The words [Undead*Draconic Butler ] troubled Leo deeply. By the looks of it, it was no doubt undead. As for the draconic part, he couldn't say he didn't see it coming. The whole place was plastered with sigils and their artwork. The chandeliers even had their tiny statues that held the candles in place.
'This is a dragon?'
He looked the motionless bones up and down. He didn't understand, had he been lied to this whole time?
'It looks... human.'
That couldn't be, surely. Leo's gaze swept to the side.
On the right side of the hall, there stood an incredibly grandiose painting, one consecrated with an unusual style of silver framing. Its drawings elegant, a field of snow and a row of pine trees scarcely distributed across the canvas.
Behind the snowy fog depicted, a dark castle erected in the skyline. Around the ridges of this castle, distant bird-like creatures soared. And at the bottom of this painting, a stack of broken wood lay in wait.
Even the painting looked human, the architecture, everything. There was no doubt this whole labyrinth was made by humans.
Leo looked to its title once more.
[Butler ]
That's when a thought flashed in his mind. His eyes lit up with confidence:
'The Royal Butler!'
Leo understood it on the spot. Of course, this couldn't be a dragon. Just like the well fashioned butler the royal carriage brought around; it was simply just a title.
The Royal Butler wasn't a royal, yet he was still addressed as such.
'The same thing here then.'
In other words, it meant 'Butler Of the Dragons'. Their servant, not their kin. But that brought up another dangerous question.
'Why would humans build this for the dragons?'
Worse yet, he asked an even grimmer question:
'Why do dragons need... a butler?'
This room wouldn't even fit a draKon, let alone a real dragon. Yet there were several tables around with human sized proportions, and the food was fresh by the looks of it. Perhaps this was some cultist labyrinth?
'No... what kind of cult is this flashy?'
From what he understood, or rather from what Luna understood as a mercenary – cultists weren't particularly rich, a lavish lifestyle would only bring harm in the path of their 'supreme goals'.
To get some answers, he tried pointing his sword forward, threatening the sentient skeleton with flame.
"Well?"
It didn't budge.
"Why did you move so fast when I reached out, but not now?"
"..."
Its peerless eyes pulsed with darkness. The silence was killing Leo. Sweat bunched up on his head and palms as he intensified his tone.
"Hey!"
Leo shouted out to it. His next instinct was to pierce it with his sword. There was no telling if this was a friend or foe, but for his safety, he decided to do it anyway.
Leo stepped up, charging in as the skeleton stood still ready to take the hit head on.
Clang!
The tip of his blade met its robes, deflecting cleanly off as sparks went flying from the metal.
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'Maybe not...'
Taking a step back, Leo placed his sword down. But not in his sheathe; just in case. He tilted his head to the side, trying to get a better angle of its features, in the process spotting all the food laid out in the background.
A growling sound rumbled from his body as his throat went acidic. His hunger was attacking him, telling him to 'get moving!'.
He couldn't just ignore this sensation rising up in him. Its strength was now above anything he'd ever felt before, perhaps even stronger than his fear.
Though faced with such a gourmet for the first time in his life, who could really blame him?
And anyway, he'd be in way better shape to fight the butler if he wasn't starving, like an instant boost in strength. In a dismissive tone, Leo started walking:
"Don't move, okay?"
Putting the skeleton to the side, he dashed for its plate instead, dirtying the dark robes it bore as he weaved around. Satisfying his hunger had always been one of his most selfish desires, and now that there was a full plate of freshly cooked food right in front of him, he couldn't hold back.
'Food... water!'
Leo didn't even think about it. The skeleton having stopped made it easy for him to drop his guard.
Its like he was hypnotised!
The water was weird looking, tainted with a red colour. That's because it was wine, but he didn't know that.
With his back turned, he skipped right past the silverware and grabbed the bread sitting alone.
Swoosh.
A piercing aura filled the air. Leo backed his hand away in fear just as fast as he'd went in and dropped the bread back onto the table.
From his right, a porcelain projectile fired, narrowly grazing his fingers as they backed away to safety. Turning back to the butler, its eyes turned a bloody red, and its hand pointed forward.
'Shit!'
Leo took stance as a string flew from its hands, springing back the fragment of its finger that shot out to him.
And just as before, in the next moment, it ceased all movement. Returning to its petrified status, the only difference now was its position. Its hand was extended outwards, letting a little glimpse of what lay beneath the robes, a small glimpse of its ribcage.
'Somethings in there...'
He couldn't quite see it from this distance, but something was obviously glinting beneath it all. Leo didn't dare approach again or make a move for the food.
'What the hell is the problem with it? First, it grabs me, then it attacks me, and now it did it again?'
He shrugged his fears off.
'This is like those three, attack, then stop... without that huge clicker thing. What is making it stop and attack?'
Then he asked himself another important question as a sudden connection was made.
'Wait... how am I supposed to get out of here?'
He looked about.
'Let me see... this is called the chamber of heroes?'
Each room up to this point was fairly similar in structure and design. Each of them held a 'puzzle' that solved the room. First, it was the magic altar, with his sword as the reward. Then it was the trio, which he was sure was an intentional trap, that gave him some rings, chainmail, and a talisman, including passage out just like the first.
'Sooo...'
The next logical thought was the same here, solve a puzzle for the room to open up, gain rewards along the way. But he frowned slightly.
'How do I find that when this thing is out to kill me, and I can't even put a scratch on it when it's standing still!'
At the very least it was obvious the skeleton had something to do with leaving the place, in each chamber there was a central cog followed, he'd just have to find the one that conjured him this time around.
But first, it was better to inspect the area and his opponent before it started attacking mindlessly.
He took a few steps forward, going to inspect its now exposed ribcage with better detail.
Peeking inside the shaded robes, the glint was still prominent, revealing what seemed to be a metal key attached to a string going somewhere up its body.
Then, with a look at the wooden door behind, he decided his next course of action.
The space in its robes was far too small for him to reach out and grab the key, hand, or sword.
'I need it to move in a way where I can grab it.'
Before that, though, he'd have to find the reason it stayed motionless and why it moved. Attacking it didn't work, probing its robes didn't either, so that only left one option in his mind:
'It attacked when I reached over... when I hit myself against the table, and when I went to eat...'
Taking a moment to process, he jumped his eyes up.
'Food! That's it, every time I was near the food it attacked.'
Just to confirm the suspicion, Leo walked far away to one of the distant roundtables and hovered his hands over the silverware and gourmet.
'...'
Nothing happened.
"What?"
Leo kept a watchful eye on the butler.
'Maybe I have to actually grab it?'
His calloused hands went in for the wine glass, releasing his grip just as soon as he touched it.
Swoosh!
A projectile shot out, winding up the veils in its way as it homed in on Leo's hands.
He took a step back as its eyes went a deep azure and faded back into the abyss. The very same string reeled back its catch.
'It's trick is the food then...'
His sword pulsed, releasing the runes way out into the air as they danced across all the dishes the room had to offer. Relaying one message as it pointed to the two opposite plates at the head and bottom:
[Butlers Code]