Forced Paradise

Insight

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Source of the image: the webtoon "Let's Play" by Mongie (ep./chapter 36)

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As I was sitting on my bed, staring at the cracked open door, I was weighting the choices I had. "Is this a test? Could Veronica be smarter than I thought? Was that all an act or did she truly forget to close the door?" I didn't know. But I knew one thing: I will never miss a chance. I needed to find Isabella. She might be my key out of here. Also, I needed to take this guilt off my chest about those damned slippers.

I stood up, put on the new pair of slippers near my bed and peeked through the door. Only a few minutes had passed since Veronica exited the room in a fast pace. As always, the corridor was quiet. I couldn't hear any cue that might indicate a change of the atmosphere. So I took the risk.

I took the same route as before, only now more slowly, until I reached the second floor. From here I decided to be more vigilant. And in the meantime I was asking myself why did I care so much about some stupid slippers.
But then I remembered - I've always been like that. Actually, not always, maybe it started 4 or 5 years ago. Since then I've noticed how I cared about little and stupid things and payed too much attention to people's tone of the voice when talking to me, their actions, touching stuff and then having the need to wash my hands because they felt "hot" and the list goes on.

I don't know what's wrong with me. And whenever I tried opening up to someone, telling them about my issues, trying to explain, they would brush it off and tell me "it's just a phase" or "you're silly" so I stopped saying anything.

I accepted the fact that people, in fact, don't care about you. Maybe only your family, but I can't say that for sure because I've started to question whether my family hates me. But I convinced myself that nobody does anything for free. If they do something nice, they want something in return. The chance of someone just doing some quality charity work is so low, that it is safer to consider it 0.

So in this situation, I knew that something was about to go down. And the sooner I found the reasons I was in this situation - the better.

Finding myself now on the second floor, I noticed the layout being a little different than on the 3rd floor. The rooms were further apart and the paintings were in a different style - mostly post Renaissance. 

I walked slowly along the corridors and through random rooms until I heard approaching steps.
I quickly hid behind a corner and peeked. It was a male servant. He was of medium height with stylised short black hair. He seemed 18 or 19 of age and was wearing a white shirt with a black bow tie and classical black pants.

I needed to think quickly. I decided to try my chances in a game of drama. I casually turned around the corner. When I saw that he noticed me, just as his expression was turning to that of surprise, I started with the best exaggerated friendly and nonchalant smile "Oh hey, I was wondering if you could tell me where I could find Isabella?" I ended the question with a hint of curiosity in my tone and expression. Seeing how he didn't respond right away, I continued "I really need to give her some information." And through gritted teeth, I managed to take out a "The Master asked me to speak to her about several.. uhm.. things."

Fortunately, my pathetic theatrical act seemed to have worked and he wasn't aware of my little missbehavings as his expression softened and he responded, showing me the way "Oh, sure. You just go right ahead on the corridor, then go through the 2nd door from the left. She must be there, cleaning." and ended with a polite smile.

"Oh, alright, thank you so much! Have a great day" I replied back and started pacing towards the indicated direction and gave him a discreet wave. He nodded with a small smile and continued his way.