Chapter 6: A mean to escape
'Maybe I'm just being paranoid.'
Adelaide was not the kind of person that blindly trusts their intuition. Yes, she would keep any possibilities open and would never underestimate a threat; however, there was no proof, and a momentary hunch had always been unreliable.
'Getting out of this place is the priority. I don't have the luxury to think of some possible non-existent stuff at the moment. It is suspicious, but whatever.'
Adelaide spent the next five days perfecting her teleportation technique. At that point, she thought it was more about traveling at extreme speed rather than disappearing and reappearing without a trace like how teleportation used to work in her imagination.
At first, there were times where one of her smaller body parts was left behind (a toe, a finger, or eyebrows). Adelaide was a bit worried that she would bleed like a water fountain since her finger was not there and all, but no blood came out. She also figured out how to take stuff along when teleporting, as well as how to leave the things she was wearing behind.
'Since I have this GPS-like bracelet.'
Adelaide looked down at her left hand. There was a bracelet-like device around her wrist – an irremovable one. It fitted her small wrist perfectly, and there were small stones and runes decorating it. She knew it was this era's personal GPS because the next day after her first success, the three bastards were confused while communicating amongst themselves after Adelaide passed out.
- Why did it show that she moved yesterday?
- At what time?
- 10:40 am. But it also says she returned to bed a minute later. Not by walking back to bed, but disappearing from the corner of the room and reappearing on the bed immediately.
- Must be an error. The device is old, so it makes mistakes sometimes. Although she is a special case, the device we put on her is the same model as the other subjects. Last month, it even showed a subject walking on the corridors. But the subject died that day, so he was in the morgue. It's just that the guards forgot to take his bracelet off.
- Oh, yes. Was that why a rumor about a vengeful ghost went around among the maids?
- Yes, although nothing actually happened to contribute to that story further. Some drunk bastard slipped his tongue in the common hall. The maids weren't supposed to know about the underground experiments. Anyways, it's not like #00 can teleport; teleportation is something only a station could do.
Since then, Adelaide always teleported while leaving the bracelet behind from the bed before going around the room.
'Fortunately, they thought of it as a glitch. And a station used for teleportation is like an elevator. You can use it, but it is impossible to gain its abilities. Based on how obvious his tone was, teleportation sounds like a mix between this world's supernatural abilities and science. I should not reveal this ability easily; I am basically a mobile station.'
With what the six-year-old Adelaide had gathered and experienced, there was not a lot of information Adelaide could use. Luckily, she had the room of subconsciousness at her disposal, and Alfred, her now older brother, loved his sister dearly.
The duke sent Alfred to Western Imperial Academy, one of the two most prestigious academies for heirs and royals when he turned ten. The academy was a boarding school. Alfred was a young genius, so as a matter of fact, he caught up easily with his 13-year-old First Year peers.
Sadly, the duke sent him to boarding school early not because he cared about his son and wanted to maximize the boy's potential. No matter how smart Alfred was, sending a ten-year-old to a competitive environment 24/7 was too much. Although this world was still under a feudal system, human rights and the likes had already been established.
After reading the records some more, Adelaide could now conclude that this world is in a stage similar to the Second Industrial Revolution in her past world, but not exactly so. The difference was that electricity was combined with aie, resulting in more "magical" results.
For instance, the teleport station. It was the most expensive mode of transportation, usually reserved only for nobles. Similarly, tickets for trains fueled by aie are more costly than coal trains.
Now, normally, it would be against the law to send Alfred to boarding school back then.
However, being the Head of Winford meant possessing massive power within the Empire. The duke pulled some strings and sent Alfred away. Of course, it was not his idea; it was the duchess, the siblings' stepmother.
Duke Charles IX managed to keep the Winford name and territory despite not being a talented man. It was one of the few benefits of having a useless and high pride; however, the downside was that the second duchess succeeded in stealing his heart even though she was originally a commoner.
And an ambitious woman too.
'Alfred taught her a lot, but all she did was trust that stepmother and turn her back on him. I can't blame her, she's a kid. How could she have kept her grounds against that stepmother? What a messed-up pair of parents.'
Adelaide did not know the maximum distance that she could cover with teleportation. She decided she should meet up with Alfred first. As he was most likely still at school, teleporting straight to the academy would be ideal.
However, Adelaide had no idea where she was. And she did not have a map either. Since the room of subconsciousness' library only recorded what Adelaide had seen, it provided no help. The girl saw no map growing up.
'The original Adelaide was confined in these four walls 24/7, so there's no useful information about my current location either.'
Although returning to that complicated Winford household did not sound desirable, Adelaide had no choice. Yes, her soul was that of a 21-year-old, but she had the appearance, strength, and this world's knowledge of a 6-year-old kid. Plus, with this pretty face, it was almost guaranteed that human traffickers would take special interest in her.
'I'm both a teleport station and a pile of fresh cash.'
Her best choice would be to return to Winford's territory and grow up. It could be a bit tough, but at least Adelaide's mental capability was quite good. And she would have servants who were paid to serve her lazy ass. Worse comes to worst, she could just live there until adulthood (17) and flee.
But the million-dollar question is, how could she escape?
