"Uh-oh—"
(0`)
"Good afternoon, everyone!"
(つ△-.)
That was right! Annie had woken up in the afternoon. She opened the door and, still groggy, instinctively called out toward the living room before heading to the washroom to freshen up.
However...
"."
(||￢▽￢)
When no one answered, she realized the living room was unusually quiet. She stopped in her tracks, then slowly turned to look at the empty room.
Afternoon sunlight slanted in from the west through the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows, spilling across the floor in long, warm, peaceful bands of light.
A dark wooden table polished enough to reflect a person stood in the center. Its surface was immaculate, without a trace of daily life—not even a fruit bowl or a cup of water. It looked exactly as it had after Fern tidied up last night, as if no one had used the room all day.
"??"
(.)
Annie instinctively walked over.
The thick carpet beneath her feet, woven with intricate golden threads and soft enough for her toes to sink into, swallowed every footstep. When Annie padded across it barefoot, she could barely hear her own steps. There was only a muffled, enveloping silence.
The air seemed frozen. Only the faintest specks of dust drifted soundlessly in the beams of light, and time itself seemed to have grown lazy here.
The velvet sofas in the living room had elegant lines and ridiculously plush cushions. They were arranged neatly, without a single wrinkle—clearly, no one had sat there in a long while.
The doors to the three rooms belonging to Fern, Frieren, and the newcomer, Elaina, stood open. The large hot-spring bath was the same; there was clearly no one inside.
"..."
(_)
It was so quiet that Annie could almost hear herself breathing softly. She could even faintly make out