Magic Manor 2

"This is Miss Noel, Mr. Bart's most beloved daughter. These are the tutors your father hired."

The butler smiled as he introduced them to one another.

Noel gave them an elegant curtsy, her voice childlike. "Hello."

Jin Bi leaned closer to Lu Mi. "This NPC looks pretty harmless. It's just those butterfly eyes that are a little scary."

Lu Mi nodded in wholehearted agreement.

"The young lady is a bright, well-behaved little girl. I hope you will all get along well in the days ahead."

The butler took a stack of writing paper from a maid and distributed it among them. When he found he had one sheet left over, he merely smiled and discreetly handed it back to the maid.

"This is the young lady's class schedule. Please take a look. Lessons can officially begin tomorrow."

Lu Mi looked over the sheet he received. It clearly listed the classes for every day from Monday through Sunday.

A quick scan revealed a full page of classes, including etiquette, horseback riding, and Latin.

"Oh, and there are two more things you must pay special attention to."

At the butler's words, everyone pricked up their ears. Information like this was usually important-the key to staying alive, or even clearing the instance.

"First, Miss Noel gets hungry easily, so after preparing her meals, you must make sure she finishes all her food."

"Second, Miss Noel has plenty of energy and is afraid of being alone, so you must play games with her until ten in the evening."

The players couldn't help frowning at this.

"We have to be tutors and babysitters around the clock? Are they trying to work us to death?"

Someone voiced their displeasure, and another person quietly reassured them, "It's a game. Just go through the motions. It's not like he'll actually pull out a performance review and dock your pay."

But the butler's next words put an end to that idea. "Please note that if Miss Noel is dissatisfied, you will face very severe punishment."

Needless to say, that punishment certainly wouldn't be a pay cut, but it was ten times more frightening.

"It's getting dark. Where are we sleeping tonight? And do we get private bathrooms?" asked He Shengguang, who had come with Jin Bi.

He had been calm ever since entering the instance. Asking something like that now made him seem even more like a tourist.

"Of course there are rooms. They're just upstairs."

Out of caution, someone asked whether there was a set number of people per room. They breathed a sigh of relief when the answer was no.

The butler continued, "However, Miss Noel only needs one or two people with her. You should divide up your duties before going to bed tonight. Lessons begin tomorrow, but you can start playing with the young lady today."

Jin Bi yawned. "Come on, let's see which unlucky souls get stuck staying tonight."

After several rounds of rock-paper-scissors, a young couple was chosen to stay that night.

The girl clutched her boyfriend's hand. "Akun."

Akun looked a little frightened too, but he tried hard to hide it as he reassured her. "It's fine. In the horror movies I've seen, everything starts out normal. The weird stuff only happens later. We got the first night, so we'll be fine..."

Seeing this, Roman pitifully tried to nestle into the arms of the person beside him. "Lu Mi."

Lu Mi pushed him away expressionlessly. "Our turn isn't until the night after tomorrow. What are you getting scared for now?"

Then He Shengguang cut the blank sections off everyone's sheets, wrote the names of the classes on four of them, and crumpled them into balls. "Let's draw lots to decide who teaches tomorrow."

According to the schedule, there were two classes in the morning and two in the afternoon, each lasting an hour.

"Well, I don't know anything about riding or Latin. Can I skip teaching those?" someone asked awkwardly.

"But who here does? Let's leave it to luck," He Shengguang said, drawing a lot first. "Mine's blank. Those of us who draw blanks can split up cooking the three meals."

Lu Mi unfolded his paper ball and found two large words written on it: horseback riding.

I'm screwed. He scratched his head. His class was the first one in the afternoon, so he would have to cram in some riding lessons that morning.

Once the duties had been assigned, they all prepared to go upstairs, find rooms, wash up, and sleep.

The young couple who had to stay cast a trembling glance at Noel, who was still sitting quietly in her chair, at a loss for what to do.

As Jin Bi passed them, she kindly reminded them, "Just remember what the butler said. This instance should be fairly simple. Follow the rules and play with her until ten. You shouldn't go wrong."

Her words seemed to bring them to their senses. The girl thanked her repeatedly.

Jin Bi chatted with them a little longer before leaving. Her friendly encouragement eased some of the couple's fear.

"Um, Noel, what would you like to play?" Akun walked up to the little girl and mustered the courage to ask.

Noel raised her head slightly. The two enormous butterflies over her eyes slowly fluttered their wings.

"Sir, do you know why it's so cold?"

"What kind of question is that..." Akun rubbed his arms. "But it does seem a little cold."

His girlfriend, Zhao Xiaoye, remembered the butler's instructions and said, "Noel, let's hurry up and decide what to play."

"Miss, do you know why it's so cold?" Noel tilted her head and turned her gaze toward Zhao Xiaoye.

"Maybe because it's winter. I noticed some frost on the trees and grass outside."

Noel abruptly rose from her chair and rushed right up to Zhao Xiaoye.

"Liar! Liar!"

She breathed heavily, as though unable to accept Zhao Xiaoye's answer. "It's... it's spring right now!!"

Caught off guard, Zhao Xiaoye saw the antennae and thin black legs of the two butterflies over Noel's eyes up close. A wave of nausea washed over her.

Lu Mi and Roman made a circuit of the second floor and ran into Jin Bi and He Shengguang, who had come up the stairs on the other side.

Jin Bi smiled. "You couldn't find a normal room either, could you?"

Lu Mi nodded. "The few bedrooms we could get into all looked like they'd been ransacked. The bedding smelled of blood mixed with stale sweat."

"This is supposed to be a wealthy household. I thought the food, clothes, and surroundings would be luxurious. But this is how they treat the tutors they've hired."

Jin Bi sighed. "We'll just have to find somewhere to make do for the night."

In the end, Lu Mi and Roman settled in an out-of-the-way storage room that looked reasonably acceptable.

Lu Mi opened the Panel Mall, bought a very thick down comforter, and spread it on the floor.

Remembering that Roman had bought him a phone and probably didn't have many points left to exchange for gold coins, he patted the space beside him. "Get in and sleep. Don't freeze to death tonight."

Roman tilted his head in surprise, thinking he had misheard. "Really?"

"It would hurt to spend my gold coins on another comforter."

Roman quickly lifted the comforter and slipped underneath, afraid that a moment's delay would give Lu Mi time to change his mind. The next second, he heard Lu Mi ask, "By the way, where's that woman named Li Fan? She didn't lose track of us, did she?"

"No idea. Maybe she was too shy and went to share a room with another female player." Roman answered without hesitation, showing no sign whatsoever of lying.

The night's chill seeped into his bones, and Lu Mi woke in a daze. Cold. I'm under such a thick comforter, so why am I this cold?

He hugged himself and curled into a ball, only for a pair of hands to suddenly pull him into a warm embrace.

Roman's voice sounded right beside his ear, perfectly clear. "Don't open your eyes."