"Reckon this has to do with that secret Iris mentioned?" Alan voiced his thoughts, while simultaneously lowering himself to press his ears against the ground.
And within moments, he was in the same awkward kneeling position as Lucian, with the side of his head pressed against the dirt.
"Perhaps." Lucian replied, without rising from his position.
After a moment of silence.
"Did you hear anything?" Alan knit his brows together, even after focusing all of his senses on hearing, he couldn't pick up on any sounds.
"No." Lucian's reply was straightforward.
"Maybe we aren't trying hard enough." Alan thought for a moment. "Let's listen deeper."
"Understood." Lucian nodded.
The moment Alan gave the command, the two of them dug their heads deeper into the earth.
After another moment of silence
"...What are you two doing...?" Julia walked out of the room, witnessing the two burrow themselves into the ground.
"What do you think?" Alan pulled his head out to ask the exact thing Lucian did to him.
"Are you role-playing as worms...?" Julia asked warily, but at the same time her expression...was strangely excited?
"Uh... Yeah..." Alan just agreed, he couldn't even process where the hell she got that idea from.
"Sweet!" Julia immediately grinned like a child, rushing over to the two of them. "Let me join!"
"Huh? Wait maybe don—" But his words were cut short.
Thuck
Because Julia dived head first into the mud right next to him, then soon enough.
"Mmmm!" Her voice was heard, only her voice, the mud completely stopped them from even understanding her words, but she certainly did seem ecstatic.
Alan was too shocked to even utter a single word, he just silently stared at Julia's wiggling figure.
"What..." Just then, Iris stepped out of the room, staring at Alan and Lucian with a horrified glare.
Alan returned an equally horrified stare. "Wait Iris, this isn't what it loo—"
"What have you done to Juli!"
Shimmer
She didn't even bother listening to Alan, instead stretched her palm into the air beside her, quickly forming a straight sword created off golden light particles, her very own soul weapon.
Just before she lunged forward, Julia jerked her head out of the dirt before exclaiming. "Iris!"
A nasty sludge of brown mud stuck to her face, leaving only her crimson eye visible, yet it couldn't hinder her beaming smile.
"Uh..." Instantly, Iris came to an abrupt halt, pausing her swinging motion.
"Join us!" Julia grinned, gesturing to the dirt beside her.
"Yes." And Iris didn't even hesitate or blink, the moment she saw Julia's smile she complied.
And in the next moment.
Thuck
Iris dived into the space beside Julia, plunging her head into the earth.
"Hehe~" Julia giggled to herself.
Thuck
Then rammed her head into the mud.
Alan watched everything with a mortified expression, his eyes widened to an unnatural degree, he couldn't even begin to process the sequence of actions he just witnessed.
"Eh, why even think that hard." Alan muttered, actually he kind of could process it, after all he was also extremely eccentric.
Thuck
And so he shoved his head into the ground without many thoughts, joining the other four.
Again, silence fell upon the place.
...
"How did this even happen..." Arlo whispered, staring ahead with open eyes, in front of him were four figures, with their heads stabbed into the earth, while Julia weirdly wiggled like a worm. "They're not dead, are they?"
Arlo was extremely dumbfounded at the moment, he and Alden were idly exploring the living quarters of Julia and Iris under their permission, only to run into a strange scenario the moment they stepped out.
That wasn't even the biggest reason he was so bewildered, it was because three of the individuals were some of the highest, most prestigious status in the continent... only to be doing this.
"You'll get used to it." Alden approached from behind, patting Arlo on the shoulder.
"Get used to what...?" Alden tried sounding reassuring, but that made it even more bizarre for Arlo.
"You'll see." Alden shrugged as if he were used to it, in fact he was, over the past six years, he directly witnessed countless outlandish stunts from both Alan and Lucian.
So much so to the point he became numb, treating anything abnormal as it was normal, by simply thinking, 'Oh it's just Alan'.
Soon, Alden reached Alan.
"You filthy bastard!" Alden yelled in his usual arrogant voice, then yanked Alan out by the leg. "Are you trying to gather even more filth than you already have?"
"Oh, Alden." Alan lazily waved him off, his face was plastered in dark mud, leaving only his violet eyes the only clear feature. "Oi Lucian."
The moment Alan called out to him, he shifted in his position, before quickly standing up.
"Yes." Lucian answered, mud dripped down his chin, leaving his face in a rather comical appearance, though his stoic expression remained unfazed.
"Did you hear anything?" Alan asked, entirely ignoring the mud on his and Lucian's face.
"No." Lucian frowned faintly, rubbing his chin, he suddenly thought. "What if it's coming from deeper underground?"
"Oh shit, you might be right." Alan nodded.
As they were idly having their conversation, Julia stirred from her wiggling stance, before jumping up.
"Hehe~" She giggled while smiling brightly. "Are we done playing?"
The moment Julia spoke, Iris stirred and immediately stood upright.
"Iris!" Julia called out. "Did you have fun?"
"Yes..." Iris slowly nodded, her face too just like everyone else was overlaid with brown mud, paired with her vertical golden eyes, she looked like an upset cat.
"Pfft." Suddenly, Alan burst out laughing.
"What's so funny?" Iris frowned, knitting her brows together.
"Nah, nah, nothing." Alan laughed, wiping the tear in his eye. "I just realised how stupid you lo—"
Thuck
Before he finished speaking his sentence, his face was struck with a ball of mud.
"What the hell!" Alan cursed, wiping the sludge on his face.
"Don't finish what you were saying." Iris warned Alan.
