After securing the master key, Kaizoku moved to rejoin Sylphy.
"The plan worked; the next step is to find a way to the underground." he said, fiddling with the master key in his hand.
"Good, I can use my sense of smell to track a way underground." replied Sylphy as she headed to the right down the hallway lined with room doors.
She utilized her heightened sense of smell, searching for any scent that might lead to an underground passage.
They walked on and on… quite a distance.
Finally, Sylphy stopped in front of room "444" convinced the strange smell was coming from inside.
"This smell... Yeah… foul, lacking oxygen, with scattered dust... Kai! Open this room!" she said.
Kaizoku followed her instruction and unlocked the door with the master key.
As they stepped in, it appeared to be just a typical luxurious room — a well-made, plush bed, an organized bookshelf, and an exceptionally soft carpet. Everything looked perfectly normal.
"Huh... That's strange. I definitely smelled something unpleasant here... Let's search for anything odd." Sylphy suggested, and they began examining the room for anything unusual.
After a while of searching, Sylphy, standing in front of the bookshelf, noticed the scent was getting stronger.
"Huh!? Wait..." she muttered, sniffing around the shelf.
"Kai! Over here."
"There's something strange with this bookshelf. Check it out," Sylphy said.
Kaizoku did as she asked, inspecting the shelf for anything unusual or out of place.
From top to middle, he finally spotted one peculiar book.
"Hmm, this red book stands out a bit... And it reads... 'Darkness Shall Be Your Companion.' That's definitely strange." Kaizoku pressed the red book, triggering a hidden door.
The bookshelf slowly slid to the left, revealing a staircase descending into darkness.
"Well, there it is... the staircase into the shadows." Kaizoku said, a hint of hesitation on his face.
"Come on, we've come this far." Sylphy urged, gripping his hand tightly and pulling him along.
Down, down, down they went… as they descended, it grew so dark that they could no longer see around them.
"Don't let go of my hand, Kai. I don't want you slipping and dying just like that." Sylphy warned.
After a few minutes, they finally saw a faint glow below them.
"Phew, finally… it was only a few minutes, but it felt like hours on this staircase."
With lanterns above them, they found themselves in a corridor lined with prison cells on both sides.
"Good thing we weren't caught." Sylphy said, giving Kaizoku a nudge.
"Keep quiet." Kaizoku said while his finger on his lips.
As they walked through the corridor filled with cells, they heard voices.
Quickly, they ducked behind a large wooden crates.
"Voices, Kai. Keep your mouth shut." Sylphy whispered.
Listening closely, she recognized the voices. "Hm… One of them sounds like Gabriel... but I hear another voice too. Who are they?"
"A young boy's voice, and... an older man's voice, but I can't be certain, maybe you right, he must be Gabriel?." Sylphy replied.