Chapter 76: The Room of Ten Kisses

“How is the structure of the room?”

Leaving Presia, who had bolted out of the room, behind, Celian approached and asked.

“Huh? Now that I think about it, didn’t you hear our voices?”

“Voices? You suddenly shut the door, but…”

“What’s going on? What’s wrong with this room?”

Celian and Anne spoke with their usual calm tone, unaffected by the situation.

Anne entered the room, passing by Celian at the door, but fortunately, the room didn’t trap her a second time after meeting the conditions once.

Looking around, the room appeared to be a dull, ordinary basement room, unlike the atmosphere when I was trapped here with Presia earlier.

“I called out repeatedly while we were trapped after the door closed earlier.”

“Trapped? The door shut briefly; it seems excessive to call that being trapped.”

“No, no! We were inside for ten minutes!”

“Ten minutes? El and Presia only stepped in, and the door shut for a moment. Isn’t that right, Anne?”

“Huh? Yeah! That’s right. Ten minutes? Oh, El, don’t be ridiculous!”

“That doesn’t make sense…”

Was this another act of the spirit? Whether it actually distorted time or simply disrupted our perception, it wasn’t clear. But it likely wasn’t a major issue.

“What’s wrong?”

“Oh, nothing. This room seems empty now, so let’s search somewhere else.”

Rather than wasting time dwelling on it, it was more important to check one more room to find Yuri quickly.

Even as we talked here casually, Yuri might be trembling in fear all by herself.

Presia, having seen the tricks the spirit pulled in the previous room, seemed to judge its power as stronger than expected and started searching more diligently than before.

“El, El! Come here!”

In the midst of her enthusiastic search, Anne discovered something and called out to me, the closest person to her.

Anne’s urgent tone prompted me to immediately run toward the direction of her voice.

“El! Doesn’t this room feel strange? It’s too clean, isn’t it?”

I instinctively turned to look at the door we had entered through.

We had left it open upon entering, but now, the door to the hallway was firmly shut.

“El?”

Click.

Ignoring Anne’s call, I turned the doorknob, but as expected, the door was locked and wouldn’t budge.

“Celie? Presia?”

I banged on the door and called for the two people outside, hoping for a response, but no answer came.

“What’s wrong, El? Why are you suddenly fixated on the door…”

Click.

“Huh?”

Seeing me struggling with the door, Anne approached and tried turning the knob herself, but it wouldn’t open for her either.

“What’s going on here? Hey! Hey!”

Click, click. Bang, bang.

She twisted the handle and even kicked the door, but it didn’t budge.

“Calm down. It’s probably nothing serious.”

I restrained Anne, who seemed ready to unsheathe her sword, by picking her up. She kicked at the air, trying to hit the door, so I had to take a step back.

“Now, now. Take a good look at the door. There’s probably some writing on it.”

Though I hadn’t checked yet, I guessed it would have writing like the previous room.

Spending ten minutes hugging Anne wouldn’t be impossible. Honestly, Anne acted even more like a child than Presia.

“Huh? ‘To leave this room, you must kiss each other ten times…’?”

What?

The sentence Anne read out wasn’t what I had anticipated.

Putting Anne down, who had finally calmed, I stepped closer to the door to read the words for myself.

“To leave this room, you must kiss each other ten times.”

As Anne had read aloud, the writing was different from the sentence in the previous room.

Still, the fact that the number “ten” appeared again was strangely amusing.

“Uh…”

“Um… I wasn’t expecting this…”

Glancing at Anne, I noticed her neck turning bright red.

Although I was technically male in mind, having to kiss—even if it wasn’t a full kiss—ten times with another girl was undoubtedly embarrassing.

Anne, her face flushed red and trembling slightly, gripped her sword tightly and…

“Anne, stop!”

“Let me go! I’ll destroy that cursed door!”

Once again, I grabbed Anne and pulled her away from the door. This time, she wasn’t just kicking but swinging her sword, so I had to take two steps back for safety.

“Wait! If you make the spirits angry, it could be dangerous!”

Realizing the potential consequences, Anne calmed down and loosened her grip on her sword.

“So, what do we do then…?”

