Pretty Name

After reading the letter, without having to use his left eye, Noah had already obtained all the necessary information to reach a conclusion about what had happened.

Apparently, the Baughan family, or at least the first generations, were aware of the mirror world, and not only that, but they were hiding a very dark secret.

"...They severed him and separated him, don't open and don't come down..." Those words had stuck in Noah's mind, their meanings being something the young man discovered sooner rather than later.

With separating, Noah could only think that they had done something heinous with the son, and with hiding, that whatever they had done with him, it had been buried elsewhere.

The location was not hard to figure out, since it was also written on the letter, saying don't open and don't come down.

The only thing he had not opened so far were the doors in the basement, while the don't go down part might not seem to make sense since he already was in the lowest part of the house, the basement.

However, the young man did not believe that the basement was the lowest part of the house, but that there was something else he was yet to investigate.

Wasting no time, having already lost his fear of whether there was anything in the surrounding darkness, Noah then began to move the furniture on top of the circular mat.

Until finally, after a few minutes, all that remained in the center was the circular mat.

With a look of determination on his face, Noah then lifted the mat with a single tug, revealing that his suspicions were correct.

On the floor under the mat, a large circular door appeared, being so large and sturdy that it didn't seem to have been made for humans.

Though thinking about what might be hiding inside, it really could be that the door had been designed with something non-human in mind.

"..."

His suspicions had been confirmed as true, that the mat in the center of the basement had been there to hide this large door, which had several chains attached to what appeared to be the gate to enter.

It seemed that whoever put this door in the first place truly did not want that which was hidden behind this door to be discovered or at least, that it could get out.

As for what was behind this door, it didn't take Noah too much thought for the answer to pop into his head.

"...The body of the firstborn must be in there, or at least part of it." The young man said, observing the chains that kept the hatch sealed.

More than that, what had Noah intrigued was why there was a need for them to have to go to such lengths as to even lock this being in when they had even already cut him up and separated him, in the words of Tristan Baughan.

Unless of course, that which they cut and separated was still alive, something that would not surprise Noah too much considering the qualities of the inhabitants of the mirror world.

Stepping away from the circular door, now the question Noah asked himself was what he should do at this point.

Originally his intention was to clean this house, which to some extent, had not changed even now.

However, after going through the basement, along with all the information it contained, had caused him to think seriously about whether it had been a good idea to make the Baughan compound his new base.

He had hoped to find a collection of ancient weapons in addition to being able to take advantage of the large space of this property, but he had ended up stumbling upon a dark secret.

A secret that involved the founder of the most influential family in the entire city, and one of the most powerful even in the country.

And although this secret was giving him huge signs that he might find forbidden knowledge, unknown rituals, or even supernatural relics, the level of danger he felt was extremely high.

In that case, if he were to wander into any of these doors, without even having enough blood to make a [Ritual: Horrible Web], he would be in real danger if what he encountered was even half as dangerous as the darkness of the hanged man.

Turning to the thick darkness around him, perhaps because of the feeling of loneliness he got from being in such a tremendous space on his own, or perhaps for some unknown reason, Noah was reluctant to enter any of these doors.

Or at the very least, not now.

"..."

Not wanting to leave without further ado, the young man then approached the gate surrounded by the chains and touched one of them wanting to see if he could discover anything else with the help of the system.

"!"

However, just when he did this, his face, only moments ago full of determination warped into a pained expression as he fell to the ground on his knees.

__________________________

[Warning: The host is under attack by [Chaos], an increase to the level of infection is imminent].

__________________________

Even without the system message, Noah was quick to identify where the pain was coming from, as the rest of his body gave him clear clues as to its origin.

His chest was burning intensely, with his limbs filling with a force that seemed to be begging him to tear at the clothing that restricted them.

At the same time, black veins began to fill his arms to no end, being filled with a disastrous but extremely potent energy.

"You'd better get out of here, it's not good for your condition." Said suddenly the woman of roses observing the suffering of the young man.

Clutching his chest with one hand, between aches and pains and the darkness of the basement, Noah had no choice but to pick himself up off the floor and begin walking towards the stairs, the heat inside him diminishing as he moved away from the center.

However, because he was focused on getting out of the basement in his dismal condition, he didn't notice what was happening behind him as he left.

Behind him, the shadows began to move and pile up, coming from everywhere, be it the floor, the walls or the ceiling, all seeming to materialize faintly.

Following the young man's every step, the shadows seemed to want to be as close to him as they could, getting to the point where they were sometimes about to touch him.

However, just as he reached the stairs, at the point where the darkness of the basement ended and the gray light outside began to grow stronger, all movement other than Noah's ceased.

---

"Ah, I feel awful..."

Lying on one of the couches in the living room, the young man found himself resting from the attack he had suffered in the basement.

Now his torso was uncovered, since due to the unbearable heat he felt earlier, he had no choice but to take off both his T-shirt and his hoodie.

On his skin, the light sequelae that the attack had left him could be seen. As if they were thin roots, the veins on his arms and especially, from the center of his chest, were visible thanks to their jet color.

They weren't much compared to the times when he faced the Faceless Wrath or when his body tried to take the drop of blood from the hanged man, but still, they were noticeable.

