She Enters the Tower

"Shhhh! You idiot! Do you want to let everyone in the tower know I'm here?!" Robin hissed, her ears folded themselves back like a real cat.

"How did you get in here? There's guards everywhere!" Christian asked.

"Through the side gate, like everyone else. Did you think that everyone waltzes through the main entrance?" Robin scolded.

"But, wouldn't they-why are you wearing a dress?" Christian asked. "And how did you get cat ears?"

"Do you think they'd let me in dressed in normal clothes as a man? Obviously it's so they don't realize it's me!" Robin didn't mention the fact that she had to say her gender before entering.

Christian's eyes glanced up at the ears. "But those ears..."

"Quinn helped me out with the ears and the hair. The only ears he knew well enough were cat's ears" Robin said, briefly, an ear flicking. "Jasmine did the makeup."

Christian understood. Quinn had a mimicking ability that would make replicating such things easy.

"So Quinn helped you out with your chest, too?"He asked.

Robin's ears went back, and she scowled. "Are you coming with me to leave, or not? I'd like to get out of the clothing of my childhood nightmares as soon as possible, thank you very much."

Christian knew he had stepped on a landmine. "I can't. There's a barrier in place over the door. I can't leave."

"The door?" Robin turned around, her ears posing quizzically.

The door had silently shut behind her. She reached out to the handle, but was also repelled.

"Eh!?" Robin exclaimed, her ears standing up straight. Suddenly, she felt like a fool. This was called the room of lovers. What if, in order to leave, they had to act like...A cold shivver ran down her spine as the hair on the back of her neck stood up. She began to panic.

"So we're both trapped in here, huh." Christian sighed, sitting back down on the bed. He glanced over at Robin's attire.

It was an ankle-length periwinkle blue gown trimmed with lace. Robin's black hair, which had been short, was now long, falling in curly waves down to her waist. It was tied with a matching blue ribbon in a half-up half-down style. Dressed like that, it was impossible to tell that Robin was a man.

Christian's face flushed, but he didn't say anything. It probably hadn't been easy for Robin, growing up. But....right now Robin looked so adorable, Christian wanted to laugh.

Strangely, nothing felt odd about Robin wearing women's clothes. Looking like a girl, but being a boy, he probably had been teased quite a lot.

"I tried using magic attacks, but this thing only absorbs them, so I stopped." Christian explained, trying to get his thoughts back under control.

Then he noticed something was wrong with Robin's behavior. Robin had brought out her hero's blade.

"Wait, Robin, what are you doing?" Christian asked, cautiously. What if he had noticed Christian's thoughts and was going to try killing him?

"I need to get out of this room, even if I need to break this blasted pervert tower into pieces!" Robin said. As she struck against the barrier in a panic-induced frenzy. But the sword which had cut like butter through a wyvern's scales failed to even scratch the barrier at the door.

Robin narrowed her eyes and struck the wall next to the door. Then she tried to cut the walls of the room, to no avail. The barrier covered the entire room.

Finally, she slumped to the floor across from Christian, to catch her breath.

"If you had waited a moment, I would've told you that I had already tried." Christian sighed. Robin scowled menacingly,as she sat up, hugging her knees. Her hair flowed down her shoulders like a dark veil.

"Are you sure you want to sit there? The floor is probably covered in dust." Christian asked.

"I am fine right here." Robin replied, looking like a cat with hackles raised. It was almost as if she would start emitting sparks. Christian forced his face not to smile. After all, it was not good to anger a swordsman, and Robin had not yet put away her sword.

Trying to diffuse the situation, he brought out an intricately-carved bow.

"This bow is a famous magic weapon, only second to the hero's blade: the Artemis Bow. Legend says that this bow was once wielded by the Hero's companion, Artemis, who was the queen of the elves at the time. It has only accepted five other masters before me, including my country's founder. I am the seventh." Christian explained.

"You tried to shoot through the barrier, didn't you." She guessed, calming down a bit.

"That's right. The power was so great that even the arrow head was shattered into dust, but the barrier remained intact. I guess we can only wait until someone lets us out."

Robin regained a bit more calm. That's right. Christian wouldn't act differently just because she dressed differently. 'Besides, he already has someone that he likes. So why would he even look at me?' She remembered.

That was another reason why they needed to leave. Robin would never forgive herself if she was the reason why he forgot the person he liked. For some reason, the sour feeling resulting from that thought calmed her down the most.

In reality, Christian was trying his hardest to suppress his face from showing how cute Robin looked to him right now. After all, it was an insult to think a man was cute.

"That bow is so impressive, huh?" Robin mused. "Then, why didn't you use it when we were facing that wyvern?"

"Er- that...It was too close to safely try and shoot. Remember, I was kind of busy running for my life?" Christian pointed out.

Robin laughed. "That's true enough!" She agreed, relaxing completely.

"Welcome back to normal." Christian said, relieved that Robin didn't seem likely to snap now. "I think this is the second time I have seen you in a panic since that potion incident. What made you so panicked all of a sudden?" He asked

Robin looked at Christian pointedly. "Do you realize just what your situation is, right now? This tower is an artifact from before the hero wars."

"How do you know that?" Christian asked. "No, wait." He raised his hand to stop her. "I can guess. The Strategist, right?"

"Yup. He also said that if we don't get out before noon, yours-well now probably both our memories are going to be wiped cleaner than a sheet of paper." Robin frowned thoughtfully.

"What!? We need to get out!" Christian exclaimed, standing up. "Didn't he give you a hint or a clue to get out?"

"Well, I think he did give me a clue, actually, but it's pretty bogus. At this point, I'm even doubting its validity." Robin sighed.

"Come on, Robin, do you want to just give up and forget everything about your brother!?" Christian encouraged.

Robin glared at him. "I never said I was giving up. I'm just uncertain how to interpret it."

"Oh." Christian sat back down on the bed. "So what was the clue?"

"The name of this room....is the Room of Lovers." Robin finally said.

'Lovers?' Christian pondered, then glanced at Robin's face before shaking his head to clear it. Robin was a man. There was no way it was possible.

"I was thinking there might be some sort of trigger or switch to dispel the barrier within the room." Robin said, as she looked about. Her ears turned this way and that, in curiosity.

"Trigger?" Christian waved his hand, trying to banish the strange thoughts of Robin as a girl. "There's no way. The walls are completely solid, and there's nothing even remotely like a trigger here.

"True, there's nothing in here aside from the table....and the bed. So the trigger has to be on one of these things." Robin noted.

"Let's try it out. Christian, why don't you sit here at the table with me and check around for a trigger popping up." Robin approached everything logically.

"O-okay." Christian sat down across from Robin, feeling a bit nervous for some reason. It was a very strange thing, but, even though they were a normal distance apart, Christian became highly aware of how close they were.

After a long moment, Robin asked him. "Well? Find anything different?"

"Oh! Um, no. Nothing seems different. There are no protrusions or raised wood pieces. No gaps or buttons." Christian replied, realizing he had been looking at Robin in a daze.

It was a good thing Robin had been busy looking down at the table and hadn't noticed his stare. Christian took in a deep breath, hoping to calm himself that way.