Mihel was forcefully awakened by the muffled, loud voice outside his door. He groggily rubbed his eyes and listened carefully to make out that somebody was cursing outside. Whoever it was, at such an early hour, was making a huge racket. Mihel could hear the clanging of metals and angry, desperate cries.
Riche was also awakened by this disturbance but simply rolled his eyes at Mihel.
"Not one day where we aren't disturbed by random things in this hole…" he whispered, spitefully. "Go back to sleep..."
Mihel walked up to the door and put his ear onto the wooden surface. The voice seemed to come from the other end the hallway, from the stairs. His eyes widened at the thought that their exploit the last night was already caught.
'But they can't suspect us surely, there's many others living here.'
He opened the door and stared through the hallway to the other end. The girls' door also opened after a few seconds, Midia's brown hair all in a mess, looking as if she had also just woken up due to the loud noises.
'Oh Lady…I probably look chaotic as well.'
"Oh hey Mihel." She said somewhat cheerfully. Her voice was hoarse but she had a bright smile on her face.
"Saw who went upstairs? Seems like they were carrying something wet." She pointed to the floor.
It was then Mihel noticed drops of water across the length of the hall.
Suddenly they heard a scrapping noise and more cursing from upstairs. Midia trembled slightly at this sound. "A-are you going to check u-upstairs?" The cursing continued, louder and more exasperated. "Seems angry about something.."
"Umm…That might have been us. We kinda broke a lock and stole it…" Mihel said sheepishly. "And no I will not risk getting seen by going upstairs. There's still time before we have to leave. Go and try to fall asleep? Hopefully the person upstairs is worried about other things." He returned to his room quickly and found Riche sleeping as peacefully as he was before.
But Mihel was unable to close his eyes, the worry of being caught was gnawing in the back of his mind. He decided to heed to Vidoria's advice and started working out. He started with some basic push-ups, then shifted to squats. He continued an exercise until burn out. Time seemed to fly fast. And by the end of his session, he was covered in sweat and was breathing heavily.
'This has to be made regular. At least five times a week.' Back in Wahum, the hard-work done to complete various household chores had made him naturally pretty strong. The rest was technique and training. But here, at the Exousia, he needed to be much stronger physically. His body couldn't fail at a dire moment.
He checked his dial. It was 6 : 17 eos. He had more than an hour to freshen before the time given by Vidoria to reach the Citadel. Mihel grabbed a towel and headed into the washroom to get ready for the day.
After a while he came out, with his towel wrapped around his waist. His hair was slicked back, reminding himself of Decorion Kidt. He put on his Exousia uniform and dried his hair in a corner as Riche and Vinelyn slowly woke up as well. Riche noticed Mihel ready and raised a silent eyebrow.
Bang. Bang.
Mihel jumped as the noise came from the front door. 'Damn it…who was it? Warty? Cred?'
Worried again, Mihel cautiously went to the door and opened it a bit to find Warty in front of him.
Warty had a snarl on his face. The sleeves of his white shirt was rolled back, exposing thin, hairy arms. His fists were balled and twitching slightly. His eyes were glistening with moist and the thin straw like hair on his head was in mess. There was some dark stains on his shirt, looking quite recent.
Mihel swallowed as he stood waiting for Warty to say something.
"Were any of you upstairs yesterday? There's an entire lock missing from one of the doors. Was it you?"
Mihel's mind started racing. He could lie, but Warty might check their rooms and find the lock. Then it would be an even bigger problem.
"Why blame us? There are other residents yeah? From upstairs as well? Ask them. It wasn't us." He replied quickly.
Warty was startled for a moment before snarling. "Sure, young master. Thank you for your cooperation." He said in mock politeness. He turned around and went down the stairs to the lobby, muttering under his breath.
Vinelyn was looking at him, a lot of questions pasted across his face. "About last night?" he asked.
"Yeah…but he looked as if he was cleaning something. Really weird…he looked very angry…I mean about more than just a busted lock…"
Vinelyn just scratched his head and went to get ready.
At 7 eos, the five of them stood outside their lodgings. Mihel was basking in the sunlight when he noticed the others had gone quiet. He turned and found all of them staring at him intently.
"Well go on. Lead us then." Halise said, grinning seeing Mihel's reaction.
He sighed as he started walking eastward. The route was pretty simple. From their quarters they walked around three crosses, and at the corner of the turn there was a small bakery. There, they should turn right and would end up directly in front of the Citadel gates. They would bypass the square, though, using this road.
And so they travelled this way. To their surprise, the bakery situated on at the turn was giving free Kaffe. Noticing the name now, 'Granny Mui's Bakery' Mihel turned to the little girl with a missing tooth holding paper cups and a kettle.
"Free Kaffe, it's granny Mui's 87th birthday." She filled five cups and handed it to them with a cheeky smile.
They thanked her and continued walking.
Mihel still wasn't liking the bitter water. He was swallowing it in disgust, not wanting to look like a baby in front of the others. 'Tallow…where can I find you again in this "modern" society…"
They walked for another fifteen minutes before reaching the massive gate of the Citadel.
Vidoria was waiting there. His black hair slicked back neatly. He was wearing a brown suit under his Exousia cloak. He smiled in greeting and apologized. "Sorry about yesterday. Completely slipped my mind that you couldn't use your Destiny yet…"
They were led inside and to their surprise not to a class room, but to the Archives.
"I decided I would let you kids research a bit by yourselves on today's topic." Kidt explained. "Very crucial to continue as a soldier."
Their interests were captured at the thought of exploring a new area of the Citadel.
The Archives filled the entire right wing of the Exousia. There were five floors to it and the entire structure was a huge cylinder.
At the entrance, Vidoria stopped them.
"Inside is vast amounts of knowledge, collected across Periods. Most are not accessible to you right now so I beg you not to be curious now. It will lead to serious consequences. Clear?"
They nodded firmly.
Vidoria then turned and pushed open the door.
"Then let us learn about the dangers of this world."