Underground Tunnel

6:05:32 PM

Time is essence and time is gold. Everything is connected through time. Nothing can time except space. It was what Albert Einstein theorized during his youth before he got dose out from his college life. However, his time became his foundation of hope and because of his achievements, he was now the well-known Nobel Prize winner throughout the entire world.

But for Hermes, that time was wasted of finding the key to unlock the big door.

“This is not doable. How can we even open this door?” Hermes asked, looking for the right key from every blocks he could push.

“This is too difficult to open, who made this thing?” Kurosaki followed up.

“Keep it up, guys. We’ll definitely find the button. I hope… so.” Zairenada replied, pushing every blocks she still hadn’t touch.

Hermes and his companions were locked inside a small chamber, painted with the historic plains from the past. It revealed the culture and ancient heritage that had appeared to be considered as extinct. While everyone is busy in finding the key from the block, little Wendy was reading something behind. There was a small letters in each side in a straight line.

“A? S? S… H… O… L … What kind of words was that? Asshol? What’s the meaning of asshol? Hey, hey,” she tried to call their attention, “There’s something down here. Take a look at this words.” She called them for another time but everyone were busy in their own. “Jeez,” her face puffed in irritation.,“fine! I’ll deal with it.”

She read once again the letters and combined the letters into words. She put her right arm under her chin and thought for the right words. She made a guess that the letters might be the key to open the door. She took a sit in seiza and started to imagine the hidden meaning of those words.

“Asshol? Sholas? No, it’s not the same too. It is not even related to this door.”

After few minutes, Hermes gave up and decided to let his two companions to continue to find the right key. When he turned around, he saw little Wendy in closed eyes, sitting in the corner. He wondered why she was in that position facing the other side. Looking at the corner, he noticed the six letters in the sideline. He read one by one the letters and recognized that if the words mixed together it would be in the same present word of “Asshole?” In one word, the door opened, making everyone surprised.

“Oh my gosh, we did it, Mr. Kurosaki! We finally opened the door.” Zairena shook the shoulder of Kurosaki where his eyes rolled from dizziness. “Mr. Aljen, we finally did it!”

“Eh?” Hermes who was unable to respond in quick reply was surprised. “That’s good. Good job.”

“Now, we can start to move now to save the others.” Kurosaki said, pointing his thumb in the door with sigh of relief.

“Right, we will. We will save my siblings from this place.” Zairena grinned in excitement.

“Woah, waoh, woah. Seriously, hold it right there. ” Hermes quickly grabbed the maiden’s shoulder. “Wait a minute. We shouldn’t move away from this place.”

Zairena tilted her head in confusion. “What do you mean?” he kindly asked.

“It is more important to create a plan before we move out.”

“But the door might close any minute now, sir.” she quickly responded.

“She's right, young master. If the door could lock us here for such a long time, we wouldn’t even know how can we open this door. There’s a chance that we would lost our luck.” Kurosaki followed up, moving closer to his master.

“But we already open it. The door appears to sense the presence of the person who left this place. Take a look at this room, there’s no sign of any trace of a person who wouldn’t mind to left his place without any problem.” He pointed out the side and how clean the place they stepped in.

“You got a point.” Kurosaki grasped his point but Zairena was still unable to follow through.

“My apologise, would you mind to clarify in a simple term what do you want to explain to this lowlife commoner, sir? Forgive my self-conscious and lack of common sense.” she lowered her head and lend her ear to listen to his explanation.

Seriously, girl. You don’t need to lower your head for this kind of lecture though. Jeez, I blame my co-director of making her like this.

“This room must be a secret chamber and only the owner or any trace of his seeds could enter this place. Looking at these paintings in the walls and ceiling, it must be his past life.”

“Then, what does even mean then? What do you want to show to us?”

“This might be the administrator’s room. Look at that painting underneath the right side, it shows the three worms we faced earlier. Take a look ,” he pointed out some illustrations that indicated the same features of the creatures they met earlier. Hermes Archnemesis was building a plot setting to make something that would convince his companions to believe with.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

“Administrator room? Is that what the position of a government official?” she asked.

“Nope, but they have the same duties and responsibilities in terms of managing the program of this site.” Hermes replied.

“... Program?” Zairena and Kurosaki tilted their heads and glanced at each other. It appeared they didn’t follow what he was trying to tell to them. They gave a wryly smiled when Hermes told them to take a closer grasp to his explanation so he won’t repeat it. He didn’t like to repeat the words he already told them to.

Hermes wanted to make a short and well-planned strategy to let themselves to prevent get caught and seen by the enemies. They must remained sneaky and their plan of infiltrating the place without triggering the defense mechanism would succeed. It is a wise decision to avoid making a big fuss from the beginning so they won’t fight those people protecting the whole place.

