Althea: The Legendary Saintess [Shoujo]

When Laila opened the door, it led to some room. Surprised, she kept the door open and looked back. Behind her was still a cave.

Curiously, she stepped into the room. It seemed larger than expected. Following behind Laila were Erica and Catelea, with Julia, Finis, and Claro entering the room after them.

"What's this? This is a room," remarked Finis unusually.

"You can see that for yourself. What I'm talking about is why a cave suddenly leads to a room," Catelea replied.

Anxiously, Erica, who had calmed down a bit earlier, began to protest in her usual tone. Claro passed by her and addressed Laila.

"Hey, leader, the door we came in through doesn't open once closed. And also, that thing..."

Claro pointed to a sign on the door that read "1-hour limit."

"Huh? The door doesn't open... Does that mean we're trapped?!" Erica exclaimed upon hearing Claro's words before Laila could respond.

Observing the situation, Claro continued, "There seems to be another door over there. I'll go take a look."

Saying that, he dashed towards the door in the back.

After a while, Claro returned with a less than pleased expression.

"That door doesn't seem to open now. There were three dials underneath, so I think it opens if you set the numbers on the dials."

"I see, thank you, Claro. So, we need 'numbers,' right? Everyone, could you search for 'numbers' inside this room?"

Upon that voice, everyone nodded and dispersed throughout the room to investigate.

As they began to search, they found numbers written all over the room. So far, they had found eighteen numbers, written in various colors.

"Fifteen numbers, huh? Do we have to try three at a time from these?" murmured Claro, lost in thought, when...

"We don't have that much time. And we don't even know if we've found all the numbers. How about splitting up? Some of us search for numbers to try on the dial, while others continue to search the room. Maybe we'll find some other clues," suggested Erica.

"That sounds reasonable... Let's search again, this time without focusing on numbers. Anything is fine. If you find something interesting, please report it later. And Erica Tornitos and Catelea Ezreal, could you two try entering numbers into the dial?"

Laila nodded at Erica's suggestion, and everyone was instructed accordingly. Just as they were about to start searching again...

Clank

The sound of the door that was supposed to remain closed opening echoed. Everyone turned their attention to the door, where...

Intriguingly wandering around, Althea stood there.

Noticing the gaze that had gathered on her, Althea, unable to withstand it, greeted with a wry smile, "Hello?" While everyone stood dumbfounded, Laila, who had been calmly giving instructions until then, rushed towards Althea without hesitation.

"Lady Althea, are you alright? Are you injured?"

Touching Althea's body, Laila checked for injuries.

"Ah... yeah, I'm fine. ...But what about everyone else?"

"We're all here. The ones who entered through a different door... haven't arrived yet."

While Laila was talking to Althea, Erica interjected, somewhat angrily, "Hey, you! Even though the door opened, why didn't you leave it open? It might have been an exit..."

Before she realized it, everyone except Erica had gathered near the door.

"Exit?"

Curiously, Althea inquired, and Erica and Catelea, ignoring the concerns of the two in front of the door, leaned in with Finis to peek at the other side of the door.

...And they screamed when they peeked.

"What's wrong?! It's pitch dark!!... Why would you go into such darkness?"

"Huh? Darkness? That's strange, there should be a lake... Huh?"

Refuting Erica's words, Richt, who had peeked behind the door from behind, found it truly dark.

"Why? We should have opened the door that led to a beautiful lake. What's with this emptiness?" Richt and Kaera, who had entered through the same door, also tilted their heads together in confusion.

"...Probably, illusion magic was used," suggested Althea, as they settled down for a moment and moved to the table to sit.

"Illusion magic?" Several voices overlapped.

"In fact, where I went, the entire space was rainbow-colored. There seemed to be no path, but when I said 'Show me the way,' it appeared..."

"T-then, were the pixies and kelpies illusions too?"

When Kaera said that, Julia asked her a question.

"Pixies and kelpies... Those are names of magical creatures, right? ...Could it be that magical creatures appeared?"

"Ah... well, just a little."

Kaera answered with a troubled expression.

Hearing Kaera's words, Julia, with a pale face, pressed Althea for answers.

"What about Lady Althea's door?"

"Huh?... Uh... Well, where I was... a goblin crossed my path for a moment. But there were flowers where the goblin passed..."

"Really? You didn't encounter any magical creatures?"

It was rare for Julia to press someone like this. ...She must have been really worried about Althea.

"Flowers? What kind?"

Now Kaera was asking.

"This one. When I picked it up, a door appeared in front of me."

Saying so, she showed the flower she had stored in her pocket.

"Oh, that flower is a gardenia."

Surprisingly, Catelea spoke up.

"A gardenia flower... huh."

"Our spoils were 'red feathers, white horns, and golden magical plants'," Richt said as he tried to show the spoils he had in his hand, but the door opened again, revealing the last person, Siegfried, standing there.