Questions Without Answers

The carriages came to a stop. Through the carriage windows, they could already see that the city was majestic.

"HEY GUYS, COME ON! GRAB YOUR BAGS! QUICKLY, WE CAN'T WASTE TIME!" Hukuro said as he opened the carriage door.

As soon as he opened the door, a little surprise was waiting for him that almost killed him by a hair's breadth: he saw Hiroshi and Rania staring at him.

Hukuro was dumbfounded, confused, terrified, frightened, shocked, and much more. Words wouldn't come out of his mouth, his eyes seemed to pop out, his breath was almost exhausted, and his skin began to turn pale. He was about to faint but controlled himself.

"Hukuro, what's wrong? Is everything okay?" Duraan asked.

Hukuro turned toward him, trying to pretend nothing had happened.

"Eh? Ah! Yes, yes! Everything's FINE!! Ehhh eh! It's just that... I was ehmmm... checking that everything was in order, YES!! That's all...!! Hahaha, the city is beautiful, isn't it?" He tried to change the subject, but Duraan didn't fall for it. He already sensed that something was wrong.

The problem was that they needed to move quickly, so Duraan moved Hukuro away from the carriage entrance, who was standing there like a wall about to crumble. As soon as he saw the situation, he too understood the reason for all this.

Meanwhile, Hiroshi had had enough, so he decided to get out of the carriage by himself. He moved the two men away from the entrance, made a little jump from the edge, stretched a bit, looked at the sky and the majestic buildings around him, took a breath of air and said: "Hello everyone, how are you?"

Everyone looked at him with the same expression as Hukuro: "HIROSHI!!!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?!"

"I'm not alone, Rania is here too. Hey Rania! Come out!"

Rania slowly, greeting everyone, came out: "Hehehehe... hello everyone... how are you?"

Hukuro quickly asked: "WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING HERE?! AND HOW DID YOU GET HERE? I WANT AN IMMEDIATE ANSWER! NO JOKES! DON'T YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING?! IF THE GUARDS SEE YOU, THEY CAN EVEN KILL YOU! AND WE WON'T BE ABLE TO DO ANYTHING BUT WATCH YOU DIE!"

Then Hiroshi explained everything from beginning to end about how and why the two of them were there.

There was a brief moment of silence, then Duraan spoke: "Alright guys, listen everyone. Now there's nothing else we can do but move forward. General Wilhelm is about to arrive, so you have to stay with us now, and don't try to do anything foolish, okay?"

"Alright."

Hukuro, still dumbfounded, couldn't understand anything.

After all this, Hiroshi looked around carefully. At that moment, they were standing in front of the entrance of a building that looked like a hotel, but it was a more-than-five-star hotel, made of white marble. It was a structure about five stories high and so wide that its extent was unknown, because it was truly immense. The edges were covered with black obsidian, and on the white marble were designs made in gold and red ruby, with beautiful and sturdy pure iron doors.

In front of the building lay a vast garden surrounded by pointed bars. In the garden there were various types of flowers, with a fountain in the middle.

The street was made of a material unknown to Hiroshi, but it was yellowish at the edges and shone, while the middle was white and stony. Security was no less impressive, as well-armored and armed guards patrolled everywhere.

Then General Wilhelm also arrived: "So, everyone ready? How does this magnificent city seem to you?"

Duraan stepped forward: "It's stunning! I've never seen anything like this in my life so far. I can't imagine that if just the entrance is so magnificent, how magnificent the center will be! The squares! The markets! And most of all, the royal palace!"

"Hahaha, you're right, young man. I too was just as shocked as you are right now when I first arrived."

"But you don't seem that old to me, at most you'd be a couple of years older than me."

"Hahahaha, that's a good one! Come on, let's go inside so we can tell you about your rooms."

But before entering, the general stopped and turned around: "Hey, wait a moment. Weren't you six people? How come you're eight now?"

Duraan didn't panic and said: "We were always eight, you must have made a mistake."

"No, I'm sure you were six people, and besides, I'm seeing that boy and girl over there for the first time," the general said with a suspicious tone.

"We were eight, it's just that these two here never got out of the carriage. The boy there, Hiroshi, slept and lay down the whole time in the carriage, and the girl Rania is very shy and prefers to stay a bit detached, so you didn't see them."

The general looked with very, very suspicious glances for a while, and at this moment Hukuro was certain he was dead. He was bathing in his own sweat.

"Alright, then we'll see each other later. The waiter will show you your rooms, rest because we'll have to work hard afterward."

"Alright, thank you."

So gradually everyone began to enter the hotel. The inside was twice as beautiful as the outside.

The walls literally sparkled with gold, under their feet was a multicolored carpet that changed color every so often. There were no words to describe all this, and only one thing could be said: wonderful.

At the entrance, a waiter was already waiting for them, a young blond man with a wide smile on his face.

"Welcome, dear young warriors who will shine like a star in this majestic city! I welcome you to our hotel PRESHLOGNEL! I hope you like our service!"

The waiter took the lead and showed the room designated for each of them: one room per person.

Once they had settled their bags, the waiter told them to rest, saying that he would come to call them himself afterward.

Everyone agreed and went to their rooms for a minute.

After that minute passed, everyone (except Rania) quickly gathered in Hiroshi's room to clarify some things. They didn't have pleasant expressions on their faces.

"What do you want? I already told you everything," Hiroshi said to justify himself.

"WE KNOW THAT! BUT WE WANT ANSWERS TO SOME OF OUR QUESTIONS THAT WE'RE GOING TO ASK YOU!" Hukuro said.

"Fine, but call Rania too, since she was the one who wanted to come."

"We'll call her too, but first you answer."

"Okay."

"So, do you know what happens if they discover you?"

"Yes, they send me back where I came from."

"YOU GET KILLED!"

"Ah, okay."

"Do you know what it means if you get killed?"

"No."

"The village's reputation will fall drastically."

"Fine."

"FINE WHAT?!"

Right at that moment, Hiroshi's brain sent a spark: "I have an idea, if you want."

"And what would that be?"

"So, what if we tell them... what if we tell the truth that we had an immense desire to come here?"

"It's better to kill you here than say that there," Hukuro said.

"Well then, whatever is written in destiny will happen, we can't do anything about it."

A long moment of silence in which the murderous gazes of five people were fixed on Hiroshi.

They said nothing and went to their rooms because they too knew that doing something now would be useless.