It was strange seeing the Third Floor look so normal. The very first view I got of the small room accommodating the opening of the staircase sent my brain into a spiral of confusion. Even though the room itself looked like it had been cured of the rot, I knew that that couldn’t have been further from the truth.

This was more like a ‘moments before disaster strikes’ view. The first day was the only day on which I would be able to see the Third Floor this pristine. Or…was it? I hadn’t forgotten about the end of the previous loop just yet. Walking through the corridor and towards the familiar room from which Carol and Earnest had been rescued, I tried to consider the truth.

Last time, breaking the mold on the staircase had caused the monsters to arrive from the Pantry first. It had taken some time for the Third Floor’s enemies to make their way down because one of the sources had been removed. In the same way, then, maybe the Third Floor would not rot that quickly.

Earlier, it had been so fast to move because the mold probably ate through the wood from both sides. This time, though, the only possible place the mold could spread from was the Luxury Suite. That could mean that the Third Floor would actually remain relatively safe until the third day, when the collapse happened.

As for that collapse, I still needed to figure it out. Why exactly were we even looping?

“There. Do you see that? Earni-…Earnest is the one who saw that this morning, even though he is sure it wasn’t there last night.”

I let the slip, slip. I wasn’t sure what the relationship between these two was, so it was probably best not to try to intervene.

As for what they were trying to show me, I saw. We were confined in a small corridor between the square room that I had seen earlier to my right and what seemed to be another washroom to my left. The main area of the Third Floor that we could access was relatively small compared to the other floors, but that was probably because the Luxury Suite’s door was covered with the mold tendrils.

This time, they weren’t even keeping it from opening like the Cold Storage. The rot had just seeped and become the door. I couldn’t see even a hint of the wood that should have been there, and that made me queasier than ever. It made me instinctively raise my hand and point it at the corrupting darkness.

“Whoa, you can use Magic?” Trev bent downwards, trying to look at my hand and face at the same time.

“You’re not even supposed to be here…sir.” I scowled. “I let you in with us, and that should be reason enough to keep quiet. Or would you like a more personal demonstration straight to your face?”

“Oh, I would love a personal demon…ouckshie!”

One pinch behind the neck from Tray later, I was free to focus on my target instead. Trying to aim for the center of the door, I shot. Rippling through the air, still as violent as before, the blast hit the tendrils and sent the black goo flying everywhere. Some of it even landed on our faces and clothes, but seemed to evaporate the moment it did.

The door itself? As expected…it stood as imposing as before. The tendrils did crack to reveal some of the wood underneath, but that did not stay for long. Before we knew it, more of the mold grew through and covered the exposed area once more. In the blink of an eye, all of the progress that I had made with the attack was undone.

“Did nothing happen?” Carol asked, confused.

Now, I was sure that she had no malicious intent or sarcastic spell under that question, but it still kind of stung. What do you mean ‘nothing happened’!? How did nothing happen? I kept my hand raised and shot once more. This time, at the top of the door. Before the blast could even reach there, I shot a second time, then a third, and fourth. Aiming each blast at one of the door’s corners, I hoped that it would be enough damage to cut off the source.

And it was for some time. It worked for precisely 3 seconds before the tendrils came right back and took over what was basically their property now.

Andrea Donatella, who? The Northflame Inn might have been hers, but that only applied to everything below us. This floor was clearly controlled by and ran on the whims of this mold.

“What the fuck?” I whispered, bringing my hand down as some exhaustion set in. Maybe Bella had been right about arms getting ripped off, but maybe it only applied when you used the Magic too much in quick succession.

“Well, that sucks,” Trev remarked.

“Do you think fire might work?” Tray suggested, not knowing that he had already tested that last loop with a very helpful elf.

“I appreciate the help, innkeeper. Looks like we might have to find another way, though.” Carol dejectedly declared with an almost melancholic tone.

“We could try burning it.” Earnest also passed on a bright idea.

“I just said the same thing?” Tray tried to reclaim his idea.

“Carol, can I look at the rest of the floor, too?” I looked at the Chief of Staff Operations, hoping that my failure here had not ruined my chances of at least checking out the rest of the Third Floor.

“No, no. You said that we could use fire, but I made it particular by mentioning that we could burn it using that fire!” Earnest protected his fair use of the original.

“Oh no, please. Go on, innkeeper. I mean, it is your building.” She laughed.

I laughed back, but I couldn’t do it heartily. Lying had worked to get me this far, but that couldn’t change the fact that this was not my inn. The man on the Ground Floor had made sure I would never forget it. This was Andrea Donatella’s building, and nobody else’s. Whatever had happened to her didn’t matter. Even if she was in a different universe, this place belonged to her. Not me.

“How does that make any sense? I am the one who came up with the idea first, Chef.” Tray Zarken refused to let down his side of the argument, deciding to double down on the trademark he had made on his words.

Turning, I decided to check out everything else we were working with. There was the room with the couches from earlier. From there, you could first reach the washroom, and then the square room in between. Walking past it, I noticed a peculiarity about this weird room, which was basically framing this side of the floor, but decided to keep it for later. Behind the square were two identical rooms that Carol said were hers and Earnest’s.

