Azekiel kept tapping the walls. Fortunately, it looked like he found something after some time. There was one small part of the wall that he felt was hollow on tapping.

He clenched his fist and punched the hollow part of the wall. As soon as the outer shell of the wall was broken, Azekiel was able to see a metallic door behind him that was hiding behind that hollow part. In the door, Azekiel could also see a small section that looked like a place where a key could be inserted.

From his inventory, Azekiel brought the key of the castle which he had received. He inserted the key in the keyhole and turned it around.

As soon as he turned the key, he heard a clicking sound as if something had unlocked.

Following the click, the entire wall slid down, disappearing on the ground, revealing the entire floor behind it.

As the door was already unlocked, all it took was a little push to open the door.

Following a small push, the door opened. Azekiel entered the special room. The door closed behind him once again after he entered.

****

The room was pitch black, but it was filled with light as soon as Azekiel entered the room.

Unlike the bedroom where they had been before, this room was quite different.

This room looked more like a storage room than a room to rest.

There were wooden boxes that were kept all around the room.

It wasn’t Azekiel’s first time coming here, but in this Timeline, it was his first time. When he came here last time, he had already checked all the boxes. That’s also why he knew just what was inside each of the boxes.

He also noticed a crack in the wall, right around the imprint of a fist. His fingers touched the imprint. He remembered that it was also created by him when he had come here last time. He was so angry at that time, being unable to find who he was looking for.

He walked to the first wooden box, but instead of opening it, he kept it aside and picked up the wooden box that was under it as if that was what he needed.

He sat on the first wooden box and placed the next box right before him.

The box wasn’t sealed anymore since he had already opened it last time. Only a wooden top was kept on top of the box without sealing it.

He removed the top of the box, looking inside as some incomprehensible expressions flashed before his eyes.

****

Three hours later, Azekiel returned to the place where Raphael and Lia were sleeping. They still looked like they were asleep.

He walked back to the bed and lay on it. His eyes were slightly red now that he had returned, compared to before when he had left.

He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath.

“Uhmmm.” As he laid on the bed, Lia made some noise, still sleeping. She turned around, placing her hands on Azekiel’s chest.

Azekiel opened his eyes, noticing Lia’s hand on his chest, but before he could do anything, Lia even slid closer to him as if he was her teddy bear.

‘Just what is she dreaming about?’ Azekiel wondered, noticing how close Lia was to him. He could feel her breaths against his body as her hand rested on his chest. Her right leg was also on top of his knees.

Azekiel observed the face of Lia. There was a smile on her face. It was like she was having a really nice dream.

‘Fine. I’ll let you be.’ He didn’t push her aside and let her sleep, not disturbing her sleep.

She had been looking so serious ever since she heard his stories about him being the creature of this tower that seeing her smile was a welcome change.

However, that was only until her legs were on his knees. Her leg moved up slightly, her thighs landing on his thighs. It was the closest she had ever been to him.

Azekiel still didn’t react. He just tried to go to sleep like he was, only to open his eyes again as he felt her hand moving down slowly toward his waist.

“You aren’t sleeping,” Azekiel softly muttered. “By now, he realized that Lia was already up.”

Lia slowly opened her eyes which still looked somewhat sleepy. “You aren’t either.”

“I just woke up,” Azekiel answered.

“Me too,” Lia also answered the same.

“May I ask why you’re this close to me then?” Azekiel asked. “Is this some kind of test to see if I would do something when you’re supposedly asleep?”

It wasn’t hard to guess what it could be an attempt to. If Lia knew that he was up, it was the perfect time for her to test such nonsense. Maybe because she had lost trust in him, she wanted to test him like this?

“If it was, you failed,” Lia answered.

“How did I fail?” Azekiel asked, confused. He didn’t do anything. How did he fail? He had been still.

“Because I didn’t push you away?” That was the only thing he could guess as to why she considered him failed in his resolve. “I didn’t want to wake you up and break your dream. That’s nothing more to it.”

“That’s not why you failed,” Lia whispered in Azekiel’s ears. “You failed because you didn’t do anything.”

“Hmm?” What was Lia talking about? It didn’t look like her personality. She really wanted him to do something? Why, out of nowhere, when just until recently, she kept her distance.

Something wasn’t right, and it was evident. He wondered if it was something about this room. Was her mind under some external influence? That could be the only thing that explains this. But how? Why wasn’t he or Raphael affected by it?

Just as Azekiel was lost in his thoughts, Lia’s hands moved down, sliding inside his pants.

Lia took hold of something she shouldn’t as she started moving her hands.