Larger Than Life, Bigger Than Us

Following the appetizing scent, Lily managed to find the source of it. She was extremely famished so when she saw the plates of food spread out on the dining table, she couldn't resist and sat down. Without ceremony, she started digging in the dishes in front of her. There were grilled seafood recipes, stirfried vegetables with meat, curries, fried rice, cold and hot soups, fried chicken... there were too many plates...Some she had never seen, some she had seen but never tasted. But all looked mouth watering.

One bite, two bites, and a full dish was gone. Soon few more plates were emptied. The whole time she was eating, the dining hall stayed empty. No guests, no servants, not a living soul came to interrupt her meal. Though she found it strange, it did not impede her ability to eat. Finally contented, Lily decided she would go explore her living accommodations.

Only after she ate did she realize she was not familiar at all with this place. From her room to the dining hall, she had been so obsessed with food, she hadn't paid attention to where she was going. Lily had no sense of direction so she just started to walk around randomly. It did look random to Lily but maybe Ran had a purpose for going here and there.

The first piece she stumbled upon was mostly b.a.r.e. There was a thick carpet of tightly braided rice straw covering the whole floor, one table with a beautiful tea set as well as stunning sliding doors on which camellias were painted. The doors were currently opened and she could get a glimpse of a very zen inner garden. Once in a while, she could also hear a clap sound. But there wasn't anything else of interest so Lily didn't dawdle very long.

She continued through a few more rooms. All uninteresting for Lily. But it allowed her to realize there was a pattern: In this hallway, all the rooms on her right were all laid out in such a way they had a view on the inner garden. She thus decided to explore another hallway.

By the time, she had almost finished exploring her compound, the sun was setting and she had finally reached out to the last few rooms, out of which one of them must be her bedroom. In her way to find the path back to her bedroom, she had found quite a few interesting rooms, one was filled with exotic animals, another was filled with diverse and uncomprehensible tools, another one was filled with jewelries and expensive treasure. Each time, Lily took a mental note and drawed up bit by bit a mental map. She was quite proud of herself.

Entering one of the last rooms, she was now in a library. The library was vast with a great amount of shelves of scrolls and books and folded papers covering the entirety of the walls from floor to ceiling. The ceiling was also very far from the ground since it had 3 floors which were accessible through a set of stairs not far from the entrance door.

"A well of knowledge? How unexpected but such a pleasant surprise!"

Lily could feel that Ran emotions were positive and high. Ran seemed to have been extremely pleased with the finding of the library. She started exploring the library slowly. First floor: there were more rolls and folded papers than books. It did not appeared there was a classification system of any sort. If there was, it was none that known to Lily. As she was browsing through the content of the shelves. Some of the scrolls were unreadable. Lily couldn't recognize the langage written on it. Some only contained pictures. When she was able to read it, it did not made sense to her. Lily was quick to discard the utility of the first floor's content. Thus she proceeded to the 2nd floor.