After days of sitting next to the door and listening to footsteps, Adelaide had more or less discovered a pattern: the guards would change shifts once every two hours. There were no clocks in the room, so she used the weird countdown timer in the room of subconsciousness.
Even a newbie of this world like Adelaide knew it was unusual for shifts to be that short. Then again, they capture the lady of a high-ranking noble house and do illegal experiments on her, so that much is understandable, even if the lady's father was in cahoots with them unofficially.
'I took a lot of risks lately. I even snuck out by teleporting blindly and almost got caught once. However, this underground facility is really too big, I couldn't find the exit.'
Adelaide had one weakness that she thought was pretty minor back in her modern days – road blind. The weakness itself was not severe, and she could use maps pretty well, but it would not be easy for her without directions.
To make matters worse, Baron James' illegal underground facility had no distinct features at all. The corridors all looked the same, and maybe it was her problem, but since she could not find the exit, Adelaide even suspected she was going in circles these past days.
'His cave is pretty clean, I'll give him that. Ugh, I wasted days, and sketching out a general map using the virtual CCTV would take too long. I only have six days left.'
She needed an alternative.
But Adelaide was not your typical novel protagonist with a cheat key. She could not put her trust in any sudden rescuers either. It would be nice if they actually came, but one could not place all their chips in some vague external party and pray for miracles.
The little girl was sitting on the ground, her chin rested on her knees. The GPS bracelet was placed on the bed, as usual, its various stones shone under the ceiling light like gems.
'If only there's a map.'
'Bling bling.'
Just then, a scene started to play in Adelaide's head. It was a weird experience, like someone turned on a movie right in her head. Normally, the eyes would receive external images and videos, then transfer the information to the brain. But at that moment, Adelaide felt like the entire process was shortened.
It just happened suddenly right in her head.
What would be an acceptable reaction in this situation?
"…what the hell?"
Exactly.
Like a normal training video on Y**tube, the one in her head also started with an intro scene. The headings, "How to use your new ability – Map Master" with smaller subtitles "A quick guide" appeared with effects. Technology-themed background music was also included.
"..it also has an audio function?"
That's not the point, Adelaide.
Right after that, more words started to appear. Although professional-looking, the entire tutorial video looked as if it was made in a rush. The same background sound was kept the entire time, and the theme was always dark blue. Since she could technically 'hear' the 'sound', Adelaide thought someone would at least give a presentation, but there was none.
The video was wordy. It took Adelaide quite a while to read everything. It seemed like whoever edited this training video felt bad for her, as they were kind enough to keep each screen for a while.
Overall, excluding all the minor transitions, "good lucks", and unnecessary explanations, Adelaide extracted three most useful points of this new skill:
One, as long as one of her arms touched a building or any artificial architecture, a detailed map slash blueprint of everything inside it would be displayed in her mind.
Two, she could also see the surroundings of said building, but only up to a 50-meter range.
Three, she must touch the object directly using her bare skin.
The sudden video phenomenon startled her, but Adelaide soon calmed down. She had to try this new thing she just got. She leaned her two small bare arms on the wall.
"There is nothing more expensive than something free" was a wise Japanese proverb. People should be wary of free things. However, Adelaide could not help it. Someone gave it to her, and she was in a predicament, so why not check it out?
'I guess I could just dine and dash.'
Although she had more or less expected it, what happened still make her eyes open wide in surprise. The entire map of the underground facility was displayed right before her eyes. It was so detailed that even the dots that represented people were shown. Some had different brightness level, some was moving.
It seemed like the 2-hour shift just ended since Adelaide could clearly see two dots coming towards her room. The four dots were all huddled together for a minute before two of them "walked" away.
All their actions corresponded to the footsteps Adelaide heard as she sat right at the wall that separated the two parties. When Adelaide tried moving her arm away, the map disappeared.
It returned when she lightly pressed one of her hands on the wall again.
'…I got a cheat key?' Adelaide thought in astonishment. Her face then scrunched up thinking of the name.
'Map Master? Who came up with this cringey name?'
Adelaide could confirm that some entity, or force, was more or less supporting her, but it also seemed to have ulterior motives. It knew she struggled for days, drifting around the facility aimlessly like some wandering ghost, but only gave her this Map Master skill now.
'Someone wants me to owe them a favor? Giving someone when they're most desperate and they'll be much more thankful… Although I'm not really that desperate yet.'
'Shouldn't they wait for a couple more days before giving me this? Humans are emotional creatures; we'll feel more thankful that way. Any person with dignity will feel indebted. Fortunately, I am shameless. As long as this thing isn't some kind of curse, then I'm good.'
Adelaide sighed. All her doubts had no base, after all. If Map Master was given to her automatically without that how-to-use video manual, her suspicions would not rise this much. The video looked so modern that it definitely did not belong to this era.
'I smell trouble. Ugh, let's just solve the issue in front of me first.'
The ability she just gained was useful, incredibly useful. She just found the name embarrassing.
'I'd rather they name it G**gle Map. If you want to mimic Earth, at least do it right, damn it.'
She decided to throw all her suspicions to the back of her head once again. Adelaide wrote a note and stuck it on one of the big table's corners in her room of subconsciousness, just in case.
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Proofreader: krissaira
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