice of a lady asked.
"Maybe the Labyrinth of Dreams got a problem? This is the biggest branch and the core of all parts of the Labyrinth of Dreams, after all." Another lady spoke as she covered her mouth as she mumbled.
"Maybe the Head of this place was too competitive that they don't want to loose to the other branches as he carries the pride of this part?" A boy with a blonde hair spoke like he didn't care an inch. He was a handsome man that he attracts many women to him. That's one of the advantages of being a human race, some are exceptionally handsome in every manner.
"If that's true, we're in deep trouble," Lyka whispered after she also heard the gossips from the females near them.
"Like what?" Zephyr asked.
"Like another room opens," Tj said in a crepy voice paired with a creepy look in his face as if he was scaring some random child he sees.
"Ahem! Attention on me everyone. The spotlight's only in me!" Senner called out, clapping as the place became dark and a spotlight shone on him.
"This is an urgent matter, the head might go berserk if we don't make a move, soon. Who knows what he will do to us, or worse, to you all," His expression became dark and the aura he emits are creepy and more scary than the one Tj shown. As if he was telling us that we should agree, or else, we're dead meat.
After his words, mumbling covered the place that no longer looked safe in the first place. Many would mumble, "we should obey. We're just wasting our life!" or, "Why the hell would they drag us into their own affairs? F*ck those sh*theads, they're just some f*kin' puppets of this d*mned place."
"No more questions. Quick, you'll die. You d*mn words gets on my nerves. As punishment for insulting us, you have to figure out the mechanics of the game without hints or questioning Gella about it. Always remember, the one to become and bound to be the person to finish crossing this Labyrinth are also puppets themselves." After that, he disappeared into the darkness that enveloped the whole place.
Suddenly, the place lit up and the room changed. The place is wider than usual. It was filled with junk that was odorless for it's all artificial ones. Mountains of trashes that remained mixed with each other. Rain pours very heavily, and because of this, the place was almost flooding with water.
"You won't complain this time?" Zephyr asked in his usual soft but cold monotone voice look at Tj directly, sending him his message.
"Well, I have to get used to it now, so. . ." His cheeks blushed as he was embarrassed by his past actions.
"This one's easy at first glance." Eljeric gave his usual kind smile.
"You two seemed to be like you usually are, did something happened? Or maybe. . ." Lyka hits Zephyr in his sides with her elbow, "Did you do it? Did you do it?" She added excited, as if her eyes were sparkling like the stars.
"Did what?" Eljeric seemed confused.
"Nothing, nothing," she said while she waves her hand up and down.
"Anyways, let me give a brief moment to explain." Eljeric cleared his throat, "in this place, two species are likely to live. One will be muddy slugs and clean sharks. If we survive the two, we win."
"So?" Tj asked.
"That's all. We should go high up so that they won't catch us and we should duck to avoid the jumping clean sha—" Eljeric was cut off by Lyka who shouted and Zephyr making them duck.
"Duck!" Lyka shouted as she saw a shark coming to their direction.
"What's this?" Lyka sked full of dread as she was terrified by the terrific view of sharks surrounding them.
No long, the sharks suddenly left as they fell in line, "Now what?" Zephyr asked as he still has his indifferent look.
"Something. . .b-big!" Lyka exclaimed.
Looking at what came before them, they were shocked that they can't even move in their position. It was a muddy slug at half the size of a pile of garbage. It was so big that it looked like it devoured a lot of people.
"Quick, in the water," Eljeric calmly ordered them as he pushed them to the water without permission.
Before the monster came too close to them, it stopped after Eljeric sat in the water and his body was drenched from shoulders to toe because of the high level of water. He was all dyed with the dirty water and so is the others that was pushed.
Suddenly, the monster came closer and lifted the four in his hands, "What's the meaning of this?" Zephyr desperately looked for the answer on Eljeric who was smiling innocently.
"Muddy Slugs are monsters that's harmless to those who are dirty like them. Clean sharks, on the other sides, targets those who have dirt in them, even just a little bit as long as they smells it. They fear muddy slugs for they are too dirty to be purified by their powers that's why they avoid interaction with them. We are less dirty than them so they target us, believing that they are able to purify us. Since we're dirty, they'll protect us as one of us and we could escape this place once they take us to the Dirty Altar and ask us to clean it. It's a way for they to find their peace," Eljeric replied to his question.
"So, which means, it was best not to take a bath, then?" Tj pouted.
"Dirty Altar? What's that?" The asked out of curiosity.
"They appear when monster that got tainted by light or darkness. They are pike the cause of their unpermitted evolution. Usually, these kind of monsters are low-level only and can be found in forests," Lyka, who was knowledgeable about this since she's a noble, spoke.
"Now, to the altar!" Eljeric excitedly exclaimed as he was worry-free right now like a little child.
***
"What the—?" Zephyr's indifferent look was suddenly changed.
"How do we clean this d*mn altar?" Tj said as he was also shocked.
"Tj, your mouth!" Lyka pinched him in his side.
The Dirty Altar had its name perfect for itself. It was an altar with neverending dirty water that flows from it towards the sky and some parts of it was embedded with seaweeds and at the middle, there's a beads emphasized in the middle made out of pearls that are shining clean.
"Do you have a plan?" Lyka asked, looking at Eljeric questioningly.
"Just break that," Zephyr pointed at the beads.
"That's all?" said Tj.
"We have to taint the purr using a tainted person. To do that, we need som—" Eljeric was cut off before he could say something.
"I'll go," Zephyr raised his hands cutting off Eljeric as he spoke.
"In all of us here, I'm the most tainted. My family passes down sins that was never forgotten by those who the sin was committed to, no matter how small it is. That's why people don't like being involved in our personal matters." He sighed and scratched the back of his head.
Touching the beads, its color became a gradient of dark blue to light blue. The color became so bright that it was almost blinding in the eyes, and slowly, it floated in the air. Next to it was when it split into two and one came to Zephyr and the other to Eljeric who was stunned.
"What is this? Some kind of coupled bracelets?" Lyka asked as her eyes glows in excitement as she scans the beads in every aspect.
In a sudden, the place stopped raining and the sun came out and the dirty water became clean and bright as a mirror and faces can be reflected in it.
"It feels like I was clean right now," Zephyr spoke as he holds onto Eljeric's hand facing the gorgeous scenery.
"You're right," Eljeric smiled, gripping his hand on Zephyr's tightly.
"Now, the mini game," Eljeric added in his original harmless look.
***