Anomaly Within Sin Mansion

"Sorry, what did you say?"

The term "Original Sin Scholar" was not in Delarion Language. Shade had to think for a moment before he barely understood what it meant.

"What is an Original Sin Scholar?"

"Then you are not one."

The strange old man shook his head and led Shade back toward the entrance hall.

"Your sins are high enough for you to go to the highest floor. Guest, follow me. You will get what you want."

Having said that, he ignored Shade and headed back toward the stairs. Shade immediately followed. In Sin Mansion, wandering about without a guide made one highly vulnerable to attacks from the things living here.

The interior decoration of the building was fairly uniform, resembling the sort of noble old houses that had been fitted with gas pipes. The golden ornaments on the stairs and the oil paintings on the cracked walls all spoke of this place's former splendor when it had still been an ordinary house.

But the red carpet on the floor gave Shade an intense sense of unease. Through Blood Echo, nearly every part of the carpet glowed red. That meant it could almost be said to have been dyed with blood.

Before long, they reached the third floor. Corridors extended to both the left and right from the stairway. Windows lined one side of the corridors, rooms the other. Every door bore a rusty yellow metal plaque, but the plaques were completely blank.

But before the old man with the lamp could lead Shade in either direction, the ground suddenly began to shake.

"An earthquake?"

The vibration was not especially intense and did not even make it difficult to keep his footing. Yet amid the shaking of the building itself, Shade seemed to hear an explosion from the second floor.