Deon simply shoved both hands into his pockets and started walking after Vivian.

Hana watched him for another second, clearly unsatisfied, but she didn’t press. Maybe because she knew he wouldn’t give her a proper answer...or that he had none.

Regardless, her footsteps followed. So did the twins’ and Jin’s.

The left corridor was just a bit away from the entrance hall, lined with portraits of unfamiliar faces. The blood trail continued along the marble for several meters before thinning into one of the rooms near the Garden Wing.

Deon grimaced at the fact, but decided to ignore it and move on. At the end of the corridor, the place opened up into a set of tall glass doors already hanging open with a small plaque just above the archway. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚

[Garden Wing]

Deon pushed one of the glass doors wider before stepping through. And the first word that came to his mind...was beautiful.

Annoyingly beautiful.

It was a massive indoor garden that stretched beneath a domed ceiling of clear glass, large enough that it almost resembled a piece of spring itself. Stone paths curved between beds of flowers Deon didn’t recognize and neatly trimmed hedges.

White pillars wrapped in vines supported archways decorated with ribbons, lanterns, and hanging glass ornaments that chimed softly whenever they swayed with the warm air.

How the hell does the Garden manage to look like this when the rest of the house is old and decrepit?

But Deon learned not to question Miracle Royale logic anymore and to just press onward.

"So pretty..." Mina muttered, the words leaving her mouth without her realizing it.

"Yeah," her twin sister nodded from the side, bending down and smelling one of the blue flowers that looked like it had just bloomed.

Deon reached out, about to tell them to be careful, but the look on Hana’s eyes told him that he should just let them have their temporary peace.

Instead, he turned his eyes toward the unmissable building in the far end of the Garden Wing—a large conservatory.

It rose from the back of the garden like a greenhouse, built with elegant white metal and pink-tinted glass. At the center of its double doors was a circular emblem shaped like a blooming rose.

Deon stared at it.

"That’s probably it."

"The Rose Room?" Vivian asked.

"Yeah."

A crowd had already gathered in front of the conservatory doors. The woman who had sprinted ahead from the entrance hall was there, panting with one hand pressed against the pink glass.

The spear user stood beside her, trying to shove the tip of his weapon between the doors without any luck.

Joshua stood a few steps back with blood still drying along his sleeves, watching the attempts with an expression that Deon couldn’t quite make out.

"Open, damn it!" the spear user shouted. He wedged his spear between the doors and pulled with both hands. But as he did, the wooden shaft started creaking before—

CRACK!

The entire weapon snapped in half before dissolving in a rush of gray light back into the Card in his pocket.

Joshua grabbed his shoulder. "Stop. The Truth said it can’t be opened by force. That means there has to be another gimmick."

The woman noticed Deon and his group approach first before grimacing. "Great...they’re here too."

Deon ignored the comment, looking past her and into the conservatory. "Figure anything out yet?"

"No..." Joshua said softly. "But if I remember correctly, we’re supposed to serve the Lady of the household some kind of tea."

"However," he added. "We don’t know what kind. Well, as a matter of fact, we don’t even know where or who the Lady is?"

Hmmm, Joshua’s actually not too shabby if he actually used his head to solve the puzzle instead of trying to pull whatever stunt he’s doing...

Though the more Deon thought about it, the more he found it strange. He had let Joshua slide all this time because he seemed to just be doing politician things.

Why the hell would he drag the body out? Someone as smart as him knew the repercussions and did it anyway. He could’ve easily waited for someone else to find it and not have any dirt on himself.

He’s flip-flopping way too much between being people-smart...and a complete idiot. It’s almost like he’s trying to play the—

Ding!

Deon’s thoughts were cut off by a sound that came from above. A blue panel unfolded across the Garden Wing ceiling, so large that even the people standing at the conservatory doors stopped moving.

[Garden Wing Boundary Confirmed.]

[All active contestants have entered the Garden.]

"Wait...!" a man’s voice came from the main entrance.

BANG!

Everyone turned at once.

The entrance they had just walked through was now sealed. The glass doors had slammed shut, with brass vines wrapped around the frame, twisting and locking the doors in place with a click.

The same man by the entrance immediately rushed back and grabbed the handle fervently. "It won’t open!"

Another tried to slam their shoulder into it, yet not even the frame budged, not one bit.

"Tch..." Deon looked around. "So it waited until the last group entered."

Hana’s face paled. "Then we’re trapped in here?"

"We were trapped in the mansion already. This is just a smaller cage." Vivian said lightly, but even Deon could see the slight worry leaking from her face.

"That doesn’t help at all!"

"It wasn’t meant to."

But before anyone could argue, the light above them changed. At first, Deon thought clouds had passed over the dome. Then he realized that couldn’t be right.

There was no real sky here.

The clear glass ceiling darkened as if ink had been poured across the other side. The warm daylight vanished, replaced by a deep violet dusk that spread over the entire Garden Wing in seconds.

The lanterns hanging everywhere suddenly lit themselves one by one, glowing with a soft golden flame.

Every single rose in the garden slowly tilted its bloom toward the contestants.

Hana sucked in a breath. "Deon..."

"I see it."

[Sub-Game Initiated.]

[The Lady’s Tea Party]