Hortus Arcanus Planēta

ACT 2

Guot’s button

That night, the clock struck midnight.

Just as Ella collapsed onto the bed, she straightened herself up again, her eyes glowing red.

“Elle?” I called out.

“What is it?” she replied with a yawn.

For some reason, Elle seemed more enthusiastic than usual.

“Tonight, we’re going to decipher that book,” she declared.

We opened the book together.

The first thing we looked at was the page with the illustration.

There, we found a diagram showing the placement of five buttons.

Elle took the two buttons out of her pocket and compared them to the illustration.

One of the five button slots matched one of the buttons perfectly.

However, even though the other button looked almost identical, there was no slot on the page that fit it exactly.

Elle narrowed her eyes and studied the buttons once more.

Then she spoke.

“This might be your button and mine.”

“What do you mean?”

“If there are two books—one for you and one for me—then wouldn’t it make sense for there to be two buttons as well?”

“I see.”

“You can have this button.”

“Thank you.”

After receiving the button, I casually turned to the next page without thinking much of it.