“Non, non, non.” Earnest shook his head, determined to prove the fact that he had been very purposeful with his words and…

Alright, you know what? I can’t be bothered to write down their whole argument. All you need to know is that it went on. And on. It kept going until I had finally gotten out of the Third Floor and retired to the Innkeeper’s Room. So, you know, you can imagine that in the back if you want.

Back to the Third Floor.

Past the two bedrooms of the staff members was another room. But this one had absolutely nothing in it, and nothing special about it. Carol said that it might have once been a potential storage room, but that clearly hadn’t been required. So now, it was just weirdly placed there without any reason or purpose.

Coming back from there, then, left us with only two more rooms on the Third Floor.

While coming in, there had been a door that I had ignored. It was technically the first room you could see on the Third Floor, but it was locked, so there was nothing I could do. The only clue was the plate defining its purpose – Landlord’s Room. The innkeeper was not the landlord, then. That was something to note.

Moving on from that, though, was the final attraction of this place. The square room right smack in the middle of the place. The one with four doors.

Yes. Four doors.

There was one on each side, arranged in a weird pattern to keep equivalent length between them. And if that description doesn’t quite make sense? Well, refer to the diagram I’ve left later.

(Also, to add on to that – no, my drawings from the previous loop did not make it through in any way, shape, or form. You will have to personally imagine a session of Cinnamon Pen and Coffee Ink making every time I loop, since I cannot function without a notebook. Thanks!)

“What is this place?” I asked Carol about the room.

“Hmm?” She replied with pure confusion. Not because she didn’t know either, but because it looked like she was surprised I didn’t know. Yet, she dropped its name. “Why, it’s the Resplendent Roundabout. It’s one of the things the Northflame is most famous for, right?”

The Resplendent Roundabout. Repeat that in your head. Then say it really quickly seven times in a row.

Did you do it? Good! I didn’t ask you to do it because it is a tongue twister of some sort, but just to let it set in what a mouthful that name was. The Resplendent Roundabout. Did Andrea not have a simpler name to give it? Everything else in the inn had such simple names, so why bother to make this one so special?

“And if you don’t mind me asking…what is it?” I looked at Earnest this time around, quickly coming up with a lie. “Don’t worry. It’s just a routine check of sorts to ensure that you’re still up to date with your knowledge of the Northflame Inn, yeah?”

“Oh, I see. Very well, innkeeper.” The chef stood with his chest puffed out and started. “The Resplendent Roundabout has been one of the most popular attractions of the Northflame Inn for a very long time now. This is because of its unusual structure that elicits fear and yet wonder. It is the only structure of its kind throughout the True World, and nothing else compares. People often halt at the Northflame purely to come to the Resplendent Roundabout. Was that right, innkeeper?”

I looked at Earnest for a moment, and then at the square room. He was not wrong, but he was certainly right only for a particular demographic. His words sold me on the attraction, but did not really help me out at all. But on the flip side, that meant that he told me precisely what I needed to know.

It was a tourist trap.

The Resplendent Roundabout was the Northflame’s…tourist trap.

Yay. No matter where you went, the hunger for money and the need for recognition via the most trivial things in the world were truly multiversal. Fills my heart with warmth and puts a bright smile on my face.

Needless to say, I stepped into one of the four doors at random and got inside the Resplendent Roundabout. Because nowhere did I claim that I am immune to the charms of tourist traps. In fact, having worked at a restaurant, I was quite attuned to their benefits in the long run. A bit of a tourist trap aficionado, even.

This one was not very well lit, though. I had entered from the west door, and there was immediately a lantern resting on a shelf to the left. Picking it up and lighting it with the matchstick box resting beside it, I was finally able to see. Also…matchstick box? I picked it up and put it in one of the small pockets of my dress. I would need to check how that was made in this place.

The interior that was now revealed was quite minimalistic. That was, for once, quite uncharacteristic of the Northflame Inn. Said more about this place being a tourist trap, then.

In front of me was another box made of wood. There was a thin space to walk between the main wall and this second box, but that was it. It looked like there was no real reason to choose between one of the four doors, since they all opened into the same space anyway. The second box, on the other hand, had two openings. One to the west and one to the east.

I picked the west one and got inside, expecting a third box. What I got instead was something even more underwhelming. A joke of a maze.

You entered the opening into a thinner passageway that could barely fit a person in it, and walked. Eventually, you would find another opening leading deeper. Ignore it, and you hit a wall, realizing that the one opening was the only way through. Then, you would follow that opening and repeat the same pattern until you get to the center of the box.

There, you had a round table. On that round table was a scaled-down replica model of the ‘maze’ you had just subjected yourself to the torture of. I decided not to look at it, hoping that I could still be surprised by what lay ahead, but that was hardly the case.

Getting out of the center through a second doorway, I found myself in the same loop that I had been in while coming inwards. Once you finished that process and finally reached the last thin passageway, you exited the box…through the original east opening. That…was it.

For once, the Northflame Inn had truly stumped me in a bad way. Keeping the lantern down on the floor, without a care to extinguish it, I just took one final look at the box inside the Resplendent Roundabout, and left. Out of the southern door, I came to look at the four people waiting outside.

“So, is it still as exciting as ever?” Carol asked, smiling.

“Yeah,” I replied, sighing with boredom as I headed to the staircases leading down. “It’s as exciting and adrenaline-inducing as it ever was, dear.”

_____________

The Third Floor

 

The Resplendent Roundabout