“Reading the contents of the map, it might help us to find the safest route to get closer to the other prison cells that has been heavily guarded and saved as much as we can.”

Kurosaki tapped his palm and finally caught up what he meant to, he asked, “So, you want us to sneak in this place like what we did by using the other secret passage… for example, this room, am I right, sir?”

Hermes nodded.

He sighed in relief when he didn’t need to explain it more.

Thank goodness, we got an feasible and smart person in my party.

“My apologies, ” the young maiden put her right hand under her chin where her pointing finger touch her lips. “I still didn’t understand anything.”

“Ms. Zairena, my master want us to move in a different place that would be easy for us to mend in.” Kurosaki said, patting her head.

“Oooh, that’s a good idea!” Her glistening eyes opened wide in excitement.

When Hermes saw his hand patting the young maiden, he quickly grabbed his hand and removed it from her hair, making Kurosaki surprised.

“Umm… would you mind not to - … you know what I mean, right?” Hermes gave him a deadly look.

Kurosaki smiled and covered his mouth, “Oooh, my apologies, sir. I didn’t know you guys have that kind of relationship.”

Zairena cluelessly tilted her head. She humbly asked, “What kind of relationship are you guys talking about?”

“It’s nothing.” Kurosaki lowered his head towards to his master and apologized. “My apologies milord, I won’t do that again that would make a bad impression to my new master.”

Hermes scratched his head and simply patted his right shoulder. “Now then, listen carefully, whatever happens. You must never go against my will, got it?”

“Yes, sir.” the two companions replied in unison.

“Let me tell you guys our top priorities in this place. First, we must find my servant named Justin, the two twins and the other possible innocent prisoners we might be encounter later on that was held captive in this site. Second, we must infilitrate this place without killing anyone. And last but not the least, we must never leave each other’s side until we move. Is that clear?” Hermes raised his right hand and pointed his index finger to them.

“Sir, yes, sir!”

“Now, I already capture the image of the map imprinted and illustrated in this room and fully memorized all of them.”

“All of them?” Zairena appeared surprised.

“Woah, I didn’t know my new master has a good memory in his youth. You’re definitely going to become a good leader someday.” Kurosaki leerly scratched in his left chin

“Anyways, how’s your legs, Kurosaki?” Hermes asked.

“It’s a little bit itchy and numb from the start but I can still walk. With the long minutes we stuck in this place, I can feel my legs to be able to walk by its own.”

“Well, can you fight on your own?”

“Umm..,” he scratched his left chin once again. “My apologies, I still can’t hold a weapon in my current state, sir.”

“Then, you should stay in this room then.”

Kurosaki’s eyes turned blank and surprised in his suggestion.

“But sir -”

“- No, buts. Ms. Zairena and I had been sneakily moved inside this place without getting caught by the enemies. I don’t like to drag a person that would become just a hindrance to our plan.”

Kurosaki tried to open his opinion but still, his master was telling the truth. If he came with them, he might just bring them a bad luck. He didn’t like to bring an another failure to his new leader.

He clenched his fist and gave in, “As you wish, master. I’ll stay.”

“Good choice. You and little Wendy will stay in this room and until we return, please be safe.” Hermes said.

“Alright, milord. If that’s what you want to happen, I’ll comply.”

“Anyways, Ms. Zairena. Can you still keep up with me? I’m referring to your magic. Can your body still cast four and more spells? We would encounter a lot of guards after we leave them behind. We will move on our own once again inside this site.”

Zairena remained quiet and began to hesitate. Although she had an ability to use magic, she won’t be able to cast more than five spells at the same time without taking a rest. She was thankful that they had a short rest after being stuck inside the chamber but still, she had to remain calm in order not get their concern. She didn’t like to see as a hindrance in her companions. But, Hermes frankly asked her condition.

Did he noticed her fatigue from the start when she casted her magic everytime they encountered some enemies on their sight?

“Y, yes, I still can cast not only five but more than that, sir.” She gave him a wryly smiled.

Hermes looked surprise but remained calm. He sighed and scratched his head.

“You, you’re really stupid.” he mumbled.

After few minutes, Little Wendy had finally opened her eyes and grasped the real code of the words.

“I finally know now. It’s - huh? Where’s the other two, Sir. Kurosaki?”

“They left. We’re the only two who remained in this place.”

“Eh? I finally knew the password of this place! It’s Ass-”

“Sssh, don’t say the password. You should’ve remain quiet. It would only triggered the door to open.”

“Eeeh?”