The Mansion of Trials and Trials

Trial Start

"Wanderers! May Wanderer No. 1 stepped for------Ouch!" Puppet cried out suddenly. Something hard hit her head from the back. She turned around immediately. Mel stood behind her.

"It hurts, Mel. Why did you hit me suddenly?" Mel remained silent and showed her sketchbook to Puppet.

​「​​　(-_-)(-_-;)　」

「 You forget something.　​」

"Huh? What did I forget?" Puppet asked. Mel flipped over her sketchbook and started writing.

​​「​　Time　​」​

"Time?" Puppet didn't understand. The word struck her mind. Within a second or two, memories floated in suddenly, she slammed her head, "Ah yes! I nearly forgot! Thanks for reminding me, Mel."

​「　​(^o^)　​」​

Puppet turned around. "Sorry, Wanderers. I nearly forgot to mention. Please look at the timer above. You have one and a half hours to finish the trial. Once the countdown is over, the trial will end. If there are still Wanderers who haven't picked the ball up, they will receive judgment immediately." Puppet explained.

"Wait!" Keira waved her arm and shouted, "If what you say is true, then doesn't that mean that the larger our Wanderer No. is, the fewer time we have to pick the ball?!"

"What's wrong about that?"

"Of course, it is WRONG! This is not fair for those who have large numbers!" Keira argued.

"Is it? Picking a ball only takes less than 5 seconds. Everyone has around 3 minutes on average. I believe it is already long enough."

"But.......!"

"There is no 'but' in this Mansion. Anyway, we've already wasted a lot of time. Therefore, I now by declare that the first trial 'The Beginning Draw' starts now!" Puppet raised her hand. Numbers floated above in the air, without warning, the countdown had already started. I gazed at the ticker, we had 1 hour, 29 minutes and 59 seconds left.

"May Wanderer No. 1 step forward!" Puppet declared. She looked around.

No one stepped forward.

There was only silence.

"Wanderer No. 1?" Puppet repeated again. No one answered.

"Hello? Please check your room key tag to see if you are No. 1."

"..........." I searched around. Again, there was only silence. No one even moved.

"HELLO?! Hello?! Is there anyone who is Wanderer No. 1? If you don't come out right now, others can't pick their balls!" Puppet warned again. Still, no one replied. Max raised his eyebrow.

"HEY! Who's No. 1? Hurry up and show yourself! Don't waste the--------"

"Err......I'm No. 1."

Surprised, I turned my head. A tiny, soft voice appeared out of nowhere. I searched around. A girl wearing a dress raised her hand and walked out from the crowd. All eyes glared at her, she hid her head and stared at the ground.

"I'm.........sor......sorry that I'm late. I'm just so.......scared." The girl wept. Her eyes were red, she had been crying.

"Never mind that. Just pick a ball, Wanderer." said Puppet. The girl froze, her legs stopped moving.

"Err.....I......" she spoke again. Her voice was so soft, I barely heard what she said. I tried to walk closer, pushing away the crowd. The people started whispering. Her face went pale, "I......I......."