“Well… I think the best course of action is to do as the spirits demand…”

“So, you and I really have to… kiss?”

“Of course, it’s unpleasant, but under the circumstances, I don’t think we have another option.”

“No! It’s not that I don’t like it…”

Anne’s voice, usually loud, dropped to a murmur as she spoke shyly.

“All right, tell me when you’re ready.”

While we should ideally hurry to find Yuri, based on previous experience, time inside the room likely moved differently from outside.

I decided to give Anne enough time to gather herself.

And truthfully, I needed time to prepare myself as well.

A hug with Presia had been relatively easy, but a kiss—even a simple one—was a different matter entirely.

Despite her childlike demeanor and stature, Anne was an 18-year-old girl—a beautiful one at that.

Taking a deep breath, I tried my best to calm myself.

“Um…”

I’m not sure how much time had passed when Anne called out to me in a small voice.

Still blushing bright red, Anne lowered her head slightly, hesitating as she spoke.

“Well… since we have no choice to get out of here…”

“Yeah. Just think of it as an accident. Don’t worry too much about it.”

“Ugh…!”

Did I say that too indifferently?

But if I didn’t approach it this way, my barely steady heart might start racing again.

“Fine! Let’s just get it over with!”

Thankfully, Anne didn’t criticize my attitude. Instead, she simply closed her eyes.

Anne stood still.

Though we were both women on the outside, in this situation, it felt like I had to take the lead.

I placed my hands on Anne’s shoulders and leaned forward until my face was close to hers.

But just about 10 centimeters away, seeing Anne’s face up close made my previously calm heartbeat start pounding uncontrollably again.

Ba-dum. Ba-dum.

Our breaths tickled each other’s faces, and the embarrassment I felt was unlike anything before.

“Ah, seriously!”

Unable to move the last few centimeters, stuck in an awkward limbo, time felt like it stretched.

Impatient, Anne finally grabbed me by the collar, frustrated that I hadn’t done anything.

Smooch!

She yanked me forward, practically slamming our lips together with what could only be called a head-on collision.

Smooch, smooch, smooch, smooch, smooch, smooch, smooch, smooch

Then, without giving either of us time to process the embarrassment, she launched into a flurry of rapid kisses with almost reckless abandon.

After nine quick kisses, Anne paused for a moment, still gripping my collar. She took a deep breath before charging in again.

Smoooch!

The final, tenth kiss lingered. Perhaps wanting to make a point, she held her lips against mine for a long moment.

I held my breath, too mortified to even exhale. It felt like we stayed like that for at least several seconds.

“Phew…”

Anne’s grip on my collar loosened as she pulled away. Our faces separated, though neither of us could look each other in the eye.

I focused intently on the floor, as though it held the answers to my discomfort.

Out of the corner of my eye, I glanced at Anne. She was just as red as me, her eyes darting everywhere except toward me.

I was sure my face was as red as a ripe tomato.

“So… should we head out now?”

Anne seemed to have calmed down, or maybe she just wanted to shake off the awkwardness. She quickly opened the door and practically bolted out.

Her determination to find Yuri remained steadfast, as she immediately began searching the rooms with even more vigor than before.

“Did something happen?”

“No, nothing…”

Celian noticed the awkward atmosphere between Anne and me and asked curiously, but I couldn’t bring myself to answer.

Perhaps recognizing the dangers posed by the basement spirits, Anne and Presia searched the rooms even more thoroughly than when we first arrived.

“El, could you come over for a moment?”

Was it because I seemed less preoccupied? Despite my efforts, I must have appeared more relaxed compared to Anne and Presia, prompting Celian to call out to me.

“Did you find something?”

“No, but…”

Celian took my hand and led me into the room.

“Take a look at this. Isn’t it suspicious how clean this room is?”

…Could it be?

Creaaak. Clunk.

Against my hopes, the door closed firmly behind us.

“Wait… Did that door just close by itself?”

“Sigh… Why don’t you take a look at the top of the door?”

By now, I was more than familiar with this scenario.

Instead of explaining the situation to Celian’s puzzled face, I checked the door for any writing indicating the condition for leaving the room.

“To leave this room, you must k…”

What’s this? Why did the sentence cut off? Did it glitch?