Now my journey begins in this world.
The maid was still standing near me, watching me. I took a deep breath and started my act. I grabbed my stomach and said with a pained expression on my face, "I need to go to the bathroom." I immediately ran inside and closed the door. As soon as I got inside, I sat on the floor and started thinking about what to do now. Thomas has completely stopped me from going outside. I don't understand how to learn about this world. In the real world, if people want to know about something, they know it instantly with the help of AI, or from a phone or TV, but here, there is no electronic equipment at all. It is impossible to know anything with the help of these.
Then it clicked in my mind—books! Books are the easiest way to know about any place. Now, if there are no books here, then I am done for. But then I remembered, Thomas always reads the newspaper while drinking tea. Suddenly, I felt like having tea, but I had no addiction, so I controlled myself. And here, Indian-style tea is not available—that sweet, milk and sugar tea... Then I hit my head with my hand and said, "Where did I wander off? I wanted to know about this place, how did I reach tea?"
Then I told myself, "Just concentrate on one place." But my mind went back to tea again. Then I pulled myself together, "No! Control yourself."
I started thinking, books must be here because if there is a newspaper, then there must be books too. But I have never seen a book in anyone's hands here until today. Does no one want to read books here? Then I started thinking a bit more about how big this house is; how will I find it? But these people are rich, so even if they don't have a hobby, they must have books. And with their help, I can know about this place. This is the right way.
I made up my mind and stood up, and as soon as I opened the door—thud! Two maids fell inside. I saw that all the maids were sitting outside the door with their ears pressed against it. Seeing them in this condition, my anger reached the seventh heaven.
I shouted, "Get out of here!" They ran away from there immediately. I came back and sat on the bed. This is too much, there is no such thing as privacy here. I thought a little, and I felt bad that I shouted at them; perhaps I shouldn't have said that. But what happened, has happened. I just need to investigate here. Now my Investigation Mode begins.
The house was quite big. So big that if someone came here for the first time, they would lose their way. There was no shortage of rooms in it. I started searching by going out of the room one by one. I went into every corner of the bathroom, peeked into Mom and Dad's room, and went into all those rooms where the guards and maids had separate living areas. I kept circling the same area in the upper floor and corridors of the house for a long time, but I did not find even a single book anywhere.
Tired and defeated, I reached the kitchen. I thought maybe I would find something here. As soon as I reached the kitchen, my eyes fell on a shelf where some books were kept. Seeing them, I jumped with joy; I thought—'Finally, I found something!'
I quickly picked up those books and started flipping through the pages. Those books mentioned many types of dishes. I am a person who eats only eggs and vegetarian food, so I used to get the same food here. But such dishes were written in those recipe books that my head started spinning. It said—'Wild Boar Bone Soup', 'Roasted Meat of those Monstrous Flying Birds', and 'Stew of Large Insects living in the swamp'.
Reading all that, I immediately started feeling like vomiting. I understood that vegetarian food and eggs were made only for me, otherwise, the real menu of this house was something else entirely. Just by reading the names of those animals, my stomach got upset, but now one thing was clear: books do exist here and they are definitely there. Just then, I heard the sound of guards' footsteps from afar. I couldn't run, so I slowed down my pace and pretended to be normal. As soon as they passed by, I lowered my face. As soon as they left, I got back to my search.
There was silence in one corner of the house. Near the wall, I saw stairs going down. My heart started beating fast. Those books and the atmosphere of this house convinced me that something is hidden here. I took a deep breath and walked towards those dark stairs. Now I was completely sure that I would definitely find something here.