𝑳𝒆𝒔 𝑹𝒂𝒕𝒔!🐀{𝑹𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝑰𝒏𝒔𝒆𝒓𝒕}

Chapter Eleven

The cold bit at the girl's cheeks, the clothes she had sewn were doing excellent at maintaining body heat but her face had no protection.

The number of rat holes grew in number as they got closer to the De Rune estate. To Y/N, it looked like the entire catastrophe started at the mansion. 

"What is that?" Amicia shrieked and looked over at the young brunette, "Watch out, Lucas!"

The archer turned her eyes away from the scenery and looked over to see what had caught Amicia's attention. She grabbed Lucas's hand and pulled him away from the strange anomaly. 

In front of the three, was a pit of rats running in a circle. The rats moved together in unison like they were in trance. 

"We should get out of here," Amicia said as she eyed the pit wearily, "I don't like this."

Lucas, however, watched the pit in awe, "They're not even paying attention to us." 

"And I would love to keep it that way," Y/N looked at her brother, "Let's go."

"There must be a reason for all this," he continued to stare at the pit.

"Lucas!" his sister hissed at him.

He finally relented and started to follow her and Amicia. They were stopped in their tracks by a group of rats, they stood in their way like a small wall. "It seems like they don't want us to pass," Amicia noted. 

The archer wasn't completely sold on the entire idea of travelling a rats infested mansion but if it was going to help Hugo, it would be worth it.

The three continued on their way, Lucas constantly talking about the rats' behavior while she kept pushing him to continue and Amicia lead the way.

  🐀

Her eyes widened as Amicia opened the door to her home. A large ten feet tall nest lay parallel on either side, creating a small path for the group to follow. 

"Is that a..." he hesitated, "a body?"

Lucas tried to stop Amicia from looking, he told her that they could find another way. However, Amicia had already made up her mind. She ran over to the lone untouched body, it was her father.

Everything was silent as Amicia looked around at her childhood home. 

Y/N didn't know what to say. She hadn't know Amicia very well and doubted that any words she could spare would truly comfort the other girl. 

Suddenly a group of rats started to run in a circle, creating a small tornado. They jumped back when the rat-tornado knocked into a torch, effectively getting rid of their light source. 

"What is that?!" Y/N exclaimed as she watched the rats work together to create their small tornado. 

Lucas told Amicia to push the rats back with the Ignifer, Y/N aided the other girl. The both of them threw Ignifer at the clusters of rats, successfully eliminating them.

After the rat clusters were taken care of, they continued to go and search for Beatrice's workshop. Along the way, Amicia saw several bodies of dead servants that were untouched by the rats. Y/N and Lucas looked on in wonder at how such a thing could exist.

The rats normally seemed to eat everything, whether dead or alive. 

"Lucas, look at that bottle, " Amicia pointed to the large bottle that laid on her mother's desk. 

He picked up the bottle, "Simple infusions, we need something stronger." 

Amicia lead them to another room, Hugo's room. 

Lucas went straight for the bottles while Amicia and Y/N looked at the untouched room. 

Y/N couldn't understand it, the rats claimed everything and did not care who it belonged to. Why would the rats keep this room untouched. It didn't make sense. 

"It's not here," he placed down the bottle and looked over at Amicia.

"What do you mean, 'it's not here'?" she frowned and walked closer to him, "It must be, it has to be." 

"Think. Did your mother have a work shop?" He asked her. 

Amicia went on to deny that her mother had and workshop and if she did, she didn't tell her about it. Lucas told her to think about a place her mother wouldn't want her to go when she was little. 

Her eyes widened in recognition, "There was one place...the garden! Let's go." 

 🐀

The group quicky found their way to the gardens, Y/N had pushed the cart along with Lucas as Amicia shot away the clusters of rats. After that they got into the bath house that laid beyond the gardens and they solved the puzzle leading them to the secret underground lab.