With the added detail that this time, they didn't seem to be fading even though it had already been a couple of minutes since he had the attack.

On top of that, the young man found himself resting his head as well due to what happened when he retreated from the basement.

Since he had entered, he had had the feeling that he was not alone, but had only been able to confirm this just when he reached the stairs, being able to see out of the corner of his eye how the darkness seemed to want to swallow him whole.

This had made Noah's hair stand on end even amidst the pain in his chest, as well as making him feel grateful for two things.

First that he had been able to get out of there quickly, and second, that the darkness made no move against him while he was blindly exploring.

Then, just as Noah was thinking about how he might deal with the darkness in the basement, he was interrupted by a voice already familiar to him.

"I thought we had more time with the chaos, but it looks like you'll have to postpone your cleanup of the base for the time being." Spoke the woman of roses in her same carefree tone as always, "Recover a bit and then let's go to the backyard."

"...Fine, but first let me do something." Letting out a sigh, the young man took a few seconds before entering into one of the rooms on the second floor and pulling out several small pieces of furniture along with one large one.

Since he really couldn't continue investigating the basement in his current state, with most of the basement still being unknown to him, he couldn't trust that nothing would come out while he was paying attention to something else.

Therefore, the best he could do for now was to plug the only apparent entrance, first by putting the long couch to act as a plug and then the small ones on top to give it weight.

This took him about 20 minutes, but to feel a little safer, it wasn't long.

As for why he listened to the woman of roses so easily, it was because he also wanted to deal with the chaos soon, as it was starting to seriously affect him.

Although now in the basement it could be said that he was lucky, as there really wasn't an imminent threat, it was more than confirmed that this wouldn't be the case every time.

Now that he had made up his mind to continue exploring the mirror world, he was going to get himself into a lot of dangerous situations whether he wanted to or not, and to suddenly have the chaos in his body work against him was something he didn't need.

"Should I put my t-shirt and hoodie back on?" Noah asked, not sure if he wanted to experience the unbearable heat from before again.

"No need, just take me and your backpack for the time being."

Following her instructions, Noah walked out of the dark complex in the direction of the backyard.

Despite his obvious lack of clothing, he didn't feel cold, which while odd, wasn't really something the young man was going to complain about.

Just as Noah was standing by the empty pool, the woman gave him further instructions, "Go to the middle of the lawn and sit cross-legged, it's time for you to start your diet."

As he walked, Noah expressed his doubts, "I thought the diet thing had to do with food, but there's nothing here, unless you mean the cookies."

"It was also my main idea for you to get food, but because of certain... boundaries I wouldn't want you to cross, I came up with this new method that is almost as good as the original, or even better if we're lucky."

After she finished speaking, the wind in the surroundings began to move in a specific direction, surrounding the young man as he sat on the ground, as if it wanted to insulate him from the outside.

At one point, the wind was moving with such speed that it had begun to cut the grass on the ground, scattering dirt and pieces of grass everywhere.

It might seem like a chaotic scene, if one did not see that the wind was cutting the grass in a certain specific way, slowly drawing a circle on the ground.

Before long, the grass not only had a circle drawn, but several symbols had also appeared, in the main cardinal directions.

All this with Noah standing in the middle, looking intently at the spectacle taking place in front of him.

The symbols interested him, so much so that he even tried to use his left eye to be able to see the truth behind these, something that was quickly stopped.

"I recommend that if you want to preserve your eyesight, don't even try." Warned the woman of roses, looking through Noa as if he were an open book.

Lifting his shoulders as a sign of defeat, the young man decided to ask a question, taking advantage of the fact that the woman seemed to be in a conversational mood.

"You know, I think we've known each other for a while, but we haven't called each other by name yet, I'd like to change that."

On one hand, this statement from the young man was due to not wanting to refer to her as 'The Woman of Roses' all the time, but it was also due to wanting to know more about her, including the most basic things like a name.

"Names, child, have a certain power here, especially when given by the person themselves. It's a risk not many would be willing to take."

Hearing this, Noah was quick to jot this information down, thinking about what section of his notebook he could add it to.

However, that thought was put on the back burner to make way for another bold statement from the young man.

"I believe that just for the sake of getting to know you better, it's worth the risk, so I introduce myself, I'm Noah Winther."

There was a short silence for a while, which the longer it went on, the more it made the young man think he had made a mistake.

"Hah! That's only with entities of my level, child. With you, even if I knew your great grandparents' names, it wouldn't be enough to do more than tickle you." Laughed the woman, amused at Noah's line of reasoning.

"Ah, is that so? Too bad then." The young man lamented with a rueful smile.

Suddenly, the wind around the young man left the grass to focus on him. The breeze surrounded him in such a way that he even felt a weight on his shoulder, as if someone was leaning there.

"However, you didn't know that, so it's a great gesture that you have so much trust in me." The woman's voice came directly from his shoulder, being so close that Noah could even swear he could feel her breath.

"I can't tell you my full name for reasons, but for now, you can just call me Rose... it's nice to meet you, Noah."

As Rose finished speaking, the pressure Noah felt on his shoulder disappeared.

Despite that, the young man stood still for a short time, not having expected that reaction from her at all.

Until finally, he managed to spit out a few words.

"That... Is a pretty name."