They stumbled back to their lodgings as they noticed other Grade Twos like them lighting up the lanterns. There were nods of greeting as they passed by. Midia suggested to climb the roof again, to delay the experience of the nasty environment felt inside their rooms, but they were reluctant, remembering what had happened the last time they attempted this. Dismissing the idea, they entered through the front door.
Immediately they were greeted with the strong scent of smoke. Mihel's eyes flitted and noticed that the flabby man was back in his seat, smoking a cigarette. There were many finished ones in a clear tray, ends black with soot.
"Cred's back," Riche whispered to Vinelyn.
Mihel turned to him, eyebrow raised. "That's his name?"
Vinelyn nodded in reply.
Cred looked pretty shaken up. He was staring at the ceiling, an expression of lacking senses on his face. He had already given off the impression of being senile, but now he looked broken as well. It was like he didn't even notice the group in his lobby. He was nodding occasionally, muttering something to himself. His mind seemed shattered, not functioning as it should.
They crept up the creaking stairs, onto their own floor. The lamp was still only giving off a faint light, barely enough for them to have good vision.
The door lock, thankfully, this time was safely fastened as they had left it. Before leaving in the morning, Vinelyn had even put piece of paper in the gap between the door and the top frame. Unless someone had noticed the paper and returned it to the position, nobody had barged into their room.
Vinelyn was also the one who carried the key. He pushed it into the slot, the metal making a sound as it fit in. They pushed open the door and entered the room. Everything was kept as it was when they had left.
Mihel sank into the cot, lost deep in thoughts. Vinelyn glanced and chuckled, "Barely into the room and the great ponderer returns. What mysteries are you contemplating now, Oh great one."
Riche smiled as Mihel opened his mouth, though no words came out. In truth, he was only thinking about how those door locks worked. He coughed into his fist. "Eh…nothing nothing…" he said, turning a bit red.
"You know, I hate that I still don't know your Destiny…Come on, Mihel, you ain't so special to keep it hidden for so long." Vinelyn said, pointing a finger gun at Mihel. He pretended to fire it.
Neither Riche nor Mihel reacted to the statement. "Well, I'll be honest…I was thinking of how those locks work."
Vinelyn understood the subject was being changed but he laughed nonetheless. "You know what you should? Find an unoccupied room and tear the lock mechanism. We can all get a better look at the functions."
Mihel's eyes widened. And then slowly his face spread into a grin. "Being a bit mischievous eh?"
Riche smirked and added in, "Not that Cred or Slimey, are going to notice a missing lock anyway."
Vinelyn burst out laughing, "You were calling him Slimey?...I was referring to him as Scar…haha, What about you Mihel? Surely you also had a name for him?"
"He was Warty for me…"
"Bingo! Warty supreme indeed he is!" Vinelyn exclaimed. "So? Lets go raid a room?"
Riche took his cleavers out dramatically and made for the door. "Come on then!" he said as if he was a army general. Outside in the hallway, the boys were bustling with the strange excitement people felt when doing something they knew they shouldn't be.
"There's also something that's been bothering me. We are going to run out of the rations we stole- sorry borrowed from the Engine."
"Well something that's been bothering me is that we can always expect Mihel to bring up some impending issue for casual conversation." Vinelyn teased.
"Hey…both you and me are tired of those meat strips…but you're right. Let us not worry about it now."
They made their way up the stairs, on the opposite side of the hallway. They crept up to the floor, which had the same scarce lighting as their own. They put their ears to each door, intently listening for any signs of movement.
After listening to each door, five of them, Mihel frowned.
'No sounds…as if they are empty…'
"All the rooms, seem empty. Which one should we crack open?" he asked.
"The furthest from the stairs? More time until they figure out something is wrong?" Riche suggested sarcastically.
They weighed it for a while before agreeing. In front of the last room, Riche quickly stabbed one of his blade into the wood below the handle. To their surprise it bounced back with the sound of metal hitting metal.
Riche turned and looked Mihel with a bewildered look on his face. He then stabbed above the handle and the blade passed through, splintering the wood. Riche tried pulling the handle, which was connected to the entire mechanism off the door but it seemed like there was some wires holding it inside. Riche sawed it with the blade stuck inside and the handle came off, attached to a metal box. It fell to the ground with a loud 'thunk'. Vinelyn heaved up the shining rectangle, staring at the lock with curiosity.
"Come on, we can open it up in our rooms. Escape before somebody catches us."
The three of them rush down to their floor and hurried into their room, shutting the door quickly to not meet with any suspicion.
They sat in a circle with the lock in the middle. The metal box was covered on all sides. It was being treated as an ancient artifact, precious beyond gold.
"Pry it open?" Mihel shrugged.
Riche tried and he lifted one side of the metal plate. They stared at the sight inside.
"Well that is more complicated than magic." The silver haired magician said, sighing.
Mihel took the lock in his hands. He stared into the box, made of brass which shined in a brownish hue.
'There are those columns under the handle. With gaps in the middle? Uneven gaps…' He pushed all the cylinders to one side, and noticed the gaps were not even. He then took a look at the key to his room. It had grooves along one of its edges. 'Hmm? Those grooves align the gaps then?'
Right now there was a block of metal, jutting out from the side. Mihel aligned the gaps with his hand. He heard a click. He slowly turned the block of columns, which spun around with another click. The block of metal retreated inside.
Mihel's eyes widen in delighted shock. 'This is ingenious…this makes every key unique to each lock…'
"The genius has solved it. Please enlighten us also." Vinelyn said clapping his hands.
Mihel cleared his throat. "Um. So see these brazen columns? They have gaps which do not align normally. Therefore the key, specifically made for each lock, aligns the gaps and pushes this block outside. Which I'm guessing prevents the opening of the door."
Their eyes widened hearing this explanation. It was truly an amazing creation. In villages there was no concept of locking doors. There was only a metal bar slid into handles to prevent animals from escaping.
They messed around with the lock, fiddling the insides for some more time before deciding to lay down and rest. The day's tires had caught up finally.
***
The broken door stood slightly ajar, letting a thin yellow light enter the dark, cramped room. Inside two weak eyes opened, imagining the light to be an illusion after such long periods of darkness.