"Oh so that's how you want to play, huh?" Alan nodded, then immediately crouched, gathering balls of dirt in his hands.
And quickly stood up. "You asked for thi—"
Thuck
But again he was slapped across the face with mud, this time it wasn't from Iris.
"Are we having a snow fight?" Julia beamed, holding numerous balls of dirt in her hands.
"Where the fuck are you seeing sno—"
Thuck
Again he was met with a familiar blow to the face by Julia.
"Let's play then!"
"Alright, you piece of shit, screw you." Alan muttered.
Thuck Thuck Thuck
And very quickly it turned into a mayhem of mud throwing, with Alan and Julia tossing dark sludges at each other's faces.
Lucian and Iris simultaneously provided Alan and Julia with new supplies of dirt balls the moment their amount ran low, ensuring the continuation of their battle.
Within the pure chaos of a scenario, it was also filled with childish laughter from both Julia and Alan.
A small distance from the mayhem.
"What am I even watching...?" Arlo mumbled, once again he was thrown into another bizarre situation, this time he even saw everything from the start, and still didn't understand why it came to this.
Alden just silently patted him on the shoulder.
...
Before long, the area outside of Julia's and Iris's bedrooms had devolved into a huge mess, with so much dirt pulled out that the ground had collapsed.
"I won!"
"No, I won!"
Now both Alan and Julia were just arguing over who won their questionable battle, they were completely covered head to toe in mud and filth, without a single care for how they might look.
"Hah... hah..." They took a small moment to catch their breath, before staring into each other's eyes.
"Pfft." Then simultaneously burst out laughing together, doubling over while clutching their stomach.
"Aw man." Alan wiped his face full of mud. "That was fun."
"I know right." Julia spun around to shake the dirt off, though it didn't do much.
"Hey, what do we do about this mud." Alan frowned, despite rubbing his face and body, brown smudges remained.
"Um..." Julia thought for a moment. "Let's go to the river!"
"Oh yeah, great idea." Alan nodded in agreement, he glanced at Lucian and Iris.
Their clothes looking filthy too, and so did their faces, suddenly Alan remembered something and grinned.
"Guess it's a good thing I didn't change clothes huh?" Alan smiled, teasing Iris.
"Shut up." That was her only reply, as she silently followed beside Julia, who was leading the way.
"Oh!" Julia suddenly jolted as if she remembered something, then turned back to glance at Alan and Lucian while she kept walking. "You two should know about Sparky."
"Sparky?" Alan instantly questioned. "What's that."
"Umm." Julia's eyes scanned the surroundings looking for any signs of people, which makes no sense considering there was literally no one else other than them here.
"Listen." She whispered. "Nobody knows about sparky."
"Nobody?" Alan raised a brow, then peeked at Arlo and Alden following along from a distance. "What about those two?"
"I mean it." Julia shook her head. "No one in the castle, other than me and Iris, knows about sparky, so you can't tell anyone, okay?"
"Alright." Alan nodded. "I won't, so tell me what's this sparky thing."
Julia smiled, looking excessively smug. "He's my pet."
"What the hell." Alan scrunched his face. "You named your pet Sparky?"
"Mhm!" She nodded. "I spent days thinking about that name!"
"Did you now..." Alan sighed and gave up trying to question Julia anymore. "It's a great name."
"I know!" Julia begun hopping along the path, seemingly in a good mood despite the mud plastered all over her.
"So... Where is Sparky?" Alan turned to Iris instead.
"Hmm..." Iris hummed while tapping her chin. "I don't know."
"What kind of pet owners are you two."
"It's because Sparky..." Iris furrowed her brows. "Is a little special."
"Uh, like mentally or...?"
"No." Iris shook her head. "He can go completely invisible, entirely removing his presence and does that all the time, so it's difficult to even know where he is."
"What fuck ass pet is this?" Alan's was perplexed, he ain't never heard of a pet who would just go invisible.
In response, Iris just shrugged without offering any real answer.
...
Alan stared ahead, before him was a long river, the clear water moved in a gentle current down the stream, bending down he ran his fingers along the flow of water.
"It's pretty cold..." He whispered, feeling the temperature of water against his hands, slowly he stood up and turned around.
"Let's take our clothes off." Alan addressed the group.
Splash
Not even a second after he was done speaking, Julia already dived into the river, fully clothed.
"Haha!" She laughed, raising her head above the water. "It's so cold!"
"Why would you even do that?"
"Our clothes are dirty too, no?" Julia tilted her head. "So why not wash it at the same time?"
"Oh... Not a bad idea." Alan just stopped thinking, and jumped into the water.
Splash
The clear water rapidly darkened with brown mud the moment Alan and Julia entered it.
Poking his head out of the water surface Alan's face was quickly replaced by pure dread.
"LUCIAN!" Alan immediately yelled, flapping his hands in the water.
Fun fact, despite being the world's greatest agent in his past life, he could not swim for shit, as the current situation reflected that quite openly, it seems when he stopped thinking earlier, he really did stop thinking.
Splash Splash
Lucian quickly dived into the river, followed by Iris.
Thup
Something bumped into the panicking Alan, catching him and keeping him surfaced above the water.
"Phew..." Alan let out a breath, rubbing his eyes. "Thanks Luci...an..."
But his words died in his throat when he opened his eyes, in front of him was Lucian actively swimming over, Iris and Julia wasn't even close to him.
However, there was obviously something holding him upright...
Alan's heart nearly jumped out of his chest the moment he realised, then slowly turned his head to look behind him.